My favourite songs

Mukesh and his romance with ‘Dil’

Thumbnail image for Mukesh and his romance with ‘Dil’ August 27, 2012

A tribute on his death anniversary August 27 Everyone is born with a heart, but that does not make everyone a romantic. There was something special about Mukesh and ‘dil’, not only his romantic heart but his romancing the heart. Mukesh started his journey with ‘dil’. As a young lad, while singing at his sister’s […]

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Best songs of Rafi by Roshan

Thumbnail image for Best songs of Rafi by Roshan July 31, 2012

Double tribute to two geniuses Who composed the best songs for Mohammad Rafi cannot be conclusively answered. But there is no doubt that Roshan would figure in the top four or five for this honour. That is significant considering that Roshan did not have the advantage of a big banner nor big stars like Dev […]

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Duets of Talat Mahmood: Breaking the image trap

Thumbnail image for Duets of Talat Mahmood: Breaking the image trap February 24, 2012

A tribute on his birth anniversary February 24 When you think of Talat Mahmood you think of his iconic soft, sentimental melodies like Meri yaad mein tum na aansoo bahana, Jalte hain jiske liye, Humse aya na gaya tumse bulaya na gaya, Ae dil mujhe aisi jagah le chal jahan koi na ho, Zindagi denewale […]

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Suraiya: The Last Singing Star

Thumbnail image for Suraiya: The Last Singing Star January 31, 2012

A tribute on her death anniversary January 31 Aside from Lata Mangeshkar Suraiya is among my top favourite female singers. She debuted as a child artiste in 1942 (film Sharda). Within three years she rose to become one of the top singing stars acting opposite the greatest legend KL Saigal in 3 films. Within the […]

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Best non-film songs of KL Saigal

KL Saigal January 18, 2012

A tribute on his death anniversary January 18 If you grew up in the radio era and had an ear for music, Saigal-song-a day was a daily ritual – Radio Ceylon would end their programme of old film songs with a Saigal song every morning at 7.57 AM. So by the time I reached college […]

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Naushad’s best songs for Mohammad Rafi

Thumbnail image for Naushad’s best songs for Mohammad Rafi December 24, 2011

  Double tribute on their birth anniversaries Mohammad Rafi’s birth anniversary falls on December 24 (b 1924) and Naushad’s on December 25 (b 1919). This close proximity also extended to their music. Rafi was to playback singing what Naushad was to music composing – both at the commanding heights of their profession for over two […]

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Kishore Kumar – The best mad, crazy, comic songs

Thumbnail image for Kishore Kumar – The best mad, crazy, comic songs October 13, 2011

A tribute on his death anniversary October 13 MJ Akbar in his obituary to Shammi Kapoor wrote in India Today that one reason for Shammi Kapoor craze was that he was mad.  But who was the maddest of them all?  The great superstar Amitabh Bachchan could do a mad act with straight face.  You can […]

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My favourite Lata Mangeshkar songs by C Ramchandra

Thumbnail image for My favourite Lata Mangeshkar songs by C Ramchandra September 28, 2011

Birthday greetings to Lata Mangeshkar on September 28 Presenting my favourite Lata Mangeshkar songs composed by C Ramchandra, as my birthday greetings to her on September 28, is not a very diplomatic thing to do, given the history of their relationship. As her biographical accounts go, Lata Mangeshkar was more than a muse to C […]

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Mukesh’s best happy duets

Thumbnail image for Mukesh’s best happy duets September 17, 2011

Having recently done a list of happy songs of Mukesh, I had no intention of doing another Mukesh post anytime soon. But dustedoff, AP Joshi and Subodh Agrawal in their comments entered into an earnest discussion on ‘happy’ duets of Mukesh and requested I do a list of my favourite such duets. This opened the […]

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My favourite ‘special’ Asha Bhosle songs

Thumbnail image for My favourite ‘special’ Asha Bhosle songs September 8, 2011

My greetings on her birthday September 8 Knowing that Asha Bhosle has a huge fan following and there are people more passionate about her than Lata Mangeshkar, I have to carefully choose my words to describe my relationship with her. If I am asked to choose only 20 singers from the 1930s to 60s for […]

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