The Only Song That …..

Posted on 12/03/2023 on Trivia- The Spice of Life Human beings are always interested in the exception than the rule. Perhaps, it is the exception that gets all the limelight rather than the rule. Come to think of it, law too evolves because of exceptional circumstances that arise in its implementation or interpretation, those which

Static (?!) Solo Party Songs

Posted by Trivia- The Spice of Life on 17/07/2021 Party songs in golden era Hindi films are pretty stereotypical. There is music, dance and a large gathering. There is usually an instrument being played by the hero/heroine/ supporting actor/actress – which more often than not is the piano. As the piano is played and the

Songs that Shun Love

और भी दुख हैं ज़माने में मोहब्बत के सिवा There are innumerable love songs of Golden era Hindi film music which profess and eulogize love hyperbolically. However, there are perhaps only a handful of songs which question love and even swear to stay away from it. There are also some songs where love is not

The lesser heard romantic duets of Manna Dey (Part 1) – The Mangeshkar Sisters special

My last song blog post was on the various ways in which music – especially classical music has been depicted in songs of the golden era. When I was shortlisting songs for the post, I noticed that quite a few of these songs were sung by Manna Dey (or Prabodh Chandra Dey, 1919-2013). There is

Musings on Mahal (1949)

The last post that I wrote on the solos of Lata Mangeshkar – Vocal preludes special – started off with the iconic song Aayega Aanewala from the movie Mahal made in 1949. The song was indeed special in terms of the experiments that were made, which I have already described at some length in my

Solo Songs of Lata – Vocal Preludes Special

There is a genre of songs which is unique and uncommon – where there is a prelude, which has both instrumental as well as vocal music. This genre of poetry is perhaps called Qat’a in Urdu and vilambit laya (introductory slow tempo) in Hindustani classical music. The prelude is slow when compared to the rest

The ‘Terrace’ Songs – Part 2

While writing my first post on terrace songs, I had mentioned that there could be two kinds of terrace songs; the first are those which are picturized on a terrace and the second where the lyrics mention the terrace. Part 1 of the terrace songs were songs of the first category. Here I present songs