Welcome to Sptember 2021 edition of IXth Volume of Carnival of Blogs on Golden Era of Hindi Film Music.
We straight away move on to other tributes and memories this month.
The year 1971 was a glorious year for Indian cinema — it was the year classics such as Anand, Kati Patang and Mera Gaon, Mera Desh came out. It was also the year Guddi was released, which marked the debut of Jaya Bachchan, a coming-of-age story, and one of India’s best ‘fan films’
Asha Bhosle (1957-’58-’59) , when her career graph was in upswing.
‘If Raj Uncle Liked a Song, He Would Give Baba a Gold Coin’: Amla Shailendra Remembers Her Father ‘Kaviraj’ Shailendra – Amla Shailendra Mazumdar, the daughter of ‘Kaviraj’ Shailendra, in conversation with Antara Nanda Mondal, dives deep into his amazing repertoire of songs and a treasure chest of memories to understand the person behind the poet – a loving tribute to the legendary poet-lyricist on his birth anniversary.
Just 2 fragrant Salil Chowdhury songs were enough to make 1974’s ‘Rajnigandha’ bloom – Unnati Sharma – On Salil Chowdhury’s 26th death anniversary, ThePrint revisits Basu Chatterjee’s slice-of-life film on love and relationships, starring Amol Palekar and Vidya Sinha.
Documentary on writer, poet and lyricist Gopaldas Neeraj is out on YouTube – The Films Division production, directed by Gurbir S Grewal, features an interview with Neeraj, who died in 2018.
‘Raj Kapoor told me to say Prem naam hai mera, Prem Chopra’: Bollywood’s iconic villain on his innings – Komal RJ Panchal – As Prem Chopra turns 86 (on 23 September, 2021), the veteran actor speaks about how Raj Kapoor gave him his memorable dialogue, the way negative roles impacted his life and how the villain gradually died out of Hindi cinema.
‘Khushboo’ — how Gulzar captured a strong woman who loves but won’t be a pushover – Unnati Sharma -At a time when women did not have much say in a lot of matters, especially when it came to relationships & matrimony, ‘Khushboo’ is a story of a woman exercising her choice. Based on Bengali novelist Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s — it is his 145th birth anniversary on 15 September — novel, Panditmoshai, Khushboo is set in a village.
Shabana Azmi: The most versatile actor in Hindi film industry who should be celebrated even more – On Shabana Azmi’s 71st birthday, Sampada Sharma revisits her unique choices which balanced mainstream, as well as indie cinema perfectly.
The Greats: Rishi Kapoor is a memory call on his birthday in the form of list of some the Rishi Kapoor performances
Shailendra Sharma @ Golden Era of Bollywood has posted following memorial tribute posts:
- The Rare & Popular Songs of Talat Mahmood
- Qawwali Songs were once an Important Ingrediant fo…
- 50 Years of Mere Apne – Simple but Impactful,
- The Irreplaceable Asha Bhonsle
- Sadhana – The Fashion Icon of the 60s
Skateistan in Afghanistan – Films and Videos Documenting an Era Now Lost – Skateistan, is an international non-profit project that was originally started in Kabul in 2007 to encourage and teach skateboarding to children in Afghanistan, with a special concern about bringing in girls[1].….. Probably the best place to start would be a British-made documentary that won an Oscar/Academy award in 2020 – Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (if you’re a girl)….. “Faranas’ Story” does not contain a lot of skateboard moves, but like the award-winning documentary, it does contain a lot of very moving observations (on the part of this girl) and speculation about the future that can be a bit heart-wrenching when looked at from the present moment.
In the series of articles on Sahir’s Songs of Romance, commemorating Sahir Ludhianvi’s birth centenary, we now take up Sahir Ludhianvi’s Three Film Associations with Jaidev and Madan Mohan
September 2021 episode of Fading Memories, Unforgettable Songs takes up Shankar) Jaikishan and Hasrat Jaipuri’s Songs Fading From the Memory: 1962. Till now we have covered
1949 -1954 in 2017
1955 – 1957 in 2018
1958 – 1959 in 2019, and
1960 -1961 in 2020
Here is a collection of some vintage photographs, posted on BollywooDirect:
We now move on to posts on other subjects –
A dramatisation of the life and works of the writer Premchand – The Films Division documentary has been directed by PC Sharma and written by him and Madan Gopal.
Q&A in songs present different types of Q&A subjects.
One Movie, Many Lyricists lists ten movies where there are four or more lyricists penning songs
Why filmmaking for Shyam Benegal is both ‘a microscope and a telescope’ – Nandini Ramnath – Retirement is the last thing on the mind of the 86-year-old director, who is working on a Sheikh Mujibur Rahman biopic.
How Zohra Segal, 48-year-old mother of two, reinvented herself in London – Ritu Menon – Edited excerpts from a biography, Zohra! A Biography in Four Acts, reveal how the actor and dancer bounced back from her husband Kameshwar Segal’s death.

Zeenat Aman elated over Apple phone using her ‘Dum Maro Dum’ in their international ad But …. not sure Dev Saab would have approved of what Apple has done to Dum Maro Dum. In 2011, when Rohan Sippy & Pritam made a revamped version of it, Dev Saab was so angry. “This is sheer desecration.” he had said. {Here is the Apple i13 phone ad referred to here.]
Ten of my favourite male duets which feature two men singing: two actors (at least) onscreen, two playback singers contributing their voices to the song.
Boat Songs – Part I focused on the songs that had only the couple on the boat. Now, Part II takes songs with three or more, but not more than five or six people. Excluded here are the songs sung by the boatman or if the boat carrying the singing character is part of the group of boats..
The Paper, Ink and Pen Songs are ten songs that refer to writing equipment in the mukhda. The focus of this post is not letter writing. Thus, the reference to letter writing is purely incidental in some songs. The spotlight is on the ink, the surface chosen to write, the stylus/pen and in a song or two, the scribe.
From Bollywood Rewind – Sampada Sharma – Indian Express’s weekly column:
- Dosti: When romantic and platonic love mesh into a divine form – Starring Sudhir Kumar and Sushil Kumar, Satyen Bose’s 1965 film Dosti holds a dear place in the audience’s hearts for its representation of love – which could be seen as platonic by some, and romantic by others.
- Bees Saal Baad: The haunting tone of ‘Kahin Deep Jale Kahin Dil…’ – Starring Biswajeet and Waheeda Rehman, Biren Nag’s 1962 film Bees Saal Baad has the sound of horror that can still send shivers down your spine.
- Baazi: The Guru Dutt potboiler that made Dev Anand, SD Burman and Sahir Ludhianvi stars – Starring Dev Anand, Kalpana Karthik and Geeta Bali, Guru Dutt’s 1951 film Baazi was a trendsetter and changed the fate of its lead hero, director, music composer SD Burman and lyric writer Sahir Ludhianvi.
Micro View of Best Songs of 1944 @SoY continued with Female Solo Songs this month too with Shamshad Begum, Sitara, Leela Chitnis , ,Nirmala Devi and other singers, Noor Jehan and some more other singers.
SoY has presented Best songs of 1944: Wrap Up 3 for the wrap up on duets for 1944. The three duets jointly adjudged as Best for The Year are:
1. Saawan ke baadlo unse ye ja kaho – Rattan – Karan Diwan, Zohrabai Ambalewali – D N Madhok – Nausahd Ali
2. Kya humne bigada hai kyun humko sataate ho – Bhanwara – K L Saigal, Amirbai Karanataki – Kidar Sharma – Khemchand Prakash and
3. O jaanewale balamwa, laut ke aa laut ke aa – Rattan – Shyam Kumar, Amirbai Karnataki – D N Madhok – Nausahd Ali
In continuation to our tradition of ending the post with a few songs of Mohammad Rafi, each one of which basically has a link with the topics discussed in the present post.
Naiyya Ka Meri Tu Hi Khavaiya – Zamana (1957) – Indeevar – Salil Chowdhury
Ya Keh De Hum Insaan Nahin, Ya Man Ja Tu Bhagwan Nahi – Chhaya (1961) – Rajinder Krishna – Salil Chowdhury
Insaan Ki Zindgi Hai Dukh Sukh Ka Ek Jhoola – Jhoola (1962) Rajinder Krishna – Salil Chowdhury
Ab Jang Shuru Kal Se Ab Kal Se Hai Sangraam – Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose (1966) – Pradeep – Salil Chowdhury
I look forward to your inputs to enrich the contents of Carnival of Blogs on Golden Era of Hindi Film Music.
Disclaimer: This monthly series of posts is my best-effort-based compilation of posts on Hindi film songs that I normally visit regularly. As I record my sincere thanks to all the original creators of these posts, any other posts that I have nor covered herein shows my lack of awareness of existence of such posts and is by no means any disrespect to their work. The copyrights to the posts, images and video clips remain the properties of the original creators.
[1] Skateboarding in Afghanistan | Oliver Percovich – The founder of Skateistan | TEDxSydney