Carnival of Blogs on Golden Era of Hindi Film Music – Volume XII – March 2024 Edition

Welcome to March 2024 edition of XII^th Volume of Carnival of Blogs on Golden Era of Hindi Film Music.

Recent celebrations to celebrate birth centenary of Mohammad Rafi (B: Dec 24, 1924 | D: Jul 31, 1980).

In the third show, on 24^th March 2024, to celebrate Mohammed Rafi Birth Centenary Celebrations, playback singer Javed Ali attempts to recreate magic of Rafi Sahab with memorable solos, and duets supported by popular female singers – Sangeeta Melekar and Preethi Warrier.

Rafi’s Centenary Special: 35 songs from 35 years (1946-1980) – If one compares the voice between the first song in this selection Kah ke bhi na aaye tum (1946) to Maine poochha chand se ki (1980) there is hardly any change.

Mohammad Rafi Birth Centenary: Remembering Some Happy Solo Songs of ‘40s – There would be no doubt that recalling Mohammad Rafi’s happy, romantic, solo songs, for the years 1944 – 1950 should be a very unique experience.

Presently we move on to our section on tributes and celebrations for the month –

March is the month of Holi, festival of colours, across India. In RK Studio holi was played with a lot of grandeur.

SN Tripathi – His Music Still Lives On – Anuradha Warrier presents on his 111^th birth anniversary melodies composed by this maverick music director in no particular order.

Happy birthday to veteran actress Wahida Rehmanji on 3rd February, 2024.

My Favourites: Songs by Ravi on his 12^th death anniversary. Here is a selection of Ravi compositions in no particular order.

Hum Tere Bin Jee Na Sakenge Sanam – Remembering Ganesh on his 24^th death anniversary.

The romantic songs of Shashi Kapoorji is remembered for the lovely songs – Meri Nigah Ne Kya Kam Lajawaab Kiya – Mohabbat Isko Kahate Hai (1965) – Mohammad Rafi – Lyrics: Majrooh Sultanpuri – Music: Khayyam

The Elusive Nanda – Nanda’s sweet innocence made her the nation’s favourite. On her 10^th death anniversary, Anuradha Warrier revisits some of her best performances.

Also, to recall from the archives: Jeevan Ka Matlab To Aana Aur Jaana Hai: Remembering Nanda

Female bonding and their duets is a commemoration of the International Women’s Day with female duets.

The Sculptors of Film Songs (13) Ramprasad Sharma & Sons, the saga of contribution that the four generation of Sharma family. The previous Arrangers and Musicians covered in the series are Sebastian D’ Souza, Anthony Gonsalves, Enoch Daniels, Kishore Desai  Manohari Singh, S Hazara Singh, V Balsara, Ramlal , Dattaram, Van Shipley,  Goody Seerwai and “The Lords”

March 2024 episode of IX^th volume of Fading Memories, Unforgettable Songs takes up Ghulam Mohammad and His Singers: 1954. Till now we have covered Ghulam Mohammad’s songs for the year

1943 to 1949 in 2021, and

1950-1952 in 2022.

1953 in 2023

Celebrating cinema through pictures:

We now move on to posts on other subjects –

Are We Accepting Ourselves Better Now Than Ever? – Audiences have begun embracing mindless entertainment, reflecting a cultural shift towards a slow and steady acceptance of our own true choices and ourselves. This acceptance extends to our past, as seen in the resurgence of 90s music and the acknowledgment of B and C grade cinema. Saumya Baijal critiques this emerging trend.

Characters with Books: In English-language cinema – Six years after a post about characters in Hindi cinema shown with book was published, Dusted Off presents post wherein it is with characters in English-language cinema.

The Qalandariyya (reflections on an excellent video by Filip Holm, which I saw just two weeks after the Urs of Lal Shahbaz Qalandar) from Filip Holm’s show, Let’s Talk Religion, entitled “The Counter-Culture, Lawless Muslim Mystics Who Drank Wine? / The Qalandariyya.”

Latent Duets are not distant duets. Both singers have at least one antara each to register their presence. But the second singer enters the fray only after the first antara.

Hindi film qawwalis – Part I  presented the qawwalis from ’40s to ’50 and Part II those from’60s. Now, Part III covers from the 70s and the 80s.

It’s what you wear: Ten songs about attire, songs that make a mention of a particular garment, beyond a list on dupattas/chunaris/odhnis.

Through the Lens, Brightly: Women in Cinema, Women at Work, authored by Shoma A Chatterji, unearths how the ‘working woman’ has been presented in films directed by women. The book is divided into three parts. Part I, which serves as a general introduction to the theme. Part II and Part III of the book analyses nine significant films made by women directors where the author combines scholarly research and critical acumen to contextualize individual directors and the complexity of separating the feminine from the professional.

Here are Bollywood Rewind articles of Samapda Sharma in Indian Express:

• • Muhammad Ali Jinnah was a key figure in the making of India’s first talkie film Alam Ara. – Muhammad Ali Jinnah was the founder of Pakistan, but he was also the lawyer who actually made it possible for Alam Ara to become the first talkie film of India 93 years ago.

In continuation to our tradition of ending the post with a few songs of Mohammad Rafi, this year being the celebration of Mohammad Rafi birth centenary, we will take up what others have said about him:

Pyarelal on Mohammad Rafi

Laxmikant on Mohammad Rafi

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.