Author: Param
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Patriotic Songs In Hindi Films Before Independence
[This post originally appeared here.] Patriotism has always been an important theme in Hindi films. Films like Anand Math (1952), Haqeeqat (1964), Shaheed (1965), Upkar (1967), Kranti (1981), Prahaar (1991), Border (1997), The Legend Of Bhagat Singh (2002), Swades (2004) and Rang De Basanti (2006) had strong patriotic themes. There are many film songs capable…
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Khemchand Prakash – The Royal Musician of Hindi Films
[This post originally appeared here.] Khemchand Prakash was one of the giants of Hindi film industry. He shaped and defined Hindi film music when it was still in its nascent stages. In a short career spanning just about a decade, he left behind a legacy that exceeded his output as a music director. Khemchand had…
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Jaidev – Quality Over Quantity
[This post originally appeared here.] Jaidev was one of the most talented composers of the Hindi film industry. Despite his talent and the critical as well as popular acclaim many of his albums received, he wasn’t rewarded with the commercial success or the name recognition some of his peers enjoyed. After more than three decades…
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Anand Bakshi’s Generation-Spanning Work
[Starting this week, we’ll re-publish here the Bollywood Retrospective series published in DNA blogs. This post was originally published here.] This post is based on a question posed a few years ago on Twitter by film historian Pavan Jha, a passionate follower and chronicler of films and film music. The question – “Name the 5…
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1930s Hindi Film Music – Now Available on MySwar
We had promised in February to complete the task of cataloguing the first decade of Hindi film music, starting with “Alam Ara” (1931), by April. We’re happy to report that the task is done right on time. MySwar now lists all the films released between 1931 and 1940 and their songs. At this point, the data for film…
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2016 Bollywood Music Review and Top 20 Songs
As in the past, critics were not happy with the state of Hindi film music in 2016. The charge – yet again – was that it Hindi films were using an “assembly line” approach to create songs using multiple composers and re-packaging hit songs from the past. One thing is certain – music is no…
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Thoughts On Amit Trivedi’s “Bombay Velvet”
This is not a review of Amit Trivedi’s Bombay Velvet. I loved the album to bits and wanted to share a few things that stood out for me as I was listening to it: It struck me as a rare album in that it is so thematically consistent. We hear Neeti Mohan’s voice in six…
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“Song Templates” And Innovation In Hindi Film Music
This post is prompted by a conversation I had yesterday on Twitter regarding a lovely new song that had just come out – the Amit Trivedi composed, K. Mohan sung Kinare (Queen, 2014). @kaurvaki No man. Same singer, same composer, similar mood, similar genres but very different songs. — Param Arunachalam (@taparam) January 29, 2014…
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What Are Your Most Favorite Non-Film Songs Of 2013?
A couple of weeks ago, we wrote a post about the best Bollywood songs of 2013. Since then, the top 10 rankings have change significantly. I am not surprised and my guess is it may change some more over the next few weeks. If you haven’t already rated already, please do. Which brings us to…
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MySwar.Com – अब हिन्दी में
If you can’t wait to check it out, go right ahead to MySwar.Com in Hindi. If you’re interested in the backstory, carry on. For some time now, we have felt the need to provide a Hindi version of MySwar. For a website about Hindi films songs, that seems kind of obvious. However, we’ve been guilty…