Musical Portrait of S.D.Burman

An avid sportsman, A Music Teacher, A Drupad Singer, A Prince and A Composer – Sachin Dev Burman wore many hats while he finally landed that of a composer on his head. Even though he never went to be part of his royal family in Tripura, his conduct and stature as a music composer in Kolkata and Bombay have always been like a prince. Dada Burman or Karta as he …

Vocal Harmony in Hindi Songs

When Sir Thomas Roe founded first British factory in Surat and when Vasco Da Gama first landed in Calicut, they would have never imagined in their dreams that after four centuries , they would be instrumental for a fascinating event to take place. This event was composition of music in films. The fusion of Western music that came with Europeans in India with Indian Classical nuances that existed here for …

Tohre Bin Lage Na Mora Jiya : Classical Thumri’s of Love and Longing

As the connoisseurs of Indian cuisine can’t thank the Awadhi contribution enough for the rich legacy of taste, Music lovers and artists also claim equal share in being grateful to Lucknow for giving them the gift of finest form of expression of love and longing – Thumri. Thumri is said to have developed as a form of singing during the reign of Nawab Wajid Ali Shah of Awadh. In those …

Kagaz Ke Phool : Remembering the Master Craftsman Through His Magnum Opus

Yeh Khel Hai Kab Se Jaari, Bichhade Sabhi Baari Baari……………Sometimes even poets would have never thought that words written by them will become reality and the artist who immortalize those words on silver screen will eventually live them and die with them. Had Kaifi Azmi known this, he perhaps would not have to write …Rehne ko sadaa dahar mein aata nahin koi ; tum jaise gaye aise bhi jaata nahin …

Anthony Gonsalves : The Maestro

Anthony Gonsalves Sir always reminds me of Steve Wozniak of Apple. Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs together built Apple. Jobs visualized the products and Wozniak made them with his brilliant skills. Similarly, Anthony Gonsalves had always been the man who designed songs and scores for composers. Much has been written about and filmed on him and yet much is still left. Apart from being a first row violinist, he was …

The Brass Flavor of Hindi Songs

“Band Baaja” – the moment this word comes across us, the image of those shiny big horn type instruments flashes in memory. Brass bands had once been an irreplaceable element of wedding ceremonies in India. Credit of introducing brass instruments to hindi film songs goes to popular jazz culture of Bombay and Calcutta in 1940’s. Musicians like Antonio Vaaz (Chic Chocolate), Chris Perry and Manohari Singh who came to bollywood …

Rajesh Roshan : the non-conformist composer

From Anil Biswas to Shankar Jaikishan and from Rahul Dev Burman to A.R.Rehman, the hindi film industry has seen the trend of those composers being successful who charted their own path by not confirming to contemporary trend. Rajesh Roshan is also one of those non conformist music director who made his identity with his own style of composing. When he began as independent composer after four to five years being …

Bollywood Instrumentals – the music mojito

Beginning of 1960’s saw many events that completely changed the landscape of Indian and International Music. The Beatles began their journey of success with singles in UK , Pt Ravi Shankar, Ustad Ali Akbar Khan , Ustad Alla Rakha have started emerging as India’s ambassadors in Classical music Internationally, Rahul Dev Burman and Laxmikant Pyarelal were still cajoling their talent to be a big name in Films Music. While big …

The Minimal Optimism : Achcha Ji Main Hari……!!

Nectar … Is a name of private island where owner of famous Virgin Media Sir Richard Branson lives in his 70 Million dollar Mansion. Surely a great example of display of abundance. Interestingly, another business leader Steve Jobs used to practice minimalism to an extent that he didn’t like to keep furniture in his room. He believed it distracted his creativity. Dada Burman’s approach to his music is like a …

Musical Rhythms of the Running Train

Trains have been integral to the lives of people ever since the first train ran in 1853 in India. In Indian cinema, there are lots of songs which are picturized either on the running train or in the backdrop of the moving locomotive, snaking through the hills and the fields. It is very interesting to observe how composers have created the basic rhythm for songs which were picturized on a …

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