Hemant Kumar, while never gaining the sort of insane popularity as other playback singers of Hindi cinema during his time, always had a unique presence. On the surface, the slightly quivering quality of his voice set him apart from the rest, but beyond that, he had a honest cadence and a truly emotional delivery that…
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Most songs in any language end up being about love. Perhaps love provides some extra creative impetus for the penning and singing of songs. But if that is true, then the loss of love seems to be all that much more inspiring. Thus we have heartbreak Hindi-film style, circa 1965, in Ajnabi, tum jaane pehchane…
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The girl at the window or the balcony is a classic romantic trope, probably tracing back to ancient theatre, lost in the mists of time. In Hindi cinema, with the majority of the audience living in an increasingly crowded urban environment, that quickly turned into lovers at windows in adjacent houses or apartments, forever separated…
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In the mid 90s, shortly after the economic liberalisation of India and the influx of new things like satellite television and international brands of fizzy drink, we had a fairly vibrant pop-music scene for a while. Players new and old broke on to the scene with modern music, slick music videos and experiments in both…
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As teenagers in the 90s, we had started to assert our tastes in music beyond our parents’ choice of old Hindi film melodies. While we liked those too, we were ever open to new influences, and so it was during a ride in our Aunt and Uncle’s car, that our cousins put in the audio…
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Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi is the first Hindi film I remember seeing in its entirety. I’m sure there were others before then, but this one made an impact as a film, something separate and different from all that other stuff on TV. That effect was in no small part because of the songs. As an…
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