In this concluding episode of this season of the podcast, I explore the color violet, the last color of the rainbow. The color purple or violet, occurs rarely in nature and as a result is often seen as having sacred meaning. Purple both calms and stimulates us, being a combination of blue and red. It puts us in the mood for introspection and insight. It fosters creativity by awakening our senses while promoting the quiet necessary to make intuitive, insightful observations - allowing us to...

In western cultures, people say “I feel blue” when we’re sad. There is a whole genre of music called the Blues music which focuses on somber and sad themes. The cover art of this episode, is a painting called “Shades of Sadness” by an artiste called Victoria Lucas. She has used only the blue and indigo colours in painting this. Even the dictionary meaning of “blue” means sad or unhappy. This episode explores the different musical shades of sadness. The songs featured are - 1. Aa bhi jaa...

The colour green has a strong association with nature and immediately brings to mind the lush green of grass, trees, hills, and forests. Perhaps because green is so heavily associated with nature, it is often described as a refreshing and tranquil color. It is the sanctuary away from the stresses of modern living, restoring us back to a sense of well being. Green, is restful & soothing. It promotes a love of nature, and a love of family, friends, pets and the home. There’s a sense of...

In our contemporary human-made world, yellow is the color of happy faces that we send each other on our mobile phones and the color of several wedding ceremonies. In nature it’s the color of sunshine and spring. The color yellow is associated with warmth, happiness, fun, friendship and falling in love. The songs featured in this episode are - 1. Mere Mehboob - Mere Mehboob(1963) 2. Kisi patthar ki moorat se - Hamraaz(1967) 3. Afsana like rahi hoon - Dard(1947) 4. Likhe jo khat tujhe -...

In our journey of exploring the themes of bollywood(as the hindi film industry is called) music, we have drawn a simile with the seven colours of the rainbow. Our colour this week is Orange. In colour theory, Orange symbolises energy, vitality, cheer, excitement, adventure &youth. Orange has a degree of youthful impulsiveness to it. The songs this week reflect this colour theme. 1. Suhana safar aur ye mausam haseen - Madhumati, 1958 2. Aaj phir jeene ki tamanna hai - Guide, 1965 3....

There are seven colours in a rainbow and likewise, in my view, there are seven colours of life. Violet, Indigo, Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange & Red. This double episode is about the colour Red. Red is the colour of celebration. Come of think of it, human life itself starts with a celebration. This wonderful land of India celebrates in multifarious ways and our movies reflect this spirit. The featured songs are 1. Hum bhi agar bacche hote - Door ki Awaz(1964) 2. Tum jiyo hazaaron saal -...

Bollywood story telling is all about conveying moods - one is happy, sad, at peace with the world, feeling awestruck and so on. And what better device to convey the mood than the hindustani classical ragas set to appropriate rhythmic talas. Whether explicitly so or otherwise, hindustani classical music and bollywood have had a huge connection - especially when it came to music of 1950s and 60s.  The songs covered in this episode are - 1. Poochho na kaise maine rayn bitayi - Meri soorat,...

In this double episode, we will examine the fascinating relationship between Bollywood and jazz music and the magnificent contributions made to this end specially by musicians from Goa - Chic Chocolate(featured on the photograph), Sebastian D'Souza, Frank Fernand and Anthony Gonsalves. How India's freedom movement inspired leading African-American jazz musicians to come to India and contributed to the evolution of an Indo-jazz sound drawing upon the fascinating synergies between Indian...

Folk music is the primal music created by humans - to celebrate, live & love life - in all its manifestations. Bollywood has drawn huge inspiration from folk music traditions over the years and the attempt continues to today. The orchestration may change but the underlying rhythms remain unmistakably folk. This episode is an attempt to identify some of these influences on Bollywood music. The songs featured are - 1. Arre ja re hat natkhat - Navrang(1959) 2. Main to bhool chai babul ka...

Qawwalis are a vibrant indigenous musical form of Indian subcontinent which has over the years been adapted to multiple themes within Bollywood music, showcasing great versatility and creativity on part of our composers, lyricists and singers. The Qawwalis featured in this episode of the podcast are - 1. Na to karvan ki talash hai - Barsaat ki ek raat (1960) 2. Ye maana meri jaan - Hanste zakhm(1973) 3. Teri mehfil mein  kismat aajma kar - Mughal-e-azam(1960) 4. Phir tumhari yaad aayi -...

When one talks of ghazals in hindi film music, two names that will always stand out are those of Lata Mangeshkar & Madan Mohan and the music they produced together. There is a timelessness, an almost divine beauty and soulfulness in Madan Mohan Sb's music, the poetry of some of our best lyricists, and in the renditions of those songs by Lataji. The songs featured in this episode are - 1. Yun hasraton ke daagh - Adalat (1958) 2. Aapki nazaron ne samjha - Anpadh (1962) 4. Naghma-o-sher...

Amongst traditional music styles which evolved in India, Ghazals are right up there as a unique combination of poetry and melody; which could give expressions to myriad emotions. In the hands of accomplished poets like Sahir Ludhianvi, Shakil Badayuni, Kaifi Azmi; virtuoso music composers like Naushad, Madan Mohan, Ravi & Roshan; and supremely talented singers like Mohd Rafi and Talat Mahmood(featured in the photograph); Ghazal reached amazing heights in the 50s and 60s Bollywood music....

In the 1950s, Lata Mangeshkar was the name to reckon with amongst female playback singers but her sister, Asha Bhonsle, had to take the arduous and long road to success. This episode is the story of Asha Bhonsle and her search for a musical identity through the 50s and 60s. The partnerships that she struck with music directors like O P Nayyar & S D Burman and with Film maker B R Chopra, have given us some memorable music. Its a story of talent, grit and sheer hard work. This is a double...

Shammi Sb's breakthrough on bollywood scene upturned many unsaid assumptions about the bollywood hero's persona and it was one person's vision which made it a reality - Subodh Mukherjee, the legendary producer and director. Tumsa Nahin Dekha, their first collaboration, together with the director, Nasir Hussain, heralded not merely a new star, but a new era in film making and music making. And yet, it was also almost a black swan event. In our fascinating study of evolution of bollywood music,...

Navketan is a production house set up by brothers Chetan, Vijay & Dev Anand, in the 1950s, well known for its very distinctive urban style. The music of Navketan gave its movies a huge push ahead under the able stewardship of Music Director S D Burman and his famous partnerships with lyricists Sahir Ludhianvi, Shailendra, Majrooh and Hasrat Jaipuri. This episode attempts to give a flavour of Navketan's music. The songs included are - 1. Dukhi man mere - Funtoosh (1956) 2. Yeh Raat yeh...

Two of India's legendary film makers, Mehboob Khan who made Mother India amongst several other brilliant movies and K Asif, the film maker who will forever be known for making Mughal-e-Azam - collaborated with Music Composer Naushad to create some stirring music. In this episode, we will hear stories of these collaborations and the lengths to which film makers go to get the exact sound that they want in their movies. The songs featured in this episode are - 1. Tu kahe agar - Andaz 2. Maan...

Thus far we have spoken about individual elements of what comprises a song - the filmmaker, the composer, the lyricist, the singer. Now we will put it together to see how the creation of music happens and the first example we take is of India's greatest showman, Raj Kapoor. Raj Sahab and his team of Shankar-Jaikishan, Shailendra, Hasrat Jaipuri and Mukesh put together some memorable music. This episode showcases some of these songs. 1. Hum tujhse mohabbat karaoke sanam 2. Ramaiya...

Continuing about lyricists who breathe life into songs, this episode talks about a few of my favourite songs about life, hope & mysticism. The songs in this episode are - 1. Mausam beeta jaaye - Do Bigha Zameen 2. Aasman pe hai khuda - Phir Subah Hogi 3. Kisi ki muskurahaton par - Anari 4. Jaanewaalon zara - Dosti 5. Aa chal ke tujhe - Door Gagan ki Chhaon Mein We will talk about Shailendra, Sahir, Majrooh and Kishore Kumar and some memories from these songs.

What does independence mean? How did some of our lyricists express this emotion in early days of Indian cinema. This episode is a dedication to these songwriters. People like Shailendra, Kavi Pradeep, Sahir, Kaifi Azmi, Prem Dhawan - the songs they wrote to give voice to the feeling of being a part of independent India. On this independence day, it is worthwhile to refresh some of these memories.

The year was 1949, full of many firsts for Indian cinema. And amongst other happenings, it heralded the arrival of Lata Mangeshkar to the scene. Starting in 1949, she gave Hindi cinema some of its most popular songs and memorable songs ever - be it classical, ghazals, bhajans or even western. Bollywood music was never the same again.  --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Who were the first prominent women playback singers? What are some of the well known songs rendered by them? This episode talks about two such names - Shamshad Begum and Geeta Dutt.  

While the emerging stars of late 40s Bollywood had their preferred on screen voices, which we discussed in Episode 3, the composers as the rightful creator of song, had their preferences as well. Naushad Sb introduced Mohammed Rafi. Shankar Jaikishan got Manna Dey to sing songs for them in non Raj Kapoor movies and S D Burman Sb got Hemant Kumar to give voice to his creations.

Late 1940s saw the arrival of a triumvirate which would rule Bollywood for the next 2 decades - Dilip Kumar, Dev Anand & Raj Kapoor. They needed a playback sound which would give authentic voice to their on-screen persona. In this episode, we look at the dynamics and bitter sweet stories of how these stars found their voice

1930s and 1940s were dominated by singing stars. The whole narrative was fashioned by them. Although playback singing was discovered in mid 30s, it could not find strong roots until late 1940s due to the dominance of singing stars like K L Saigal, Noorjehan, Suraiya and several others. Even our Dadamoni, Ashok Kumar, who was a popular actor in 1940s, sang his songs in films like Kismat.