Yesterday’S Melodies Today’S Memories

Yesterday’s Melodies Today’s Memories is an attempt to profile the great artistes—singers lyricists and composers—who were part of the huge tidal wave of Hindi cinema’s music from 1931 to about 1970. Greater attention is given to the ‘50s and ‘60s which period is now commonly considered the golden age of our film music. The book tries to bring these gifted people on the timeline of one stage in a manner of speaking. Who was Manna Dey? What is the story behind the greatness of Majrooh Sultanpuri? How did the greats produce such greatness and that too for so long? Was Mohammad Rafi for real? Khayyam and SD Burman Shankar-Jaikishan and Sahir Rajinder Krishan and C Ramchandra OP Nayyar and Asha Talat and Kaifi Azmi Anil Biswas and Shakeel Hemant Madan Mohan and Mukesh what are their stories? What made Naushad tick? Why did Shailendra and Geeta Dutt pass away so soon? In spite of being venerated so much why don’t many people have a photo of Lata Mangeshkar in their homes? What is the story behind KL Saigal’s incredible superstardom? What propelled Ashok Kumar to become a singing-actor? Who put Shamshad Begum and Noor Jahan into high orbits? What is the quick story of Kanan Devi? But wait there was Kishore Kumar and along with him were Suraiya and Hasrat Jaipuri and Salil Chowdhury. What about Chitragupt? Not to forget Iqbal Qureshi and N Datta. Goodness such a huge mass of incredibly passionate artistes!