Musical Lenses Featuring Lata, Kishore, Manna, Hemant and many more

The last week and the weekend were spent in absolute ecstasy: listening and choosing music of the golden era of Hindi playback singing.
There is magic in these songs and now that I have created webpages that is a mini-collection of sorts, I now have two wishes:

a) that more people listen to these - both those who understand Hindi and those who don't
b) that these songs find their rightful place in world music.

Today, if you search music in Internet you will find Beatles or other pop-music at the top of the heap. I do not deny their rightful place, but is there any reason why Lata, Rafi, Kishore, Hemant, Manna, Asha should not rub shoulders with them.

So, here is a request. Please visit the webpages I have built. Give me your suggestion to make it more attractive. But more importantly,spread the word. Please tell at least 10 people you know to visit these webpages, and they can tell 10 more and so on ...

Here are the pages:

25 songs from the Nightingale of India: Lata Mangeshkar
25 songs from a musical maestro: Manna Dey
21 songs by Music Directors singing their own composition
25 songs from the minnows of Hindi Playback

You can rate the songs you like best. I hope you enjoy listening to these songs as much as I enjoyed creating the webpages.

My Top 10 Lata Mangeshkar Songs

30,000+ songs. How does one choose? Obviously I am not going to sift through this huge data. I have a simpler way. I will type in whichever Lata song comes to my mind as I blog. Blogging does not get much live than this.

So here's my list of Lata Mangeshkar Top 10:

1. Lag jaa galey ki phir yeh haseen raat ho na ho, shayad is janam mein mulakat ko na ho - from Woh Kaun Thi? The music is by Madan Mohan

2. Tera jaana, dil key armaanon ka loot jaana, koi dehke bun kay taqdeeron ka mitt jana - from Anadi. The music is by Shankar Jaikishan. Nutan is absolutely heartbroken.

3. O! Sajana, barkha bahar aayi, ras ki phuhar layi, aankhiyon mein pyaas layi - from Parakh - this one is brilliant. The music is by Salil Chodhury

4. Chura kay gaya sapna mera, baithi hoon kab ho savera - from Jewel Thief. The music is by S.D. Burman. Vyjantimala never looked more beautiful.

5. Aaa! Jaan-e-jaan, aa mera yeh husn jawan - from Intequam. The music is by Laxmikant Pyarelal. This one is special: the only cabaret number by Lata. Helen gives her best; so does the man, painted all black, in the cage. (Actually there is one more song from Intequam that I love - Kaisay rahoon chup kay meinay pi hi kya hai.)

6. Dilbar dil say pyare - from Caravan. The music is by R.D. Burman. Perhaps Aruna Irani's best dance number.

7. Biti na bitai raina, birha ki jayi raina - from Parichay; the brilliant Hindi remake of the Sound of Music. The music is by R.D. Burman. (Actually this is a duet with Bhupendra doing a cameo at the end). Gulzar, RD and Lata were a deadly combination.

8. Another Gulzar-Lata-RD number from Andhi: Tere bina zindagi say shikwa. Duet with the man with the golden voice, Kishore Kumar. (I love all the three songs from this movie. The other two ... tum aa gaye ho, nur aa gaya hai; and iss mod say jaatey hain, kuch sust kadam rakh kar. All three songs are filmed on Suchitra Sen, Bengal's pride and Sanjeev Kumar).

9. Thinking of Suchitra Sen ... this one is from another Hindi movie of hers, Mamta. The song ... Rahein na rahein hum, mehka kareingay ban kay kali .... I think the music is by Roshan.

10. A non-filmi song which brings a lump to my throat every time I even think of it ... Aye meray watan kay logon, zara aankh mein bhar lo paani. I think the music is by C Ramachandra.

Is it already number 10? Hmmm... sad. I have so many more to go.

Which are your favourite Lata Mangeshkar songs?