About this ebook
Here are singers that include the whole gamut from KL Saigal to Asha Bhosle, lyricists that include Sahir and Gulzar, music composers from Naushad to RD Burman, artistes that were part-time singers and full time actors like Ashok Kumar, melody queens like Noor Jahan and Lata Mangeshkar, gentlemen lyricists like Prem Dhawan and gentlemen singers like Manna Dey, mischief-makers like Kishore Kumar and rebels without pause like OP Nayyar and Majrooh Sultanpuri.
In fact, this book is a house in which all these great talents live happily, each in a separate room, given space for self-expression. The serious research that has gone into this book is evident as you move from one chapter to another, opening layers after layers presented non-seriously. Over 100 music makers are presented this way and many more in a huge single chapter.
About the author
Manek Premchand has a diploma in Journalism and a degree in Arts from Bombay University. He has many friends in the film industry and remains fascinated by the enormous role that cinema has played as a key glueing medium in a country as disparate as ours. This fascination has motivated him to write six books on the subject. These are Yesterday’s Melodies Today’s Memories, Musical Moments From Hindi Films, Romancing The Song, Talat Mahmood—The Velvet Voice, Hitting The Right Notes, and The Hindi Music Jukebox. A seventh book, Shiv Kumar Sharma—The Man And His Music, was co-authored with two others. Besides these, he has written hundreds of music-related articles for a variety of newspapers.
He has also been a consultant with Saregama India Ltd, advising them for compilations of CDs and meeting music personalities such as AR Rehman, Manna Dey, and Suraiya. On WorldSpace Satellite Radio’s Farishta channel, he hosted a weekly show interviewing a slew of personalities such as Lata Mangeshkar, Shiv Kumar Sharma, Ram Narain, Burjor and Kersi Lord, Uttam Singh, Manohari Singh, Bahadur Nanji, Kishore Desai, Homi Mullan, Jairam Acharya, Manna Dey, Enoch Daniels etc
WorldSpace apart, a few years’ stints happened on All India Radio and the web portal www.bollywoodondemand.com. Manek Premchand is frequently asked to share his knowledge on stage shows and TV and to address Rotary Club meets. He also teaches elements of Broadcasting to post-graduate students at Xavier Institute of Communications, a part of Xavier’s College, Mumbai.
In his work for his books, articles and other platforms, he has interviewed a host of music luminaries. Apart from those named above, these include Khayyam, Majrooh Sultanpuri, Sudha Malhotra, Naqsh Lyallpuri, Pyarelal, Talat Mahmood, Prem Dhawan, OP Nayyar, Anil Biswas, Anand-Milind, Snehal Bhatkar, Kidar Sharma, Anu Malik, Gulshan Bawra, Ram Laxman, Ameen Sayani and many more.
