Kishore Kumar, The Ultimate Biography: The Penultimate Review Anirudha Bhattacharjee and Parthiv Dhar have been both adventurous and courageous in calling their Biography of that eccentric genius, Kishore Kumar, ‘The Ultimate’. Some biographies about one of India’s greatest ever playback singers-actors, also a music director and film producer, have already been written, and others will be written. And so, Ultimate is an indulgent word. Not given to such extravagance, I shall...

Hachette’s The Bollywood Pocket Book Series, A 4-in-1 Set, by Diptakirti Chauduri: Get set Yes, it’s a pun. I mean you should get the set, buy the book, or rather, books. They look deceptively thin when ensconced in the hardcover box, but provide a substantial reading once you pull them out. Book one is about Iconic Dates, with Raj Kapoor and Nargis on the cover, under an umbrella. The author reminds us about the calendar of events that begin with Raja Harishchandra’s releas...

Incomparable Shachin Dev Burman: HQ Chowdhury’s labour of love, about the man and his music It is not often that one gets to hear about a book and its author first, and gets to spend some enriching time with the author afterwards, before getting an autographed copy of his book, as a gift. And to think this happened 2,500 km away from my city of Mumbai, in the capital of Bangladesh, Dhaka, at Chowdhury’s posh guest house, seems almost unreal. Reading Incomparable Sachin Dev Burman ...

Nina Mehta’s 6th Death Anniversary (12th April 1942-26th April 2014) They were the earliest ghazal-singing couple I knew, Nina and Rajendra Mehta. Ladies come first, was the rule back in the late 60s. Born into a Baroda-rooted Gujarati business family, Nina Shah studied at Wilson College, Mumbai, where the family had settled. Winning the Inter-Collegiate Singing Competition four times in a row, she made her radio debut in Ovaltine Phulwari, which was a singing talent weekly show anchore...

Farouque Shaikh: Memories and musings on his 70th birth anniversary My earliest memories of the fresh and confident Farouque date back to the time when he was a senior at the elitist St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai, and I was a junior at the then humble National College, circa 1970-72. Among his contemporaries were Shabana Azmi, Satish Shah (Farouque was rather close to Satish), Pankaj Udhas, Anuradha (Paudwal) and Sharada (Kavita) Krishnamurthy, all celebrities in waiting. The college had...