Ten Favorite Naushad Soundtracks from the 1940s

Happy birthday to Naushad Ali, the best musical director in the history of Hindi cinema. There are others whose music has come close for me, depending on what I am watching/listening to at the time (right now, my second favorite is Anil Biswas), but Naushad has consistently remained the greatest for my ears – and probably many others’ too.

In order to work with a selection that wasn’t overwhelming, I decided to stick to movies from the 1940s (one song from each film). But since I haven’t seen much of his films from the first couple of years of that decade, I am really picking only from 1943 through 1949. But what an incredible seven years!

10. Shahjehan (1946)

9. Andaz (1949)

8. Dulari (1949)

7. Mela (1948)

6. Dard (1947)

5. Anokhi Ada (1948)

4. Sanjog (1943)

3. Dillagi (1949)

2. Ratan (1944)

1. Anmol Ghadi (1946)

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P.S. I just could not come up with individual song descriptions today that would do the music justice. I am happy to say, though, that I’ve already written about a few of these films extensively, and I plan to write about more soon. (Anokhi Ada is in the queue.)

Nalini Jaywant Songs in Nastik (1954), with English Subtitles

I have posted clips from Nastik (1954) before, but I think this is the first time I have seen subtitled copies. They’ve been up for over two years, but maybe I didn’t spot them before because I didn’t notice the particular channel they are on, which is devoted to Lata (who certainly deserves credit too, of course). And they are also of better quality than the ones I posted before… So, here they are – in honor of Nalini on her third death anniversary.