<p>Bloomsbury Publications’ 33 1/3 is an ambitious series of short books about music, focusing on individual albums by artists ranging from James Brown to Celine Dion and from J Dilla to Neutral Milk Hotel. The series, currently consisting of over 200 books, strives to elucidate world music history.</p>.<p>The entry for Bollywood music, ‘Lata Mangeshkar: My Favourites Vol 2’, is written by musicologists and music historians Aniruddha Bhattacharjee and Dr Chandrashekhar Rao. The featured album is an apt choice, since Lata’s oeuvre touched some of the most important luminaries of Bollywood. The album comprises 50 hand-picked songs spanning four decades, interspersed with brief commentary by Lata herself. The book itself is a heady mix of music and film history, musicology, and music appreciation. It is enjoyable and instructive at the same time.</p>.'The Secret Master' is a musical detour.<p class="bodytext">The book is organised into 11 categories based on the composer of the song. This is an interesting choice, and a welcome deviation from typical chronological arrangements. Each category strings together stylistically similar composers and delves into the nuances of each song. The analysis of each song is adorned with deeply insightful critique, historical perspective, technique, anecdotes and informed opinion. The typical Hindi song is a unique blend of Indian melodic base and Western orchestration. This makes the musicological discussion very interesting. The narrative is peppered with anecdotes, gleaned from various sources as well as personal memories and conversations. The image of S D Burman landing up at the producer’s home at 5 am to announce that he has composed a winning melody for <span class="italic">Jyoti</span>, or of Vasant Desai’s discovery of Pt Shivkumar Sharma for <span class="italic">Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baje</span>, as narrated by family members, lends a personal touch and a degree of warmth to these larger-than-life figures. Despite the complexity of the content, the writing style is conversational and easy to read and captures the rich history of Hindi film music through the lens of a single album. It is also a wonderful tribute to Lata Mangeshkar.</p>
<p>Bloomsbury Publications’ 33 1/3 is an ambitious series of short books about music, focusing on individual albums by artists ranging from James Brown to Celine Dion and from J Dilla to Neutral Milk Hotel. The series, currently consisting of over 200 books, strives to elucidate world music history.</p>.<p>The entry for Bollywood music, ‘Lata Mangeshkar: My Favourites Vol 2’, is written by musicologists and music historians Aniruddha Bhattacharjee and Dr Chandrashekhar Rao. The featured album is an apt choice, since Lata’s oeuvre touched some of the most important luminaries of Bollywood. The album comprises 50 hand-picked songs spanning four decades, interspersed with brief commentary by Lata herself. The book itself is a heady mix of music and film history, musicology, and music appreciation. It is enjoyable and instructive at the same time.</p>.'The Secret Master' is a musical detour.<p class="bodytext">The book is organised into 11 categories based on the composer of the song. This is an interesting choice, and a welcome deviation from typical chronological arrangements. Each category strings together stylistically similar composers and delves into the nuances of each song. The analysis of each song is adorned with deeply insightful critique, historical perspective, technique, anecdotes and informed opinion. The typical Hindi song is a unique blend of Indian melodic base and Western orchestration. This makes the musicological discussion very interesting. The narrative is peppered with anecdotes, gleaned from various sources as well as personal memories and conversations. The image of S D Burman landing up at the producer’s home at 5 am to announce that he has composed a winning melody for <span class="italic">Jyoti</span>, or of Vasant Desai’s discovery of Pt Shivkumar Sharma for <span class="italic">Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baje</span>, as narrated by family members, lends a personal touch and a degree of warmth to these larger-than-life figures. Despite the complexity of the content, the writing style is conversational and easy to read and captures the rich history of Hindi film music through the lens of a single album. It is also a wonderful tribute to Lata Mangeshkar.</p>