COMPOSERS: Kalyanji; Anandji
LABELS: SaReGaMa
ALBUM TITLE: Kalyanji; Anandji
WORKS: The Bollywood Brothers
PERFORMER: Various singers
CATALOGUE NO: CDNF138096-7
Here is a collection of entertaining performances by Asha Bhosle, Lata Mangeshkar and Mohammed Rafi among others, recorded 1954-80. Kalyanji Virji Shah and his brother Anandji were the composers, a double act of top-rate music directors who didn’t so much make waves as ride all the waves of fashion that were going. The excuse is that contemporary musicians, notably the Black Eyed Peas, have been dipping into their work for samples, and these are the original contexts. It would be flattering to call many of them classics; selected by the BBC’s Bhagwant Sagoo, the accent is on fun and kitsch, with everything from funk sitar to a Punjabi send-up of ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’, plus a scattering of frantic or scary instrumental tracks for dance scenes. But you’ll find some strong numbers in their own right too, including an unlikely duet between sisters and rivals Bhosle and Mangeshkar and a tragic Kishore Kumar number from the 1970 film Safar. Robert Maycock