Dilip Gokhale – Encyclopedia of Old Hindi film music


Many of us have heard information about Hindi film music from the period of 60s till date. But, since the first Walkie talkie film ‘Alam Ara’ was released in 1931, the sound of music in all those films thereafter mesmerized the music lovers in India. Not many are aware that during the period 1931 to 1940 there were 931 Hindi films made, with an average of 10 songs per film. And, this should indicate how music in films popularized during this decade.

Dilip Gokhale

Dilip Gokhale

Now, talking about all these songs and those which followed later in next two decades will itself require number of days to recall the details. But, Dilip Gokhane a senior citizen from Mumbai , formerly with State Bank Of India, is an Encyclopedia of Old Hindi film music, especially during this period of 1931 to 1957-58. With his hour long A/V presentation, he spoke about each and every old song , explaining how music played an important role in popularising all those songs.

The occasion was a family function of all seniors and they enjoyed the programme, as it took all of them down memory lane recalling the debut of fine actresses like Vaijayantimala, Nutan,  and Waheeda Rehman. Watching the first song of Helen and watching Waheeda Rehman and  kamaljeet  singing together on screen  . If this was not enough, he narrated the coming together of Waheeda Rehman and kanwaljeet through the film ‘Shagun’ in 1964 with the song “Parbaton Ke Pedon Par Shaam  …” and their happy married life from 1974 onwards , which lasted for 26 years, till the death of kamaljeet.

Dilip has many more stories to narrate about actor P.Jairaj as hero and many others . He also narrated how actor David Abraham received the first  filmfare award which was created for a character artiste, after watching his performance in the film ‘Boot Polish’ made by R.K.Films. Mr. Dilip can continue his programme for even three hours, but he needs the audience to enjoy the songs played by him.