Another birth centenary, and another list of favourite songs from the 1950s and 60s.

Today, March 3, 2026, marks the 100^th birth anniversary of the composer mononymously known in Hindi cinema as Ravi, and in Malayalam cinema as Bombay Ravi. In the course of a long and illustrious career, Ravi composed music for a very wide range of films, first in the Hindi film industry and later mostly for Malayalam cinema. I will leave those who know his work in the latter to compile lists of his Malayalam songs; what I would like to focus on here are the songs he composed for Hindi films. For films like Gharana and Khandaan, yes (both of which won him Filmfare Best Music Direction Awards); but also for many other films—both hits like Waqt and Chaudhvin ka Chaand, and films that were otherwise duds but the songs of which have far outlived the films themselves.