A great site for Lata devotees - and Phadke

I recently landed on a site hosting rare Lata songs sorted by composers. Its a great great site for thouse looking to enjoy Lata songs during her peak hears (1948-1960). To repeat, the site is: http://rarelatasongs.in. I found the site had an excellent collection particularly for melodies in the 48-51 phase (which is what I was looking for). Categorization by composers shows that the site owner is a real kindred soul !

I spent some time there yesterday trying to see if there was anything mussing in my collection that the site could help fill. Happily, I as able to locate a few compositions of Sudhir Phadke that I was missing from films like "Gokul kaa chor" and "Ratnaghar". Sudhir Phadke unfortunately received limited success in Hindi films. His compositions, those with Lata in particular, only serve to show that this was Hindi cinema's loss. He of course remained a major figure in the world of Marathi music.

Bhabhi ki choodiyaan is perhaps his best-known film. I think it is one of the few times when a popular favorite also happens to be my favorite. The reason why I consider this to be Phadkeji's best is the greater variety in the melodies in this film and each kind is a composition to treasure. Lata again leads the track of course with such unforgettables as jyoti kalash chhalake and lau lagaatii. But what an impact Asha and Mukesh leave with such beauties as chaa.Nd tuu yahaa.N hai and tum se hii ghar ghar kahalaayaa. It is an outstanding mix of songs and it is almost impossible to not full a tug at the heart when you hear these songs.