14.03.1913-28.03.1988 |
For every 'great' music director, there are those who were no less talented but whose circumstances did not allow them to rise to the heights their more successful contemporaries did. Yet, their music lives on after them.
I begin this section with Shri Nath Tripathi – or SN Tripathi, as he was popularly known. Except for music aficionados, few people remember the composer even though the songs he composed continue to be popular. But SN Tripathi was not just a composer; he was a musician, a music director, a singer, an actor, a writer and a director. For a man who wore so many hats, and quite successfully at that, his name still does not figure among the pantheon of the greats. Perhaps it was because much of his work was for the looked-down-upon genres of mythologicals and historicals that he was never considered ‘top-rung’? The question is moot but SN Tripathi’s melodies elevated the films he composed for, and several have overcome changing times and tastes.