Since we have the advantage of hindsight and the internet, we might lay down the following ground rules: After 1968 onwards separate awards for male and female playback singers were given. Further, the awards for the best playback singer was started in 1959, which was combined till 1967. Thereafter this category of award was given for the entire score in a film.
In the first two years the award for the best music was given for a particular song (Naushad for Tu Ganga ki mauj SD Burman for Taxi Driver). 1957 Awards onwards the calendar becomes regular. Then both 19 year awards went for movies made in 1954 – SD Burman ( Taxi Driver) and Hemant Kumar ( Nagin) respectively. I do not think the awards were meant for 1952-53 combined. But as we all know the first award for the best music was given to Naushad for Baiju Bawra, which was made in 1952. The 1954 awards should by that logic have been for films made in 1953. Then why I am starting with 1955? The year of Filmfare awards relates to the films made in the previous calendar year. They suggested 1953 as the year because the first Filmfare awards were given in 1954. For this post I have to thank the readers AM and KR Vaishampayan who suggested while discussing the music of Mughal-e-Azam (which failed to win the Filmfare award for 1960 films!) that I do a year wise survey of music of films of 1953-45 in reverse order and place it for in-depth analysis, comments and suggestions by the readers. I am delighted to present a survey of the best songs of 1955 and invite the readers to an interactive discussion to choose the best songs, singers and music director.