| Chapter No. | Chapter Title | Chapter Author | Page No. |
| The journey of the Hindi film song | | 1 |
| Part I | The melody makers | | |
| First-generation composers : the pioneers | | 23 |
| Pankaj Mullick | | 23 |
| Khemchand Prakash | | 25 |
| Anil Biswas | | 26 |
| Naushad Ali | | 29 |
| Second-generation composers : the masters | | 35 |
| C. Ramchandra | | 35 |
| Shanker-jaikishan | | 38 |
| S.D. Burman | | 42 |
| Madan Mohan | | 47 |
| O.P. Nayyar | | 50 |
| Salil Choudhury | | 54 |
| Roshan | | 58 |
| Hemant Kumar | | 58 |
| Ravi | | 60 |
| Jaidev | | 60 |
| Vasant Desai | | 62 |
| Third-generation composers : the bravehearts | | 63 |
| Kalyanji-Anandji | | 63 |
| R.D. Burman | | 66 |
| Laxmikant-Pyarelal | | 70 |
| Khayyam | | 75 |
| Ravindra Jain | | 77 |
| Fourth-generation composers : the followers | | 78 |
| Bappi Lahiri | | 78 |
| Rajesh Roshan | | 80 |
| A.R. Rahman | | 81 |
| Anand-Milind | | 82 |
| Nadeem-Shravan | | 83 |
| Annu Malik | | 84 |
| Jatin-Lalit | | 84 |
| Twenty-first-century composers | | 85 |
| Dev Anand Remembers S.D. Burman | | 86 |
| Down Memory Lane with Pyarelal | | 89 |
| Part II | The songwriters | | |
| First-generation lyricists | | 101 |
| Kidar Sharma | | 101 |
| D.N. Madhok | | 103 |
| Pradeep | | 104 |
| Second-geneation lyricists | | 107 |
| Majrooh Sultanputi | | 107 |
| Shakeel Badayuni | | 110 |
| Sahir Ludhianvi | | 112 |
| Shailendra | | 115 |
| Kaifi Azmi | | 118 |
| Third-generation lyricists | | 121 |
| Gulzar | | 121 |
| Anand Bakshi | | 124 |
| Javed Akhtar | | 127 |
| Gulzar on the poets of Hindi film music | | 130 |
| Part III | The playback singers | | |
| First-generation singers | | 141 |
| K.L. Saigal | | 141 |
| Noorjehan | | 144 |
| Suraiya | | 146 |
| Shamshad Begum | | 148 |
| Second-generation singers | | 151 |
| Lata Mangeshkar | | 151 |
| Geeta Dutt | | 158 |
| Asha Bhonsle | | 162 |
| Mukesh | | 168 |
| Talat Mehmood | | 175 |
| Mohammed Rafi | | 178 |
| Kishore Kumar | | 187 |
| Third-generation singers | | 194 |
| Udit Narayan | | 194 |
| Kumar Sanu | | 195 |
| Anuradha Paudwal | | 196 |
| Kavita Krishnamurty | | 197 |
| Sonu Nigam | | 198 |
| Alka Yagnik | | 198 |
| Manna Dey : an echo from the golden era of Hindi film music | | 200 |
| Lata Mangeshkar on other playback singers | | 206 |
