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  Pakeezah took 16 years to reach the celluloid. The film started  on July 16, 1956,  and released on  February 4, 1972. It was a dream project of Kamal Amrohi, he wanted his wife Meena Kumari to be  Sahibjaan  of Pakeezah. Pakeezah was conceptualised in 1954 as a Black & White venture. The mujra 'Inhin logon ne' was shot on July 16, 1956 , interestingly at that time the script was not ready, nor the star cast was decided, even the hero was not decided, the next several years went in scouting for locations, deciding on a leading man, writing and rewriting various bits of the film.   By 1964, the film had still not been completed, while Meena Kumari had become a superstar, with films like  Kohinoor  (1960),  Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam  (1962) and many others. That was also the year she and Kamal Amrohi separated, causing another blow to their already much-delayed dream production. In the meantime, Meena Kumari got addicted to alcohol ...

  R oe v. Wade is a 2021 feature film that provides considerable insight from a pro-life point of view into a very important US Supreme Court judgement given in 1973 that the Constitution of the United States “protects a pregnant lady’s liberty to choose to have an abortion without excessive government restriction” ( Wikipedia ). Nearly five decades after that landmark ruling, the decision continues to be fervently debated within USA, between the two main political parties of the country, between church groups and women’s rights groups, and between the National Abortion Rights Action League and the National Right to Life Committee, to mention just a few. US Supreme Court Justices listening to arguments... and discussing the case among themselves outside the courtroom (actors Forsythe, Portnow and Davi) US Supreme Court Chief Justice (Jon Voight) in his chambers reflecting on the case Cathy Allyn’s and Nick Loeb’s film takes the right to life argument armed with lots of details ...

  Holi is a festival of colours. It is  an inseparable part of Indian culture, Bollywood never misses a chance to infuse the ‘Holi factor’ in the form of dance numbers with stars going footloose and crazy.   The first song of Holi was from  the 1931 film ‘Ghar Ki Laxmi’. The Mukhdaa of the song goes like – “Mo Pe Daar Gayo Saari Rang Rang Ki Gaagar, Kaisa Dhokha Diya. . .”. This and many other songs of that era are now lost. In this blog, I have selected the great Holi Songs of Bollywood starting from the 1940s to the 2020s. This year    we might be stuck indoors  due to Covid 19, we can enjoy this year's Holi with the song of every decade. . I present a song from this very first decade of Hindi films – a song from the film ‘Aurat’ from 1940. ‘Aurat’ is a magnum opus by producer-director Mehboob, a much-celebrated film of its era. Song of Aurat 1940 Song of Jogan 1950 Song from Navrang 1959 Song of Kohinoor 1960 Song from Kati Patang 1970 Son...

  The saxophone is a wind instrument but it was a very versatile instrument excessively used in Hindi Songs of the 60s and 70s. C omposers of that era have used it effectively to convey many moods with Saxophone.  Before it came on the scene, other wind instruments like  Trumpet or Clarinet were in use. These instruments could  convey the primary  emotion in the song but the Saxophone could  convey many moods  of a song.   Manohari Singh is known as the first Saxophone player of Bollywood, but as per him Ram Singh was the first Saxophonist who played a few songs in the early 50s but after his death in the early 50s, composers stopped using Saxophone in their songs. It was in the late 50s when Manohari Singh arrived in Bombay from Kolkatta.  His first break in the  Hindi film industry  was in 1958 with  Sachin Dev Burman , as a  saxophonist  for the movie  Sitaron Se Aage . He went on to play with many other ...

  Sharmilee was released on 23rd March 1971. The film was a hit with hit music given by S D Burman and lyrics by Neeraj. Shashi Kapoor was the hero and Rakhi was in a double role,  one a shy mellow young woman, and the other a spontaneous extrovert. The film was based on a novel of Gulshan Nanda, who was a very popular Hindi novelist of that time, almost all the films based on his novels were successful. The film was produced by  Subodh Mukherjee and directed by Sameer Ganguly It's the story of twin sisters - Kanchan and Kaamini,    Kaamini is an extrovert, and the ultramodern girl whom any boy may fall for whereas, on the contrary, Kanchan is a shy girl who speaks very less and is hesitant to interact with strangers.  Shashi Kapoor, the  prospective groom and his family members come to see Kanchan decide on a matrimonial alliance, Shashi Kapoor who met Kamini once misunderstood Kanchan as Kamini , he agreed to the proposal.  When he came to ...

  Today on 14th March 1931, India's first Talkie Film 'Alam Ara' was released. It was released in one cinema theatre' Majestic'in Mumbai. The first show was started at 3 PM was a house full. The theatre was mobbed, people started collecting to buy tickets from 9 in the morning. The tickets which were costing 4 Annas(a Fourth of a Rupee) that time was sold for Rs 5 in the black market. That was the craze for this film If you see the publicity poster of this film, it says 'All Living, Breathing, 100 % Talking' , 'All Talking Singing and Dancing' and  ' 70 Murda Insaan Zinda Ho Gaye, Unko Bolte Dekho'  The film ran the full house for 8 weeks in Majestic Cinema, later the full unit visited all over the country along with the print, the projector and sound equipment. The film drew a crowd all over the cities of India. Since Alam Ara was a talkie, the casting was of utmost importance. As it was imperative for actors to know the language, Zubeida go...