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Showing posts from April, 2021

50 Years of 'Andaz'

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  This Superhit film was released on 30th April 1971. It was the last movie of Shammi Kapoor as a romantic hero. It was the last movie of  the great Shankar-Jaikishan duo. Soon after Jaikishan died of liver cirrhosis, he was only 42.It was the first movie of Ramesh Sippy as Director and also the first script of Salim Javed,  The film is about a widower(Shammi Kapoor) who has a kid from his now-dead wife(Simi Grewal) and a young widow(Hema Malini) who has a young son from her now-dead lover(Rajesh Khanna) and how their lives meet and end up in romance. This was the golden age of Rajesh Khanna , whatever the superstar touched it turned into gold. Here also  in 15 minutes guest appearances stole the show. He  appears on screen for only a few minutes with the famous Kishore Kumar yodel “Zindagi Ek Safar Hai Suhana” and a couple of other scenes. The story is a formula-based one but the skilfully written screenplay is able to entertain the viewers throughout. This was...

50 Years of 'Main Sunder Hoon'

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  The most underrated film of 1971 was among the Top 15 Hit films of that year. It was released on 23rd April 1971 starring Mehmood as the lead actor along with Leena Chandavarkar and Biswajeet.   It is a remake of the 1964 Tamil movie  Server Sundaram . The role played by  Nagesh  in Tamil version was reprised by  Mehmood  in the Hindi version. The movie is not only a good comedy but also is very emotional.  The central character Sundar played by Mehmood is one of the highlights of the film. Mehmood played it very well. I think this is one of his best performances. Music was of Shankar Jaikishan, some of the songs are catchy,  "Mujhko Thand Lag Rahi Hai"  sung by Kishore Kumar & Asha Bhonsle and the other song  "Naach Meri Jaan"with the same singers were very popular that time. There are 7 songs in the film, one of these is a parody song. If you have not seen this movie earlier then you must see this film now, it is entert...

Romeo & Juliet in Hindi Cinema

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  William Shakespeare's 1590s play  Romeo and Juliet  has been adapted to film many times in almost all the languages of the world. The first time it was adapted into a film was in 1911   It was directed by  Barry O'Neil  (USA). In India, it was in 1947 that Romeo & Juliet appeared on-screen by Nargis Art Concern directed by Akhtar Hussain, the roles played by Sapru and Nargis. Almost after 30 years, it was adapted (  Maro Charitra  )  in the Telugu language  written and directed by  K. Balachander .  It stars  Kamal Haasan  and  Saritha  in the lead. The film dealt with a  cross-cultural  romance between a  Tamil  boy and a  Telugu  girl. Upon release, it was commercially successful and remains a cult classic.  Three years later the Hindi version of   Maro Charitra as ,'Ek Duje Ke Liye'( 1981),    directed once again by K Balachandra was r...

Bollywood Songs for Expecting Mother or Parents

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  Pregnancy is a kind of miracle. Especially so in that, it proves that a man and woman can conspire to force God to create a new soul.  Every child born into the world is a new thought of God, an ever-fresh and radiant possibility.   In India, we have a ceremony called 'Godh Bharai', in the west we call it  Baby Shower.   Godh Bharai is the traditional celebration of the beauty and splendour of pregnancy and motherhood. The 'G odh Bharai' ceremony  is generally performed during the seventh month of pregnancy.  Bollywood never misses an occasion to create a song for any situation. There is a long list of songs for this occasion from 1940s onwards. The earliest song in my research is from the 1940 film 'Alakh Niranjan' here the 'Nand' ,  the younger sister in law of the lady; she playfully pulls at her bhabhi’s  palla  and asks – o tell me, where is the child.  Song of Alakh Niranjan 1940   Audio) The second ...

The Songs written by Hasrat Jaipuri for Other Music Directors

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  We all know that Hasrat Jaipuri and Shailendra were the lyric writers for Shankar Jaikishan but both of them wrote for other Music directors also and gave us many immortal songs. He made his debut from the 1949 film Barsat, this was also Shankar Jaikishan's debut film. The success of the film and its songs made him and Shailendra the permanent Lyricist for Raj Kapoor films and Shankar Jaikishan Immediately after Barsat, he wrote a song under the composition of Bulo C Rani for the 1950 film Wafa. The song ' Armaan Bhara Dil Toot Gaya' a duet by Lata & Mukesh, was a hit. He also wrote a song for the composer Sajjad Hussain for the 1951 film Halchal. He wrote a song for Anarkali 1953 under the composition of C Ramchandra. He  worked with SD Burman in just 3 films ...Tere Ghar ke saamne had super hit songs Similarly in 1963 film Ziddi. With Kalyanji Anandji he wrote for' Ji Chahta Hai' and Ghar Ghar Ki Kahani. With O P Nayyar in Howrah Bridge Here are a few of the...

Shamshad Begum - The Highest Paid Female Playback Singer from 1940–1955.

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  Shamshad Begum’s debut in Hindi films came in 1941 in  Khazanchi,  a year before Noorjehan’s in Hindi films in  Khandan  (1942), both under Ghulam Haider. The song 'Sawan Ke Nazare Hain' made her instant famous and became favourite of every household.   In the next year the song  Duniya mein garibon ko aaram nahi milta  from  Zameendar  (1942), and  Gaaadiwale dupatta uda liya jaye re   from  Poonji  (1943) made all the successful music directors of that era to approach her to sing their compositions  Naushad acknowledged in an interview that he was indebted to Shamshas Begum in reaching the top.   It was Begum's solo and duet songs sung for Naushad in the late 1940s and early 1950s which made Naushad famous.  Naushad was floored on  the  clarity of her tone ,  She sang 60 songs under his direction.  She was the lead singer in  Anokhi Ada, Mela  (1948) and ...