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Showing posts from January, 2022

50 Years of Amar Prem

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  There are a few Hindi films that touch one more than Amar Prem. The film has completed 50 years, released on 29th Jan 1972.  The film belongs to Sharmila Tagore as far as performances go. She preserves fully the dignity of the character even as she skillfully walks the audience through all the traumatic moments of the character´s life The film was  directed by  Shakti Samanta . It was a remake of the  Bengali  film  Nishi Padma  (1970), directed by  Arabinda Mukherjee , who wrote the screenplay for both the films based on the Bengali short story  Hinger Kochuri  by  Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay . The highlight of the film was its music, composed by R D Burman. The movie is about a schoolboy, who is ill-treated by his stepmother, and becomes friends with a prostitute neighbor.  The film stars  Sharmila Tagore  playing a  prostitute with a heart of gold , with  Rajesh Khanna  in the role of a l...

O P Nayyar- The heady cocktail of OP-Asha captured the imagination of music lovers

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  O P Nayyar and Asha Bhonsle gave us some of the most memorable songs of Hindi Cinema. S ongs like ‘Jaayiye aap kahan’ (Mere Sanam), ‘Raaton ko chori chori’ (Yeh Raat Phir Na Aayegi), ‘Zara haule haule’, ‘Meri jaan tumse sadke’ and ‘Aaj koi pyar se’ (all in Sawan Ki Ghata), ‘Aayiye Meherbaan’ (Howrah Bridge) and ‘Aankhon se jo utri hai dil mein’ (Phir Wohi Dil Laya Hoon) to sense the profound wavelength the two worked on.   Born on 16th Jan 1926, he came to Bombay for giving music for films. initially, he was offered  the background score for  Kaneez  (1949), and 1952's  Aasmaan (produced by  Dalsukh M. Pancholi ), was his first film as music director. His real break came with Guru Dutt's Aar Paar in 1954. After that, he gave music for    Mr. & Mrs. '55  (1955) and  C.I.D.  (1956). The songs of all these three films established him among the top composers of that time. The two met in 1952 at the music recording of a song f...

271. Japanese director Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s ninth feature film “Doraibu mai ka” (Drive My Car) (2021), based on his co-scripted screenplay, adapting a fascinating short story written by the celebrated contemporary Japanese writer Haruki Murakami: An unusual script structure comprising a 39-minute prologue, followed by the main tale, and tying it all up with a stunning, minimalist, micro-epilogue

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  Ryusuke Hamaguchi ’s Drive My Car will appeal to different folks for totally different reasons. Those familiar with Haruki Murakami’s written work flock to watch cinematic adaptations of his written works such as the Korean director Chang-dong Lee’s Burning (2018), Japanese director Anh Hung Tran’s Norwegian Wood (2010) or the Japanese director Jun Ichikawa’s Toni Takitani (2004), among the nine such feature films already released.   Drive My Car is the latest cinematic adaptation of the nine films and is based on a short story with the same title as the film.   The film Drive My Car is equally interesting for readers who love Anton Chekov’s famous play Uncle Vanya . They will be pleasantly surprised that it still can be staged in myriad ways, though purists will find Andrei Konchalovsky’s 1970 film version of Uncle Vanya with Innokentiy Smoktunovskiy, Sergei Bondarchuk and Irina Kupchenko, as the definitive cinematic adaptation. However, director Hamaguchi leaps...

Neeraj- Karwan Guzar Gaya Ghubaar Dekhte Rahe.

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  Gopal Das Neeraj was a poet first then a lyricist. He  started writing poetry and sharing stage, at times with stalwarts who were mesmerized with the poems of this young man. There are incidents where he used to write poems with another pseudonym, ‘Bhavuk Etahvi’. But once he reached the stage of  Kavi Sammelan , there was no looking back for this greatest Hindi poet of all genres. This Ghazal was aired.   on the radio  in 1955,   it was included in the film  Nayi Umar ki Nayi Fasal in 1966 in fact this film was inspired by this Ghazal. He wrote a few songs for two films   Cha Cha Cha   and Chanda Aur Bijli  before Dev Anand introduced him to S D Burman to write songs for his film Prem Pujari . He was born in the village of Puravali, near  Mahewa  in  Etawah district  in  Uttar Pradesh , India on 4 January 1925. He wrote under the pen name "Neeraj" When Neeraj entered the scene of poetry, Harivansh Rai B...