December 14, 2008
The 2001 Hollywood film Ghost World made this song and dance number from Gumnaam famous in the non-Hindi film fan world. Laxmi Chhaya’s verve and enthusiasm coupled with the lively tune and Boy-Wonder-masked backup dancers make for compelling watching. And of course, the singer’s ultra-cool style is the juicy cherry on top of this confection. Much speculation has issued forth as to his identity (is he the eponymous Ted Lyons?).
So today’s trivia question is: who is the manic front man in this wonderful song (the voice of course is Rafi’s)?
You can watch “Jaan Pehchaan Ho” here.
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Posted in Hindi movies, Trivia time |
68 Comments »
December 12, 2008
“This award is given to a blog that invests and believes in PROXIMITY – nearness in space, time and relationships! These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.”
Banno, whose writing and photography I adore, and whose film I am dying to see when she subtitles it (hint, hint) has given me this sweet award. I had no idea when I started blogging that my world would grow so immensely. So here are some of those (and there are many more of you, but I only can pick eight) I’m particularly happy to have become acquainted with virtually and hope to meet someday personally!
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Posted in Everything else |
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December 11, 2008
My latest Manmohan Desai kick (triggered by the insanity of Mard) continues with this film, and it’s oodles of fun too although not nearly as unpredictable. I didn’t even mind the innocent rustic Raj Kapoor-type character, mostly because it was enacted by his son Randhir, who is much more believable in the role (not sure if that’s really a compliment or not, but I mean it as one). Rekha and her sarees and hairdos were spectacular, and Shatrughan Sinha had plenty of style—and youth—on his side as well. Ranjeet and Padma Khanna (and Faryal) also made brief but gorgeous appearances, and the plot contained plenty of separated family members and coincidences.
So: lots of eye candy and a fast-paced action-packed story equals solid Desai-style entertainment, which is only enhanced by RD Burman’s lovely songs! Plus, removable snake tattooes!
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Posted in Hindi movies |
18 Comments »
December 9, 2008
My friend Asli Jat has done it again! He has sent me this episode of a 1987 series aired on Channel 4 in the UK called Movie Mahal (produced and directed by Nasreen Munni Kabir) and what a treat it is! It’s all about the “Miracle Man” Manmohan Desai—one of my favorite filmmakers, as anybody who’s spent any time here probably knows. He is interviewed, as is Amitabh Bachchan, and the interviews are interspersed with song clips from many of his films. I thought I’d put together a post with audio clips and screen shots since people enjoyed that format for the Bombay Superstar documentary so much. Manmohan Desai is a great deal of fun to listen to; he’s as intense and enthusiastic about his work as you could ever hope for! He calls himself a “dream merchant”—and breaks into song every now and again as well.
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Posted in Hindi film history, Hindi movies, Yahoo! Shammi! |
46 Comments »
December 8, 2008
With a title screen (and title) like this, you’d expect a happy movie, right? Wrong! It’s incredibly sad. I sobbed for a good hour. But it’s also really good. The story takes place against the backdrop of India’s fight for freedom from British rule (although no attempt to recreate the period through costumes or anything has been made), and is a love triangle between two best friends and the girl they both love. What saves it from descending into jingoism and melodrama are the marvelous performances by Shashi Kapoor, Rajesh Khanna, Mumtaz and Vinod Khanna; Raj Khosla’s deft direction; and the lovely songs by Laxmikant Pyarelal with beautiful, meaningful lyrics by Anand Bakshi.
This is a pretty long post, because there’s a lot to say about this film. It isn’t perfect, but does so much just right that the imperfections don’t matter.
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Posted in Hindi movies |
81 Comments »
December 5, 2008
The title of this post really should be “My nine favorite rain songs and one rain scene” but—too long! The rains have a special place in Hindi cinema, as many before me have pointed out. I have always loved rain and thunderstorms, and I am determined to someday run around some trees in a (not transparent) sari as it pours down rain. Until that day dawns, though, I’ll settle for watching the cinematic rain fall.
So here are my nine favorite rain songs and one favorite rain scene! I have selected them based on how much I like the song, the picturization and its place in the film (I’m only using songs from films I’ve seen, not so much because I’m a purist but to make my task easier). And of course in my own selfish interests I can’t wait to find out about others that I haven’t encountered yet (hint, hint). Enjoy!
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Posted in Hindi movies, Memsaab's lists, Yahoo! Shammi! |
119 Comments »
December 3, 2008
Robin Hood meets Hindi cinema! How can that possibly be a bad thing? I thoroughly enjoyed this film. It stars a young and handsome Premnath and the beautiful Madhubala (in fact they began a real-life romance during the filming of this, according to her biographer), and are very nicely supported by Purnima (in my opinion just as lovely as Madhubala) and Agha (so young! and cute! and funny too).
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Posted in Hindi movies |
24 Comments »
December 2, 2008
I sometimes have very vivid and detailed but thoroughly crazy dreams; I wake up and think: “What on earth?” and worry for a minute that there’s something wrong with me, then go about my day and forget about it. Now I know that Manmohan Desai had those kinds of dreams too, except that in the case of at least one of them, he woke up and thought: “That should be a movie!” And so he made Mard.
It’s a trip through a demented sort of Disneyland, populated with characters from about a hundred different movie genres and policed by animals who are smarter than all the people around them combined. If you surrender yourself to the journey (and the film demands that you do) there’s a kind of lyricism and rhythm about it that’s hypnotic: it’s impossible to look away, but there’s an emotional detachment about it as well. You are just a spectator—so no worries!—but kya baat hai.
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Posted in Hindi movies |
53 Comments »
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