More Filmindia stills with captions courtesy the barbed tongue of Baburao Patel:
Shammi is one of my favorite character actresses. I hope to goodness she didn’t see this caption! I think she looks great.
Or Suchitra Sen this one:
He thinks Nirupa looks old here! I guess we know better:
He was occasionally scathing towards men too:
And he almost always referred to Nimmi as “Nimmi of the unkissed lips”—which I kind of love.
That picture of Sunil is dreamy!
Yes, I guess he was aware of his best angles! :-)
Why ‘Nimmi of the unkissed lips’? Did he have some story on that? Great pics. Greater captions. I laughed unkindly at the football that was Padmini’s stomach. I never cared for her much.
I laughed unkindly at all of them! I think he called Nimmi that because her lips were so full. Seems reasonable anyway, yes?
It all started with Errol Flynn…
http://cineplot.com/gallery/nimmi-with-errol-flynn/
One of my Filmindia magazine goes into detail about Nimmi becoming known by the western press as being the unkissed Indian girl :) She was in Europe with Mehboob Khan, promoting Aan…
Those captions are priceless!
Yes. Le sigh. Wish I could have met him once :)
LOL.. loved it….
Could it get any cattier than 5′ 3” of sex appeal goes everywhere where there is a cinema projector. LOL! :-D
He does seem to direct his remarks mostly to the actresses, unless the men do a conscious pose (?) like Sunil Dutt. LOL again :-D
keep posting these…they are a laugh even when I don’t agree…that football comment would follow you for life, poor Padmini.
The Padmini pic is beautiful and the caption is still very funny. I’ve seen worse comments about the girth of Noor Jehan from around this time. Yet Padmini and Noor are probably my two favorite women from the Golden Age of films on the Indian subcontinent. Is this just a coincidence? I don’t know, really. Similarly, I’m not sure if it’s just coincidence that I’d much rather look at them than at Kareena Kapoor.
I have to wonder how much the football is a manifestation of the extremely tight cholis and waistbands they had to wear. But it is very funny nonetheless.
OMGGG! He would have had a field day when looking at the starlets in Bollywood and South India! The football gaping out was hilarious and Suchitra Sen’s double chin LOL what a madman!
very very mean!
Sunil Dutt looks great!
so does Padmini and I think the small bulge is a result of the pose.
Nirupa Roy looks younger than in most of her films and looks damn pretty!
And I just love Shammi! She was and is so much fun!
lol Sunil Dutt’s neck IS twisted at a very odd angle! But why was Baburao so full of vitriol about actresses? They all seem very pretty to me. Does he have anything good thing to say about ANY actress at all?
PS: Just checked Musafir on imdb, it sounds very interesting – I need to look for it!
I am finding a gazillion films from the mid-50s that I want to see! It DOES pay to advertise! (except many of them don’t seem to exist any more *sad*)…
Nahin memsaab – there are many more 70s movies u need to see before u venture backwards ie 50s!
I think you have missed most of the Rajashri movies – a few good ones from 70s are – Geet Gata Chal, Chitchor, Sawan Ko Aano Do, Dulhan Wahi Jo Piya Man Bahey. I would recommend u start with Sawan Ko Aaney Do – good music, story and acting.
I’d get tired of only 50s or only 60s or 70s films very rapidly. I try to mix up decades and genres to keep myself entertained, although occasionally I do get “stuck”—but only on purpose!
Banno: Here is a link which says a few lines about Nimmi and her unkissed lips……… http://www.indianexpress.com/ie/daily/19970530/15050723.html
What a great article! Thanks for sharing :-)
Now, this is a nice coincidence: Just about the time (if not exactly the time) that the last comment and link were being posted, I was over on my blog posting this:
Richard, thats what my husband says-only women are obsessed with skinniness, most men would rather have a nice, curvy, cuddly person (his words!).
Yes, that probably is true. But I guess Baburao Patel didn’t think so…
I wondered about Nimmi’s unkissed lips, too….thanks for that link, bluelotus.
Wow, those remarks are really well below the belt (and not just in the case of Padmini). Nasty, nasty… he didn’t spare anyone, did he?
I guess he spared people whom he liked, but they were few and far between it seems :-D
Baburao Patel could certainly get nasty, when he like it, which was often.
Now with the benefit of hindsight, we all can have a laugh over such comments. But I do not think one would have taken these remarks in the same spirit thodse days. The fact thay English language magazines had very low circulation those days meant that most people, including the Bollywood actors, amy not have read much of him. And in any case, I do not think most Bollywood actors were all that conversant in English language in any case.
Did he just straight up call Shammi a ho? How mean! But Padmini’s little solid lunch football is funny. It makes me understand the true importance of Photoshop. My friend’s ex used to work as a celebrity photographer’s assistant and he used to bring home stuff from the reject pile – let’s just say britney’s breakdown was a while coming. Photoshop let her skate.
And I have to agree with him re: Sunil – he really did like to present his profile to the camera even if it interfered with where the director had placed his costar.
My sense of the Shammi comment was that it was very sarcastic, ie she isn’t what you’d call “film star” beautiful, and he was poking fun at her looks. Although I think she is lovely as she is! and he certainly implies that she’s a camera ho!
I’ve never noticed that about Sunil, but I’m going to take note of it now for sure!!!! :-D
I guess in case of Nirupa Roy, he means that she shouldn’t be doing coy heroine roles anymore on seeing her in Taksaal-1956(Roles which she had done quite a few earlier in Hindi and Gujarati in 40s and early 50s as heroine). Quite cruel comments certainly but I don’t see the fairness?!
Well, they ARE fair in that they are all true: Nirupa IS too old to play coy, Shammi isn’t really sexy, Suchitra does have a distinct double chin and Padmini a little football stomach, and Sunil’s neck angle really is more about him looking good than looking at the girl in his arms!
@Memsaab – I thoroughly enjoyed your FilmIndia collection and agree that none could be more vitriolic than Baburao. While I have no comments to make about the other captions, the picture of Sunil Dutt and Nimmi is for a STILL photographer, so he was probably guilty of just following the photographer’s instructions to a T :)
On a related note, I am told still photographs played a big role in the promotion of films those days. I remember such pictures being pasted in the passages of movie halls for the viewing pleasure of film watchers who waited for the next show to begin.
MemsaabStory 