Tom’s treats: a new Mumtaz dvd

Fans of Mumtaz now have another compelling reason to live!

I am so pleased to announce the arrival of a new Tom Daniel dvd compilation (be sure to read the attached pdf file for links to his previous dvds if you haven’t gotten hold of them yet). This is Part 1 of a three part series chronicling Mumtaz’s career, and contains 23 songs from her early years up through 1966. She truly deserves this kind of tribute to the formidable talent, charm and hard work that made her justifiably famous.

I know that Tom has been working on this in his spare time for a while now, along with our friend Ava who provides excellent subtitles for the songs (we non-Hindi-speaking fans are so grateful, Ava!). Tom explains the genesis of his and Ava’s work beautifully in the pdf file, and you will not regret downloading the dvd itself (his instructions are very easy to follow). I and many others can vouch for the fact that his usual meticulous attention to detail gives us the best quality picture and sound we can hope for, even from the miserable source materials that are too often all that’s left for us.

Tom hates it when I “gush” and my Saturday afternoon cocktail isn’t going to make itself, so I will just let you all get down to the business of acquiring this fabulous compilation.

Start with this: Mumtaz.pdf

and the link to the download is here (read the instructional pdf file included there first!). Enjoy and please let Tom and Ava (and Mumtaz) feel the love!

Posted on February 4, 2012 at 12:56 pm in Hindi movies | RSS feed You can skip to the end and leave a reply.

Tags: dvd compilation, Hindi movie songs, Mumtaz, Tom Daniel

36 Comments to “Tom’s treats: a new Mumtaz dvd”

TNSMANI
February 4, 2012 at 1:14 pm

EXCELLENT ….a great work

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memsaab
February 4, 2012 at 1:17 pm

I should add that there are some rare songs in here! It’s really a labor of love :)

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Mark Owen
February 4, 2012 at 1:22 pm

Hooray! Downloading now…

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pacifist
February 4, 2012 at 1:55 pm

Thank you Tom and Ava, for your wonderful work.
This will be a collector’s item of 3DVDs :-)

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- dustedoff
  February 5, 2012 at 7:33 am
  
  I’m echoing that! Thank you, Tom and Ava! :-)
  
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Shalini
February 4, 2012 at 6:08 pm

This is cause for celebration indeed – a new Tom compilation is born!!! Downloading as I type.

Can I saw how utterly gorgeous Mumtaz looks in those screencaps. You look like her don’t you, Greta? I hate you. :-D

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- memsaab
  February 5, 2012 at 8:56 am
  
  Now you are just mocking me Shalini!!!! :D
  
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@v@ (@ava_chandigarh)
February 4, 2012 at 9:54 pm

I can never have enough of Mumtaz. She was so cute, so professional, so poised from day one. I had known only her later work from her big films after she became famous. All these songs were a revelation for me. My big big favorites are Ab der ho gayi wallah from Rustom Sohrab, and Aaj koi pyar se from Sawan Ki Ghata. Watch out for how great she is in Tumne jo samjha hai mujhko from Boxer.

Even when Dara Singh stood so wooden beside her – he never did have a romantic bone – she made up for it by looking romantically charged enough for both.

You will notice that she gave her best to every song, even when she probably knew that she was working in a C or a D grade movie. That was perhaps the biggest reason for her stupendous success.

Tom is a perfectionist and it shows in his work. This is going to be a DVD collection to die for. So let us grab part I.

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- memsaab
  February 5, 2012 at 8:57 am
  
  Let me repeat once more—thank you for subtitling these. I know it’s not easy, and how wonderful that you are so eloquent in at least two languages! *Jealous* :)
  
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raja
February 5, 2012 at 12:19 am

Awesome. Am a huge fan of Mumtaz too.

Great to see another Tom compilation – each of his compilations is an occasion to celebrate because it is the culmination of months of work as he works on perfecting every single song he puts on his DVDs. The search process (scouring the field for the most obscure of films sometimes to get the right material), the selection/elimination process (with due help/advice from other knowledgeable persons), the laborious cleaning-up process of usually extremely questionable-quality video/audio, getting the subtitles organised (and good ones at that), putting it all together ensuring quality every step of the way – that’s Tom for you. In all this, his love for his subject comes through very strongly – otherwise it is difficult to put in so much energy behind a project like this.

Have checked out the PDF – I will admit that there are quite a few I’ve never heard but I’m sure I’ll enjoy discovering.

So a huge thanks to Tom. And of course a lot of credit to Ava too for subtitling the songs (I may not need them myself but I know how useful subtitles are for non-Hindi speakers). And thanks to memsaab, Shalini and dustedoff for their involvement in this project whether as part of the selection/elimination process or providing Tom with material or any other advice. It looks like a fantastic collaborative effort by old-Hindi movie/song lovers as a worthy tribute to one of Hindi film’s most loved and lovable actresses. Cheers to all!

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swarint
February 5, 2012 at 1:49 am

Fab effort n devotion Tom n Ava truly g8 work and thx a load, and now we have a very good reason to live additional 100 years……… :), cheers to all :)

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Shashi
February 5, 2012 at 4:45 am

Shashi Kapoor, I believe, had problems working with Mumtaz in her early years. Strange he had to come back to her when he himself was struggling in 1974. She bailed him out with “Chor Machaye Shor” (1974).

BTW, Greta, did you get my email?

Thanks,
Shashi

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- thandapani
  February 5, 2012 at 11:26 pm
  
  Shashi, I have heard about the reluctance of Shahi (Kapoor) to work with Mumtaz. That is odd, because he was forever working with new faces and heroines who were not too popular. He did two movies with Vimi who was an awful actress. Surely as an artist himself, he would have been aware that Mumtaz was a good actress.
  
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TG
February 5, 2012 at 10:21 pm

BEYOND DOUBT, a most complimentary job by Tom. Especially when Mumtaz’s early films are rarely found nowadays in any decent shops(esp. in Kolkata). I will enjoy my weekends with her, one of my favorite heroines of all times, and who was not given enough recognition. Thanks to you too, Memsaab, for providing this platform for Tom to share his delightful creation.

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Santosh Suri
February 6, 2012 at 1:43 am

This is excellent work by Tom and Ava, a collector’s item. The songs are vintage — some known, some unheard, some unseen. Got fixed on Mumtaz at a young age (7 or 8) more by default as I loved Dara Singh movies then. Ava will remember, we had a cinema hall right in front of our house in Jamnagar, Gujarat. It was so convenient to rush in and see Dara-Mumtaz movies in mid and late 60s.
Probably, the first glimpse the Film buffs had of Mumtza was in the beautiful Lata song, O nirdai pritam from the 1961 film Stree, featuring Sandhya. Mumtaz, barely in her teens, whistles and utters the first line before the song begins. That was a small first step for her which was extended in the next Shantaram film Sehra (1963) when she finally gets to dance with Sandhya in the song Pankh hote toh ur aati re. There was, thereafter, no looking back for our dear Mumu despite all the struggle and hardships.

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Atul
February 6, 2012 at 5:04 am

I have so far downloaded the pdf file and reading the contents of that file make me drool. Unfortunately I will have to wait for a few days before I can think of downloading the compilation because the connection I am on at present overzealously blacks out video sites, audio sites, download sites etc. (:

The pdf file mentions that the site of Mr Naidu no longer exists. What happened to his site ?

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- memsaab
  February 6, 2012 at 9:26 am
  
  He has stopped updating it—if you go there you can read his last post :)
  
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Salim
February 6, 2012 at 7:51 am

Great going Tom-boy! Will have to check out the songs at leisure. In Mere Sanam she did look FAT. A tubby Mumu singing a really sensuous Asha-Nayyar song – sent us ROFL :D. That aside, she was always so perky that it was a treat to see her on the screen – surprising that with her screen charisma she had to slog so long to get main leads. It’s Hindi film industry’s loss that they woke up so late to her. Oh the waste of those sparkling young years. One needs a GODFATHER I guess ;-).

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- Tom Daniel
  February 6, 2012 at 5:12 pm
  
  Funny you should write of Mumtaz making do without the services of a godfather. I came very close to mentioning that in the PDF file – that one reason for her slower-than-it-should-have-been rise to the top was her doing without the services of one, along with the necessary quid pro quo it would also have entailed. But I decided to leave out that remark. She was quite young during the period covered by the DVD which might also help to explain it.
  
  Thanks for the comment.
  
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Salim
February 6, 2012 at 8:00 am

Sorry I can’t bring myself to count her roles in Dara Singh genre of films :D as ‘main lead’ (though I haven’t really seen any of them – the mention of DS is a towering deterrent for me :))

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Salim
February 6, 2012 at 8:06 am

Oh yes – a very apt description of her I read was “wholesome sex-appeal” :)

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Salim
February 6, 2012 at 8:20 am

And Part 2 will have here delectable songs from Yeh Raat Phir Na Ayegi…. And fireworks in Part 3 when RK and Mumu rolls in :)

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memsaab
February 6, 2012 at 9:27 am

Dara a deterrent?! HOW CAN THAT BE? She was one of the heroines he could actually seem romantic with :D

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Suzanne
February 6, 2012 at 10:23 am

Marvelous work once again! Thank you all so much for sharing these wonderful DVDs with all of us.

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Faldo
February 6, 2012 at 11:43 am

Superb effort by Tom. There are many songs in this collection that are not as commonly heard. The progression of Mumtaz from someone who was in the sildelines to a top heroine in Hindi cinema is an inspiration.

On a different note, was Mumtaz introduced to films much earlier? I remember seeing a Mumtaz in the credits for New Delhi (Kishore Kumar, Vyjayantimala) which released in 1957.

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- Anonymous
  February 6, 2012 at 12:45 pm
  
  The Mumtaz of 1950s is Minu Mumtaz, who was the sister of comedian Mehmood.
  
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  - Faldo
    February 7, 2012 at 8:54 pm
    
    You may be right but I have seen a few films in the late 50s with just Mumtaz being mentioned while in most cases Minu was credited as Minu Mumtaz.
    
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- Tom Daniel
  February 6, 2012 at 5:17 pm
  
  Apparently she was in a few movies as a child actress, but for the purposes of the PDF and the DVD I ignored them. The 1961 film Stree was mentioned earlier, but I chose not to include that song as she doesn’t do much in it.
  
  The Mumtaz listed in the credits for the 1956 film New Delhi is Mumtaz Begum, a much older woman.
  
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  - Faldo
    February 7, 2012 at 8:55 pm
    
    Sorry Tom. I did not read your comment earlier. Thanks for clarifying. That clears the confusion.
    
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Santosh Suri
February 7, 2012 at 2:21 am

The year 1967 was the turning point in Mumtaz’s career, from where the Part Two will begin. She was cast opposite none other than the legendary Dilip Kumar in Ram Aur Shyam That gave her career the much-needed push. One particular song with Dilip Saab, Balam tere pyar ki thandi aag mein jalte-jalte… though not among her best, catapulted her to List A star. It’s to Dilip Kumar’s credit that he did not try to overshadow or subdue his much-junior co-star in this song and allowed her to dance with gay abandon. After this film, there was no looking back for Mumu. She needed no godfather!

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- Tom Daniel
  February 7, 2012 at 2:20 pm
  
  That’s the main reason the cutoff for the first DVD is 1966 – because her career jumped to a whole new level with the release of Ram Aur Shyam the next year. Still, there’s lots of good work she did during this earlier period. I like some of these songs quite a lot.
  
  Thanks for the comment.
  
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jenni
February 8, 2012 at 2:48 am

Thank you for another fabulous dvd compilation Tom. I just love that I quite a few of the clips you included were new to me – it was just like receiving lots of little unexpected gifts. I look forward to the next two installments! And thank you too Memsaab for the access.

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Shashi
February 8, 2012 at 8:04 am

Is it true that Mumu didn’t work sign many movies after Rajesh Khanna’s marriage to Dimple. What was the reason apparently?

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- memsaab
  February 8, 2012 at 8:45 am
  
  It’s not true!
  
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Vikram
February 11, 2012 at 10:20 am

Thanks for adding oomph factor to my day

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Mumu
August 24, 2013 at 11:31 am

Thank you so much! Mumtaz, Helen and Rajshree Shantaram – my love!

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