April 23, 2008
I’m on a Dharmendra or dog co-star kick this week apparently. This movie has both!
It’s oodles of good masala fun, despite the unfortunate presence of a weepy and sanctimonious Meena Kumari. I know she and Dharmendra carried on a real-life affair for awhile, but it’s a thanda jodi onscreen for sure. She was really beautiful and fun in the 50’s; I don’t know how she became so maudlin in the 60’s. However!!! The film is saved by the presence of numerous character actors in all their glory (and occasionally in drag), beautiful songs by Ravi and the aforementioned Dharmendra and Famous Dog Bhairon. Fun for everyone!
I’ve decided that another reason I love Hindi movies is because all the people in them show up over and over for decades and become like family.
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Posted in Hindi movies |
39 Comments »
April 20, 2008
In which film does my beloved Shammi Kapoor meet a gruesome death, when he climbs into a large urn to escape detection by his beloved’s father. Her father, suspecting that he’s hiding in there, orders the firewood underneath it to be lit, and he roasts to death as his spineless beloved sings a sad song (needless to say, not my favorite film; it breaks my Cardinal Rule Number One for Hindi films: Shammi should never ever die).
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Posted in Hindi movies, Trivia time, Yahoo! Shammi! |
8 Comments »
April 19, 2008
Widely considered the inspiration for Sholay, this film is quite simply awesome. It’s much smaller in scale, but director Raj Khosla’s deft treatment of the same themes, the pace and the fantastic performances by everyone make it just as compelling. Laxmikant-Pyarelal’s tunes are foot-tappingly addictive too.
Laxmi Chhaya is especially impressive in her role as a dancer spying for the dacoits. Besides her dancing ability (she’s memorable as the girl in the golden dress in “Jaan Pehchaan Ho” from Gumnaam), she has acting skills too. She very competently played Asha Parekh’s best friend in Teesri Manzil, and she’s beautiful to boot. But in all her films (sadly few in number) she was relegated to secondary roles and bit parts. I don’t get it.
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Posted in Hindi movies |
27 Comments »
April 16, 2008
Sanni recently posted about her five favorite heroine roles in Hindi films. What a great idea! I am shamelessly stealing it.
Hindi films are of course generally more about the hero(es) than the heroine. And by generally, I really mean always. But there are some performances that transcend that handicap, and also there is the occasional heroine-centric film made. So here are my favorite roles and the actresses who brought them to life, where the heroine manages to hold her own against—if not completely outshine—the hero.
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Posted in Hindi movies, Memsaab's lists |
49 Comments »
April 14, 2008
Any film—but especially a Hindi film—in which a dog co-stars is okay with me! Annadata is no exception, and in fact even without the dog it would still be a lovely little fairytale of a movie. Directed by Asit Sen, two great performances by Jaya Bhaduri and Om Prakash embellish a sweet story about love and compassion versus money and greed. The subject is a little hackneyed (poor=love=good and rich=money=bad) but so well done that it doesn’t matter.
It also has very melodic songs by Salil Chowdhury, which unfortunately aren’t subtitled. A movie like this requires song subtitling; I definitely missed nuances in the story. Must…learn…Hindi………
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Posted in Hindi movies |
18 Comments »
April 11, 2008
Nisha Susan has written a nice article in the Delhi magazine Tehelka on some of us “firangi” bloggers called “The Mems and Saabs of Berlin.” Check it out, and browse around the rest of the magazine as well. It is very thoughtful and intelligently written and covers a wide range of topics for anyone interested in all things Indian.
Posted in Hindi movies |
5 Comments »
April 7, 2008
In the almost 10 months I have been writing this blog, the most often read (and commented upon) post—by a huge margin—is the one about my love for Shammi Kapoor. It is also—again by a large margin—the top search that directs traffic here.
There’s a lot of love for this man out there! And that’s as it should be.
Quite a few people have asked lately for more Shammi movies to be posted here. So here’s another!
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Posted in Hindi movies, Yahoo! Shammi! |
39 Comments »
April 6, 2008
I love reading Banno’s blog because she is funny, down-to-earth, knowledgeable about films and film-making, and she blogs about her life in Bombay (one of my favorite places on earth). Even though I haven’t met her, her writing is so warm, witty and personal that I want to be friends with her and her family.
Her latest post is about her stint as a gangster’s moll in a film during her years at FTII (her now-husband played the hero). I think it’s just hilarious.
ps: and also, her avatar is Fearless Nadia. Awesome!
Posted in Hindi movies |
2 Comments »
April 2, 2008
The man above is the reason I watched The Last Legion. I adore him. Almost as much as I love Shammi. I didn’t expect much from the movie itself, and was not pleasantly surprised. Colin Firth injected some badly needed tongue-in-cheek humor, and was his usual eye-candy self; the film, I am sad to say, was predictable, melodramatic, cliched and really, really bad. But it had one—no two!—things besides Colin’s presence that I enjoyed, including—Aishwarya! She totally kicked ass.
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Posted in Everything else |
12 Comments »
March 30, 2008
Smetana’s opera “The Bartered Bride” would make a spectacular Hindi movie! Just look at the plot. It’s perfect!
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Posted in Hindi movies |
5 Comments »
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