Posts tagged ‘Wadia Brothers’

January 26, 2010

Zabak (1961)

There’s nothing finer on a wintry and cheerless day than a Wadia Brothers Arabian Nights tale brought to you in Glorious Gevacolor! I am pretty sure that an early Nadia stunt film would be equally fine, but until they become readily available these are just the ticket. Standard features include feisty beautiful women (and dancing girls) in harem outfits, a swashbuckling hero (and in this one Mahipal is not even girly), kings with evil commanders named Something Beg, scores of caped extras, an intrepid animal companion or two (Zabak‘s is a white horse who doubles as the Comic Side Plot!), lovely songs (by Chitragupta here)—and always, absolutely always, every frame is filled with stuff that I would kill to get my sparkle-loving hands on.

Zabak is no exception to my Wadia Brothers Cardinal Rule (which is that the Wadia Brothers…well, RULE).

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November 24, 2008

A theme song for the memsaab!

reporter_raju

I have tripped and fallen over a theme song of my very own! There are two reasons, no three many reasons why I cannot resist it:

  1. The lyrics “Lo Memsaab Salaam, Salaam Memsaab Salaam”
  2. Rafi sings it, and I love him; plus, he yodels!*
  3. It’s from Reporter Raju which was made in 1962 (so it’s *almost* as old as I am)
  4. The film is a Wadia Brothers production, and I love the Wadias
  5. Even though Shammi isn’t in it, Feroz Khan does his level best to channel Shammi; and I can close my eyes and pretend it’s Shammi, since it is a very Shammi-like song (Shammi Shammi Shammi!)
  6. It’s lively and fabulous (is there an Indian instrument that sounds like an accordion, or is it an actual accordion? either way, too much fun)
  7. It’s short, like my attention span!

Here it is: “O Chale Ho Kahan Kaho” from Reporter Raju, sung by Rafi, music by S.S. Mohinder:

*Edited to add: My very reliable and informed friend Sunny has informed me that Kishore actually does the yodeling here for Rafi, which makes no material difference to it remaining my theme song, but good to know!

*Edited again to add more: Now more people are on board the it’s-Rafi-yodeling boat, see comments if you are interested! It’s still my theme song, no matter who yodels, even if it’s a Swiss farmer who was imported just for the task.

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