My love for old Hindi film songs is familiar to all those who have read my previous posts. And those who are familiar with my writing know that lyrics play a very important part in that liking. While the melody might initially draw me in, it is always the emotions that the words express that appeal to me, and make the song worth listening to, repeatedly. In the past, I have written about other wordsmiths - Sahir, Shailendra, Majrooh, Hasrat... today, on his 54th death anniversary, I pay my tributes to one of the finest romantic poets who worked in Hindi cinema.
Conversations Over Chai
Come in, sit down, converse...
20 April 2024
The Masters: Shakeel Badayuni
My love for old Hindi film songs is familiar to all those who have read my previous posts. And those who are familiar with my writing know that lyrics play a very important part in that liking. While the melody might initially draw me in, it is always the emotions that the words express that appeal to me, and make the song worth listening to, repeatedly. In the past, I have written about other wordsmiths - Sahir, Shailendra, Majrooh, Hasrat... today, on his 54th death anniversary, I pay my tributes to one of the finest romantic poets who worked in Hindi cinema.
17 April 2024
Char Dil Char Raahein (1959)
After watching Pakeezah and feeling sad at how old Meena Kumari looked and how ill, I wanted to watch a film in which she was neither. I’d been sitting on subtitling Char Dil Char Rahen for Tom for over a year now. Tom was remarkably patient, and when I finally completed the subbing, I decided I might as well review it. After all, apart from Meena, it had Nimmi, Raj Kapoor, Ajit, Kumkum and… Shammi Kapoor! Char Dil Char Raahen is an interesting film. Like many films of that period, it does have a socialist messaging, but nation-building was popular then and film-makers who believed in it were not loath to tell stories that advanced their ideology. What makes this film interesting is that it was one of the few films in the Hindi cinema of the time to weave parallel narratives that converged into one.
07 April 2024
The Teller of Middle-Class Tales
Films have always been defined by the periods in which they were made. Though, initially, films borrowed from stage plays and were, therefore, adaptations of literary works, or told us stories from religious texts or mythology, filmmakers and storytellers soon began to understand the reach of this new medium. Film-makers with a social consciousness began to make movies based on societal ills, harnessing the power of the medium to take their point of view across to audiences. With the birth of a new nation, stories began to express the aspirations of a populace long accustomed to being second-class citizens in their own country, and the hopes and dreams of a young nation as it set forth to become the master of its own destiny. This continued through the 50s.
31 March 2024
Pakeezah (1972)
Directed by Kamal
Amrohi Music: Ghulam Mohammed, Naushad Lyrics: Kamal Amrohi, Kaifi Azmi, Majrooh Sultanpuri, Kaif Bhopali Starring: Meena Kumari, Ashok Kumar, Raj Kumar, Veena, Nadira, Sapru |
Pic courtesy: Filmfare |
So, Pakeezah it is.
25 March 2024
The Divas: Nanda
08.01.1939-25.03.2014 |
Truthfully, I have never been a great fan of Nanda’s. Perhaps it’s because I first saw her in regressive weepfests like Bhabhi and Chhoti Bahen – where she was saccharine sweet – or in regressive melodramas like Jab Jab Phool Khile, where her western avatar did her no great favours. However, now that I am older and have been exposed to more of her work, I have begun to have a sneaking liking for her vulnerable sweetness.
14 March 2024
Forgotten Composers: SN Tripathi
14.03.1913-28.03.1988 |
For every 'great' music director, there are those who were no less talented but whose circumstances did not allow them to rise to the heights their more successful contemporaries did. Yet, their music lives on after them.
I begin this section with Shri Nath Tripathi – or SN Tripathi, as he was popularly known. Except for music aficionados, few people remember the composer even though the songs he composed continue to be popular. But SN Tripathi was not just a composer; he was a musician, a music director, a singer, an actor, a writer and a director. For a man who wore so many hats, and quite successfully at that, his name still does not figure among the pantheon of the greats. Perhaps it was because much of his work was for the looked-down-upon genres of mythologicals and historicals that he was never considered ‘top-rung’? The question is moot but SN Tripathi’s melodies elevated the films he composed for, and several have overcome changing times and tastes.
07 March 2024
My Favourites: Songs by Ravi
It is strange that when you think of the names of the great composers of the golden period, music director Ravi Shankar Sharma (who went by the mononym Ravi) is not one that comes readily to mind. However, Ravi had a very successful career both in Bombay and in Kerala, where he came to be known as ‘Bombay Ravi’.
19 July 2023
Nora Inu (1949)
I have been away from my blog for far too long. My sincere apologies to my readers, several of whom have sent me private messages asking me why. Since circumstances are still not conducive to my writing or posting, my husband has generously stepped into the breach to keep the blog running. This is his review of one of his favourite Kurosawa films.
05 March 2023
Kishore Kumar's Comic Songs
28 February 2023
My Favourites: Comic Songs
I have not always been a fan of ‘comedy’ in old Hindi films. They are usually stereotypical, loud, and at least to me, not at all funny. Even the songs that are picturised on these comic side plots are sometimes more irritating than comic. [Especially if they featured Mehmood.] Except, of course, for Johnny Walker, whose songs were as iconic as him. But if you look closely at Johnny Walker's songs, not all of them are ‘funny’ except for the fact that one just has to see him on screen to smile. Many of them were rather philosophical musings, albeit in a funny way – Sar jo tera chakraaye, for example, or even the satirical Ae dil hai mushkil.