Bollywood

Magic of Sholay

Sholay is a cult movie in India. After a slow start, it went on to break many records and created many milestones in the history of Bollywood. Many events happened on the personal levels with some of the actors. People still remember its dialogues. Many buffs have seen the movie umpteen number of times. Mumbai Mirror carries one such story every Wednesday in its cinema section. Shyam Aurangabadkar, ace lens man took beautiful and unforgettable pictures and the article is published under the title “Sepia Memories” In this photograph captured by ace lensman Shyam Aurangabadkar, almost the entire stellar cast of… Read More »Magic of Sholay

Dhak Dhak Song

Ever since Madhuri Dixit returned to India she is trying very hard to enter the Indian film industry. She is sitting as one of the judges in the dance show on television channels where her songs are extolled by the dancers. Also doing a couple of advertisement endorsing the toothpaste that remove all the tooth troubles and shines our teeth. She has appeared in item songs against Ranbir Kapoor and worked in the Dedh Isquiya against Naseerudin Shah. But she is still to hit the limelight. One of the negative factors is her advancing age and availability of fresh faces… Read More »Dhak Dhak Song

The Real Anthony Gonsalves

Amar Akbar Anthony the hit bollywood movie in the 1977 had a song “My name is Anthony Gonsalves” in which the character Anthony Gonsalves played by Amitabh Bachchan comes out of an Easter Egg. “Anthony Gonsalves…passes away….talented musician with LP and on his name my character name for Anthony was put..prayers,” the 69-year-old superstar posted on Twitter. Legendary music composer Anthony Gonsalves died at a hospital after a bout of pneumonia, family sources said today. The end came last night at the Goa Medical College and Hospital, where he was admitted and undergoing treatment. He was 84 then. Gonsalves became… Read More »The Real Anthony Gonsalves

A whiff of Freshness: Poetry of Irshad Kamil

I am sure many young people may not be knowing his name but be humming the songs written by him. The young writer hails from Malerkotla, Sangrur, Punjab. His name is Irshad Kamil. He has breathed a freshness in the Bollywood film songs. It is just a beginning. I am sure, he shall blaze a trail in this field. Man of many gifts, he has dabbled in various professions like a reporter for newspapers in Chandigarh. He wrote scripts of many serials for television. Some of the films he had written the songs for are Jab We Met, Rockstar, Ajab… Read More »A whiff of Freshness: Poetry of Irshad Kamil

Soaps on Indian TV Channels

There is a galore of soap operas on Indian TV channels. Prime time is hogged by women dominated serials and so called reality shows. The women shows are of Saas Bahu variety. The reality shows are dance and singing competitions. The concerned families in the women operas are extraordinary kind and generally dominated by a matriarch who seems to run a kingdom according to laws which are extra constitutional. Their writ run large in the home as well as the village they live in. In fact, the whole village is under their mercy day and night. At home, they have… Read More »Soaps on Indian TV Channels

Ek Chaddar Maili See

Rajinder Singh Bedi was a big name in Indian Film industry. He belonged to the period when films were dominated by Urdu.  North Indians  were at the helm of Hindustani film industry. Almost all the heroes were from North and heroines from South and Bengal. Story dialogues were loaded with Persian words. I bet if most of Indians except from North India followed any of the dialogues. Even these days the humor shows make fun of those dialogues by trivializing them for simple and cheap babbling. They are not at fault either because those were the times when communication was… Read More »Ek Chaddar Maili See

What is in a name?

“What is in the name, a rose smells as sweet by any other name” said the most famous bard Shakespeare. In Bollywood, if a movie becomes hit then the character name of the star is repeated in many of his upcoming films because it is thought to be lucky. Thus superstar Amitabh’s character has been called “Vijay” in as many as 19 movies. We had a boy who was attendant in our office whose real name was also “Vijay”. I asked him his name and when he told “Vijay”, I jokingly said that this is the name Amitabh has in… Read More »What is in a name?

Zul Vellani

A few days back, I was searching for clips of movie Siddhartha on the youtube. I found a few. The movie was directed by Conrad Rooks and the river features prominently in the story. The river is the best teacher tells the movie at many places. We should look towards it for peace of mind because it lives in the present. Today is everything because yesterday is gone now and tomorrow is unpredictable. The movie seems like sketches made by an artist with the boat being rowed by the characters on the river. It is like celluloid poetry. In one… Read More »Zul Vellani

Sasural Genda Phool

Sasural Genda Phool is a very popular song from the movie Delhi-6. Actually the song is adapted on the Dadaria folk of Chhatisgarh state of India.  While rest of  the songs of the film has been written by Prasoon Joshi, Rehman and actor Raghuvir Yadav searched for the folk song for the movie in addition to the other songs. Rajat Dholakia is credited along with A.R. Rehman for introducing the song in Hindi movie. Raghuvir Yadav belongs to that area and must have been familiar with the folk songs of the area. The origin of the song has been traced… Read More »Sasural Genda Phool

Life in Mega Cities through Movies

I am not a film buff. I am not able to watch a movie from the beginning to the end. May be some friend recommends a particular film or it may be good movie is the reason why I watch them sometimes.  There is almost no social life as we are new to this place and I am also not inclined. Watched three movies in 3 days: Delhi Belly, Dhobi Ghat and Slumdog millionaire. Each one entirely different from another. Delhi Belly Delhi Belly captured the life of three friends in Delhi.  The term “Delhi Belly” is used to mean… Read More »Life in Mega Cities through Movies