Bollywood

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

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

Nadiya Ke Paar

A few days ago, while surfing the channels on my television, I suddenly stopped because one of the channels was telecasting the Hindi  movie of the past years. It was called as “Nadiya Ke Paar” which in English means “On the other side of the river”. The movie was a huge hit in its time. Its scoring point was simple and honest plot set in the rural area of Bihar. The movie transported me to the good old days when we lived in the village in Punjab. There might be difference in the language, features of inhabitants but overall conditions… Read More »Nadiya Ke Paar

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?

Ethereal Whistling

When we were growing up, whistling was considered a bad habit. Many of the boys dared to attract the attention of young girls by whistling and invariably landed in trouble. But in many songs whistling has been so sweet that everyone likes to try it or at least enjoys it. Who can forget the whistling by Aamir Khan in the song  “Chaand Sifarish” from the Bollywood movie “Fannaa”. It totally dominates the whole song. In fact, the music director duo of this film Jatin-Lalit complemented the man who actually did the whistling and not without reason. In fact it is… Read More »Ethereal Whistling

The Movie Paa and Real Life Similarities

Movie Paa in which Amitabh Bachchan played the character of a person who is suffering from the disease progeria in which the brain of a person develops normally but the body refuses to grow. The diseases can attack a person in the childhood itself. Because of this, a seventy year person looks like a child. The movie itself was inspired from the Hollywood flick “The curious case of Benjamin Button” in which the role was played brilliantly by Brad Pitt. The went on to win Oscar in 2008 for art direction, makeup and visual effects. Pitt played a 50 years… Read More »The Movie Paa and Real Life Similarities

Bishnois: The First Environmentalists of India

Bishnois are a community living in Rajasthan of India. They live in complete harmony with nature. In the old times, the womenfolk sacrificed their lives protecting the hacking of trees. Bishnoi means twenty nine: Bees meaning twenty and nao meaning nine. They live their lives according to the 29 principles. All these principles are to live in perfect harmony with nature. They protect plants, trees and animals. They get everything for sustenance from mother nature taking only that much what is required.  Bishnois consider it their ‘Dharma’ to save lives of animals and trees. Many animals like peacocks and antlers… Read More »Bishnois: The First Environmentalists of India

Not So Khamosh

“Khamosh” , meaning keep your mouth shut, is a signature dialogue spoken by the ace villain, anti-hero and good man actor Shatrughan Sinha of Bollywood movies. This is about his 1976 film in which he played a fearless cop Prabhakar and his look-alike, the ferocious Kalicharan. The movie directed by Subhash Ghai became an instant success. It not only gave Hindi cinema the famous item number “Jaa Re Jaa O Harjai” , but also created one of the biggest bad men of Bollywood, Lion or as he pronounced his name as “Loin”. We are talking about actors Ajit. Following picture,… Read More »Not So Khamosh

Sepia Memories from Bollywood

Mumbai Mirror, a very popular news paper from Times of India Group, is bringing on every Wednesday a photo article on the rare sepia colored photos which had been shot by the ace lens man Jagdish Aurangabadkar on different occasions. These photos bring out the different moods, personalities and the clothing style made popular by the stars or became their trademark. Besides each photograph, is the analyses of various personalities seen in the picture. The analyses seem to be very penetrating and the person doing has a very keen eye for the details. Here are some examples. Cricket and Gentlemen.… Read More »Sepia Memories from Bollywood

Anand Bakshi: Master of Simplicity

One lyricist dominated the Hindi films scene as no one has done before and after till yet. His name was Anand Bakshi. From seventies to the end of 2nd millennium, he penned innumerable songs for Hindi films. So many of his songs were instant hits. The secret lies, I think, in simple words and day to day human chat which touched the chords in simple folks. Many songs were describing the simple dialogues between two lovers on the trivial things like color of bangles and clothes. It may be due to the fact that he was a Punjabi and simplicity… Read More »Anand Bakshi: Master of Simplicity