Let’s make Pride and Prejudice in Hindi!

It all started when my sister and I were watching Biswajit and Rajshree cavorting in Do Dil (1965). They both played such vanilla-smelling dumb sweet and simple characters, with nary a bright spot between them, that I couldn’t help but compare them to Mr. Bingley and Jane Bennett (if you haven’t read Pride and Prejudice yet, what are you waiting for?). Once Jane and Bingley were cast, it was absolutely essential that we cast the rest of the leads too! Naturally, that meant we had to pause the film while we debated the relative merits and demerits of our choices. Here’s how it went…

 

Sis: But who will be Darcy? Dharamendra is the best romantic leading man in the 60s, but he wouldn’t do arrogance very well. And he was kind of thin in '65.

 

Me (hesitantly): Rajendra Kumar?

 

Sis (dubiously): Yeah. Maybe. Who else? If it were the 50s, Ashok Kumar would be the best. He was so charismatic and such a good actor. But Dadamani was too old for Darcy in the 60s.

Dev Anand: A musical interview (Part 2)

Updated (links): 17 June 2022

Interviewing Dev Saab is not an easy task! Once part 1 of the interview was done, I was certain that part 2 would only take me a couple of hours. I hadn’t, of course, taken into account one thing – every time I tried asking him a question, he’d just belt out one of his intoxicatingly romantic numbers, and I would be umm… distracted.

Sach kehta hun bohut haseen ho – Jaali Note (1960)

It took a herculean effort in exercising my will power to continue our chat on a normal plane. That is why this part has taken so long to come to you…

Dev Anand: A musical interview (Part 1)

Updated (links): 18 June 2022

I was shocked when I read about Dev Anand’s death. He may have been the superstar of my parents’ generation, but he certainly looked like he would outlive me! If I’d ever thought about it, I’d have said that he’d go on making movies forever. Over the years, he’s spent so much time in my living room, bringing so much fun and entertainment with him, that it is impossible not to feel a bit sad that he is no more. I am only "a bit" sad because the Dev Anand I knew is forever young, handsome, and always there in his lovely films. (I refuse to even admit the existence of his post-1960s career!)

Of course, his sad demise reminded me that it was high time I paid him a visit in the 1960s. While I was there, I took the opportunity to quiz him about his great romances with women and wine.

My ten favourite Geeta Dutt songs

Updated (links): 26 Nov 2022

Yaad karoge yaad karoge, ek din humko yaad karoge (you will remember, one day you will remember me). I wonder if Geeta Dutt ever realised how prophetic these words from her first big hit album (Do Bhai, 1947) would prove to be. She’s left such a wealth of lovely songs, sung in that rich, fluid, and incredibly beautiful voice of hers, that it is hard not to remember her, every time you think of songs of yore. She started her playback career at the age of sixteen when she sang two lines in a song for the movie Bhakta Prahlad (1946). Success came just a year later, with Mera sundar sapna beet gaya (Do Bhai, 1947). The rest, as they say, is history. Geeta Dutt was soon one of Hindi film’s leading singers, and ruled the Hindi song-waves through the 40s and 50s. She lent her lovely voice to an incredibly wide range of songs and sang everything from ballads to bhajans, club songs to ghazals, sad songs to frothy, fun numbers…

Of monsoons and things filmi…

Have you been wondering whether this blog can be listed as abandoned property? Wonder no more. OiG is still very much alive and well. I’ve just been busy trying to move clouds and have had no time for film-watching or blog visits.

 

It’s a tie

I haven’t been in much of a film-watching mood, what with all the TV series I needed to catch up on. But today, watching Maha Badmash, one thing caught my interest and made me want to watch more films, if only for academic research. No, it was NOT Vinod Khanna’s famous swimming trunks (and the figure that went with it). It was his stupendous bow tie that intrigued me. Clearly, for a Bollywood hero, a tie is not just a tie but a statement of machismo and size does seem to matter in these things! Here, take a look at it. Can you honestly say that this piece of cloth would not draw your attention?

The haunting: my 10 favourite ghost songs

Updated (links): 26 Nov 2022

There is nothing like a good ghost song to brighten up a warm and sunny day (or a cold and sunny day, as it often is in Calgary). What would you like - a real live ghost? A funny pretend ghost? A real person mistaken for a ghost? Would you like him/her to be evil or benign? No matter what your choice, Bollywood can supply a ghost for every mood. I personally prefer pretend ghosts - of the benign kind - but I am not so picky when it comes to ghostly melodies. Ghosts, it turns out, know their melodies and how to haunt hauntingly. They’ve sung some of my favourite filmi songs. So without further ado, here are ten of my favourite filmi ghosts singing their haunting melodies (or "hunting melodies" as one of my audio cassettes called them!):

Nashe main hum – my favourite drink buddies

The holiday season is upon us - the season of goodwill, the season of Christmas parties, and the season of sub-arctic weather here in Canada. Time for the daaru to begin flowing freely. Naturally, being a good Bhartiya naari, I never touch daaru, but in the right company, I don’t mind drinking it! And the right company can only be other good Bhartiya naaris like me. In other words, they must be good girls because I think that wicked women are just too blasé about everything to enjoy their vices like a good girl can. Considering how many great Bhartiya Naaris Bollywood churns out every year, Hindi films are the best place to find good girls for a pub crawl. But will the good girls agree to imbibe alcohol? Amazingly enough, I found TEN potential drink buddies…

Sense and Sensuality: advice from THE Diva (part I)

Readers we have such a treat for you during Rekhatober! The reclusive star has graciously agreed to do a question and answer column during this month-long blog-wide celebration of her awesomeness. You may not know, but Rekha-ji has been instrumental in guiding several of her younger colleagues and has often given great advice to her co-stars. Here are some examples (check out Beth Loves Bollywood for part II):

Crimes against gender: confessions of a Bhartiya Naari

In a perfect world, everybody would realise that a woman is "feminine" no matter what she does, simply because she is female. Since it’s not a perfect world, only a select few (like yours truly and other such intelligent women) recognise the fact. But the lovely Banno has challenged me to confess my crimes against my gender, so I must show some! How do I find out what constitutes a crime against my gender? I must admit that my only yardstick for this comes from old Bollywood films. So let’s see what they say a woman should be like, and what crimes I’ve committed against Bhartiya naari-hood.

The navrasas (9 emotions) of Rafi

(Updated:12 Jun 2022)

When Dustedoff kicked off a Rafi moods fest in blogland, I knew I had to do a Rafi post, too – not just because I love Rafi, but also because there is so much of lovely Rafi around that a post on his songs is possibly the most challenging thing one can attempt! While his most popular songs may be classified as either romantic or sad songs, it isn’t that easy to classify his expressions in them. He was a superb vocal actor and could bring a range of emotions into the limited time (usually about 3 minutes, back then) a song allowed him. From romantic to sensual, angry to soothing, loving to despairing, or outright joy and laughter, there isn’t a single emotion that his wonderfully fluid voice did not express, and express beautifully. Which begs the question – how does one go about classifying the moods and emotions his voice brought to the screen?

Thanks to Wikipedia (where would I be without it?), ancient India came to the rescue. Classical performing arts in India are traditionally made up of the navrasa - 9 rasas or 9 major emotions/expressions. Eight of these rasas were set forth in the Nātyashāstra (a two thousand years old treatise on the performing arts) while a ninth rasa was added about a thousand years ago, giving us the expression – navrasa (9 rasas). Turns out that there are now a total of 11 rasas and ALL of them go into the making of a good Bollywood masala flick! And guess what - Rafi Saab’s voice has given us a song for every emotion. So without much ado I give you the 11 rasas of Rafi.

A beauty pageant for OiG’s second birthday!

Yes, Old is Gold is exactly two years old, today. I’ve had so much fun in blogland that in the last two years, time just flew past! While the first year was the Year of Discovery (of all the great film-lovers and writers), the last year has been the Year of Fun! I’ve had a ball, discussing movies with all of you who stop by here, and at all my favorite blogs. The highlight of last year was getting to know all of you and meeting some of my favorite bloggers in person. Bolly-blogging zindaabad!!!

An occasion like this calls for a celebration of some sort. Cakes and champagne are so passé. No, I want a party, a BIG one, with lots of beautiful people. How about a beauty pageant? That would be fun, and there would be a parade of beautiful people. Its come to OiG’s attention that there are shocking gender inequalities in the eye-candy department. An injustice that we female bloggers have been doing our best to redress. But its not enough! For true gender equality, male beauty MUST be celebrated more openly, and men MUST be given more credit for their unsung contribution to eye-candy. A beauty pageant for beautiful actors - that is the obvious place to start. So lets have a beauty pageant that rewards beauty and brawn, instead of beauty and brains.

Since this is Old is Gold, we will naturally look to actors of yore. And since the 70s had the biggest compliment of hunks, thats where we'll focus our attention. The panel of judges for this competition is ALL OF YOU! I’ve listed the candidates in my order of preference, and the poll in the right sidebar allows you to pick your own Mr. Bollywood! So lets see who is walking the ramp tonight:

The glorious 70s: waiting for Hrishikesh Mukherjee

Hrishida says hi. He is sorry he cant make it in time for today. He's stuck in Bombay for some last minute work on his film, but you're not to worry about getting bored. He is sending his two best singers along - young men who specialise in Hindustani classical. Their jugalbandi has been known to put people in a trance of musical ecstasy, and their singing would put Pandit Jasraj and Bhimsen Joshi to flight. Here they are, now.

The glorious 70s – my masala top ten

Ask people about 70s Hindi Cinema and I bet you’ll get a different reaction from each person. A Rajesh Khanna fan would tell you that its the decade of the “Romance King” who brought more romance to the big screen in one head-twist than most actors do in a whole film. A Bachchan fan would tell you that its the decade of the Angry Young Man - the enigmatic vigilante who kicked everybody’s ass. To a masala lover, its the decade of Manmohan Desai’s cracktastic masala, the decade of Salim-Javed, and the glorious masala classic Sholay.

To me, the 70s stand out as the decade of infinite variety. From small budget romantic comedies and sweet little films about middle class people, to art-house fare and its exact opposite - the masala potboilers – the 70s had a movie for every mood and every taste. If Manmohan Desai came into his own in the 70s, so did directors like Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Gulzar, Basu Chatterji and Shyam Benegal. It was my intention to concentrate on the films of the last four, since masala will be amply represented elsewhere in blogland this week. But I really cant NOT write about all the masala goodness in this decade! Considering how much masala-madness the 70s encompassed, one blog post cant really do justice to it. Such a complex subject clearly calls for a list – a top ten list of masala movies from the 70s. Simple? Not really! How does one pick and choose just 10 from that sea of masala greatness? The only way is to pick out the first ten, fun masala films that come to mind. And here are the first ten that I remembered:

My New Year resolutions

I am not usually inclined to make resolutions, but always make an exception for New Year’s day. Its a day that comes around only once a year and one must do something to make it special. So, while I sipped my Tequila Sour and tried to tune out the loud Spanish music in the restaurant, I resolved to do certain things this year:

1. Sing at least one Rafi and one Asha Bhosle song per day, even though my neighbours complain of noise pollution and the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Golden Oldies bays for my blood.

2. Include more bell-bottoms, loud prints and big-sunglasses in my wardrobe (I already did that, but then Govinda stole my wardrobe. So now, I have to start all over again!).

Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998) – help me complete the story!

Yes, you did read correctly. I’ve seen this movie thrice and realised that each time I’ve been fobbed off with an incomplete tale. The missing part has been bothering me for the last 10 years and I’ve finally decided to do something about it. If Karan Johar wont tell it to the world, I WILL! Before we go any further, though, I should warn you about spoilers. If you are the one person in the world who hasnt yet seen the film (and dont want it to be spoiled for you), now is the time to stop reading. Also:

**********Very long post Alert! Poll Ahead.**********

A quick recap of the story before I point out the missing bits: Rahul (Shahrukh Khan) and Anjali (Kajol) are best friends in college when a new girl in their class, Tina (Rani Mukherjee), upsets the cosmic balance. Tina is everything that Anjali is not – she is feminine while Anjali is tomboyish, she is cute and sexy while Anjali is “one of the guys”. Even more important for Rahul, she never even tries to beat him at basketball, something that Anjali does with ease. It doesnt take Rahul long to fall for Tina. Poor clueless Anjali - it takes Rahul’s practise proposal (yes the jerk actually practices on Anjali for his proposal to Tina!) for her to realise how much she loves Rahul. Too late! Rahul and Tina decide to get married. A heartbroken Anjali leaves college and Rahul-Tina’s lives.

My ten favorite Kishore Kumar songs

Kishore Kumar, the singer, is more often identified with the 70s and 80s when he ruled supreme in Hindi film music. Most of us, myself included, tend to forget that he was singing much before that and had tons of great songs in the 50s and 60s. It was Dustedoff’s awesome post on SD Burman songs that reminded me of how many lovely songs Kishore Kumar sang under SD’s direction in the B/W era. And it wasnt just SD Burman, Kishore sang for a lot of other music directors too, and also composed some beautiful music of his own. As I mused on my favorite Kishore numbers, I couldnt resist drawing up a list of them.

Weeding out only 10 from his vast array of songs was a long and hard process. To begin with, I decided to stick to his songs from 50s and 60s B/W films - decades that tend to have more of my favorite songs and also where I like Kishore da’s voice better. That still left a few hundred songs! Enter condition number two - they couldnt be the wacky numbers full of verbal acrobatics that he was famous for. So, romantic, pensive, serious, sad and philosophical songs were called for. When even that didnt help, I had to add a further condition – they had to be the first 10 songs I could recall and which fit the limits I had set myself. Voila! I had myself a list, and here it is, in no particular order (also in a youtube playlist):

Double-trouble or twice as nice? My favorite Bollywood-double roles

Writers elsewhere have noted that the double role not only allows the audience to have twice as much of their favorite star in one film, it also saves the producer money by getting one actor to play two characters for the price of one! As far as I am concerned though, double roles usually mean double the fun and/or double the style. Since double roles come in all flavors and shapes, I have arranged my favorite double roles according to the specific genres they fall into. And here they are for your reading pleasure.

Scariest subtitle ever?

Geez. How did the cops find out? Somebody’s been ratting on me! Wonder who that is… not that its going to stop me from watching more films (and posting about them)!

Movieland’s medical miracles

The marvels of modern medicine need to be seen to be believed. But to a seasoned Bollyviewer (as yours truly is) these miracles hold no surprises. Hasnt Bollywood already shown that to cure any affliction be it mental or physical, or a terminal disease, we need only modern medicine? In movieland we need no gods, no saints and certainly no magic powers to make us healthy and wise. As Oscar Wilde says, Science is always making wonderful improvements in things and one never knows what may happen next. Bollywood film-makers have always known this, and exploited the full potential of science in ways that we mere muggles can never quite equal.