Hasrat Jaipuri‘s playful lyrics for Woh Chand Khila Woh Taare Hanse are an enduring legacy of the 1959 Hindi film Anari, this in addition to the classic nature of the movie and the star power of Nutan and Raj Kapoor. Lata Mangeshkar‘s bright singing, supported by a single line from Mukesh really bring Shankar-Jaikishan‘s classic…
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The reason the Indian film industry, as a collection of all its many regional language industries, has been the most prolific producer of cinema for a large chunk of film history, is because it is a very deep creature. There are the popular blockbuster films staring big-name stars and top-flight talent, but the vast majority…
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By the time the 1959 film Anari came along, Raj Kapoor was a well established presence in the Hindi film world, as was his his slightly-awkward and naive Chaplinesque on-screen persona, made famous by such films as Awaara (1951). So perhaps in some ways he was playing to type in this mix of romance and…
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As a director, Manmohan Desai will always be known as the one who took the Hindi masala movie to its pinnacle from the 1960s to the early 1980s. He had a dream run of mostly successful films, all depending on a cornucopia of drama, a focus on mass entertainment above all other considerations, and a…
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Songs stick in our memory and become important to us for various reasons, often coloured by our associations with them, rather than the songs themselves. In my case, there are a whole range of old Hindi songs that have childhood memories for me, to do with when I first heard them or how. Ajeeb dastan…
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Chhoti Si Baat is one of my favourite romantic comedies, if not one of my favourite films of any kind in any language. So, it is inevitable that the songs of the film also hold a special place in my heart. Na jaane kyun hota hai yeh zindagi ke saath, the closest thing the film…
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