The 1981 film Kaalia was a big commercial success. It cemented the status of Amitabh Bachchan as a popular star, and his increasing identification as the ‘angry young man’ of Hindi cinema with a stream of similar roles. Director Tinu Anand‘s first outing with the star, but not his last, would include many popular songs…
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Aye Kaash Ke Hum
In Hindi cinema, the early 90s had a lot of staple giants in the field, and many of the names that would go on to become major forces in Hindi films and music in the following two decades, started off in this era. The 1994 film Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa was an important juncture for…
Read MoreGum Hai Kisi Ke Pyar Mein
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…
Read MoreAjeeb Dastan Hai Yeh
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…
Read MoreAise To Na Dekho
The girl at the window or the balcony is a classic romantic trope, probably tracing back to ancient theatre, lost in the mists of time. In Hindi cinema, with the majority of the audience living in an increasingly crowded urban environment, that quickly turned into lovers at windows in adjacent houses or apartments, forever separated…
Read MoreTum Saath Ho Jab Apne
By the end of the 70s, Amitabh Bachchan was the undisputed king of Hindi cinema and he had settled into a comfortable niche of angry action hero and romantic rogue that worked out quite well for him with almost every outing. Kaalia, released in 1981, was another in this line of Amitabh starers, along with…
Read MorePehla Nasha
When Pehla nasha, from Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar, first played on screens large and small in 1992, and Aamir Khan appeared in a loud red shirt and flung his sweater into the picturesque landscape behind him, in slow motion, you knew something had changed and that something new was beginning. Pehla nasha went on to…
Read MoreEk Ladki Bheegi Bhaagi Si
Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi is the first Hindi film I remember seeing in its entirety. I’m sure there were others before then, but this one made an impact as a film, something separate and different from all that other stuff on TV. That effect was in no small part because of the songs. As an…
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