Kanoon (1960)

June 13, 2010, 10:45 pm

≫ Next: Ten of my favourite Hemant songs

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9 years before he made the superb suspense thriller Ittefaq, B R Chopra produced and directed this film. It too starred Nanda (though not in as pivotal a role as in Ittefaq). It too didn’t have a single song—though it did have a ballet performance. And, like Ittefaq, it hinged on a murder. But Kanoon [...]

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Ten of my favourite Hemant songs

June 15, 2010, 11:05 pm

≫ Next: Ek Thi Ladki (1949)

≪ Previous: Kanoon (1960)

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My maternal grandfather used to work in the Gramophone Company of India. Mummy grew up in a house full of LPs, and a lot of those—including dozens of albums from Hindi films of the 50’s and 60’s—ended up in our house. I grew up listening to music; but for a long time, I couldn’t tell [...]

Ek Thi Ladki (1949)

June 21, 2010, 11:55 pm

≫ Next: The Naked Jungle (1954)

≪ Previous: Ten of my favourite Hemant songs

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Harvey’s recent post on Mr Sampat sparked off a brief discussion on one of Hindi cinema’s finest character actors, Motilal. Since Motilal was known—at least in the 50’s and 60’s—as a character actor, it seemed appropriate to review a film in which he’s the hero. Not that Ek Thi Ladki (‘There was a girl’) really [...]

The Naked Jungle (1954)

June 25, 2010, 8:35 pm

≫ Next: Akashdeep (1965)

≪ Previous: Ek Thi Ladki (1949)

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One person who’s figured very consistently on my blog statistics for the past year is the gorgeous Eleanor Parker. Any day, all I need to do is click my blog stats link, and I’ll see that among the top hits for my blog is ‘eleanor parker’ or ‘eleanor parker actress’. So, considering it’s her 88th [...]

Akashdeep (1965)

June 30, 2010, 9:49 pm

≫ Next: I Soliti Ignoti (1958)

≪ Previous: The Naked Jungle (1954)

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Once upon a time, there was a writer. No: it wasn’t Dharmendra, and it certainly wasn’t Nanda (old Hindi cinema, at least, doesn’t seem to believe women capable of writing anything more complex than a love letter, if that). This writer was someone quite different, and one day (I’m guessing) decided that it was time [...]

I Soliti Ignoti (1958)

July 7, 2010, 9:40 am

≫ Next: Bhai Bahen (1959)

≪ Previous: Akashdeep (1965)

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When I think of I Soliti Ignoti (literally, The Usual Unknown Thieves, though the English title of the film is Big Deal on Madonna Street), this is one of the scenes that comes to mind: one evening, a pawnshop is about to close for the day. A thief’s decided to hold up the pawnshop and [...]

Bhai Bahen (1959)

July 12, 2010, 11:49 pm

≫ Next: Pillow Talk (1959)

≪ Previous: I Soliti Ignoti (1958)

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My sister and I were discussing, with much fondness, my father’s love for classic Hindi cinema. When my parents bought a DVD player, I offered to look out for old films that I could buy for them. “Any particular favourites you’d like me to buy you?” I asked. Papa’s list included Sangdil, Daag, Anari, Ratan, [...]

Pillow Talk (1959)

July 17, 2010, 11:56 am

≫ Next: Shahjehan (1946)

≪ Previous: Bhai Bahen (1959)

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Doris Day, Rock Hudson and Tony Randall acted together in three films: Pillow Talk, Lover Come Back, and Send Me No Flowers. Since I’d already reviewed the other two, I decided it was time to complete the trio with a re-view and a review of Pillow Talk, the first of the Day-Hudson-Randall films. New York [...]

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Shahjehan (1946)

July 21, 2010, 9:45 am

≫ Next: Ten of my favourite Mukesh songs

≪ Previous: Pillow Talk (1959)

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After a longish hiatus, I’ve begun working on my next novel. Like my first book, The Englishman’s Cameo, this one too features the Mughal detective Muzaffar Jang, and is set during the final years of Shahjahan’s reign. I’ve been doing other bits of writing—very little of it related to history—and decided I needed something to [...]

Ten of my favourite Mukesh songs

July 23, 2010, 1:57 am

≫ Next: Jaagte Raho (1956)

≪ Previous: Shahjehan (1946)

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Of all the male singers who ruled the 50’s and 60’s, the one I’ve usually tended to ignore is Mukesh—and for what I must admit is a somewhat prejudiced reason: the most recognisable Mukesh songs, at least for me, are the ones he sang for Raj Kapoor, and nearly all of them just don’t appeal [...]

Jaagte Raho (1956)

July 29, 2010, 4:32 am

≫ Next: In the Good Old Summertime (1949)

≪ Previous: Ten of my favourite Mukesh songs

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As I’d mentioned in my last post, I’m not much of a Raj Kapoor fan. I have seen most of his films, but I like very few of them. Jaagte Raho, a flop when it was first released (even though it won an award at Karlovy Vary) is one of the exceptions: an RK film [...]

In the Good Old Summertime (1949)

August 2, 2010, 6:10 am

≫ Next: The Shop Around the Corner (1940)

≪ Previous: Jaagte Raho (1956)

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Like Love Affair/An Affair to Remember, In the Good Old Summertime is also one of those romances that’s proved very popular across time and space. This is a cheery little love story, of a man and a woman who begin corresponding with each other, fall in love through their correspondence (all without even knowing the [...]

The Shop Around the Corner (1940)

August 5, 2010, 6:57 am

≫ Next: Shaheed (1965)

≪ Previous: In the Good Old Summertime (1949)

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What is it that tempts film-makers to say “Ah! Let’s do a remake of this one!”? A conviction that a script that’s worked once will work again? Also perhaps a somewhat egoistic belief that they will be able to make a better adaptation than whoever made the original film? This story, a classic Ernest Lubitsch [...]

Shaheed (1965)

August 10, 2010, 5:01 am

≫ Next: Ek Sapera Ek Lutera (1965)

≪ Previous: The Shop Around the Corner (1940)

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One thing that has long puzzled me is Bollywood’s reluctance to do real life stories. Where Hollywood has created films on the lives of people ranging from Napoleon’s one-time fiancée to an obscure British missionary in China, we have, to show for years of fascinating history… Shahjehan and Changez Khan, both so badly warped that [...]

Ek Sapera Ek Lutera (1965)

August 12, 2010, 2:49 am

≫ Next: Ten of my favourite patriotic filmi songs

≪ Previous: Shaheed (1965)

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And besides that ‘one snake charmer, one bandit’ (and not a single snake, mind you)—there’s also one pretty lady, a nasty patricidal king, a ghost (who appears for all of one very short scene) and a trio of comic courtiers who go bananas trying to differentiate between their crown prince and an impostor. There’s also, [...]

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Ten of my favourite patriotic filmi songs

August 14, 2010, 10:42 pm

≫ Next: The Dawn Patrol (1938)

≪ Previous: Ek Sapera Ek Lutera (1965)

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I am very proud to be Indian, but I guess in a way that wouldn’t make me terribly popular with some people. I do not agree, for instance, that everything about India is top class, or that everything about the countries we have political, social, economic or other differences with is necessarily evil through and [...]

The Dawn Patrol (1938)

August 23, 2010, 12:13 am

≫ Next: The Seahawk (1940)

≪ Previous: Ten of my favourite patriotic filmi songs

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Strangely—considering that Errol Flynn is best known for his swashbuckling roles—the film I most vividly remember of his is this one, an unusual war film. I first watched it years ago as a teenager, and ever since—in spite of having notched up The Prince and the Pauper, Captain Blood, The Adventures of Robin Hood and [...]

The Seahawk (1940)

August 27, 2010, 12:03 am

≫ Next: Gyaarah Hazaar Ladkiyaan (1962)

≪ Previous: The Dawn Patrol (1938)

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Another offering for Flynn Week. It was said, at one time, that if Bette Davis was the queen of Warner Brothers, Errol Flynn was the king. And a king, too, with a lineage that was astounding, to say the least. The Tasmanian-born Flynn spent a few years as a young man in Papua New Guinea [...]

Gyaarah Hazaar Ladkiyaan (1962)

August 31, 2010, 8:05 pm

≫ Next: Classic Bollywood: Ten Unforgettable Scenes

≪ Previous: The Seahawk (1940)

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What is a writer without readers? What is a blogger without people who stop by to read, comment, suggest, recommend, and encourage? So, in gratitude to everybody who’s been visiting this blog over the months: this month on Dusted Off is dedicated to you. All through September 2010, the posts here will be connected in [...]

Classic Bollywood: Ten Unforgettable Scenes

September 4, 2010, 7:18 am

≫ Next: Khozhdenie Za Tri Moray (aka Pardesi) (1957)

≪ Previous: Gyaarah Hazaar Ladkiyaan (1962)

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Some months ago, Bawa—to whom I will always be indebted for inspiring me to watch and review films in languages other than English and Hindi—sent me an interesting article. It listed selected scenes that leading film critics pegged as cinema’s most memorable. Bawa’s suggestion: why not do a list like that for Bollywood? It’s taken [...]