Clik here to view.
Pakeezah (1972)
Whenever people ask me what my movie blog is about, I say pre-70s cinema. Pre-70s, yes, but with a few (very few) exceptions, and those are films released in the very early 70s, but with a distinctly...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Book Review: Meghnad Desai’s ‘Pakeezah: An Ode to a Bygone World’
When I posted my review of Pakeezah last week, I mentioned that I’d be posting something further about Pakeezah. This is it, and the reason why I rewatched Pakeezah in the first place: I wanted to see,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Only the Valiant (1951)
Someone once told me “I don’t watch Westerns and war movies. Too much blood and gore, too little character development, and no message to take home. Nothing but guts and glory.” True, if (and this is a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Ten of my favourite Sunil Dutt songs
A couple of months back, amidst a discussion on one of my posts, fellow writer (and fellow Sahir Ludhianvi fan) Karthika Nair and I got involved—as we are apt to do—in talking about Sunil Dutt (who,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Ghazal (1964)
Those who frequent this blog have probably figured out by now that I have a soft spot (a very soft spot) for Muslim socials. So much so that I will watch just about any Muslim social out there, even if...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Ánimas Trujano (1962)
In a scene in Ánimas Trujano, the protagonist—the eponymous Ánimas, an inveterate gambler, drunk, and believer in every charm or superstition floating around—has just lost a lot of money on a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Ten of my favourite Madan Mohan songs
I have never—in all the years this blog has been in existence—compiled a list of my favourite Madan Mohan songs. An oversight, and one for which I have no explanation to offer: just reparation. Born...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Chor Bazaar (1954)
There were various reasons for my wanting to see this film. One was that it’s a historical (okay, faux historical, considering it’s set in some undefined supposedly Middle Eastern land named Sherqand)....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Lilies of the Field (1963)
And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Mamta (1966)
While watching Pakeezah some months back (and reading Meghnad Desai’s book about the film), I was struck by how fond old Hindi cinema used to be of the motif of the ‘chaste tawaif’. A paradox,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Book Review: Sathya Saran’s ‘Sun Mere Bandhu Re: The Musical World of SD Burman’
To say that I am fond of Sachin Dev Burman is to put it mildly. Along with OP Nayyar, SD Burman was one of the first music directors I heard of—thanks to my father, who is a devoted fan of … Continue...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Rear Window (1954)
Friend, blog reader and sometime fellow blogger Harvey nudged me gently last week with a bit of information I hadn’t remembered. August 13th, 2014 was the 115th birth anniversary of Alfred Hitchcock....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Ten of my favourite ‘male pianist’ songs
Some time back, I received a request from a blog reader and long-ago professor of mine: would I do a post on songs sung at pianos? Hindi cinema, back in the good old days, invariably had a song at a …...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Sagarika (1956)
Every now and then, when I’ve reviewed a Hindi film (Mamta, Sahib Bibi aur Ghulam, Kabuliwaalah, Khamoshi) or even mentioned one (Devdas, Chori Chori), someone or the other has popped up and either...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Tomb of ‘Jamaali-Kamaali’
I first came to know of Jamaali-Kamaali sometime in the mid-90s, when I was working for a hospitality company. The organization catered to a number of events, and one of the events for which we’d...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Eid Mubarak!
A very happy and blessed Eid to all of you who celebrate! And, because I can’t resist the temptation to share knowledge I come across while I’m doing my research, here’s a little tidbit about Eid as it...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A little-known Sufi saint, and an unidentified tomb
Most of the tombs I’ve listed so far in my on-and-off series on little known tombs of Delhi have been tombs I’ve been aware of for at least the past 15 years. It’s time, therefore, to move on to a …...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Sabz Burj
Next up on my list of occasional articles on little-known tombs of Delhi. Yes, macabre as it may sound, Delhi does have a lot of medieval tombs, mainly because—like mosques or forts—tombs were among...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Bahu Begum (1967)
…which could probably have been more appropriately titled How to Jump to Conclusions and Mess up Lives. Or Never Trust a Sinister Mamu. This is one Muslim social – a genre I have long admitted to being...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Tomb of Abdur Rahim Khan-e-Khanan
[A quick word for Dusted Off regulars, in case you haven’t noticed the non-cinema related posts that have recently appeared on my home page: this is part of the process of combining Dusted Off with my...
View Article