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Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958)
Less than two months ago, a couple whom I am distantly connected to by marriage were in town. The lady’s American; her husband is Indian, and they live in New York. We were chatting about this and...
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Ten of my favourite bird songs
Birdsong? No, really. Bird songs. I spent a bit of last Sunday at Delhi’s Okhla Barrage Bird Sanctuary. The barrage on the Yamuna hosts a vast number of migratory birds through the winter. Most of them...
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Teesri Kasam (1966)
One reason I’m glad I began this blog is that, because of it, I’ve met (although in most cases only in cyberspace) a lot of other people who are as enthusiastic about cinema as I am. Through these...
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Only Angels Have Wings (1939)
The site stats for this blog sometimes show decidedly odd search terms that bring people to www.dustedoff.wordpress.com. ‘bollywood hide and seek behind a tree’; ‘sailing boat naked’;...
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Jahanara (1964)
Hindi cinema’s fascination for the Mughals is – well, fascinating. Even before independence, we were busy churning out semi-historicals such as Humayun (1945) and Shahjehan (1946); then, in the 50s and...
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Rattan (1944)
In an interview, while reminiscing about his first few years in the Hindi cinema industry, Naushad mentioned how, after he had moved to Bombay and become a music director, his parents arranged his...
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How to Steal a Million (1966)
Ever noticed how many old films were set in Paris? The Last Time I saw Paris, Gigi, An American in Paris and countless others celebrated the French capital’s reputation as one of the world’s most...
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Ten of my favourite ghoda-gaadi songs
This post is dedicated not just to music directors like O P Nayyar and Naushad (who made ‘tonga beats’ an important musical style), but also to friend and blog reader pacifist, who came up with the...
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Abe-Hayat (1955)
I’ve been very busy the last couple of days, and the busy-ness doesn’t look like it’ll come to an end soon. My husband, therefore (and what a model of husbandly devotion!) offered to write the review...
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I Remember Mama (1948)
The Times of India ran an interesting little article yesterday (I tried searching for it online, but sorry – can’t find it), as part of its run-up to Mother’s Day. It was a little piece about a mother...
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Ek Saal (1957)
Did the producer and director Devendra Goel specialise in film names that incorporated numbers? Have a look at this (admittedly select) filmography: Ek Saal, Ek Phool Do Maali, Ek Mahal ho Sapnon ka,...
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North-West Frontier (1959)
While I was writing the review of Ek Saal last week, I was reminded of this film. And that for what might seem an obscure reason to some: I S Johar was the man who suggested the story idea for Ek Saal,...
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Ten of my favourite train songs
Continuing with my plan to link every post to the previous one… well, what next? (Harvey: you were close when it came to guessing!) My last post, North-West Frontier, was set mostly in a train – and...
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The Train (1970)
While, in the world of Hindi films, songs are often sung on trains, alas – trains too are occasionally dangerous places to be in. And I’m not simply talking about a train in which a heartbroken and...
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And Then There Were None (1945)
Since The Train was, all said and done (though I’m not convinced about it) a suspense film, I decided to stick to that genre for this post as well. And Then There Were None is a classic suspense film,...
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Gumnaam (1965)
For anybody who’s been following my idea of ‘linked posts’ – each post connected to the one before, and to the one after – this probably comes as no surprise. And Then There Were None was based on...
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The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939)
My last two posts were related in a way common in cinema: the first was a review of a film based on a book, and that was followed by a review of a film that was a remake – in another language – of that...
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Bees Saal Baad (1962)
Several people who read my last post – which, as I’d mentioned, was an adaptation of a suspense novel, and in turn was remade in another language – guessed what this post would be all about. You were...
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Ten of my favourite Waheeda Rehman songs
What made Bees Saal Baad such a good watch was its music, its fairly good suspense – and its lovely heroine. Waheeda Rehman had it all: an immense amount of talent, a rare beauty, a grace and dignity...
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Some thoughts on the songs of Pyaasa
Why not begin, I thought, where I left off in my last post? The last song I listed in my post on my ten favourite Waheeda Rehman songs was Jaane kya tune kahi, from Pyaasa. Interestingly, this was also...
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