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Piccadilly Jim (1936)
… a review, to be followed (probably tomorrow) by some ramblings on film adaptations of books, and why so many tend to flat on their faces. I adore the books of P G Wodehouse. His writing is utterly...
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Cinematic Adaptations of Books: Some Ramblings
While writing my review of Piccadilly Jim—and comparing it to P G Wodehouse’s book—I was struck by the fact that most of the time, when I watch a film based on a novel I’ve read, I end up feeling let...
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Ten of my favourite ‘Kashmir songs’
Some of you may have noticed my recent hiatus. Some of you may even know the reason for that—a trip to Kashmir (or, to be more specific, Srinagar). I lived in Srinagar for 3 years, beginning with when...
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Pyaar ka Mausam (1969)
Or, The Nasir Hussain Rule Book of Fool-proof Rehashing. I’m beginning to think I’m an idiot for trying to think up new stories every time I write. Look at people like Betty Neels or Nasir Hussain;...
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Neecha Nagar (1946)
I am a bit of an iconoclast. Maxim Gorky’s play The Lower Depths, while considered one of the great classics of Russian literature, left me cold when I read it. To me, it seemed too cluttered with...
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La Grande Guerra (1959)
My original plan had been to watch and review Neecha Nagar, and follow it up by watching and reviewing Kurosawa’s Donzoko (also based on The Lower Depths). By the time I’d read Gorky’s play and seen...
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Ten of my favourite car songs
I don’t often need to take a taxi to get around, but when I do, I always steel myself, because 9 times out of 10, the taxi driver will have music playing—a CD or a radio—and 99% of the time, it’ll be...
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Lizzie (1957)
This photo of Eleanor Parker is the current wallpaper on my laptop screen: …and I’ve decided it’s time to change it, simply because it gets in the way of my work. Every now and then, while I’m working,...
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Yeh Raat Phir Na Aayegi (1966)
Poor Biswajeet must have gotten thoroughly sick of romancing spooky women in the ‘60s. True, in this one, the spookiness is rather more pronounced (Waheeda Rehman was pretty sunny and un-mysterious in...
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Dupatta (1952)
I saw a mention of this film for the first time on Richard’s blog a couple of years ago. Richard had mentioned that Dupatta (or Dopatta, as it’s referred to in some places) was available for viewing...
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Rustom-e-Rome (1964)
Another tribute, to yet another great who’s passed on. Dara Singh, the wrestler-turned-actor who made such a big niche for himself in a slew of films, especially in the 1960s, passed away on July 12,...
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Bringing up Baby (1938)
The other day, I was thinking aloud, wondering what to do for my next blog post, and my husband said, “Review a comedy.” So here it is. A review of a film that’s intentionally funny, and which,...
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On Rajesh Khanna and the Ephemerality of Life
I saw very few films till I was about ten years old. Till then, my father had been posted in small towns that had rather dreadful cinema halls. Then, in late 1982, we acquired a TV. And suddenly,...
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Noor – Mrs. Johnny Walker
We’ve mourned the passing of a favourite star, but now—in the yin and yang way of zindagi and maut that Anand would possibly have appreciated—it’s time to celebrate a birthday. Today, July 21st, is the...
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Zulu (1964)
While this blog is all about old films—and the bulk of my film-watching is old films—that doesn’t mean I don’t watch new films. I do; lots of them. But the odd thing is that invariably, new films that...
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Ten of my favourite filmi qawwalis
I have been meaning to write this post for a long time now—I love qawwalis—but I’ve kept putting it off, because I’ve always thought that it would be impossible to create a list of just ten filmi...
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Benazir (1964)
‘Bimal Roy’s Benazir’ is what it says on the DVD cover. Enough to conjure up, for me, memories of some of the greatest Bimal Roy films I’ve seen: tender, thought-provoking, real films about real...
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Charade (1963)
I hadn’t been able to decide on which film to review after Benazir, so I asked a bunch of friends to help me out – just by suggesting a genre. I got a varied lot of answers. Romance. Comedy. Social...
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Parakh (1960)
The last Hindi film I reviewed was a Bimal Roy production – and it left me feeling very disappointed. To get over that (and to remind myself that Bimal Roy’s films can generally be counted upon to be...
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Spellbound (1945)
When I posted my review of Charade a couple of weeks back, I ended up being reminded of this film. Firstly, because Charade is referred to as ‘the best Hitchcock film Hitchcock didn’t direct’....
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