ॐ Shanti ॐ (२००७)

Taking a break from my tribute to Kishore Kumar for one reason & one reason only - 'Om Shanti Om' marks the first time SRK has ever had the honor of Kishore Kumar providing playback for one of his songs. The moment comes early in this - first half great/second half not so much - retelling of 'Karz', the 1977 Rishi Kapoor starrer whose hit song provided the title for the movie. A proper review of the movie is much better done by my friends Beth & Carla on their respective websites but that doesn't mean I don't want to discuss the movie. It just means that the story was the least important part of this movie as far as I was concerned. But as a fan of Bollywood my entire life the movie just kept a big grin on my face right up until the multi-starred item number. The first half is set in the 1970's complete with director Farah Khan's attention to detail in the look & feel of the India of yesteryear. It is a story of two best friends who work in the film industry as junior-artistes (I just LOVE that title:) & dream of making it to the big time. Shreyas Talpade of 'Dor' & 'Iqbal' fame plays SRK's best friend and shows us yet again why he is one of the brightest stars in Bollywood today. If the energy and freshness of the first half could have been sustained in Act II this movie could have been truly special, instead it lasted about one hour too long and has a sub-plot that was unnecessary to say the least.



So why did I like the first half so darn much? For starters, SRK doesn't do his usual thing, which is to act like SRK instead of acting the role he is playing. No, he throws himself into the character of Om with such gusto that for the first time in years I forgot I was watching Rahul (SRK's name in many of his movies that he gently pokes fun at). It was the little things that I just flat out loved in the movie including...

~ A proper homage to the title with Rishi Kapoor dancing on the giant record from 'Karz' that Om imagines himself singing instead.
~The great Rajnikant impression that SRK did with reckless abandon.
~The way our heroes sneak into the opening of a movie with an old-school Manoj Kumar impression that was spot on.
~The biggest star in the movie is named Rajesh Kapoor and lampoons Rajesh Khanna with much affection.
~The Dev Anand look alike in the red scarf that never says a word and didn't need to.
~The corny but entirely believable acceptance speech that SRK gives while accepting a fake Filmfare Award that he repeats upon winning the real one.



~The item number (above) & Filmfare Awards sequence that had over 30 stars being either interviewed or joining in the item number sequence. It needs to be stated that this was first done by AB in 'Naseeb' and brought together a number of huge stars in it's own right - the only star to be in both without actually being in the movie? Dharmendra (shout out to DG;)
~And this whole sequence itself was so full of inside jokes at the expense of the stars & Bollywood as a whole that it was worth the price of admission to keep wondering which star was going to pop out next!
~My favorite moments from this sequence were Shabana Azmi poking fun at her image of being Bollywood's leading activist, AB not knowing who Om was during an interview and Rishi Kapoor as one of the presenters for Om's Filmfare Award.
~And finally the blink and you miss the unmistakable disco notes when Mithun Chakraborty makes his appearance alluding to his breakout role in 'Disco Dancer'.

Go see the movie - the greatness of the first half will more than sustain you for the plodding pace of the second. The songs for today are Ajab Si by K.K. & Dhoom Taana by Abhijeet & Shreya Goshal video below respite with old school Bollywood legends!

The new Radio Blog 3 player...

I tangled my way out of the forest (Jaipur)...



walked out of the dark cave (Jhodpur)...



blasted away the old way of hearing music (Jaisalmer)...



put out the fires the only way a good Indian could (Pushkar)...



and made it out of the madness in the nick of time (Jaipur)...



So now I love technology again (that was for you Sandhya!) because after hours of pounding away on my computer and reloading all my songs back in - the radio.blog works again. The main feature that I added it for (besides the shiny new interface) is that you can shuffle the songs being played. Meaning that the newest song added will still be at the top but instead of hearing the remaining songs in the same order - which caused the older songs from rarely being heard - you can now press the 'shuffle' button to hear all of the songs in a different order every time.

Other features include a 'repeat' mode as well as a 'fade' mode'. Finally, the player automatically keeps the songs you have heard highlighted in a different color.

Cheers!

Metapost - 100 song mark, 1 year anniversary & technical issues...

Just a pause here to thank everyone that has been visiting this website and for all of your encouragement & comments. I started my blog in July of 2006 and didn't even realize that a year had passed because I was so enjoying sharing the music that meant so much to me. I passed the 100 song mark a few weeks ago and watched the readership go from a few friends of mine in Texas to several hundred scattered around the globe. Here's to another good year and another 100 unforgettable melodies...



No new movies or songs this week due to unforeseen circumstances. To steal a line from Napoleon Dynamite - "I love technology", but unfortunately it sometimes doesn't love me back. The radio.blog that I use to post all my songs has a new version that allows album covers, custom colors, different playlist orders and other options that I thought would make it more user friendly and easier to navigate. In theory I was right, in reality it caused all the songs to be deleted, the color to be changed to a creepy Halloween theme, the playlist to be shuffled ALL the time and the time stamp to read that the song was placed on my blog 38 years ago - which is technically impossible. I tried to get help on their forums and was given the following advice by the creators of radio.blog 'If you can't even understand the above instructions I gave, which is about as simple as it could possible get, then I suggest you stick with 2.5 or ask a friend to do it for you.'



But I am not so easily defeated and will redo the radio.blog from the ground up over the weekend. Until then enjoy the shuffled songs that are on there now and check back early next week for a special new post on my very first Bollywood movie that I saw on the big screen in India 30 years ago. After that I am planning a retrospective look back at Kishore Kumar - my favorite playback singer and one of the main reasons I love Bollywood so much. In fact, his passing 20 years ago on October 13, 1987 affected me so deeply that I stopped watching Bollywood movies completely and ended up coming back to them with a movie whose soundtrack is still one of my favorites to this day.

Mrityudand (1997)

The state of Bihar in northeast India is a place almost universally ignored by both the government of India & Bollywood alike. It is among the least developed states of India and has a per capita income of $155 a year against India's average of $255 & 30% of Biharis live below the poverty line against India's average of 22%. There are many factors for this problem but many believe that caste-dominated politics and rampant corruption by politicians & bureaucrats have been the main cause of the lack of development of the state. Bollywood has it's favorite locales to do films in - namely Uttar Pradesh or Rajasthan much like how Hollywood sticks to either LA or New York - both tend to ignore the less glitzy parts of their respective countries and in my opinion, are ignoring a rich cultural well from which to draw ideas from.

Prakash Jha's, 'Mrityudand' (Death Sentence), is a top notch art film told from a feminist viewpoint by someone with an insider's intimate knowledge and the despairing rage of a commentator who can tell the history of his native Bihar with surprising objectivity. Combining the star power of Madhuri Dixit and the thespian brilliance of Shabana Azmi, Jha gives us a movie that combines the arthouse & mainstream cinema perfectly. The movie explores the emotional & physical violence that Bihari society inflicts upon it's women and three very different ways in which the women in the movie fight back & ultimately bond to help eachother overcome this tyranny. I especially enjoyed the wonderful relationship portrayed by Shabana Azmi & Om Puri whose masterful performances in their roles showed why they are considered legends in Indian Cinema. For a more detailed look at the movie please check out Carla's review at Filmigeek.



The song for this week is the sweet love duet Kehdon Ek Baar Sajna by Udit Narayan & Alka Yagnik that is almost out of place in such a serious film but is actually well placed in the story - see it & why we fell in love with Madhuri Dixit below. The lyrics are by Shabana's real life husband Javed Akhtar and it seems that he had his bride in mind when he wrote them as they are sweet without being syrupy with a melodious backing score provided by Anand Milind. Incidentally this movie won a host of awards, the biggest being the Special Jury Award for a Feature Film aka the 'Cinéma Tout Ecran' from the Geneva Film Festival in 1998.

Salman Pirzada

I love discovering music whether hearing it on the radio, having someone recommend it to me or completely randomly - which is how I happened upon the music of Salman Pirzada - a paraplegic cricketeer/pilot/singer who was born in Karachi and currently lives in Houston. I was surfing Zee TV late one night watching those videos that they play in between movies when I heard a catchy tune sung by someone who I had never heard of. I wrote down his name and stumbled upon his website where I found quite an amazing story. Salman was an avid sportsman and competed on a national level in the field of cricket before an accident left him paralyzed from the waist down. His family moved to Houston to seek further medical treatment but sadly his condition remained permanent. He shifted his life's focus to learning how to fly, became the first South Asian paraplegic to parachute out of a plane and began to record & sing professionally.



As you can see by his pictures he has been doing pretty well for himself and has not let his handicap stop him from reaching his goals. If you like the song that I put up, Ghar Aaja Pardasiya, then check out his website for more songs, pictures and videos. The picture below was taken when he was invited to London to sing with Daler Mehndi for the cancer hospital that Imran Khan built in Lahore. Good music is just that, good music, but sometimes the story behind the music can be just as interesting.

Chitchor (1976)

'Chitchor' is a sweet tale that tells the story of Geeta (Zarina Wahab) who is the daughter of the headmaster of the village that she and her family live in. One day her father gets a letter from Geeta's older sister (who lives in Bombay) telling him about an engineer that she thinks will be a perfect match for Geeta. They arrange for the engineer to come to their village and when Vinod (Amol Palekar) comes to visit there is an instant attraction to Geeta. She reciprocates his feelings and falls in love with him as does the rest of the family. What happens next? Well dear reader, you have to watch the film to find out but know this is Bollywood so all is not what it seems but a happy ending is inevitable! The director of the movie, Basu Chaterjee, had much acclaim in the 70's and was often compared to Hrishikesh Mukherjee as both of their films explored social issues affecting the middle class with humor, grace and dignity.



The songs from 'Chitchor' remain favorites of mine to this day since the day I first heard them from my parent's music collection. But I did notice that the singer was someone who I wasn't used to hearing but whose voice was nonetheless soothing and melodic. That singer was Yesudas, a well known South Indian singer who has won the prestigious National Film Award seven times and has recorded over 40,000 songs in almost every Indian language. He won the Filmfare Award for the classically inspired duet he sang with Hemlata for the song 'Tu Jo Mere Sur Mein' seen here. But my favorite song by him (as well as one of my favorite songs of all time) is the other famous one from the film, Gori Tere Gaon, seen here. The stars, songs, direction and locale make this film truly special, 'Chitchor' - Stealer of Hearts.

Teesri Manzil (1966)

R.D. Burman had barely broken out of his father S.D. Burman's shadow when he was introduced to the legendary Nasir Hussain for the musical composition of his latest movie, 'Teesri Manzil'. Star Shammi Kapoor was not too happy about the decision as he wanted to go with more established composers but once he heard some advance tunes that Burman had sent he changed his mind. R.D. Burman had the luck of entering the world of Indian cinema just as rock & roll was hitting the shores of the West and he combined those new beats with old school Indian styles to make something truly different. It was distinctive enough to not just be spectacularly popular back then - but has come full circle in a way and was recently featured in the Hollywood movie 'Ghost World' (the must see trailer below).



For a full review of the movie see Carla's post at Filmigeek. 'Teesri Manzil' is a murder mystery that has been called "the romantic-comedy-whodunit to beat in Hindi Cinema" (the victim - Rupa - shares the same name as my mom!) and is actually quite fun to watch given it's great stars, excellent direction, awesome outfits and of course the groovy tunes. The first song is the incredibly catchy Oh Mere Sona sung by Mohd Rafi & Asha Bhonsle - who was Burman's favorite female singer of the time as she knew how to mix Eastern & Western melodies just perfectly. The second number is a duet originally sung by Mohd Rafi & Asha Bhonsle called O Haseena Zulfon Wali. I decided to something different and put a version sung by two contemporary singers, Abhijeet & Sunidi Chauhan, to contrast the different styles of the singers and also to show that, even today, the songs hold the same spell over Bollywood they did back then.

Kashmir Ki Kali (1964)

A history of the male playback singer in Hindi Cinema has as it's backbone the 'Big Three' - Mukesh, Kishore Kumar & Mohammed Rafi. There were great singers both before and after their reign at the top of the charts but few would argue that these 3 artists were the gold standard and were the biggest singers of their day bar none. The marquee actors of the day would be paired up with a respective singer and audiences went to a movie to see not just the stars - but to see how their favorite songs were picturised on the big screen. Shammi Kapoor burst onto the Bollywood scene shortly after his elder brother Raj & around the same time as his younger brother Shashi. His foray into Bollywood in the early 60's coincided with the time that rock & roll was hitting the West and Indian music directors wasted no time integrating this new musical style into classic Indian song compositions. The result was almost tailor made for the Elvis-like Shammi who shimmied & shaked in the song sequences while still displaying some pretty good acting chops.



One of his biggest hits was 'Kashmir Ki Kali' and although it has been too long since I have seen the movie to give a meaningful review, Carla & I have once again collaborated on a joint review so please go check out her always insightful musings at Filmigeek. It was a fun movie because of the aforementioned great songs, chemistry between the two stars (Kapoor & Sharmila Tagore) and breathtaking scenery. The lovely vale of Kashmir was a favorite of Bollywood directors but has now sadly become too much of a war zone to do so anymore. Regardless, it's beauty still remains both in real life and on celluloid and this movie showcases the beauty like few others.



The first song is Isharon Isharon Mein, a duet sung by Rafi & Asha Bhonsle following the obligatory rainstorm with the lovers taking shelter in the home of an old peasant woman. She provides them with cute local outfits - a scene that led to god-knows-how-many honeymooners in hill stations dressing up as “Kashmiri” couples for keepsake photos :) The music for this song is exquisitely layered and the singers hit every note just perfectly - it remains one of my wife's favorites to this day after she heard it (multiple times) on her most recent plane ride to India - see the video here. The second song is Taarif Karoon, a solo performed by Rafi praising Sharmila's beauty and picturised on the breathtaking Dal Lake - see the video here.

Deewaar (1975) - A Perfect Film

"The audience is fickle. You grab them by the throat and never let go."
~Billy Wilder (nominated for 12 Academy Awards for screenwriting)

'Deewaar' is one of those few movies (Bollywood or otherwise) that I consider to be a perfect film. By perfect I mean that there is not an ounce of fat in the entire movie - each scene is constructed like a mini film, each line of dialogue is written & placed exactly how it should be, each actor is absolutely tailor made for their role and the story itself is so compelling and different, that it served as a watershed moment in Bollywood history. The story & dialogue were written by Salim Khan (a failed actor) and Javed Akhtar (an assistant director) who got together in the early 70's to write movies together and in the process became legends of Indian cinema. 'Written by Salim-Javed' became a mark that moviegoers searched out because it guaranteed them a movie with taut storytelling, terrific dialogue, memorable characters and more than anything - their ability to connect with every class of moviegoer from high society debutantes to the paan-waalas & taxi drivers.

I try not to throw around the word perfect too much but I believe this film truly deserves it. It won Filmfare Awards in 1975 for Best Movie, Best Direction (Yash Chopra), Best Story, Best Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor (Shashi Kapoor). Amitabh Bachchan was nominated for Best Actor but lost out to Sanjeev Kumar for his role in 'Aandhi'. While my fellow Guju did an admirable acting job I dare say Amitji was robbed for the single most powerful performance he has ever rendered in a movie. For more on this cinematic masterpiece please check out our friend Carla's review at Filmigeek in yet another joint venture between us. Also see the rarely seen trailer below...



I saw this movie when I was seven in an English dubbed version made for the West Indies market called 'I'll Die For Mama'. It was one of the first Indian movies I had seen and it impacted me for years to come. It made me a lifelong fan of Amitabh Bachchan, who may have made his mark in the Salim-Javed penned 'Zanjeer', but whose true ascent to superstardom lies with this film. Amitabh's performance as the son of a union leader whose fate in life is decided at a very young age and whose rise from a lowly coolie to the most feared gangster in Bombay's seedy underworld was truly dazzling. Add to that Shashi Kapoor's own transformation as Amitabh's younger brother who owes everything to his bhai's sacrifices but whose own duties as a policeman force him to make decisions that challenge everything he believes in.



Each and every scene carries this film forward and is unforgettable in it's own right, it's script is a mainstay at the FTII in Pune as an example of a 'perfect screenplay'. Amitabh still recites the exact lines from the film - especially this scene when he first visits a temple to ask god to save his mother - in his concerts and wipes a (faux?) tear from his eyes after. 'Deewaar' also marked the first time a movie showed a couple (Amitabh & Parveen Babi) smoking a cigarette in bed after spending the night together. Parveen is introduced after the interval and appears in just a handful of scenes but leaves a devastating impact. And the scenes between Amitabh & Shashi when they turn from brothers to sworn enemies are still shown on endless loops on Zee TV today. This movie does not cop out at any point and never gives the audience an easy way out to deal with the fate of it's characters. The ending does not tie up the loose ends nicely nor does everyone live happily ever after. The result is gritty filmmaking that is reminiscent of early Martin Scorsese and is rarely seen in the colorful celluloid world of modern Bollywood.



The song for today is the catchy tune Kehdon Tumhe by Kishore Kumar & Asha Bhonsle. It is in complete contrast to the mood of 'Deewaar' and almost seems like an afterthought for the simple reason that it was just that, an afterthought. Legend has it that Salim-Javed turned in the screenplay to director Yash Chopra ('Kabhie Kabhie', 'Silsila', 'Lamhe', 'DDLJ', 'Mohabattein', 'Veer-Zaara' & the just released 'Chak De India') and had the audacity to make no provision for a single song. Not wanting to deviate from the industry standard to include a musical number, Yashsaab supposedly said "picture bahut sookhi hogi" (without them the movie will be very dry) to which the script writing duo quipped "picture ka naam 'Gili Deewaar' rakh dijiye" (call the movie 'Wet Wall' then). See what the first writers whose names were the first ever to grace a Bollywood movie poster gave us & watch 'Deewaar' - the perfect film.

"Jean Luc Godard said that if a film has four to five good scenes, the audience is usually quite satisfied. George Lucas said, a good film should have 60 terrific two-minute scenes. 'Deewaar' has a total of 95 scenes and it’s quite impossible to list favourites because they are all so damn good. As writers, whilst working on our own scripts, we often feel inadequate and hopelessly untalented. If we want to feel even worse, please note that Salim-Javed wrote 'Deewaar' in just 18 days. If Salim-Javed took one idea and made two movies, they were to also do a total opposite. They took classics of Hindi Cinema – 'Gunga Jamuna' and 'Mother India' and wonder of wonders, through their amalgamation created a third classic, 'Deewaar'."

~GRAFTII (alumni magazine of FTII - Pune)

Click here for more dialogue from the movie.

Maine Pyar Kiya (1989)

“Thunder is good, thunder is impressive; but it is lightning that does all the work.”
–Mark Twain

'Maine Pyar Kiya' (1989) was one of the first Bollywood movies that I saw in the era that I refer to as post-KK, meaning after Kishore Kumar passed away on October 13, 1987 (yes, I took it that hard). I plan to blog about that dark time soon but for today's music selections we look back at this soundtrack that puts a smile on my face to this day. This movie was a blockbuster hit and catapulted Salman Khan into stardom and even though Bhagyashree never had another hit movie, she is still fondly remembered for her role in the film. It garnered four Filmfare awards including Best Movie, Best Music Director, Best Lyrics (Dil Deewana) and Best Singer (Dil Deewana). Salman Khan also got a nomination for best actor for only his second starring role but was beaten out by Jackie Shroff for his role in 'Parinda' - an amazing movie in it's own right.



It's obvious now that the filmmakers just caught the mood of a generation where you didn't have to do everything your parents told you and that love could indeed conquer all. I remember watching the movie with my brother (Anand) and just bursting out into laughter at the line "I love you so much it hurts". It still is a corny line but looking back I realize that they really did feel that and it is that feeling that made the movie so memorable. For a more in depth analysis of the movie please visit our friend Carla's site, Filmigeek, as we are doing another joint review today.



The first song selection for today is Dil Deewana that is sung by both leads in the movie at different times. And even though the male version sung by S.P. Balasubramaniam won the Filmfare Award, I much prefer the version that was voiced by Lata. See the song with all it's sweetness and goofiness intact (LOVE Salman's matching yellow sweater with Bhagyashree's yellow sari!) here. The second song is the other major hit from the movie, Kabootar Ja Ja Ja in which our heroine dispatches a pigeon (kabootar) bearing a note with the words that all of secretly long to hear one day if we haven't yet already ~ "I love you so much it hurts".

P.S. For those of you wondering when these two will be on the screen again, wonder no more and check out this link.

Armaan (2003)

'Armaan' starring Amitabh Bachchan, Anil Kapoor, Gracy Singh and Preity Zinta is a movie that can be described as pleasant, graceful & mature - words not usually reserved for directorial debuts (in this case Ms. Honey Irani). The dialogue (written by the inimitable Javed Akhtar) certainly is a big part of the success of this film as well as the understated acting done by all the major stars. Indeed, Preity Zinta was nominated for a Filmfare Award in 2003 as 'best villain'. It tells the story of a father & son - both doctors - who work together in a hospital that the father dreams of making into something truly memorable. The son falls in love with an assistant who comes to work there but then tragedy strikes (doesn't it always in Bollywood?) and the son is forced to make a difficult decision that may cost him his true love but will honor his father's dream. But for me it was the story behind the story that was most intriguing.




"Come on" Honey Irani once said, "there are more photographs of Shabana than me from Farhan's wedding. We are all mature now. Ab woh budhe ke liye kya ladna (Why fight over the old man now)?" and followed up by laughing so hard she actually had tears in her eyes. Farhan is her son, Farhan Akhtar and director of 'Dil Chatha Hai', 'Lakshya' and 'Don'. Shabana is the other woman, Shabana Azmi with no introduction needed. And the budhe is her ex-husband Javed Akhtar, legendary screenwriter and lyricist whose screenplays (beginning with Amitabh Bachchan's first hit 'Zanjeer') are still being used to teach students at the Pune Film Institute's screenwriting courses.

Javed left his wife Honey in 1990, an event which she described as a 'shattering experience' for Shabana Azmi. The former child star was left to raise two children alone and could have easily resigned herself to forgo her dreams to do so. But she went against the norm and in 1991 wrote the screenplay for 'Lamhe', followed it up by writing nine more films and is now among one of the most sought after & highest paid screenwriters in Bollywood. For her directorial debut she enlisted the help of her ex-husband Javed to write the screenplay & song lyrics - an offer he simply couldn't refuse. My favorite song in the movie is Mere Zindagi Mein, a sweet duet sung by Sonu Nigam and Sunidhi Chauhan.

Happy 40th anniversary to my folks!

This past weekend we got together with family to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the picture taken above in Ahmedabad, India. My father (Ashwin) was a dashing young professor of Sociology at Swaminarayan Arts College and whose good looks & sharp outfits sent all the girls hearts a flutter (so says my uncle). My mother (Rupa) was a pretty & talented student at the very same college and quite active in the fine arts but was never in any of my father's classes. She met him through mutual friends and the rest as the say is history.

Their marriage was a (GASP!) love marriage that is still a relatively new custom in India today and was pretty much unheard of in 1967. They went to visit my dad's brother in Bombay shortly before they were married which was another big no-no but my parents didn't really let anyone tell them what they could or couldn't do. They stayed there for a week and recently told me that the first Bollywood movie they ever saw together was 'Anupama'.



'Anupama' is one of Hrishikesh Mukherjee's best films but one of the least known as well. Sharmila Tagore stars as Uma, a shy woman whose mother died during childbirth and who pines for the affection of her father who has never gotten over the loss. Sharmila does an amazing job while providing a performance with little more than eye gestures and very little dialogue. In fact her first words in the movie are almost an hour in with a lovely song by Lata called Kuch Dil Ne.

Hindi cinema has produced many excellent actors who are grossly underrated and none more so than Dharmendra (right Daddy's Girl?;) who is not really remembered today for his sensitive portrayals or his flair for comedy. Here he plays Ashok, a writer from a modest background whose keen mind is quick to notice Uma's angst. An unspoken love develops between Ashok and Uma that threatens to die unrequited. Ashok understands the father's grief but resents his ignorance and neglect of his daughter. The song Ya Dil Ki Suno sung by the peerless Hemant Kumar (one of my parent's favorite singers) and who also scores the music is just hearbreaking. It alone is worth the price of the admission. Written by Kaifi Azmi (father of Shabana), it poetically describes the insensitivity of the father... "when a flower has bloomed in nature, the gardener has no love for it".



It's been a fun first 40 years - here's hoping the next 40 are just as good

Taj Mahal (2005)

Akbar Khan's 'Taj Mahal' was released last year with much fanfare, extravagant sets, exquisite dialogue and promptly flopped miserably at the box office. Why it did so poorly remains a mystery to me as I enjoyed the movie and it lovingly brought to life the tale of one of the greatest architectural monuments in modern history. For those not familiar with the story - the Taj Mahal was built by the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan over a period of 22 years in the memory of his Empress Mumtaz Mahal who died in 1631 after delivering their fourteenth (!) child. He had planned to built a tomb for himself that would be a twin to the Taj Mahal, only in black marble, on the opposite side of the Yamuna River and connected to the Taj with a marble bridge. But Shah Jahan was overthrown by his son Aurangzeb and spent his last years in confinement in the Red Fort gazing at the tomb of his beloved. During the time of Partition there was actually talk of disassembling the Taj and moving it to Pakistan but it never happened. In 1965 following the 3rd war over Kashmir, Indian films were formally banned in Pakistan. They never really went away, just underground. But 'Taj Mahal' became only the 2nd film (the first being 'Mughal-E-Azam') to be officially released there to great fanfare, link.



I still remember seeing the monument for the first time and was fully prepared for the sight having seen multiple pictures of it as well as growing up with a replica prominently displayed in our living room like every other Indian family in the world - or so I thought. Having paid our 750 rupees (as opposed to the 20 rupees charged for Indian nationals) we entered and the sight literally took my breath away, I just had to sit down and stare for the first few minutes. Walking around the gardens, seeing it in the reflection pool and studying the intricate inlays up close just added to the majesty of the whole experience. The government could charge 10 times that price and I would make the journey all over again. The new '7 Wonders of the World' list that was decided upon by a worldwide online & text message vote has the Taj on it (as it very well should). UNESCO has called the list a sham but needs to lighten up a bit as 6 of the original 7 no longer exist, link.



The musical score for the songs in the movie were the final composition for the legendary Naushad who died last year. While the movie may have not been to everyone's liking the songs were universally praised as the swansong of the aforementioned maestro. Ishq Ki Dastaan is the rare all female quwalli and to me seemed to be a loving tribute to a similar song in 'Mughal-E-Azam'. Ajnabi Thero Zara is the grand love duet in the movie and one can just imagine the Taj bathed in moonlight listening to it.

Shree 420 (1955)

There are few on screen pairings in Bollywood that are worthy of the label 'legendary' but Raj Kapoor & Nargis would be found at the top of any such list. They had chemistry that had never before seen on the Indian screen and it was no secret that their love affair extended outside of the movies as well. They were soulmates in every sense of the word but alas their love story (on and off screen) ended when she finally left him to make her swan song 'Mother India' where she met her future husband to be ~ Sunil Dutt. To those who think these old timers don't mean much in today's filmi world the following facts may be of interest to you. For the modern day Bollywood fan Nargis is the real life mother of Sanjay Dutt. As far as Raj Kapoor is concerned you know him as Shashi's brother, Rishi's father and the grandfather of both Kareena & Karishma. And his grandson (Nikhil Nanda) is married to none other than the former Shweta Bachchan (yes, Big B's daughter).



'Shree 420' was a worldwide hit at it's release and still retains it's place as one of the greatest Indian films of all time. The 420 in the title refers to the section of the Indian Penal Code that deals with fraud - it also is the code in certain circles for a particular kind of um, cigarette;) Coincidence? I think not. The movie follows Raj's popular everyman character (loosely based on Charlie Chaplin's 'Little Tramp') journey through all the good & bad that the world has to offer. It weaves a story that in the end, shows the audience that true love is the one priceless treasure in life. For a more in depth review please visit our friend Carla's wonderful website dedicated to all things Bollywood, Filmigeek.



The songs for today are like all songs from Raj Kapoor movies - evergreen classics that still resonate as strongly today as they did fifty years ago. Incidentally this movie was a particular triumph for the singer Manna Dey. Mukesh (the voice of Raj Kapoor for his other movies) was testing the acting waters and available for only one song. Ichak Dana is such a sweet tune and memorable for the wonderful interplay between our two stars as well as the (surprisingly) good drawing skills of Nargis. Pyar Hua is simply one of the greatest love songs in Bollywood history and the passion between the two leads while under an umbrella in a downpour is mesmerizing, watch it here. Sham Gayi Raat is one of my favorite Lata songs penned in classic Shankar Jaikishen style with lilting music and capturing Lata's voice beautifully. Ramaiya Vastavaiya is truly special and for me was the emotional centerpiece of the movie. It starts out with great joy, becomes wistful towards the middle, proceeds to break your heart before leaving you with hope at the end. It would be almost cliche to say if it wasn't true - but they simply don't make movies like this anymore - 'Shree 420'.

Rahat Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan

'It is an honour to be attached to my uncle's name'
~Rahat Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan

It's not always a guarantee of success to have a famous family member in Bollywood. For every Abhishek Bachchan that has made it - there are scores that started big and then fizzled out. Amit Kumar (son of Kishore), Nitin Mukesh (yes, that one), various Kapoors (from the lineage of Raj Kapoor) ~ the list goes on. These offspring seem to get the worst of both worlds - some fail for being too much like their predecessors and some for not being enough like them. The ones who do make it are the ones who carry over their family's talent but infuse it with enough of their own to make it something new and different all together. Such is the case with the nephew of the legendary Qawwali singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan - Rahat. Trained by his uncle in the classical style of Sufism starting at age ten - Rahat has become a name to be reckoned with in the classical world as well as in Bollywood.



Our friend, Daddy's Girl (who has a wonderful blog on Bollywood and was kind enough to give me a special award:) asked me to expound a little bit on Sufism after my last post on Kailash Kher. Sufism is a mystical practice that emphasizes certain unique rituals for guiding spiritual seekers into a direct encounter with God. Muhammad is considered their chief prophet and many consider Sufism to be a mystical brand of Islam. One of the important rituals in Sufism is the zikr. During a zikr, one remembers God through meditation, chant and movement ~ certain attributes of God are repeated until the seekers become “saturated” with God and this ritual supposedly shatters and transforms them. As they spin and whirl around for hours, they reach a state of ecstasy and purity where the heart is only conscious of God. The seeker surrenders his or herself to total abandonment -- a total emptying of self.



Today's song selection is Jiya Dhadak, an absolutely stunning song that I cannot listen to enough and still gives me goosebumps every time I hear it. It is from the 2006 movie 'Kalyug' ~ a movie I'll probably never see it but if you want to see the video click here. Or better yet - if you live anywhere near the Atlanta area go hear the song live in concert on 7/6/07 - I have seen him live and I promise it will be a concert you will remember forever.

Solva Saal (1958)

Some days I really have to think of a good topic for DMC and sometimes the topic just falls into my lap - today's selection did just that. Last week I posted a song from the movie 'Solva Saal' which translated means '16 Years' and yesterday was the 16th birthday of my baby cousin, Amee (who at 16 is not much of a baby anymore;) Happy Birthday Amee!!! The movie is a sweet one starring the evergreen Dev Anand (who even at eighty cannot stop thinking of himself as a sixteen year old) and the beautiful Waheeda Rehman (who has chosen to age more gracefully and who was most recently seen in 'Rang De Basanti'). Granted, their major hit together was 'Guide' and a topic for another day but this was their first collaboration.



Dev plays his usual roguish charmer, this time as a journalist in search of that one great story. He spots Waheeda, who is eloping with her boyfriend and figures this to be as good as anything else he is bound to find and thus follows them. The nefarious husband proceeds to steal an expensive necklace and ends up ditching Waheeda in the middle of nowhere, classy. What follows is an adventure over the course of one night where our dashing hero sings songs, fights the bad guy and retrieves the necklace. Dev promises Waheeda he will never will write about what happened and advises her to return home and make up with her family. What happens next? Well you need to see the movie to find out...

Today's selection is Hai Apna Dil sung by Hemant Kumar. Although not as famous as the 'Big Three' singers of the day (Rafi, Mukesh & Kishore) he had his own style and a silky smooth voice that was all his own. He is a favorite of my parents and I have come to appreciate him through their musical tastes. The video is a great one and can be seen here.

Ankur (1974) - Shabana Azmi's debut

Sometimes greatness is hard to define but you know it when you see it - such is the case of the movie 'Ankur', Shabana Azmi's debut film. While she is now considered a legend in Bollywood (both mainstream and art house) and a staunch political activist as well, her first foray into Indian cinema was based on a true story and quite humble. She was a recipient of the National Award for the film, arguably the most prestigious award given by the Indian Government for excellence in cinema (regardless of regional language) in 1975. The film was also the debut of director Shyam Benegal, a leader of the art house cinema movement in India. 'Ankur' went on to win 2 additional National Awards, 43 International Film Festival Awards and was India's official submission to the Oscars in 1974.



Shabana said the "trial by fire" she received from the director in her first role gave her invaluable training for her future in acting. As the filming commenced she was supposed to able to squat while sitting for her role as a simple village girl. Unable to do so she remembers the director banishing her from the dining table to eat her food on the ground "to get into the skin of my character". In fact, Benegal was very reluctant to hire Shabana as he first thought she was a model and therefore too glamorous for the part. His selection was validated a few weeks later when a group of students from the local high school stopped in to check out the shoot. They saw Shabana in the corner and asked where the heroine was and she answered that she was out sick today and that she was there to clean up the set. "As they walked away disinterested Shyam (who had overheard the exchange) came to me and said 'today you have earned your place back onto the dining table'!".



The story of 'Ankur' (The Seedling) centers around a rich landowner's son sent to look after his father's property in a village in which Shabana's character is a servant. What happens next is how the village hierarchy reacts to the relationship between the two and the realities of how the rich and the poor live in India. But watch this movie for Shabana Azmi - she is luminous, mesmerizing and just phenomenal as an actress carrying her first film. I saw 'Glory' recently in which Denzel Washington earned his first Oscar for a great performance. But what separated great from legendary was a 3 minute scene in which he is whipped for stealing a pair of shoes to keep his feet warm, absolutely devastating. In 'Ankur', Shabana Azmi similarly does a great job throughout the movie. And like in 'Glory', great is separated from legendary during the last 3 minutes of the movie, again, absolutely devastating.



As a true art film 'Ankur' did not have any original songs per se but I did manage to track down the one song that was playing on the radio at several different times in the movie. It is Yehi To Hai and is vocalized by the late Mohammed Rafi. It is from the 1958 movie 'Solvan Saal' starring Dev Anand & Waheeda Rehman - who incidentally was the first choice to play the lead in 'Ankur' but declined - interesting choice of a song in my opinion.