I remember 21st Feb, 1991 quite vividly. My siblings and I had just gotten back from school. Over lunch, my mother mentioned that the actress Nutan had died earlier in the day. She was one of my dad’s favourites. We had heard him go on and on about her and Waheeda Rehman – about how the … More Dilli Ka Thug (1958)
When I was growing up, I remember my grandmother often commenting that girls should not be too beautiful. She firmly believed that beautiful women had the toughest and saddest of lives. It did not make much sense to me back then but was reminded of it today when I sat to write this post. One of the most … More My favourite songs of Madhubala
( Today is the 77th birthday of one of Hindi cinema’s finest actresses, Waheeda Rehman. Born on 3rd February, 1938 in Chengalpattu, Tamil Nadu and blessed in abundance with immense talent and beauty, Waheeda Rehman is synonymous today with grace and charm. Active in Indian cinema since the 50s, she made her debut in a Telugu film, Jayasimha (1955). … More Happy Birthday, Waheeda ji
Today is the 50th death anniversary of Geeta Bali, the lovely, versatile, natural, spontaneous but underrated actress of the fifties. Born in Sargodha, Punjab in 1930 as Harkirtan Kaur, she lived with her parents and a sister in Amritsar. Her father was a Sikh scholar and a singer and he encouraged both his daughters to … More My Favourite Geeta Bali songs
It is an irony that one of the finest music composers in Hindi cinema is known today more for the one thing he did not do, rather than what he did! Omkar Prasad Nayyar is the only composer from the golden age of Hindi film music who did not record a song with Lata Mangeshkar. … More My favourite O.P. Nayyar songs
Mahendra Kapoor is one of Hindi cinema’s most underrated singers. Known to be a poor man’s Rafi, Mahendra Kapoor drew varied critical reaction despite singing approximately 25,000 songs (in languages as varied as Hindi, Punjabi, Gujarati and even English) in his career. While growing up, I did not like him much, simply because I am a … More My favourite Mahendra Kapoor songs
Nanda would have been 76 had she been alive today (8th Jan 2015). In an era which was populated with legends, Nanda is one of the lesser feted actresses – underrated and not much appreciated – which is a pity. She tends to be associated with weepy, tragedy-queen type of roles. Unfortunately, that was an era … More My favourite songs of Nanda
30th December, 2014 marks the 27th death anniversary of the unfairly under-rated and lesser known composer, Datta Naik, also credited as N. Dutta. (The above pic has him at the harmonium in a rehearsal with Rafi.) Datta Naik was born in a small village, Oroba, in the then Portuguese colony of Goa in 1930. At … More Remembering N. Dutta (Datta Naik)
As I was surfing looking for pictures of Mohd Rafi, I was struck by the fact that he is smiling in all the pictures. Not one, where that kind smile has not lit his face and sparkled through his eyes. There is something gentle and loveable about the man. Thirty four years after his death, … More A Tribute to Mohd Rafi – Part 2
Today (24th December 2014) will mark the 90th birth anniversary of one of Hindi cinema’s finest singers and my personal favourite, Mohd Rafi. When I planned to make a list of my favourite Rafi numbers as a tribute, it struck me that I would just not be able to come up with a list of 10 … More A Tribute to Mohd Rafi – Part 1
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