There is something charming about train journeys. As the locomotives whizz past different landscapes, routes and places, towards their destination, taking a whole set of travellers with them, they become a bit more than just a convenient mode of transportation. Accidental meetings take place – people meet, connect and go their separate ways. Long journeys […]
This blog had been much neglected over the past two months and I had been planning to revive it before the year ends. A list of 10 of my favourite songs picturised on Sadhana, one of the best actresses of the 60s, had been lying incomplete in the drafts folder for many weeks now and I did not […]
Let me start with a confession: I share a love-hate relationship with this movie. I love the music and the songs; the two actresses in the movie (especially Mumtaz) are adorable and Kashmir looks breathtakingly gorgeous. So watching this movie should be an enjoyable viewing experience. But it is not. And the reason is subjective. Every time I see a song […]
( 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). […]
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 […]
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. […]
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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
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 […]
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From the Author of Abhaya
Great film music and great music directors
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A Brief History of the saree blouse and Indian fashion before 1960 with an occasional excursion after. All images are credited but if they are here by accident please do let me know and I will take it down. All posts also on vintageindianclothing.tumblr.com
by arunava sinha [arunava@gmail.com]
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