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Mera Saaya Saath Hoga – Raj Khosla

KV Ramesh |kvr4060@gmail.com Many directors went through tough times before they tasted success. For Raj Khosla, it was no different.  Born May 31, 1925, Raj Khosla came to Bombay (now Mumbai) to be a playback singer. Guru Dutt - Dev Anand pair "discovered" Raj Khosla. There is an apocryphal story that the trio promised each...

Kathepalikadcha Chitrapat

कथेपलीकडचा चित्रपट

Suhas Kirloskar | suhass.kirloskar@gmail.com The Voyage of Colorfilm In 1901, the first color movie was created. As time went by, the production of color films in the year 1905 started using six colors. Later on, the introduction of Technicolor in 1915 was seen as a turning point for color movies. Dadasaheb Torane created a 22-minute film called...

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Imperial Cinema

Arun Puranik | arun.puranik@gmail.com One still thinks of the Parsi riots that happened roughly 75 years ago while discussing Imperial Cinema. The first Bombay Talkies film, "Jawani ki Hawa", by Himanshu Roy, was released on September 16th, 1935, at Imperial. Devika Rani, the movie's main character, is a pretty young woman who doesn't want to...

DIRECTOR & MUSIC 11

Baar Baar Dekho Hazaar Baar Dekho – Shakti Samanta

K V Ramesh | kvr4060@gmail.com If one were to look at the sheer volume of work of Shakti Samanta, we would be astounded by the high quality of songs in his films. And what songs they were; memorable is an understatement to describe the sheer high quality of output, leave alone the commercial successes. Shakti...

Basu C 00

Yeh Jeevan hai – Basu Chatterjee

K V Ramesh | kvr4060@gmail.com Mainstream Hindi cinema, popularly called Bollywood, always has its stereotyped larger-than-life characters. The “hero” and heroine were usually “whiter than white”, while the villains were blacker than black.  Nothing in between. The stories were largely formulaic with occasional flashes of innovation. That changed mainly in the late 1960s and through...

REVIEW - Bhula Nahi Dena 00

Remembering K. Amarnath

The Coffee Table book titled BHULA NAHIN DENA - REMEMBERING K. AMARNATH, a pictorial biography brilliantly compiled and written by Ranjan Sain. It is a ticket to travel back in time and visit the bygone era of Bollywood to experience the life journey of K. Amarnath, who was revered as the most systematic and time-efficient...

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Pyar ka Mausam Aaya – Nasir Hussain

K V Ramesh | kvr4060@gmail.com There is a joke that Nasir Hussain left Lucknow with one file containing one story that he kept repeating again and again in various combinations! First as a writer, then as a producer, then a writer-producer-director! Most of his big hits have a common theme. The hero opposes his estranged...

DIRECTOR & MUSIC - Hrishikesh Mukherjee

Zindagi Kaisi Hai Paheli – Hrishikesh Mukherjee

K V Ramesh | kvr4060@gmail.com Hrishikesh Mukherjee, popularly known as Hrishida, was a well-known director and an expert editor, producer, screenplay, and dialogue writer. This resulted from his early years in Calcutta (now Kolkata). He laid aside his ambitions to pursue a scientific career in favor of the magic of cinema. The world of science...

INSIGHT - Teesri Manzil - Vineet Srivastava

कौन इस कैलेंडर के पन्ने को पलटे?

विनीत श्रीवास्तव | इंदौर (म.प्र.) सुरमित्रों, आज तक १५० से ज़्यादा गीतों की समीक्षा लेखन और वीडियो के ज़रिये कर चूका हूँ। पर हिन्दी फ़िल्मी गीतों के बारे में जब बात करें तो ऐसे कई अरमान होते हैं जो दबे रहते हैं पर दफन नहीं होते और सही वक़्त पर उछल कर सामने आ ही...