A tribute to Kishore Kumar, the legend, on his 86th birthday

Today is the 86th birthday of legendary singer Kishore Kumar, a man of many qualities who is remembered for the hundreds of songs that he has sung in his lifetime – from comical ones to soulful ones. He was a master in his own way and has left an indelible mark on not just Bengalis but on all Indians.
Among his songs, I love the one from the 1954 movie ‘Paheli Tarikh’ or ‘The 1st day of the month’. The lyrics of the song ‘din hai suhana, aaj paheli tarikh hai’ was penned by Qamar Jalalabadi and paints a vivid picture of the 1st day of any month in the year 1954.
It has been aired at exactly 7.30am on the 1st day of every month over Radio Ceylon and later Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation.
In those days, the 1st day of the month meant getting salaries, hence there was happiness in the family and expectations right from the missus to the kids. Everyone in the family looked up to the bread earner.

The expectations of the wife came first - please come home early, she says, because I would like to go to see a cinema at night with you. Do not make any excuse because today is the first day of the month and there is happiness all around.
The shopkeeper is happy – he will get some money from those who had taken items on credit and owe him money. The money lender (Kabuliwala) has come at the gate of the office – he wants his money back. The money he had given as loan!
The cinema hall beckons – they announce cinemas of Aaga, Bhagwan, Kishor Kumar, Nimmi, Gita Bali, Ashok Kumar, Nargis, Raaj Kapoor, and Dilip Kumar. They promise songs and dance aplenty. Tickets are priced at five annas – the price in the black market is ten annas!! Do not go back because, today is after all, the 1st day of the month. (Anna was the denomination of coinage up to the 1960s – 16 annas was equal to one rupee)
And, the children also want their share of fun and joy. They surround the man of the house and demand toys.
Kishore Kumar has sung hundreds of songs but, this is one song that gives a vivid description of the simple life of the 1950s – it is all about a past era when wants were few. (to be continued…)

(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

Some more interesting 'must reads'-

Gold smuggling route to India via London - courtesy airline staff

Rat inside Air India’s Dreamliner forces it to abort flight to Milan and return to Delhi

How to improve digestion through proper food items


Ajay Devgn - new look in Drishyam

Salman Khan’s ‘Bajrangi Bhaijan’ is the talk of the town – the cash box is ringing

Jena Malone to appear in the role of Batgirl in Batman v Superman


Gun battle in Multan – Pakistan police eliminate Sunni militant leader and 13 others

Man of Agra kills four minor girls to cure his mentally ill wife on advice of tantrik

ISIS targets Indians in Libya – four teachers returning to India kidnapped


Influence of Bengali culture on Hindi movies

Prawns are the prized catch of the kitchen

How green is our Indian food menu

Indian movies love twins

Indian movies love twins and movies made on them have always made the box office jingle and have never disappointed the producers or directors or the heroes and heroines. The storylines have usually been ‘lost and found’ cases where the twins get separated in childhood in places like the village fair, grow up in diametrically opposite surroundings and come together at the climax. In between, 18 reels would have unwound over at least three hours.
Indian movies with these of twins show one of them as meek, submissive, fear prone, and weak while the other character is just the opposite.

One of the earliest Bollywood movie with twins was in 1967 – it was Ram aur Shyam in which Dilip Kumar played the double role. Later there were other such movies like Seeta aur Geeta (Hema Malini 1972), Gora aur Kaala (Rajendra Kumar 1972), Chaalbaaz (Sridevi 1989), Kishen Kanhaiya (Anil Kapoor 1990) and Judwaa (Salman Khan 1997).
These movies draw crowds even when shown today – the storylines are tweaked for variety but, the end result is always the same. These provide a chance for the actors and actresses to show off their capabilities and talent.
In Seeta and Geeta, the heroine Hema Malini was superb as she portrayed two totally different roles in the 1972 film.
When Sridevi did her double role in Chaalbaaz, her fans swooned at her abilities to portray the role of a girl who loved her drinks.
Of course, supporting actors are also important to keep the interest of the audience alive.
In Seeta aur Geeta, the male leads were of Dharmendra and Sanjeev Kumar – both were admirably suited to their roles. In Chaalbaaz, the male leads were played by Rajnikant and Sunny Deol.
In all these ‘twin’ movies, the leading ladies and the men get ample scope to display their abilities to adapt to different needs of the story.
There have been Bollywood movies where the actor has done more than two roles in a single film – Sanjeev Kumar performed in nine roles in the 1974 movie Naya Din Nayee Raat. However, Priyanka Chopra went one better – she did 12 roles in the 2009 movie What’s Your Rashee? (to be continued …)

(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)
A few more must reads -
Popcorns in movie halls can contain too much salt and sugar for comfort

Glastonbury Festival might move out from Worthy Farm to a new location

China wants to revive silk route with high speed rail link between Kolkata and Kunming

Iranian women have tickets but cannot watch volleyball match in Tehran

Global warming – snow on the Himalayas is melting too fast due to rise in temperatures


61-year-old woman kicked and stamped her husband to death over a pack of cigarettes

Nine killed by a white man in a hate crime in South Carolina church

Bear bile farm in Vietnam finally closed down, only one bear survived out of 27


Today TV dictates our lifestyle

News on TV channels go from dull to attractive

Deolali, the destination of the Mumbai crowd during summer

Deolali was a calm and quiet neighborhood when I landed up there. It was the beauty of the place with the clip clop of hooves on the tar road breaking the monotony of the quiet evenings or nights that impressed me. It was the sound of the tonga – or horse drawn carriages. These were an accepted form of transport and were available at the railway station alongside the taxis – those with money took the taxi, those who did not have that kind of money would opt for the tonga.
Anyway, as summer set in, the Mumbai crowd would arrive and put up in the various sanatoriums – these belonged to different communities like the Bohra Muslims or the Guajarati families. And – since HAL was still getting its family quarters built in Ojhar at the location of the factory, it had taken many of these sanatoriums on rent.
To go back to the Mumbai crowd – the women and girls would showoff the latest trend in dresses. It is of interest to note that the famed Bollywood actor Dilip Kumar was from Deolali! The Lewitt Market and surrounding areas would be where the Mumbai crowd would gather haggling over the price of flowers or fruits.
Or – they would head for Hill Temple … a hillock from where one could get a clear view of the surroundings.
For entertainment there were two cinema halls – one was in the military area called Cathay, the other in the civilian area and known as Adelphi. While most of the movies in Cathay were English, the Hindi movies would be screened in Adelphi.
And – for food, snacks and refreshments, the pick of the town was Bharat Cold Drinks. Its faloodas were beauties as were its ice creams. Just for information – the cost of a bottle of Coca Cola in the 1967 era was just 25 paise while a glass of fresh lime juice could be had for only 10 paise!! (to be continued …)

Another interesting blog - Violence and atrocities

Another interesting blog - Citizen Journalist

Growing up days – 1960s was the coming of age of Hindi movies

1960s was the coming of age of Hindi movies from Bollywood because it was the transition from the black-and-white era to the era of color. And, the movies used to feature stalwarts of the Hindi cinema – names like Raj Kapoor, Shammi Kapoor, Dilip Kumar, Dev Anand, Manoj Kumar and Rajesh Khanna meant box office stars.

The heroines added the glamour quotient and their running around trees was an integral part of Bollywood movies. Moreover, kissing was and still is taboo in Hindi movies and the symbolic depiction was through a pair of birds nestling close and rubbing their beaks.
There was experimentation and producers began to shift the locales from built-up sets in the studio to more exotic locations both inside the country as well as abroad. Legendary Raj Kapoor set the trend with his 1964 super-hit movie Sangam where he went abroad to shoot some portion of the movie.
Then there was Shammi Kapoor who redefined entertainment in Hindi movies by his exuberance and high level of energy that mixed with beautiful music and lyrics to produce masterpieces – the songs are popular even today after half a century. Raj Kapoor –Jis Desh mein Ganga Behti Hai (1960), Chhalia (1960), Dil Hi To Hai (1963), Sangam (1964), Teesri Kasam (1966)
Dilip Kumar – Kohinoor (1960), Mughal-e-Azam (1960), Ganga Jamuna (1961), Leader (1964), Ram aur Shyam (1967), Aadmi (1968)
Shammi Kapoor – Junglee (1961), China Town (1962), Kashmir ki kali (1964), Raaj Kumar (1964), Janwaar (1965), Teesri Manzil (1966), An evening in Paris (1967), Brahmachari (1968)

Dev Anand – Kala Bazaar (1960), Hum Dono (1961), Asli Naqli (1962), Tere Ghar ke samney (1963), Guide (1965), Teen Deviya (1965), Jewel Thief (1967)
Manoj Kumar – Hariyali aur raasta (1962), Woh kaun thi (1964), Himalaya ki God Mein (1965), Shaheed (1965), Upkar (1967) Rajesh Khanna – Baharon ke sapne (1967), Aradhana (1969), Do Raaste (1969), Ittefaq (1969), Khamoshi (1969), Bandhan (1969) (to be continued …)