Lagaan: Elizabeth, More Than Just A Gori Extra

Elizabeth (Rachel Shelley), She’s more than just a gori extra. With the encouragement of theBollywoodFan, I decided to contribute to his Lagaan Week to celebrate the 9th anniversary of the release of the epic film.  In order to develop something that would resemble a worthwhile blog post, I knew I had to re-watch Lagaan, since [...]

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Dayavan (1988) The Khanna-o-Rama that is Vinod

In honor of Beth Loves Bollywood’s international Khanna Family initiative to celebrate all film industry Khannas, Khanna-o-Rama, I would like to contribute a little write-up on Dayavan (1988).   It starts out with poor little orphan, Shakti Vellu, aka Dayavan (kid version of Vinod Khanna) ending up witnessing his dad being unjustly murdered by some corrupt police.  [...]

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Ram Jaane (1995) featuring a mini SRK tribute.

I love a good orphan film, and there’s not much more I can say about Ram Jaane than hasn’t already been said so well by Fortune City and Post Punk Cinema Club, but I can show you some of the parts that I really enjoyed.  Just look at the cool movie poster from the film [...]

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Fiza (2000)

Fiza (2000) is concisely described at IMDB here: In 1993 Fiza’s brother disappears during the riots in Mumbai. In 1999 Fiza is tired of waiting and goes looking for him. But there’s a little more to it than this, since when he’s gone he becomes a TERRORIST!  And this makes me think, can I write the [...]

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Boot Polish (1954) Orphan Power!

Orphans Unite! Slumdog Millionaire (2008), step aside because Boot Polish (1954) has trumped you by delivering more tragic orphans frame per frame than your film and possibly any movie ever…well in any movie I’ve seen. Boot Polish is a 1954 Hindi film directed by Prakash Arora and produced by Raj Kapoor. It won Best Film at the Filmfare Awards and was nominated [...]

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Sita-ji’s favorite Bollywood films from 2000-2009

Namaste yaar!  As 2010 dawns, I’d like to offer up some of my favorite films from the past decade. Technically I should wait until 2011 to count a full decade, but I’m doing it anyway.  I waiver from the blog’s subject of Bollywood quite often, but here I will try to focus on pure Bollywood filums, no [...]

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Dharmatma (1975) Feroz Khan does The Godfather, Bollywood style

When Feroz Khan died earlier this year, I thought I’d better see a few more of his films in order to pay tribute to his career.  One of the most mentioned films of Khan’s career seemed to be Dharmatma (1975), so I watched it. Feroz Khan, who has died aged 69, was an Indian actor and [...]

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Aaina (1993)

Did you ever get a movie with the same title, expecting another?   I once thought I was ordering Kalyug (1981), but instead got Kalyug (2005).  Such was the case for me with Aaina.  I think I intended to get the 1977 Aaina: Aaina is a 1977 Indian Bollywood film starring Rajesh Khanna , Mumtaz in [...]

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Explosion 2009 tour-spoiler alert!

If you’re planning on catching Sonu Nigam, Sunidhi Chauhan, Hard Kaur’s tour…Spoiler Alert! Sorry, I just like the drama and warning of typing Spoiler Alert! At least this is a spolier alert for about 10 minutes of Sonu bhai’s segment. Check out a bit of the Explosion 2009 show from Washington D.C., USA. These videos are [...]

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Noor Jehan, Queen of Melody. Plus: murder by balloons!

Dosto! I’m working my way back from the world of Iranian cinema through Pakistan films, before I eventually land again in Bollywood. I have only seen two Pakistani (Lollywood)  films, one was Khuda Ke Liye (2007) and the other,  Dupatta (1952).  I read about Dupatta at Dances on the Footpath where Richard did a great write up [...]

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