A. R. Rehman wins the award for the Best Background Score. The music director has come himself to take the award which is being presented by Abbas-Mustan. He says, “The Filmfare Award is like an ornament for a lady; the more you have, it enhances the charm.”
I didn’t get to see the show, (here‘s clip of that part) but learned from SRK place that the award for best female playback singer went to Shreya Ghoshal for the song “Barso Re” from Guru, written by the extraordinary A. R. Rahman.
Read a nice interview with Shreya Ghoshal by Dr. Mandar in Cinema Sangeet. We’ve posted about Guru before here at Bollywood Food Club, but have to do it again in light of the filmfare awards! So enjoy the award winning vocals of playback singer, Shreya Ghoshal in A. R. Rahman’s “Barso Re” from Guru, picturized on the lovely Aishwariya Rai.
And because I LOVE the Indian talent singing shows, I had to add adorable Anwesha Dutta Gupta’sversion from Star Voice of India’s Chhote Ustad.LOOK at Shreya-ji join in!
WOW! I saw the classic Naya Daur (New Age) this week and LOVED IT! It’s a drama of man vs. machine. I threw out every machine in my house after seeing it, but then I went out and replaced them all when I understood, if used correctly and without taking away human dignity, they’re OK.
Naya Daur is a 1957 Indian drama film starringDilip Kumar, Vyjayanthimala, Ajit and Jeevan. The film is set in post-independence India where Industrialization is slowly creeping in.The focus is on Tangawallahs who earn their living transporting people from place to place on Tangas (horse – carts). Their livelihood is threatened when the son of a rich landlord (Jeevan) begins operating a bus service in the town,which he subsidizes heavily with the sole intention of first driving the Tangawallahs out of the down and then making profits. Dilip Kumar plays one of the Tangawallahs who petitions the landlord over this injustice.Then, Jeevan’s character proposes a competition to decide which service is the best – The Bus or the Tanga? It is then decided that there will be a race between both the vehicles. The highlight of the film is definitely the heart stopping final race where the underdog wins and how? (wikipedia)
Check out what upperstall has to say about this movie. There’s also an official website since the 1957 film was colorized and re-released in all its glory in July, 2007. The fancy re-release of the classic has a supplementary disc where you can see Yash Choprā interview the film’s director, his brother, B. R. Chopra, who he calls, “bhai sahib” in the interview, which I loved. So formal! He even wishes his brother the oh so Indian, “All the best!” at the end of the interview. I’d love to interview my own brother and call him brother sir, he’d be so confused. Anyway, the supplemental disc has lots of nice tidbits, like Yash Choprā saying, “43 years ago, a time when people made films with their head and hearts and not just with calculators in their hands.”B. R. Chopra laments that “today’s artists are business men, not so much passion, artists only reworking the same story over and over.” B. R. Chopra speaks of hiring a large group of bangra folk dancers for the movie, worth every rupee I’d say. He also talks about how Vyjayanthimala‘s role was originally intended for Madhubala, but her father refused her participation in the film for fear she’d romantically reinvolve herself with heart-breaker, Dilip Kumar. The musical launch segment has both Chopra brothers, Aditya Chopra, Vyjayanthimala, Dilip Kumar, and Asha Bhosle, all looking great in 2007!
The music in this film by O. P. Nayyar is spectacular! As upperstall writes, “The film is a musical triumph for OP Nayyar and lyricist Sahir Ludhianvi. Each of the songs in the film was a raging hit and won OP Nayyar the Filmfare Award for Best Music.” I especially liked the devotional song “Aana Hai To Aa” by playback singer Mohammed Rafi.This song offers that Bollywood wisdom that I love. Here are the lyrics in English, but I bet the Hindi is richer, more meaningful and more beautiful:
Come if you have to
There are no turns in the path
There is delay but no denial
Come if you have to
When you can’t solve your problems
Have faith in the Lord’s justice
He will resolve your problems
What you couldn’t do the Lord will
He knows everything that’s in your heart
The Lord knows your every condition
Your wishes are fulfilled without asking
Those whose hearts are pure get to take shelter here
I watched Namastey Londonyesterday and expected it to be one of those fluffy mediocre movies made for an NRI audience. I watched it only because I’ll watch almost any Bollywood film and went in with low expectations, especially because I haven’t enjoyed Katrina Kaif’s acting so far. Now I have to say something I never thought I’d say: I loveKatrina Kaif.There, I said it! I could maybe chalk this bold statement up to me spending another cold lonely winter night in Minnesota, thus being more vulnerable to Bollywood’s spell, but nahin!Dosto, I would say the same thing if I were watching this movie with a wonderful boyfriend at an outdoor movie festival on a beautiful summer night.Do you understand NOW what a bold, bold statement that is?She drew me in immediately, and I liked her through the entire movie, she could do no wrong.This is one of the things I love about Bollywood, I will just fall in love with the stars in one movie, and will do it with stars I had no idea I’d like, ones who I detested in other movies; like Kaif in Sarkar, Maine Pyaar Kyun Kiya and Partner. It happened to me with Karisma Kapoor in Dil To Pagal Hai.It happened to me in with Kareena Kapoor in Omkara, and it’s happened with others.Most of the stars have me from the first time I see them, but I like it even more when I didn’t like them and suddenly switch my opinion. So how thrilling to shock myself by say things like, “I love Katrina Kaif!”I love to prove myself wrong! I remember seeing Partnerwith Nandini, and thought Kaif was so stiff and looked so vacant.Then Nandini explained that Kaif needed her lines dubbed by someone else for the film as she didn’t have command of the language. Nandini said this gave her hope that she herself could then even be a Bollywood star if Hindi fluency wasn’t a requirement. Me too! I’ve heard about the Katrina/Akshay chemistry, and now I truly understand it after seeing Namastey London. I love how Kumar checks her out in these scenes, like a gentleman predator:
Sure it was a light movie, but I was pleasantly surprised with Katrina’s character.
Kaif successfully captures that Jazz loves the independence that living in England has provided her, yet she loves her Hindustani roots.
Ahh! Back home taking in the Ganga! I mean I have to hand it to her, she looks really in love with her mother India here.
She even gets to share some serious Bollywood pearls of wisdom:
I especially liked the stupid one dimensional portrayal of the Britishers all (except for Charlie Brown’s father) being shallow bigots. They even have bad teeth! These Britishers said great lines like:
At BFC, we’re always looking for chances to break into Bollywood, and here’s another example of how it could be done.How fun it would be to play a dastardly racist! I’ve put it out there Bollywood, now come and find me!I dare you! Nandini, are you in? And one final thing, the movie also included the brutally handsome Upen Patel. Here he’s warned by his father (Javed Sheikh) and the picture of Mecca on the wall, not to shack up with a girl:
Look at him tell off his fiancee’s racist parents here:
I’ll tell you what’s a crime and what’s unacceptable, that Patelis so stunning! It sets the standard just too high for most humans. And now that I look more closely, I see Avril Lavigne is playing the role of his girlfriend. Now here’s a bit more about the movie.
Namastey London (Hindi: नमस्तेलंदन,Urdu: لندنNamaste Landan) is a Bollywood film directed by VipulAmrutlal Shah and set in London, England, United Kingdom. Akshay Kumar, Katrina Kaif, Nina Wadia, Upen Patel and Rishi Kapoorstar in the film. Jasmeet “Jazz” Malhotra (Katrina Kaif) is an Indian girl, brought up lovingly by her father Manmohan Malhotra (Rishi Kapoor). Jazz loves everything that is British – something her father, a very Indian man with very Indian values, does not approve of. And he’s not alone. Parvez Khan (Javed Sheikh), Manmohan’s best friend, has a son, Imran Khan (Upen Patel), who also embraces Western culture. In fact, he lives with his British girlfriend, something Parvez simply cannot tolerate. Jazz is forced to marry a local from India: Arjun Singh (Akshay Kumar), Punjabi farmer. When the couple come back to London, it turns out that they are not married under British law due to Jazz’s deception to her father. Arjun Singh is crushed to find this out. Furthermore he realises that his beautiful bride still intends to marry her British boyfriend, thus being forced to watch as Jazz flirts with another man. However, Arjun won’t give up without a fight and sets out to make his wife fall in love with him. (wikipedia)
Yesterday I had a life just like Babita in yesterday’s video clip. Such generous dosto were Nandini, Brahmanadam and Gurubhai! Hard to believe it was Gurubhai‘s first time eating Indian food. They showered me with unique, lovely and valuable gifts, the most valuable being their waqt. We dined on scrumptious delicacies at Best of India in the cozy little gem of a strip mall: The Texa Tonka Mall. Strip malls can really be quite charming if you give them the chance. The Texa Tonka not only has a great name, but is home of Best of India, Namaste Plaza, and Axman! After the great meal with yaaro, I was lucky enough to watch Beta, which has the most tight slaps to the face I’ve ever seen in a Bollywood movie. A perfect birthday fo Sita-ji!
Beta (Hindi: बेटा, Urdu: بیٹا, translation: Son) is a 1992 Bollywood movie directed by Indra Kumar. The film featured the pairing of Madhuri Dixit with Anil Kapoor, who were previously paired in Tezaab and Parinda. The film is perhaps best remembered for the hit song “Dhak Dhak Karne Laga”, which earned Dixit her nickname as the “Dhak-Dhak Girl” (“dhak-dhak” = heartbeat). Beta won four Filmfare Awards including Best Actress (Dixit), Best Actor (Kapoor), Best Playback Singer (Anuradha Paudwal for “Dhak Dhak Karne Laga”) and Best Supporting Actress Aruna Irani. It’s a remake of Tamil blockbuster Enga Chinna Raasadirected by Bhagyaraj. Beta is the story of Raju (Anil Kapoor), the only child of a widowed multi millionaire. Raju’s father can provide him anything he wants but Raju’s only desire is to get mother’s love, in order to please Raju, his father gets married to Nagmani (Aruna Irani), thinking that she will take care of Raju more than his real mother would. Raju becomes completely devoted to his stepmother, doing whatever she wishes. Time passes by, Raju grows up and gets married to Saraswati (Madhuri Dixit). Saraswati discovers that Nagmani’s motherly love for Raju is fake and all what Nagmani is interested in, is capturing Raju’s wealth. And thus begins a battle within the household between daughter-inlaw and mother-in-law. (wikipedia)
Today’s video is so caliente, it should be rated R for racy! My movie watching yaar fell in love with Madhuri during this song, and his love only deepened as the movie progressed. Can you say Filmfare award? Enjoy “Dhak Dhak Karne Laga” by playback singers Udit Narayan and Anuradha Paudwal from Beta.
One of the things I love best about Bollywood films are the spiritual and moral messages woven in with the music, dancing, action and melodrama. Don’t you? I also adore all that suffering! Of course as a Catholic I know that suffering leads to purification, hain na? And Ash Wednesday officially kicks off Lent and those 40 days of sacrifice and suffering. So with this special day in mind, let’s enjoy a little sorrow and suffering dosto!
Bollywood teaches so many lessons, like this one, from the 1965 movie Guide. Click over to DocBollywood for some interesting information on Guide. Here Dev Anand tells Waheeda Rehman some very valuable information:
Bollywood chugli from the week of 1/25/08from our favorite correspondent, Suzi Mann:
Madge does Bollywood – ‘Sunday’ hits the big screen, brand Shilpa still sells, King Khan gets nasty.
I wasn’t going to add this video, because I don’t want to give Madonna any attention, but the Cheeni Kumstyle pony tail of Shahrukh Khan forced me to make the concession. I’m sorry to have to show you this, but you need to see it.
How does this make you feel?………… And how does THIS make you feel?
I’m sorry, like I said, I thought you needed to see it.
Like yesterday’s clip, here’s another from Seeta Aur Geeta (1972). Today enjoy the action packed “O Saathi Chal” sung by playback singers extraordinaire, Kishore Kumar and Asha Bhosle, music by the incomparable R.D. Burman. Here Ravi (Sanjeev Kumar) and Geeta (Hema Malini) skate down a mountain. A typical date, right? Watch carefully as Geeta seems to turn into a big man in a wig during the more daring scenes. I think it’s the best part of the movie.
UsherRed‘s YouTube video is dubbed in Russian, which adds another layer to its already great appeal. In this clip poor Geeta, is set to get married, and is scheming to get out of it because she’s guilty that her fiancé mistakenly thinks she’s really Seeta. She trys to imagine the worst case senario, which involves a tight slap to the face, and wiggles her way out of that situation, or does she? Here’s how she figures she’ll be able to sidestep the shaadi:
I’m particularly fond of this scene because I had a pair of white patten leather go-go boots I wore when I was about five years old, just like Hema is sporting here. It’s also impressive that she never spills even a drop of her sharaab in this scene.
When reading about the recent 53rd Annual Filmfare Awards at SRK place, this stood out:
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