Karen’s goldmine of Bollywood images. Images galore!

Back in June I posted about Karen’s Blog, Everything Bollywood, This is the Opium to the Masses. Having found the gold mine of Bollywood photos on her site and then reading Karen’s sad words: “Regarding anyone who has interest in my blog, if it hasn’t already become apparent, i have pretty much abandoned this blog. reason being that i thought that no one cared about this blog so i stopped doing stuff with it,” I was alarmed that maybe the blog would be removed. I also feared that I’d loose the link to her other source of the great photos, her picaweb albums. Thankfully Karen posted a few comments here and provided the links to her picaweb albums and also let the world know that most of the dead links on her blog were fixed. Her blog is also back up and running! Look what she had to say here:

Thanx to Sitaji, bollywoodfoodclub, memsaab, bollywoodblogger, nirmal loves nihangs, thebollywoodfan and Anonymous I have decided not to kill this blog! Instead of posting pics directly onto this blog I have uploaded them into Google web albums instead. All of the links are posted on the Left side of blog so you can view all of the pics there! I’m still shifting stuff around so i will change the links again! Please feel free to leave comments here or at web albums pics, I will reply as soon as possible! Enjoy the pics!

If Karen’s massive photo uploading efforts could be portrayed in a picture it would be this one: Karen (here taking the form of Helen) offering up the intoxicating images to us all, and we’re so cool, we’re Don!

Thanks to Karen I’d like to post those album links here. She’s done a fantastic job of gathering lakhs, maybe even crores, of dazzling images from our beloved Indian Film Industry, affectionately known to many as Bollywood. I’m warning you, there are thousands of images and you will end up spending more time than expected browsing. Beware dosto. Here are Karen’s 4 main galleries:

Actor Pictures can be found HERE! Like this one of a Zanjeer promotion, that I found in Mandy’s public gallery which contains 41 albums. The Groups album that contained this photo has 400 more photos!

Yesteryear Actresses and Couples Pictures can be found HERE! I found this in the Sadhana Album:

Actors and Actresses from the 90’s are HERE! Karen’s put together 76 albums, some containing hundreds of these pictures from the 1990s. If you like Maduri Dixit, then this is your place!

If you think it couldn’t possibly get any better, you’re wrong, it can! Karen’s last gallery contains 33 albums of Movie Posters, Albums, Pressbooks, Lobby Cards and everything else associated with the movies that you can find HERE!

Thanks to YOU again Karen!

Many will enjoy these images, and some like me may even risk losing their jobs if they continue to spend time looking at everything Karen’s posted.  Wait, there were 2 images that I found a little disturbing, which I shall leave you with links to, as I don’t want to startle anyone by boldly posting them here. I do want to be discreet afterall. This is one and this is the other.

All photos used in this post are of course courtesy of Karen.

 

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Bally Sagoo is a nice guy.

 

My blog dosto, I have missed you! I have been ignoring this blog since my last post about Bally Sagoo coming to Minneapolis. I attended the show with blog poster Brahmanadam, who was kind enough to purchase VIP tickets. With the fancy VIP tickets came a meet and greet with babuji Bally Sagoo. Since the picture was less than flattering of me and my friend, I had to do a little bit of subtle editing. Bally Sagoo looks cool, as expected.

So what does one say at a meet-n-greet? Well first off, we all had a drink of Johnnie Walker in celebration of the occasion, then I wasn’t sure what to say, so I said this:

Sita-ji: Sat Sri Akaal Bhai Sahib!

Bally Sagoo: Hi.

Sitai-ji: So you must really hate this part.

Bally Sagoo: No I love it, it’s great! (said with sincerity)

Sitai-ji: So do you have any questions about Minneapolis that I can answer?

Bally Sagoo: No.

Sitai-ji: Hey I saw on the internet that you and your wife do feng shui. That’s cool.

Then we moved on and the next people had their picture taken with Bally Sagoo, and so on, and so on. Now that I reflect on this awkward event, I think that maybe you’re supposed to be quiet and smile and have your picture taken. Next time I’ll do that if I ever have to participate in a celebrity to civilian meet and greet. Had I known that Bally Sagoo was in a movie, Sajna Ve Sajna, out now on DVD, I would have brought a copy to sign. Here’s how his website describes the film:

Bally (Bally Sagoo) lives the life as the spoiled Grandson of Multi-millionaire Kartar Singh (Dalip Tahil). His aspirations are to conquer the world with his band Desi Fever and marry his long-term girl friend Charlene (Zoë Szypillo) Will Charlene be able to fit in as a daughter-in-law within a respected Panjabi family? What about Manpreet who sacrificed her own love so that Bally could have his way? Can the two different cultures meet eye to eye?

Yes, two different cultures can meet eye to eye. The show was very melodious and funky and Bally had a sidekick Sikh hype man next to him all night. Who was this guy? Was he a friend? A relative? Bodyguard? Maybe he was all of those things, but whoever he was, he sure seemed to have fun and enjoyed Bally’s expert Djing, as did the hipster desi crowd. There even was the required groupie gracing the stage all evening.

You can see more images from Bally Sagoo’s 9.19.08 Minneapolis show HERE.

Now let’s check out a little bit of Bally Sagoo’s work.  Thanks to Richard over at Rough in Here for reminding me of Shree Sagoo’s remix of Reshmi Salwar Kurta Jaali Ka, that is titled Gori Gori Kudi, and performed by playback singer Shreya Ghosal in his movie Sajna Ve Sajna. The song was originally found in the 1957 film Naya Daur that you can’t help but love, and here it is reworked by Sagoo:

And here’s a bit more from Shree Sagoo:

Sorry for neglecting this blog, I got a bit sidetracked with work and with my new blog on swan towels, or should I say towel swans?

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Minneapolis: Bally Sagoo concert this Friday, 9.19.08

Maybe after today’s news you’re a little anxious. Are you worried about your 401K, your stocks, and the complete meltdown of the US finance system? Well worry not, at least those of you in Minneapolis, since this Friday you can see…

 

BALLY SAGOO

w/DJ Nittin, DJ Amit, DJ Raj
Friday September 19th, 2008
@ The Fine Line – Downtown Minneapolis

THE BIGGEST DESI EVENT TO HIT THE TWIN CITIES AREA!!

– Bhangra, Bollywood, Hip Hop…ALL NIGHT LONG!!

More information available at

Nasha Entertainment

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Bollywood Insider: Latest reports from August & September, 2008

 

Back with the newest Bollywood chugli is Bollywood Insider’s Suzi Mann.

Here’s what I was able to search out for August up through today. 

Enjoy dosto!

 

 

 

 

From August 22, 2008:

Stars of the Unforgettable tour give an exclusive Q and A session in London ahead of their 02 Arena show.

From August 29, 2008:

SRK takes on the Bachchans – Kidnap gets Eid release

From September 5, 2008:

HollyBolly crossover! Warner Bros takes a close look at ‘Hari Putter’ – Sly and Denise share screen with Kumar – Hijack released

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Ditto! Mere Mehboob! R.I.P. my Bollywood lovin’ billi.

I put my beloved cat, Ditto, to sleep today. She was approximately 16.4 years old and lived a great life! In fact she probably lead a life more comfortable than most people in the world are able live. I have never been present when a pet has been put to sleep until today, and was amazed that is was just as sweet as it was sad. Why do I write about Ditto here on a Bollywood blog? Well of course I have to write about her zindagi, I mean life, because I loved her and she watched most of the Bollywood movies I’ve seen with me! OK, I admit she slept peacefully through most of the films, unless there was a song, fight scene, or animal sound that piqued her interest and perked up her ears. I think she especially liked Lata and Asha’s voices. I will be looking for this little cat to perhaps be reincarnated into the next Indian Film Industry star! She’d be like that pretty actress who won a pagent, starts out as an item girl in films, but it turns out she can really act! Or maybe she’ll be a playback singer, hai na?

 

Now Ditto’s life was like a lot of Bollywood films. She started out as an orphan that my brother found abandoned, crying out on a cold and rainy night. I think it must have been a lot like the baby left in the park in Amar Akbar Anthony. My bhai brought her home temporarily. Cat lovers, you all know what temporarily means. But there was a problem since my brother already had a cat, Bud, and she was a dacoit! Bud had made my brother her keeper when she found him walking around the block at night, while he would secretly smoke cigarettes. Dacoit Bud and my brother had clandestine meetings that turned into a permanent living arrangement. This is typical of the tricky ways cats work; they scout you out and make you think you found them. Yet bandit Bud had a heart of gold, and though she spent time smoking, drinking Johnnie Walker, gambling, murdering birds, and pretending to have no regard for the new orphan Ditto, she secretly did love the new kitten. Bud proved her love of Ditto by protecting her from a menacing dog. The kitten copied much of what Bud did, and earned her name: Ditto. Fast forward 16 years, Bud has been gone for years, and Ditto has now joined her in cat heaven. Ditto was fond of the beautiful things in life, like napping in the sun, sight seeing out the window, and sleeping to Bollywood movies. She especially loved salmon, pastries, shiny colorful beads, and all plants, particularly flowers. I didn’t have the luck of discovering the joy of having a pet cat until I was an adult. I had a great bulldog as a kid, but no cat. So many wasted years of my youth were lived cat-free! This gorgeous, sweet cat improved my quality of life about 80% to 90%, and since I’ve had a nice life so far, that’s saying a lot! Her sweet spirit and memory shall live on forever. Ditto’s movie watching career (in this lifetime) ended on a high note with Mere Mehboob (translation:My Beloved, how fitting!) and 4 of the 5.5 hours of Peter Brook’s The Mahabharata. On a side note, don’t you think when you take apart the name Barack Obama it sounds a lot like Mahabharata all mixed up? Ba-Rak-O-Ba-Ma. Ma-Ha-Bha-Ra-Ta.

Last night when I knew I’d be putting Ditto to sleep today, I was checking the blog stats page, which shows what search terms bring people to your blog and the highlighted stood out to me:

I must have at one time used the words, “night is always darkest before the dawn” in this blog and someone was led here that way. I am always on the look out for mystical coincidences, and took this to be a lovely one that revealed a message I needed to read last night. How sweet! Isn’t life grand?

At times artistic expression can convey the deepest of feelings and send a healing message. The wonderful film Jaane Tu … Ya Jaane Na (2008) has just such a message in a song that fits my situation today: Kabhi Kabhi Aditi Zindigi. In this tune Genelia D’Souza‘s character Aditi has a cat that has just died and her friend, played by Imran Khan, tries to cheer her up. The beautiful music is by the illustrious A. R. Rahman, with playback singer Rashid Ali, picturized on D’Souza, Khan, and a kitten!

One of my favorite bloggers, TheBollywoodFan, recently tranlated the lyrics to all the songs from JTYJN. You can read his full translation of Kabhi Kabhi Aditi Zindigi here. I’ve copied some of his translation to the song here to show you how it was just what I needed today and has a message that we all need:

Occasionally, Aditi, in life like this, it feels like someone belongs to us. Occasionally, Aditi, when he/she separates, it feels like it was a dream. In such a case how can on keep one’s tears from flowing? And how can someone think that everything’s gonna be OK?…Listen a little, the uncontrolled wind starts telling you, that Aditi, those who separate meet again, Aditi, whether or not you know the flowers blossom again.

Bollywood coming through for me in a tough spot! So I will continue to watch movies, missing my sweet little Ditto and being thankful for the great times we had. Maybe a new cat will find me when the time is right. There has been a cat hanging around the house a lot lately, looking like he or she would like to come in. I wonder if that billi would like Bollywood?

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