A topical in context of the ongoing IPL spot fixing brouhaha. This is from one of the most fondly remembered scenes from Sai Paranjpye’s very loveable 1981 comedy Chashme Buddoor. Watch in the video embedded below.
(This is an edited version of a post first published on April 21, 2012, that was also cross-posted on my other blog at IBNLive.com) In India, cinema isn’t just a passion. It is an obsession. We have perhaps inherited this acute addiction from the man who started it all, 100 years ago – the Father [...]
Ramesh Sippy’s Shakti (1982) isn’t as much about the Amitabh Bachchan and Smita Patil on-screen romance, as the on-screen histrionics of the Big B and and the Big D – Dilip Kumar. In a rare drift away from the moral weave of the movies of that period Sippy didn’t shy away from portraying a live-in [...]
Mereko kuch nahi pata, mein to kal hi mulk se aaya. Bol na be ~ Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s first lines in Hindi cinema Even a glimpse is enough to know a good actor from remaining 95 per cent and 139 seconds of Nawazuddin Siddiqui from 14 years ago was enough for me. The man has delivered [...]
In India, cinema isn’t just a passion. It is frenzical. We have perhaps inherited this acute addiction from the man who started it all, 99 years ago – the Father of Indian Cinema Dhundiraj Govind Phalke (1870-1944). Dadasaheb Phalke as we better know him as, held the first show of Raja Harishchandra what is widely [...]
Ever since I first understood the concept of public domain, this project of getting Indian films which out of copyright into a single place has been a recurring desire. But I never actually got around executing the idea, because the plans I drew were grandiose beyond my resources. While reading the chapter on Ashok Kumar [...]
A 1973 31-minute documentary from Merchant Ivory Productions, directed and narrated by Anthony Korner on Bollywood greatest ‘item girl’ ever. It’s Helen’s 72nd birthday today. But before you head on to the video, a vintage Lux advertisement featuring Helen. YouTube playlist: Helen, Queen of the Nautch Girls Madhu Nair points out that the YouTube videos [...]