Et tu, Dadamoni? How Ashok Kumar fell from grace in Suraiya’s eyes
There are a lot of distractions while reading eBooks on the phone and Twitter is one. As I was swiping through the pages of Raju Bharatan’s A Journey Down Melody…Continue Reading →
Why Govind Nihalani had to be given police protection
Govind Nihalani faced threats from Hindu right-wing groups for making ‘Tamas’ (1987) and had to be given police protection.
At Rs 100/issue buy e-versions of Filmfare magazine from 60 years ago
Update: Filmfare seems to have removed its magazines from sale on Magzter. As regular readers of this blog (if there…
Ad from 1982: Pan Parag with Jalal Agha and Kalpana Iyer (and why I can’t ever forget Jalal’s name)
It has happened to the best of quizzards and I was far from being anywhere close to the best. The year was 2000 and the place – a packed auditorium…Continue Reading →
Download for free: 40 HarperCollins India ebooks on Google Play
Disclosure: I am an ebook evangelist. Update 2: As expected, Google and HarperCollins India seems to have been alerted of…
Kishore Kumar: Childhood and first wedding photos
Who is the greatest playback singer of Hindi cinema? The debate was raging from much before I was born (and…
Bhaag Milkha Bhaag: The actual newspaper headlines in September 1960 were quite different
Indians would have surely been disappointed by Milkha Singh’s legendary defeat in the 400 metres final at the 1960 Rome Olympics, but did the disappointment turn into actual anger as…Continue Reading →
100 Years of Indian Cinema: India Post’s 50 commemorative stamps
[This post is part of the 100 Years of Indian Cinema celebrations on Cutting the Chai] In May this year…
Pran (1920-2013) – a hero of a villain: Unofficial Google doodle
The obits call him Bollywood’s most feared villain. Not for me. To me Pran Saheb was the most hero-like of…
Illustrated Weekly cover: Varadarajan ‘Nayagan’ Mudaliar, the ‘most feared man in Bombay’
The Bombay underworld, is full of stories fit to be made into movies and they have been – lots of them. One of these films unfailingly finds a place in…Continue Reading →
Chamko – Fixes all spots
A topical in context of the ongoing IPL spot fixing brouhaha. This is from one of the most fondly remembered…
Inside the original Bombay Talkies (photograph from 1942)
The 2013 movie Bombay Talkies couldn’t live up to the standards set by the original Bombay Talkies, the film studio…