Laxmi Chhaya- Maar Diya Jaye Ke Chhod Diya Jaye

 

Most of us remember Laxmi Chhaya with this iconic song from the 1971 film 'Mera Gaon Mera Desh'but she first came into limelight with a dance number from 1965 film 'Gumnam' with a guest appearance as the masked dancer in the song Jaan Pehechan Ho. Her dance performance was appreciated and  gained a cult following internationally, receiving attention in both India and America, and has been deemed her signature performance.

Laxmi Chhaya (7 January 1948 – 9 May 2004)  began acting with an uncredited appearance as one of the schoolgirls in Talaq (1958), for a few years she appeared in many Bollywood as a guest appearance, a few of these were Raat Aur Din.(1967), Baharon Ke Sapne,(1967) ,Upkar(1967) and Ram Aur Shyam,  Naughty Boy(1962) as Bela, was her first role that wasn't a guest role.

In 1968, she starred in Duniya as Laxmi, a role named after her. In 1969, Chhaya next starred as Rita in the film Aya Sawan Jhoom Ke (1969), where she starred in a supporting role once again with Asha Parekh. The movie was a commercial success. In the same year, she also starred in the film Pyar Ka Mausam (1969). In 1971, Chhaya starred as Munnibai, a young girl who works undercover for a dacoit, in Mera Gaon Mera Desh, her first role as Munnibai was a  part of the main cast.The film was a major and critical success at the time, and is considered to be one of Chhaya's best performances.Three songs were picturized on her, all of them were popular.

In 70s, she appeared in many films after the success of Mera Gaon Mera Desh, Raaste Kaa Patthar (1972), Do Chor (1972), Bindiya Aur Bandook (1973), Do Phool(1973) ,harafat Chod Di Maine (1976), and Haiwan(1977).are a few.

 After a series of commercially unsuccessful films, in 1987, she retired the film industry after a guest appearance in the film Parakh. In the years prior to her death, Chhaya went on to open her own dance school, where she taught dancing to indigent children.

After retiring from cinema, Chhaya taught dancing to indigent children. She died of cancer in Mumbai on May 9, 2004 at the age of 56.

Here are 10 memorable dances performed by Laxmi Chhaya in films.

Song of Gumnam 1965

Raat Aur Din (1967) 

Song of Upkar (1967)

Song of Baharon Ke Sapne (1967) Audio only

Song of Aaya Sawan Jhoom Ke (1969)

Song of Mera Gaon Mera Desh 1971

Song of Mera Gaon Mera Desh 1971

Song of Mera Gaon Mera Desh 1971

Song of Raaste Ka Patthar (1972)

Song of Sharafat Chhod Di Maine (1976)

Shammi Kapoor- A Natural Dancer

 

Shammi Kapoor in his Biography said"The sound of any music evoked in me a strong urge to dance. The rhythm didn't take time to seep into me and seek expression in dance. The urge to dance was always there in him. His brother Raj Kapoor was a good dancer but Shammi was different.

He never had a dance director or a choreographer for his dance songs in any film. He danced to his own style and created his own steps and movements. The first time he got the chance of expressing himself in dance songs was in Tumsa Nahin Dekha, this film redefined him and shot him to bigtime stardom.

In his Biography, he tells "From a very early stage, he wanted to learn dancing but there were no professional dancing schools in Bombay at that time. There used to be a hotel in Dadar, whose owner used to teach Tango dance He took a few lessons from him.

Shammi Kapoor said that it was lucky that he got good songs." I think I tried to give physical expressions to music. My choreography was always done here( pointing towards his heart) and I brought it out on the floor. Telling about the picturization of the song' Yahoo' he said "everybody was satisfied with the song Yahoo recorded after the hard work of Rafi saheb and music director Shankar Jaikishan, now it was my turn to make this song an immortal. This song was picturized in Kufri, not in Kashmir. The setting looked ideal with 12 feet deep snow and the breathtakingly beautiful sight around Everybody was in a fix what will I do?, how will I do?

Shammi further said that he was also not made in his mind about how to do it. Yes it was sure that he had to slide on the snow, The next day in the morning at 7 AM the whole unit collected at the spot from where he had to slide, But just when the camera was to roll, the sun disappeared, they couldn't shoot that day due to poor sunlight. This happened for six days, the song couldn't be picturized Finally on the Seventh-day the song was picturized. Shammi Kapoor said that there was no choreographer, no preparation by himself, whatever he did was spontaneous.

After Junglee every producer and director wanted Shammi to perform the song as per his wish. He said in the book" I used to tell my directors to keep the camera flexible, don't freeze the field, play the music, and let me do the act. That is what he did in most of his songs.

He said for the song Aasman Se Aya Farishta of An Evening in Paris, it was his idea to perform on a helicopter.

His biggest hit Teesri Manzil (1966) broke all kinds of records at the box office — thanks to its music. Composed by R.D. Burman, songs of this movie are considered some of his best works and Shammi’s best dance performances. O Mere Sona Re, O Haseena Zulfonwali Jaane Jahan, and Aaja Aaja Main Hoon Pyaar Tera are still regularly seen on playlists and heard on the radio.

Looking at just one decade of Shammi’s career, it is clear about the kind of stupendous impact that he has had on Bollywood and its audience. He left a mark like no other and even though many have managed to make a name as great dancers, nobody has come close to him — much like the original Elvis Presley.

Song of Tumsa Nahin Dekha 1957

Song of Dil Deke Dekho 1959

Song of Junglee 1961

Song of Dil Tera Deewana 1962

Song of Professor 1962

Song of Kashmir Ki Kali 1964

Song of An Evening in Paris 1966

Song of Teesri Manzil 1967

Song of Brahmachari 1968

Vyjaynthimala- The Dancing Queen of Bollywood

 

Vyjayanthimala Bali celebrates her birthday on the 13th of August. She shares this birthday with another Bollywood legend Sridevi who was also a multilingual actress with superior dancing prowess. Both the actresses married Punjabi men who left their first wives.

 Vyjayanthimala performed some superhit song and dance numbers in Hindi films, whether it is Man dole mera tan dole (Nagin) or Chadh gayo paapi bichhua (Madhumati) or Buddha mil gaya (Sangam) or Hothon pe aisi baat (Jewel Thief) and not to forget Indian classical dances of Amrapali(1966)

At the age of seven, Vyjayanthimala was chosen to perform a classical Indian dance for Pope Pius XII while her mother was an audience in 1940 at Vatican City. She learned Bharata Natyam from Guru Vazhuvoor Ramiah Pillai and Carnatic music from Manakkal Sivaraja Iyer. She had her arangetram at the age of 13 and started performing in Tamil Nadu later.

She made her debut in the Tamil language film Vaazhkai in 1949 on the basis of her dance performance of Bharata Natyam in Chennai's Gokhale Hall. The success of her Tamil film Vazhkai in South India inspired AVM Productions to remake it in Hindi as Bahar in 1951. In their first Hindi venture, they decided to cast Vyjayanthimala again in the lead role with Karan Dewan, The film became a hit and also its music and dances. The next film 'Ladki' released in 1953 was opposite Kishore Kumar and Bharat Bhushan.

In 1954, Vyjayanthimala acted in the magnum opus film Nagin with Pradeep Kumar. The film got favorable responses from the audience and became the highest-grossing movie of 1954 where it was labeled as a blockbuster. Her performance as the Nagi tribe's chief got Mala favorable reviews from the critics, as in 1955,

Nagin was a precursor to her rise in Hindi cinema as an iconic actor, who combined her talents, performing and dancing, to rule the screen on her terms... biggest recall values of Nagin are Vyjayanthimala". Post Nagin Vyjayanthimala had established herself as one of the leading actresses in Bollywood because of the film's nationwide success.

Vyjayanthimala's influence on films has been far-reaching. With her, semiclassical dance became an integral part of almost every Hindi film heroine's resume.At her peak, Vyjayanthimala took off to do a series of much-appreciated dance shows in Paris in 1959 besides working for top actors like Dilip Kumar in Paigham (1959) and Raj Kapoor in Nazrana (1961).

Vyjayanthimala has won four awards from five nominations, including a Lifetime Achievement Award for her contribution to Bollywood. She was the first person to decline the Filmfare Best Supporting Actress Award for Devdas, as she stated that the roles of Chandramukhi and Paro, played by Vyjayanthimala and Suchitra Sen respectively, were parallel and of equal  importance

In this blog, I am posting a few of her best dance songs.

Song of Bahar 1951

Song of Nagin 1954

Song of Devdas 1955

Song of Naya Daur 1957

Song of Kathputli 1957

Song of Madhumati 1958

Song of Ganga Jamuna 1961

Song of Sangam 1964

Classical Dance of Amrapali 1966

Song of Amrapali 1966

Song of Jewel Thief 1967

Song of Sangharsh 1968

Piya Tose Naina Lage Re- An Iconic Dance

"Piya Tose" the song from Guide was composed by Dada Burman using Roopak Taal (7 Beats) which was Dada's most favorite Taal. Waheeda Rehman looked extremely charming with her Gentle Dance Steps while singing "Piya Tose".If you notice carefully this song starts without any prelude which was Dada's typical style. Alaaps within this song were very carefully composed.
This is one of the best dances of Waheeda Rehman in films. Waheeda Rehman in an interview once said that Since this was a very long dance sequence, there was a possibility in final editing, part of this song would have been cut. Realizing this, Waheeda Rehman took a promise from Dev Anand that in the final editing he will cut something else from the movie but will not touch this dance song. And guess what, Dev Kept up that promise and this dance sequence was kept intact and no cuts were made.

This dance song was very long nearly 8 minutes. There are 4 stanzas and each stanza of 5 or 6 lines. It took 21 days to picturize this song. The specialty of this song, it presented a new dance aesthetics that blended Kathak, Bharatnatyam, and different folk dances from across India as also a celebration of different festivals. This dance was choreographed by Master Sohan Lal and his younger brother Hira Lal B, under the guidance of Vijay Anand. The choreography of the song and the picturization by the Cameraman Fali Mistry is simply superb. Vijay Anand is known for the excellence of picturizing a song.

The striking stage sets that accompany the song and dance sequence mapped the different stages of Rosie's success as a professional dancer. Beginning from a simple theatrical setting in a rural environment to a further grand scale. The costumes in this song according to the stanzas. Each stanza unfolded a different setting, dance style, music, and background. The innovative cinematography showed the backup dancers in novel ways. First, the camera only caught their moving feet but then their bodies filled the stage in various visual designs. The camera angles also enhanced the dance sequence. The sheer grace and beauty of Waheeda Rehman's dancing, her restrictive movements, and energy made the scene memorable.

Watch carefully the last stanza "Raat Ko Jab Chaand Chamake Jal Uthe Tan Mera" is a turning point of this song, where our soul is lost in the beautiful scene of moonlight of Raag Khamaj and the same in the second stanza about morning sunrise "Bhor Kii Bela" just observe the sound of a flute, what a composition by Dada Burman.
The interludes in "Piya Tose" are very rich and composed very intrinsically. Dada used a wide variety of musical instruments in this song such as Sarangi, Harmonium, Tabla, Ghungroos, and North Eastern Drums. There is also a piece of very interesting information to the readers that the world's best Santoor Player Pt. Shivkumar Sharma played Tabla for this song and flute by Hariprasad Chaurasia.
There is a story that this song was sung and recorded by S.D.Burman himself before he recorded Lata's song. It was a usual practice of Dada to sing the song himself first then tell his singers to sing like him.
There is one more story about this song that this song was already composed 10 years ago for the movie Devdas of Dilip Kumar. It was picturized on Dilip Kumar and Suchitra Sen as a background song. The wordings of the song were a little different. Even music was a little different. Whereas a tabla piece replaced original sitar piece. 

Song of Guide 1965

Waheeda Rehman- A Journey from Kamini(C I D) to Nurse Radha of Khamoshi

Her first appearance in a Hindi film was in CID (1956) as Kamini then came Gulabo of Pyaasa, Shanti of Kagaz Ke Phool, Rosie of Guide, Hira Bai of Teesri Kasam to Nurse Radha of Khamoshi gave Hindi Film Industry many immortal characters.
In her acting journey, Waheeda Rehman established a great working relationship with Dev Anand, and together as a pair had a number of successful films to their credit. The box office hits of the pair include CID (1956), Solva Saal (1958), Kala Bazar (1960), Baat Ek Raat Ki (1962) and Guide (1965); box office duds were Roop Ki Rani Choron Ka Raja (1961) and Prem Pujari (1970). She reached her peak with Guide (1965) and was much in demand. Rehman was cast as Gulabi in Satyajit Ray's Bengali film Abhijan in 1962.
She has played all type of characters in her journey. She worked in the comedy film Girl Friend in 1960 with Kishore Kumar. She worked in two psychological thriller films Bees Saal Baad and Kohra opposite Biswajeet.

Her career continued throughout the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. She won the Filmfare Best Actress Award for her roles in Guide (1965), where she hit the peak of her career, and Neel Kamal (1968), but despite excellent offbeat roles in subsequent films, including a National Award winning performance in Reshma Aur Shera (1971), some of the films failed at the box office. Seeing her films being successful, Waheeda decided to experiment with roles at this stage of career. She accepted Reshma Aur Shera, opposite her old co-star Sunil Dutt, with whom she had previously in the sixties had hits such as Ek Phool Char Kaante, Mujhe Jeene Do, Meri Bhabhi and Darpan. Her performance was appreciated by critics, but the film failed at the box office. But Waheeda continued to experiment with roles and accepted the offer to play a mother to Jaya Bhaduri in Phagun (1973). 
She played pivotal roles include Kabhi Kabhie (1976), Trishul (1978), Jwalamukhi (1980), Namkeen and Namak Halaal (1982), Mashaal(1984), Chandni(1989) and Rang De Basanti(2006). She played the central character in the Mahesh Bhatt directed film Swayam that starred Akash Khurana and Anupam Kher. She also appeared in a tele-series being directed by Gulzar.
In recent years she made a comeback playing elderly mother and grandmother roles in Om Jai Jagadish (2002), Water (2005), Rang De Basanti (2006), 15, Park Avenue and Delhi 6 (2009) which were all critically acclaimed.

Song of C I D (1956)

Song of Pyasa (1957)

Song of Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam 1962

Song of Bees Saal Baad  1962

Song of Mujhe Jeene Do  1963

Song of Guide  1965

Song of  Teesri Kasam 1966

Helen - The Original Dancing Diva of Bollywood

Started her career as a Chorus Dancer Helen became the first Dancing Diva of Bollywood. It was the dance song Mera Naam Chin Chin Chu from the film Howrah Bridge in 1958 made her the Cabaret Queen of Bollywood. She changed the entire scenario of dance in Hindi cinema from the early 50s to the late 70s to emerge many years later as a character actress in a few chosen films. 
She was born in Burma (21 Nov), now Myanmar, to a Burmese mother and Anglo-Indian father. The famous dancing star Cuckoo was a family friend. She introduced her as a dancer in the chorus in Shabista in 1951.  She got  her first hit song-and-dance number in Baarish (1957), Mr John, Baba Khan ya Lala Roshandaan Jo Bhi Dekhe Mera Jalwa Ho Jaaye Qurbaan. 

She was initially trained in the Manipuri style. Then she learnt Bharat Natyam from P.L. Raj, one of the leading choreographers of the time. Kathak followed this. She was the one who introduced the cabaret and the belly dance in Indian films.  
Helen vamped three generations of men, Prithviraj Kapoor (Harishchandra Taramati), Raj Kapoor (Anari (1959)) and Rishi Kapoor (Phool Khile Hain Gulshan Gulshan (1977)).
Hindi cinema found many uses for Helen. Since she was an outsider in almost every sense – by name, by national origin, by heredity – she could be anyone. And so a million fantasies were pinned on to one single form. She could be an Italian countess (Prince (1969)) or a German one (Ek Se Badhkar Ek (1976)) or an Anglo-Indian gold-digger (Gumnaam (1965)) or a tribal (Baadal) or an aboriginal Maharashtrian Koli fisherwoman (Inkaar (1977)) or a Chinese woman (Howrah Bridge (1958)) or a Roman Catholic Jenny (Imaan Dharam (1977)).

 She was nominated for the Filmfare Best Supporting Actress Award in 1965 for her role in Gumnaam. She played dramatic roles such as the rape victim in Shakti Samanta's Pagla Kahin Ka (1970).It was  a role in Mahesh Bhatt's film Lahu Ke Do Rang (1979), for which she won a Filmfare Best Supporting Actress Award. In 1999 Helen was given India's Filmfare lifetime achievement award.
Helen officially retired from movies in 1983, but she has since then appeared in a few guest roles such as Khamoshi: The Musical (1996) and Mohabbatein (2000). She also made a special appearance as the mother of real-life step-son Salman Khan's character in Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam.. She also appeared in Humko Deewana Kar Gaye in 2006.

Helen was selected for the Padma Shri awards of 2009 along with Aishwarya Rai and Akshay Kumar.

Song of Baarish 1957

Song of Howrah Bridge 1958

Song of China Town (1962)

Song of Gumnaam (1965)

Song of Teesri Manzil (1966)

Song of Talaash (1969)

Song of Intaquam (1969)

Song of The Train (1970)

Song of Caravan (1970)

Song of Sholay (1975)

Song of Don 1978