Showing posts with label english song. Show all posts

Monday, 17 August 2020

The First English Song and Kiss in a Hindi Film

The first English song in a Hindi film was sung by Devika Rani in 1933 film Karma, starring Devika Rani and Himanshu Rai. The film was among the first Talkie Film in India to feature an on-screen kiss. The four-minute-long scene between Devika Rani and Rai, her husband in real life, is also known to being the longest such scene in Indian cinema.
The song, ‘Now The Moon Her Light Has Shed’ is a proper western tune composed by German composer Ornest Broadhurst and song. The style is typical of the high pitched English songs The next English song was sung by Shanta Apte, composed by Keshav Bhole in Duniya Na Mane (1937) with the lyrics around poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem A Psalm of Life.
The story is about a princess (played by Devika Rani) who falls in love with a neighboring prince ( Himanshu Rai) much to the disapproval of the latter's father. The film opens with a very cute scene of the Prince telling a squirrel how much he loves the Maharani, who is hiding behind a rock and replies on behalf of the squirrel.
Maharaja, the prince father who knew that his son is in love with the princess, consults with his holy man on what to do about his recalcitrant son’s ongoing romance. The priest wisely counsels him not to interfere, but to allow them to marry and then control her through the alliance.
English language Song by Devika Rani

Song of Karma 1933

Song of Duniya Na Mane 1937

First Lip Lock In Indian Cinema - KARMA (1933)

Thursday, 19 March 2020

Shashi Kapoor - India’s first global star

Shashi Kapoor(18 March 1938 – 4 December 2017) made his debut as a leading man in the 1961 film Dharmputra. He started as a child artist with his brother Raj Kapoor's directorial Aag (1948). He became global with Merchant Ivory productions The Householder (1963),
The Householder was the first collaboration between producer Ismail Merchant and director James Ivory, a documentary filmmaker till then. They went on to make nearly forty films together, many of which were written by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. Shashi Kapoor worked in seven films made under the Merchant–Ivory Productions banner: The Householder, Shakespeare Wallah, Bombay Talkie, Heat and Dust—all directed by James Ivory—and three films by three other directors—The Deceivers, In Custody and Side Streets.
Shooting for the film started in 1961 and was completed in 1963. It was made in two versions, Hindi and English, the latter was picked by Columbia Pictures. It was a huge hit — both with critics and audiences — for a film that was made on a budget of $125,000.
After The Householder, Shashi Kapoor signed their next film, Shakespeare Wallah.It was released in 1965, this was a film about a traveling troupe of actors who perform Shakespeare plays in India. Satyajit Ray gave the music for the film, and Madhur Jaffrey won the Best Actress award (Silver Bear) for 15th Berlin International Film Festival.
Pretty Polly (also known as A Matter of Innocence) was a 1967 British film, directed by Guy Green and based on the short story Pretty Polly Barlow by Noël Coward. It stars Hayley Mills, Shashi Kapoor, Trevor Howard, and Brenda De Banzie.
Bombay Talkie (1970) was the next film Shashi Kapoor did with them. Jeniffer Kapoor, his wife was the heroine of that film. You would be surprised to note that Amitabh Bachchan played a minuscule role in the movie. The music of the film was given by Shankar Jaikishan.
Siddhartha was a 1972 Indo-American film based on the novel of the same name by Hermann Hesse, directed by Conrad Rooks.Shashi played Sidhartha and Simi played Kamla in this film. Simi Garewal's nude scene caused controversy in India. The Indian Censor Board, at that time, did not even permit on-screen kissing in Indian films.
Heat and Dust (1983) was the next film directed by James Ivory and produced by Ismail Merchant. It stars Greta Scacchi, Shashi Kapoor, and Julie Christie. Heat and Dust was based on the novel written by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, which won the Booker Prize in 1975. The screenplay for the film was written by the writer herself. It was Merchant Ivory's biggest commercial success
The other films he acted are Sammy And Rosie Get Laid(1987), The Deceivers (1988), In Custody (1993),Jinnah (1998) and Side Streets(1998),

Songs of Bombay Talkie 1970

Thursday, 8 November 2018

Usha Uthup - A Journey from Night Club to Bollywood

Usha Uthap( 8th Nov 1947) came in at a time when people thought that ladies' voices should be pretty and gentle. She became the first female Pop Singer of India. She started her singing career as a Night Club singer in Madras. After that, she began singing in Calcutta at nightclubs such as "Trincas"
I was in my teens when I listened to her very popular song "Scotch and Soda".Those days she was known as Usha Iyer and she used to sing cover versions of many popular songs. In 1968, she recorded covers of two pop songs in English, "Jambalaya" and The Kingston Trio's "Greenback Dollar", on an EP. Her deep husky resonance roused the passions of a million young hearts
https://youtu.be/Io2a0jnwYTI

No one expected a woman in a saree singing in a nightclub but that was the fact. People were surprised to see a typical South Indian Girl singing Pop Songs. After Trincas, her next engagement took her to Delhi where she sang at the Oberoi hotels. Here in Oberoi Hotel once Shashi Kapoor and few unit members of Navketan heard her singing the English songs and were influenced with her unique voice.
As a result, she started her Bollywood career with Ivory-Merchant's Bombay Talkies (1970) in which she sang an English number under Shanker-Jaikishan and then Hare Rama Hare Krishna. Originally, she was supposed to sing Dum Maro Dum along with Asha Bhosle for Hare Rama Hare Krishna. However, as a result of internal politicking on the part of other singers, she lost that chance but ended up singing an English verse.
Uthup sang several songs in the 1970s and 1980s for music directors R D Burman and Bappi Lahiri. She also reprised some of R.D. Burman songs that were sung by others such as Mehbooba Mehbooba and Dum Maro Dum and popularised them to a distinct end.
She has 200 albums under her belt and soundtracks for 150 Hindi and regional films. She has sung French, Spanish, Italian, Swahili, Zulu, Russian, Creole, Hebrew, Sinhala and Chinese.
Usha married Jani Uthup, who was her fan in Kolkata. The couple has a daughter, Angeli and son, Sunny. The diva is a grandmother now