The Dancing Dev Anand

In the 40s and 50s, the Hindi film hero seldom danced. On the rare occasion that he did, like Raj Kapoor in ‘Mud mud ke na dekh’ or in ‘Dil ka haal suney dilwaala’ in Shree 420, Dilip Kumar in Naya Daur. 
Dev Anand though not a good dancer tried dancing in many songs. He relied solely on his facial expressions and the inimitable way in which he moved his head to enact most of these songs. The first time we can see him dancing a few steps in the song ‘Mere Labon Pe Dekho Aaj Bhi Taraaney Hain’ (Baazi), ‘Chaahey koi Khush Ho Chaahey Gaaliyaan Hazaar De’ (Taxi Driver) or ‘Oonche Sur Mein Gaaye Ja’ (House No.44), Ladhi Aankh Se Aankh - Pocket Maar(1956), Ae Meri Topi Palat Ke Aa from Funtoosh(1956) in most of the films he danced in his own style.

In the early 60s, Dev Anand was seen in many films, singing, and dancing such as Sarhad. Roop Ki Rani Choron Ka Raja, Love Marriage were a few of these. He had some surprisingly awkward moments when called upon to dance. Tasveer Teri Dil Mein from the 1961 Maya is a lovely song, but watch the scene: Anand is passable when he is just bobbing his head and clasping his hands while Mala Sinha does most of the work.

I have selected such songs in which we can see Dev Anand dancing maybe not as a perfect dancer but he had his own steps, own style.

Click to the link below 

https://youtu.be/dbXhA0iZrlw

Song of Baazi 1951

Song of Taxi Driver 1954

Song of House No.44  1955

Song of Paying Guest 1957

Song of  Baarish 1957

Song of Dushman 1957

Song of Kala Pani 1958

Song of Bombai Ka Babu 1960

Song of Sarhad 1960

Song of Sarhad 1960

Song of Manzil 1960

Song of Roop Ki Rani Choron Ka Raja 1961

Song of Bullet 1976

Aaja Nachle with Madhuri Dixit

 

Madhuri Dixit is one of those few actresses who is aging so gracefully that with every passing year, she only ends up looking even more beautiful. She has given us some iconic songs like, Ek Do Teen, Tamma Tamma Loge, Kay Sera Sera that are definitely going to stay with us forever. she is blessed by the Gods of dance and in the industry that heavily relies on its culture of song and dance, she became a goddess.

Madhuri Dixit gave Bollywood some of its biggest hits in the 90s. From Choli Ke Piche Kya Hai To Dhak Dhak to Dola Re Dola, Bollywood's dancing diva had many hits to her name. Today, we take a look at some of her dance hit songs in a career spanning over three decades.

In this blog, I have selected 15 dance songs by Madhuri Dixit.

Song of Tezab (1988)

Song of  Kishen Kanhaiya (1990)

Song of  Sailaab (1990)

Song of  Thanedar (1990)

Song of  Beta (1992)

Song of  Khalnayak (1993)

Song of  Anjam (1994)

Song of Hum Apke hain Kaun (1994)

Song of Raja(1995)

Song of Yarana (1995)

Song of Dil Toh Pagal hai (1997)

Song of Pukar (2000)

Song of Lazza (2001)

Song of Devdas (2002)

Song of Aaja Nachle (2007)

Holi songs from Bollywood Across Dades

 

Holi is a festival of colours. It is an inseparable part of Indian culture, Bollywood never misses a chance to infuse the ‘Holi factor’ in the form of dance numbers with stars going footloose and crazy. The first song of Holi was from the 1931 film ‘Ghar Ki Laxmi’. The Mukhdaa of the song goes like – “Mo Pe Daar Gayo Saari Rang Rang Ki Gaagar, Kaisa Dhokha Diya. . .”. This and many other songs of that era are now lost.

In this blog, I have selected the great Holi Songs of Bollywood starting from the 1940s to the 2020s. This year  we might be stuck indoors due to Covid 19, we can enjoy this year's Holi with the song of every decade.

.I present a song from this very first decade of Hindi films – a song from the film ‘Aurat’ from 1940. ‘Aurat’ is a magnum opus by producer-director Mehboob, a much-celebrated film of its era.

Song of Aurat 1940

Song of Jogan 1950

Song from Navrang 1959

Song of Kohinoor 1960

Song from Kati Patang 1970

Song from Silsila 1981

Song from Darr 1993

Song from Baghban 2003

Song from Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani 2013

Holi Mein Rangeele 2020

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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)

The Great Dance Based Films of Bollywood

The very first movie fully Choreographed was Kalpana (1948) produced and directed by the renowned dancer Uday Shankar. In the same year, another film released was S S Vasan's Chandrakanta choreographed by Tarun Chopra, the disciple of Uday Shankar ji. With the success of both these films, the era of dance began in Hindi Cinema. Before that, a film Roti (1942) became hit because of Sitara Devi's Dance.
The story of Kalpana revolves around a young dancer’s dream of setting up a dance academy, It is a disguised autobiography of Uday Shankar. He presented dance in a captivating manner, and with a message that he wants India to be saved from the west and its bad influences.

V Shantaram was the earliest filmmaker who made films on dances and dancers of India. His film Jhanak Jhanak Baje Payal(1955) was one of the first Hindi films that revolved entirely around dance. Filmmaker-actor V Shantaram directed wife Sandhya and dancer Gopi Krishna in this classic. A young 17-year old Shivkumar Sharma too was heard playing santoor in this National award-winning film. This was also the first time santoor was used in Indian cinema. Magnificently shot in Technicolor, the film is considered a classic with hit songs such as Jhanak Jhanak Baaje Re More Palaliya, Jo Tum Todo Piya, and Murli Manohar. This too remains one of Ganesh Acharya's favourite dance films.

He made another film Navrang(1959), this film was heavily concentrated on the dance sequences, a few of these dances are immortal. Diwakar(Mahipal) is a poet and loves his wife Jamuna (Sandhya)more than anything. But Jamuna feels that Diwakar lives in a fantasy world and is irresponsible in the real world. Diwakar creates a muse from his imagination, who looks exactly like his wife and whom he calls Mohini.
Nartaki (1963) The story was about a dancing girl (Nanda) brought up in the Tawaif (courtesan) milieu, who wants to better herself with an education. She is helped amidst great societal clash, by a newly arrived Professor (Sunil Dutt).

Guide(1965) was a film based on a novel by R.K Narayan, Guide stars the legendary Dev Anand as Raju, a tourist guide who takes Indian and foreign visitors to historic locations and tells them stories about these magnificent places. Raju meets Rosy (Waheeda Rehman), the wife of his client whose passion is pursuing old caves. Rosie’s passion is dance. Raju helping Rosy find her feet as a dancer.  Rosy achieves stardom with the help of Raju. The film was known for its Kalbeliya dance sequence as also the song 'Piya tose naina lage re', which showed different folk dances from across India as also celebration of different festivals.

Jal Bin Machhli Nritya Bin Bijli (1971) is another V Shantaram's dance film. The heroine is madly in love with dance and refuses to marry the groom her father has chosen for her. She runs away and joins a dance troupe and there she finds a like-minded soul who is equally in love with dance.

.Pakeezah (1972) is another film based on a courtesan. The heroine is a courtesan, this was played by Meena Kumari. Though it’s said Meena Kumari was unwell to dance herself and hence Padma Khanna was used as a body double for songs requiring rigorous footwork.

Disco Dancer(1982) is a dance film but not on Indian classical dances but about disco songs and dances. Anil (Mithun Chakraborty) is an artist who earns his livelihood by performing on the streets. He was noticed by a Dance trainer and took him from the street and introduce him on the stage as Jimmy. Jimmy starts gaining popularity in Goa, so David arranges for a show in Mumbai. Mithun styled himself on John Travolta in the film and the plot points of the film too were kind of inspired by Saturday Night Fever.

Naache Mayuri is a 1986 dance biographical Hindi film directed by T. Rama Rao. It is a real story of Bharatanatyam dancer Sudha Chandran, who lost her leg in an accident on her way to Trichy to Chennai on June 1981. The story depicts how she received an artificial Jaipur Foot and eventually learned to dance again, triumphing over her fate, and ultimately becoming very successful in her life. 

Ilzaam is a 1986 film starring Govinda in his film debut He plays a criminal,  who sings and dances on the streets, distracting people, while his colleagues break into apartments and rob the residents. It was a box-office hit.

Dil To Pagal Hai(1997) The film follows the love lives of the members of a musical troupe, in which two dancers played by Madhuri Dixit and Karisma Kapoor compete for the love of a choreographer played by Shah Rukh Khan 

Taal (1999) is a story of Mansi(Aishwarya Rai) daughter of a poor spiritual singer named Tara Babu (Alok Nath). meets Vikrant Kapoor (Anil Kapoor), a successful and famous music producer/director, who happens to be a fan of Tara Babu's work. With the encouragement of her uncle Prabha, she signs a three-year contract with Vikrant, and Mansi performs dance numbers and remixes of Tara Babu's songs as well as some of Vikrant's productions. She wins awards and becomes a sensation in India. In the meantime, Vikrant starts to fall in love with Mansi.

Taal (1999), music and dance played such an important part in the movie.  The story of the film had a very common plot point which includes, poor girl and the rich guy falling love and the family disapproving of the relationship. But, what makes this movie so incredible, is exquisite dances. Costumes, art direction and music 

Aaja Nachle (2007), the movie is about a woman named Dia who tries everything to make sure the academy in which she learnt dance continues to survive. She takes it upon herself to come back to her village and save the dance institute. The film revolved around a dance drama, which Madhuri Dixit is conducting and the dance sequences in songs such as Aaja nachle is superb.Aaja Nachle was Madhuri’s comeback film in Bollywood.

ABCD: Anybody Can Dance (2013) is a film directed by Remo D Souza, a celebrity choreographer. Prabhu Deva and Remo D’Souza come together for a movie one thing you can expect for sure is amazing choreography and ABCD gave us just that. Prabhu in the movie was seen as a choreographer who is sacked from the academy he is working at. He then ends up creating his own dance group with the aim of beating his former employer in a prestigious dance competition.

In 2015, Remo directed the second instalment of ABCD Franchise, titled Disney's ABCD 2, It stars Varun Dhawan, Shraddha Kapoor, Prabhu Deva, Raghav Juyal, Lauren Gottlieb, Dharmesh Yelande and Punit Pathak, the film explores the career journey of Suresh and Vernon of the "fictitious dance crew" Kings United India, who went on to win the World Hip Hop Dance Championship in San Diego.