This BLOG is about the Past of Hindi Films Specially Black and White Cinema We will refresh your memories by bringing out forgotten or unseen songs and clippings of film scenes We will try to give you as much information as we gather from our research.
This Blog was started as a one-man’s passion for film history but has now become an addiction for many music lovers who are equally passionate about Hindi films
When we talk of male dancing stars the name of Hrithik Roshan, Govinda and Shammi Kapoor comes to our mind but the original dancing star was Bhagwan Dada. He was perhaps the first to introduce Ramba, Samba, Disco, rock-n-roll and other dance forms to Hindi cinema, the first male star to do so in the industry ruled by female dancers. Bhagwan Dada as he was popularly called, created a new grammar of comedy, through the unique style of acting and dancing, which inspired a whole generation of comedians in Hindi cinema. Bhagwan Abhaji Palav popularly known as Bhagwan Dada was born on 1st Aug 1913 and died on 4th February 2002 was a popular comedian of Bollywood of the Golden Era. He is best known for his social film Albela (1951) and the song "Shola Jo Bhadke".A veteran actor of about 600 films in the course of more than five decades, He was a wide-eyed admirer of the silent cinema and worshipped Master Vithal who was the star of the day. He used to dream of emulating his stunt and fight scenes. He started his Film Career in the Silent Film Era,in 1930, he got a break. Producer Siraj Ali Hakim gave him a comedian’s role in the silent film "Bewafa Aashiq," based on "The Hunchback of Notre Dame". The film was a hit, but he was without offers for eight months because it was believed that he was really a hunchback! In 1934 he made his first talkie "Himmat-e-Mardan". After that, he joined another company and directed a film called "Bahadur Kisan", with Hansa Wadkar as the heroine. The movie again was a big hit. During the shooting of the film, he had taken a lanky young man, Chitilkar Ramachandra, as his assistant. He gave him a break as a music director in the three. Tamil films he directed in Madras. He used to call him Anna and there began their long association during which C. Ramachandra, out of gratitude, gave him Hindi film industry’s all-time favourite songs for "Albela," including one of the loveliest loris Dhire se aaja ri, ankhiyan mein. He produced many films after ALBELA but most of his films flopped,His film "Sahme Hue Sapney" didn’t survive beyond the first show. Then he suffered a heavy loss while making "Hanste Rehna" with Kishore Kumar. He had invested his own money, pawned his wife’s jewellery and withdrawn all his life’s savings. But halfway through, Kishore started dilly-dallying and "behaving crazily" and the project had to be shelved.
His sea-facing Juhu bungalow with 25 rooms along with his fleet of seven cars (one for each day of the week) had to be sold. The family moved to a two-room set in a chawl at Dadar. In his last days, he was being looked after by his unmarried daughter and the family of his youngest son, who is a sound recordist. Bhagwan died of a massive heart attack at his residence in Dadar on 4 February 2002
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 twopsychological 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.
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)).
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,Choli Ke Peeche Kya hai, 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. She was born on 15th May 1967,she was a born dancer,started dancing at the age of 3.She went on to practice the art of Kathak and later on to become a trained professional Kathakdancer.Pandit Birju Maharaj, a Kathak dancer, who choreographed Dixit in the film Devdas for the song "Kaahe Chhed", calls her "the best Bollywood dancer due to her versatility. She made her acting debut in Rajshri Productions' movie Abodh in 1984 but got real success with Tejab released in 1988.The dance song Ek Do Teen made her famous throughout India.With the success of this film she became the favourite of the masses.n 1989 Subhash Ghai's drama Ram Lakhan was released, in which she was paired once again with Anil Kapoor. This film also became a super-hit,Thereafter Dixit got success in Rajiv Rai's multi-starrer action thriller Tridev, Now she was among the top 3 heroines of Bollywood. In the early nineties she gave many hit films like Dil opposite Aamir Khan,Saajan opposite Salman Khan and Sanjay Dutt, Beta opposite Anil Kapoor,Dixit's performance of Saraswati earned her critical acclaim.the highlight of the film was undoubtedly Dhak Dhak Karne Laga – probably the sexiest and most popular dance of Madhuri's career. In 1993, Dixit starred in the controversial super-hit Khalnayak opposite Sanjay Dutt and Jackie Shroff. The audiences ran in droves to witness the Madhuri Dixit magic. In every scene, she holds you captive with her stunning beauty, demanding screen presence, expressive acting and excellent dancing skills. Saroj Khan’s dance choreography is entertaining to watch, particularly in "Choli Ke Peeche Kya Hai". Then came Hum Aapke Hain Koun.in 1994 opposite Salman Khan. The film became one of the biggest hits in the history of Hindi cinema.1995 saw Dixit star in the hit Raja opposite Sanjay Kapoor.Her next release was David Dhawan's Yaraana opposite Rishi Kapoor, in which she played a dancer on the run from her abusive lover.She starred in Yash Chopra's musical romance Dil To Pagal Hai (1997), opposite Shahrukh Khan and Karisma Kapoor. Her role of a woman faced with a moral dilemma in a love triangle fetched her the fourth Filmfare Best Actress Award. Her one of the memorable films was Devdas, co-starring Shahrukh Khan and Aishwarya Rai. She portrayed Chandramukhi, a courtesan who is in love with the title character.It turned out to be her last film for a while as she shifted to Denver with her family. In 2006, Dixit returned to India with her family, and acted in cinematographer Anil Mehta's dance film Aaja Nachle (2007) after that she appeared in Dedh Ishqiya (2014).She also appears as Judge in many dance competitions show on TV. In this blog I have selected the Iconic Dance numbers of Madhuri Dixit.
Super Hit film Brahmachari completes 50 Years today. It was released on 27th April 1968.The film became a box office hit and won several awards, including Filmfare Best Movie Award.The film stars Shammi Kapoor, Rajshree, Pran, Mumtaz, Jagdeep, Sachin and Asit Sen. The music was by Shankar Jaikishan.They got theFilmfare Award for this film.In fact the best Lyricist gone to Shailendra and Mohammad Rafi got the Best Male Singer for the song."Dil Ke Jharoke Mein"Brahmachari” won six Filmfare awards out of the eight categories it was nominated for.
Music scholar and film expert Rajesh Subramanian wrote an interesting incident that the song "Aajkal Tere Mere Pyar Ke Charche" was a rejected tune, which a depressed Jaikishan played to Shammi Kapoor at Hotel Gaylord. Kapoor found the tune very catchy and suggested to director Bhappi Sonie to include the song in Brahmachari. The song became one of the highlights of the film. “Brahmachari” is perhaps one of the few films where Shammi Kapoor gives a restrained and sombre performance, in contrast to his usually exuberant and boisterous “Yahoo” persona that he created for the Bollywood screen.
Yet in the ultimate analysis, the film belongs to Shammi's ‘voice', Rafi, who along with S-J's music and Shailendra-Hasrat lyrics, brings forth some unforgettable melodies that helped shape Brahmachari into a cult figure for eternity. Songs from Brahmachari
Baisaakhi is one of the most colorful, and full of fun and music and dancing festival of Punjab.This day is reserved for ‘Bhangra’ and ‘Gidda’, the traditional dances of Punjab.Bollywood would never leave any opportunity to use this situation with a dance number.In my memory Kedar Sharma used this situation for the first time in 1946 film Duniya Ek Sarai. Later in many films this situation is used with dance and songs.Here are few such songs picturised for Baisaakhi Celebration.
Songs and Dance are integral part of Indian films.No Bollywood film would be complete without many songs and dances.The style of dancing in earlier Bollywood films was based on Indian Classical Dance or Folk Dances from various parts of India. These dances included the classical art forms of Kathak and Bharata Natyam. But today, Bollywood has developed its own corpus of material.Bollywood Style of Dancing is now a craze in UK,USA and Europe. Earlier films from south India tended to show a lot of influence from Bharat Natyam and Kuchipudi while Hindi films tended to show strong influences of Kathak or the "mujara" dances that were associated with the tawaifs. 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 Chanrakanta 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.
Dance from Roti 1942
Dance from Kalpana1948
There were some great dancers in that era. Indian Cinema was blessed with great dancers like Geetanjali, Sandhya, Vyajayantimala,Padmini,Ragini & Mahipal who with their outstanding energy and performance mesmerized the audiences and took dance to the next level. In 1951 Raj Kapoor gave the industry alavish song-and-dance dream sequence.Filmed evocatively in black and white, ‘showman’ Kapoor gets his muse Nargis to ‘welcome her wanderer home’, on the backdrop of an over-the-top set featuring a grand stairway, lots of mist, a giant dancing Shiva and a crowd of background female dancers. Nargis rose to the challenge and proved her versatility with her dancing feet.
In the late 50's & 60's group dances began to evolve in Bollywood films & choreographers started managing larger groups of dancers, with influences from folk dances.One may also find songs about holidays, (e.g., Holi), Mother India, the moon, or other topics; but these are far less common.Another style of dancing evolved in 60s was heroes and heroines were singing romantic songs running and dancing around trees.Some of these moves were really rather hard to class as dancing. The spastic deliveries of songs by Shammi Kapoor came to mind. Still, from these random spastic jerks and jumping around, identifiable moves began to develop. In that period V Shantaram made few great Song & Dance Movies like Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baje,Dr Vidya and Navrang.
Dance from Dr Vidya
In the 50s a new style of dance was introduced by Bhagwan dada which became very popular.A film Albela in 1951 had many songs and dance in a new style.These steps are still liked by the audience.Amitabh Bachchan copied those steps in many of hit films in 70s and 80s
Song from Albela 1951
The new entry in Bollywood dance was cabarets and western dances.The cabaret scene is probably the most significant artistic and commercial example of the Bollywood dance. It may be considered to be the first truly 'Bollywood" form.
Song from Howrah Bridge 1958
Undoubtedly the reining queen of the cabaret dance was Helen. She was born Helen Jairag Richardson, of mixed Anglo-Indian-Burmese descent. She started dancing and acting in the 1950s, and by the 1960s was the undisputed queen of the item girls. However by the 1970s, item numbers were going to the younger girls. In the 80s Cabaret was replaced by Disco, which was a worldwide phenomenon at the time. By this time classical dance vanished from Hindi films only in Period films Mujra were shown.With the emergence of Mithun Chakraborti disco was the main attraction during that period.After that in 90s came an era which introduced Bollywood Free Style of dancing which was well represented by dancers like Govinda who developed their own signature style of dance. Now since the inception of MTV , Bollywood dancing has been heavily influenced by Western dance styles, and incorporates elements from the West. In many cases, the musical numbers are released as separate music videos, and the soundtracks are released prior to the film, in order to further advertise the upcoming feature films. In modern Bollywood films, the musical numbers are often based on the Hip-Hop style of dance as well as other variations of Hip-Hop dance.The dance movements have become more bold & extroverted to capture the audience’s attention.
Dance from ABCD
For the last few years Remo D'souza the famous Choreographer is making films based on Dances.He made India's first 3D dance movie, ABCD - AnyBody Can Dance, with contestants from season 1 and season 2 of Dance India Dance (Dharmesh Yelande, Punit Pathak, Salman Yusuff Khan, Bhavna, Prince and others),Prabhu Deva and Lauren Gottlieb. After that ABCD 2, was released in June 2015. It starred Varun Dhawan, Shraddha Kapoor, and Prabhu Deva in lead roles, with Lauren Gottlieb, Punit Pathak, Raghav Juyal, and Dharmesh Yelande in supporting roles. The Evolution of Bollywood Dance is a process that is entirely Indian and yet cross-cultural at the same time. Some of the Iconic Dances of Bollywood This song changed the Indian music industry era & created a milestone platform important thing Lata Mangeshkar is the Golden voice gifted by the God....and the immortal Nagin dance by Vyajayantimala.
Song from Nagin 1954
The great Dance by Gopi Kishan and Sandhya
Dance from Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baje 1955
The best and liveliest example of Bharatanatyam on a film.
Song from Azaad (1955)
The famous Kathputli Dance was shown in Chori Chori.Very well picturized on Raj Kapoor & Nargis.
Song from Chori Chori 1956
After Sandhya I think Vyajayantimala was a dancing star in Bollywood. She was the first South Indian actress to become a Bollywood star and "paved a way" for other south Indian actresses to foray into Bollywood. Vyjayanthimala's main concentration
WHAT A DANCE SONG, WHAT A CHOREOGRAPHY AND OF COURSE THE MUSIC OF SALIL Da.
Song from Madhumati 1958
Time is just frozen as you watch this masterpiece. Big salute to Madhubala and OP Naiyer ji
Song from Phagun ,1958,
One of the amazing song & dance produced ever, Sandhya performs so beautifully, one of the greatest dancer of Bollywood.She will always be remembered for her great personality and amazing looks.
Song from Navrang 1959
The milestone Dance of Hindi film industry is this song ,Lata Mangeshkar's voice and Madhubala s dance are just complimenting each other n a real justice to this song
Song from Mughal e Azam 1960
Helen is pure perfection. Every move, every gesture is on point.Helen"s thumkas, steps & insertions are nicely blended & took up the task of choreography perfectly.
Song from Parasmani (1963)
Wonderful dance by Asha Parekh - so talented , Look at the great talent of this woman ' Asha Paresh ' and maneuvering of her body in the way her Guru Gopi
Krishna taught.
Song from Ziddi (1964)
SERPENT DANCE BY Waheeda Rehman in GUIDE (1965).A real treat to watch
Long dance sequence with minimum clipping...only Vijayanthimala can do it..5 stars to this song and dance sequence. Lata is just brilliant .Wow.
Song from Jewel Thief 1967
A great dance compitition between 3 legends Vyajayantimala,Helen and Shammi Kapoor
Song from Prince (1969)
How can we miss this great song and dance by Helen in Carvan 1971,this film has many dances.
Song from Carvan 1971
With this film Disco Dancer this form of dancing became popular.This songs gives you full energy...Your body get automatically start responding to every beats
Song from Disco Dancer 1982
Madhuridixit is one of the greatest dancer in India and no doubt people appreciated her performance in this song.She became hit after this dance.
Song from Tejab 1988
This is the Magic of Madhuri and Saroj khan.Madhuri Dixit is unmatchable in Bollywood,she gave many song and Dance hits.
Song from Beta 1992
With the emergence of Govinda his style of Dancing became popular.He along with Karishma kapoor gave many Hit songs,this is one of those songs.
Hero No1 1997
With Dil to Paagal Hai Shimak Davar changed the way dance was perceived in Indian films,he isthe first to bring contemporary jazz and western forms of dance to India. He is known as the guru of contemporary dance in India.
Song from Dil To Paagal Hai 1997
Today's generation can't even imagine the craze of this song when it was released.With this film emerged a new form of dancing.
Song from kaho na pyar hai 2000
This dance brought Madhuri Dixit and Aishwarya Rai in sync with each other by Sanjay Leela Bhansali
