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
Rajesh Khanna in an interview said that he was an ardent admirer of Dev Anand from his teens.When I joined films in 1967, I was highly inspired by his acting style. He was amongst the first to view Aradhana and compliment me genuinely. As I rose in stature as an actor in the early 70s, I received healthy and clean competition from Anand, who was still going strong with a super hit like Johny Mera Naam. He allowed Kishore Kumar to sing for me in Aradhana without a second thought. The songs of Aradhana made him the super star. Rajesh Khanna was first taken by Chetan Anand in Aakhri Khat.It was during the muhurat he met ehis idol Dev Anand. Before that he used to come to see the shooting of Jewel Thief.
Rajesh Khanna, Yash Chopra's with Dev Anand
There were talks of Amit Khanna producing a film in which both were to have acted together. The film never went on floors. In fact, when Khanna’s films started flopping in the late 70s, Anand was the first to encourage him by saying, “Why are you losing confidence? You are a brilliant actor. Look at me and my ups and downs. You termed me the leap year hero. Have confidence in yourself and march forward keeping in mind that the coming days are yours.”
Des Pardes is a 1978Hindi film, produced and directed by Dev Anand.It dealt with the subject of illegal immigration. It was on a flight that Dev Anand struck upon the idea of making this film as he read a story on illegal immigrants. Issue-based stories always caught his imagination and here was a subject that begged attention. It was a burning issue during the 70s when youngsters, driven by an ambition to make money, took enormous risks at the behest of corrupt agents and explored a future in distant lands. United Kingdom. It was a pleasing debut by one of the most beautiful faces that Dev Anand introduced as a filmmaker with amazing vision. Dev Anand always claimed that she was special. Tina Munim had approached Dev Anand as a 16-year-old, seeking an autograph, before she was picked to play the role of Gauri in “Des Pardes”. Dev Anand, at that time was producing 3 films (no other film maker attempted that) together each film was being directed individually by the three brothers. Janeman by Chetan Anand, Bullet by Vijay Anand & Des Pardes by Dev himself. Out of the three Des Pardes was Super Hit. As the years goes by, the film, Des Pardes becomes more fresher and more good, the film grows to become more new as the years goes. This film will always remain evergreen. The highlight of the film was its music. Music composer Rajesh Roshan had just made his debut with Julie. Dev Saab signed him for Des Pardes and song writer Amit Khanna, they all created the big successful, hit music, the songs also had became very popular and memorable till now. Rajesh Roshan was nominated as the best music composer, by Filmfare. Dev Anand had insisted to music composer Rajesh Roshan to compose the song tu pee aur jee......in 3 antras, which was difficult and songs were not compose that way, it was something new, but Rajesh Roshan composed it successfuly with kishore Kumar's energetic singing. The other difficult song was Lata's aap kahe aur hum na aye aise baat nahin hai...many days Dev saab heard several tunes from Roshan, but he was not satisfied and rejected. Finaly one day Rajesh Roshan made Dev Saab hear Mehdi Hassan's song and Dev liked it very much and then the song was recorded. Des Pardes's music and songs are the best work of Amit Khanna and Rajesh Roshan. The best combination. One of Des Pardes 's song Nazrana Bheja Kisi Ne Pyaar Ka' is inspired from Cliff Richard's 'The Young Ones When this film was released in London many people thought that the pub shown in the film, is an real pub which is some where in East London. That pub was made in Mehboob studio in Bombay, under the supervision of art director T.K..Desai, who won the award of the best art director. One interesting fact was that Dev Anad had fixed the date to release Des Pardes on the same day Satyam Shivam Sundaram, was to be released, Dev Anand wanted both films to be released toghether, but then Raj Kapoor, last moment, he decided to change the release date of his film.
Not all music directors are created equal. Some have a passion for instruments, others for the perfect pitch, yet others for rhythm. A few, like Roshan, also had their focus on the words that their music would carry to the ears of the listeners. He worked with a dizzying number of poets throughout his career, having started with Kidar Sharma. This included the more prolific writers of the time, as well as the lesser-heard poets: Sahir, Majrooh, Shakeel, Shailendra, D N Madhok, Kavi Pradeep, Neeraj, Kaifi Azmi, Khumar Barabankwi, Bharat Vyas and many more. It would be impossible to showcase all the songs Roshan composed which had poetry that made the listener go ‘aah!’.Here are few of my favourite such songs.
Talat Mahmood , I adore his songs.I can listen to him over and over and over again without ever getting bored. But I love almost anyything Talat sang.In this blog I have taken those songs which are solo and sad songs. His control, evocative voice, and pauses won him the admiration of fans across the Indian subcontinent.
Begum Parveen Sultana (born on 10th July 1950) is an Assamese Hindustani classical singer of the Patiala Gharana. She is among the foremost classical vocalists in India and is known as Queen of Classical Vocal. Her father, late Ikramul Mazid was her first guru and he was very strict with her. She also received early training from her grandfather . She later went to Kolkata to learn to learn music under the guidance of late Pandit Chinmoy Lahiri and from 1973, she became a disciple of Ustad Dilshad Khan of the Patiala Gharana.
Sultana has sung for movies like Gadar, Kudrat, and Pakeezah. Recently, she sang the theme song of Vikram Bhatt’s latest opus 1920. She also sang Humein Tumse Pyaar Kitna - Kudrat .She was given the Filmfare Best Female Singer Award for this song.This song was also sung by Kishore Kumar in the same film.She is also the youngest recipient of Padma Shri Award by Govt of India.She was later awarded by Padma Bhushan in 2014.
Parween also lent her voice to several songs in films throughout the years.
Pakeezah- Kaun gali gayo Shyam, Ban ban bole Koyaliya
Guru Dutt was a part of the exclusive school of Indian cinema -- the likes of Raj Kapoor, Mehboob Khan and Bimal Roy, which were always a healthy blend of artistic and commercial elements between mid '50s and '60s. He is most famous for making brilliant lyrical and artistic films within the context of popular Indian cinema of the 1950s, and expanding its commercial conventions, starting with his 1957 masterpiece, Pyaasa. Several of his later works have a cult following. He was one of the pillars of the a Golden Era of Bollywood. Guru Dutt (9th July 1925) was born Vasanth Kumar Shivashankar Padukone in Bangalore to Shivashankar Rao Padukone and Vasanthi Padukone Guru Dutt had a tough childhood with financial difficulties, and a strained relationship between his parents.He was a good student, but never went to college, partly because of financial troubles at home. Instead, he joined the performing arts troupe of Uday Shankar. He joined his parents in Mumbai in 1944. Dutt's uncle found him a job under a three-year contract with the Prabhat Film Company in Pune the same year. It is here that Guru Dutt met two people who would remain his good friends -- actors Rehman and Dev Anand.y Guru Dutt acted in a small role as Sri Krishna in Chand in 1944. In 1945, he acted as well as assisted director Vishram Bedekar in Lakhrani, and in 1946 he worked as an assistant director and choreographed dances for P.L. Santoshi's film, Hum Ek Hain.
Guru Dutt developed a flair for writing in English, and wrote short stories for The Illustrated Weekly of India, a local weekly English magazine. It is during this time that he is supposed to have written the script for the almost autobiographical Pyaasa. After Prabhat failed in 1947, Dutt moved to Bombay, where he worked with two leading directors of the time, with Amiya Chakravarty in Girl's School, and with Gyan Mukherjee in the Bombay Talkies film Sangram. Then, Dev Anand offered him a job as a director in his new company, Navketan, after the first movie had flopped. Thus, Guru Dutt's first film, Navketan's Baazi, was released in 1951.
He made the quintessential 1950-'60s classics such as Kaagaz Ke Phool, Pyaasa, Sahib Biwi Aur Ghulam and Chaudhvi Ka Chaand.
His movies go full house when re-released; especially in Germany, France and Japan. Today, no world cinema class is complete without inclusion of Guru Dutt. Pyaasa was rated as one of the best 100 films of all time by the Time Magazine.
Dutt's Kaagaz Ke Phool (1959) was an intense disappointment. He had invested a great deal of love, money, and energy in this film, which was a self-absorbed tale of a famous director (played by Guru Dutt) who falls in love with an actress (played by Waheeda Rehman, Dutt's real-life love interest). Kaagaz Ke Phool failed at the box office and Dutt was devastated. Though he produced 2 films after that Chaudhvi Ka Chand and Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam, both the films recovered his loses but he never recovered from his mental state.he was not on good terms with his wife, Geeta Dutt; Waheeda Rehman had distanced with him. There was sleeping trouble that had him taking sleeping aid, and he was drinking since 5 pm that evening. Suicide or a lethal dose -- it was a loss to Indian cinema industry?
On October 10, 1964, Guru Dutt was found dead in his bed in his rented apartment at Pedder Road in Bombay. He is said to have been mixing alcohol and sleeping pills. His death may have been suicide, or just an accidental overdose.
The eldest of three brothers in the Hindi film industry (the younger ones being Dev and Vijay), Chetan Anand graduated in English from Lahore’s Government Law College. He worked with the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom, and also taught at Doon School in Dehradun before moving to Mumbai in the 1940s with a script for a biographical movie on emperor Ashoka. While the film didn’t take off,but he was given the lead role in a film by Phani Mazumdar Rajkumar in 1944. Unfortunately this film never released. Both of his attempt did not see the light of the day. Anand then got involved with the Indian People’s Theatre Association writing plays for them,here too he did not get success. He was later offered to direct a film written by K A Abbas and produced by Rashid Anwar. One of the most underrated films of its time, Neecha Nagar never saw the light of the day in our own country. Ironically, this film was never released in the country but it went on to win the top honor at Cannes. After this film he was not offered any film,he wasj jobless for few years.In the mean time his younger brother Dev Anand established himself as an actor with the hit film Ziddi in 1948. Seeing his elder brother depressed Dev Anand decided to start their own film company.Afsar, starring Dev Anand and Suraiya, was the first film made by Navketan, which turned out to be a moderate success. It was followed by Taxi Driver and Andhiyan, both of which he directed for the Navketan banner. After this film he directed Andhiyan with Dev Anand which was again a flop.it was in 1954 when he got success as a director with the release of Taxi Driver. While he made his reputation as a director, Chetan Anand kept on acting too occasionally. He appeared in Humsafar made in 1957. In 1957 he directed two movies Arpan and Anjali, in which he played lead roles too. He went on to act in Kala Bazar, Kinare-Kinare, Aman, Kanch Aur Heera and Hindustan Ki Kasam, which he directed too. In 1957 he directed two movies Arpan and Anjali outside of Navketan but both the films flopped.once again he could not get any film till he got Kinare-Kinare Kinare-Kinare in 1963. Later on Chetan Anand started his own production banner called Himalaya films and teamed up with photographer Jal Mistry, music director Madan Mohan, lyrics writer Kaifi Azmi and actress Priya Rajvansh. Together they gave some of most memorable and unique films in Hindi cinema like Haqeeqat, Heer Raanjha, Hanste Zakhm, and Hindustan Ki Kasam. Chetan Anand remained an underrated director though he gave some of the great films .He died on 6 July 1997, at the age of 76 in Mumbai.
This song of Kala Bazar (1960) was picturised on Dev Anand and Waheeda Rehman sung by Mohammad Rafi and Geeta Dutt.The song was written by Shailendra and the music was given by S D Brman. The song became the most iconic rain song and is spontaneously remembered with the pitter-patter of rain. It catches the mood perfectly, the rhythm of falling rain drops and the romance. It is the first time ever any duet was picturised in background. Thanks to the genius of Barman Dada who insisted that this should be played in background. The Director of the film was Vijay Anand who was a master of picturising songs.He was picturising this song on the hero and heroine but Sachin Da told him that instead of singing this song should be played in the background. Vijay Anand in an interview said that SD Burman was very perceptive about the power and impact of the medium of films and took a keen interest in understanding the situation of a song and its context in the landscape of the entire movie. The situation was that Waheeda Rehman is standing at the bus stand. Most people here are holding an umbrella each because it is raining. Only Dev Anand is holding a newspaper over his head. He calls a cab. Both he and Waheeda Rehman approach the stopped cab. When they reach it, they see and recognize each other. Within that moment an old woman enters the cab and leaves with it. Waheeda Rehman wears a dark sari with a light colored blouse, while Dev Anand is wearing a dark kurta pyjama. She had closed the umbrella while approaching the cab. Now both are getting wet. So Dev Anand tells her to open the umbrella and she tells him to come under it too. They try to catch another taxi when it is taken by somebody else. Suddenly, the camera shoots the sea with the playful waves hitting the large rocks on the shore. The playful nature of the waves represents the mood of the song that is to follow. The song begins. They feel the song in their hearts. They remember all the things that had happened to them together in the past. During the entire song, they are walking on the street. The song abruptly ends, when they reach Dev Anand’s home.
Sachin Da used to experiment a lot, not only during composition of his songs but during background music as well, at times putting his reputation at stake. Sometimes, he faced opposition but stood firm, the skeptical falling in line when the experiment succeeded.The picturised version of the song is less than two minutes long. but it gave an excellent impact in the film.This picturisation happened, and what an eye candy this picturisation was Dev Anand and Waheeda Rehman,
