Tarzans of Bollywood

Tarzan is a fictional character created by the fictional writer Edgar Rice Burroughs in the novel "Tarzan of the Apes" published in 1914. The first Tarzan film was a silent film released in 1918, With the advent of talking pictures, a popular Tarzan movie franchise was developed.  Starting with Tarzan the Ape Man in 1932 through twelve films until 1948, the franchise was anchored by former Olympic swimmer Johnny Weissmuller in the title role.
In India, the first Tarzan film was TOOFANI TARZAN  produced by Wadia Brothers in 1937 It starred John Cawas as Tarzan. This film went on to become the studio’s biggest grosser. Wadia also made Tarzan an Indian man and never again was his Indian-ness challenged. He always sang and danced and spoke fluent Hindi before the interval.

The next Tarzan film was Zimbo released in 1958. Homi Wadia now created an Indian Tarzan, it was a remake of Toofani Tarzan This time the role was played by Azad, he made a much better Tarzan than Cawas. Perhaps, the reason behind choosing Azad to play Tarzan was his resemblance to Weissmuller. This film became a hit, Azad did many Tarzan films in the 60s. In fact, many Tarzan films were made in the 60s.

Zimbo was a 1958 Hindi action-adventure film directed by Homi Wadia and produced by Basant Pictures. The film starred Azad, Krishna Kumari, Chitra, Achala Sachdev. 

Professor Chakravarty and his wife Uma (Achala Sachdev) live with their four-year-old son in the jungle where he carries out experiments. He has discovered the formula to prevent aging. Adversity strikes when their house is attacked by lions, killing him, while his wife goes mad with grief. The professor's son goes missing in the melee. The story then follows the arrival of several people seventeen years later from the city. One of them is the Professor's brother who has traveled to the jungle with his daughter in search of the missing formula and to look for the professor's son. There are villains in the group of people, wanting the formula for their own purposes. Chakravarty's son Zimbo has been brought up by the apes and the story takes a turn when they try to relocate him with Dada (Pedro the Chimpanzee) to the city.

In 1962 Navshakti films came out with the earlier title Toofani Tarzan with Azad playing the Tarzan role. 

The story was different here the Explorers searching for a hidden treasure encounter the titular jungle man (Azad) who refuses to let them pass through his forest. When Tarzan falls in love with Sushma (Shanta Kumari), one of the travelers, the magician Samri, who is also a part of the group, creates a duplicate of the woman in an effort to overpower Tarzan. 

By this time Azad has typecast the Tarzan or Zimbo. He was many offers to play this role in the forthcoming films. The next in line was TARZAN AUR JADUGAR released in 1963.

This film was produced by Nattu and directed by Radhakant The story of this film has another angle of a magician. Magic was a hot subject in the 60s This film had both the interesting subject of that era. In this film, Tarzan is referred to as the king of the beasts, who lives in the forest of fairies, and of an evil sorceress who wants to control it.

Khanna, his wife Kamla, and their little son Tony start out on a sea voyage only to face tragedy when the ship sinks, flinging each of the three onto different parts of massive jungle land.  Khanna becomes a laborer for a contractor in the jungle. Kamla meets a lady magician named Rooplekha, who she grows to love as a daughter. And little Tony is rescued by a fairy from Paristan and placed in the loving hands of the animals of the jungle and grows up to be known as Tarzan (Azad). 

Another Tarzan film released in 1963 was Tarzan Aur Gorilla, directed by Pyarelal for hind Films. The main lead remains the same Azad as Tarzan and Chitra, his love interest but in this film, the highlight was given to  Pedro the Chimpanzee 

In 1964 three Tarzan films were released and in all the three films Azad played the role of Tarzan. Director Radhakant once again comes with Azad as Tarzan in the 1964 film "Tarzan Aur Jalpari "

In this film, Tarzan is saved by a “Jalpari” played by Chitra. In the end, it is Tarzan’s turn to help the Jalpari who has become the victim of a notorious magician. 

The second Tarzan film of 1964 was "Tarzan And Delilah" produced by Heera Sawant, A. Shamsheer, and directed by A Shamsheer with the same star cast, Azad as Tarzan and Chitra as Delilah.

Tarzan is in love with Princess Delilah, a captive of the evil queen Laila, who has her eyes on the beefy jungle hero. Sunanda and Fernades who was thrown from a vessel, land on an island inhabited by Tarzan (Azad). Tarzan and Zippy to free Delilah and the other lasses who are being held against their will behind the “magic door” belonging to Queen Laila.

TARZAN AND CAPTAIN KISHORE was the third Tarzan film of 1964 with similar leading pair. Azad and Chitra.

Three young boys become separated during a shipwreck. One grows up to be a jungle man named Tarzan, another becomes a ship’s captain named Kishore, while the third, William turns into a smuggler. The story is about stealing valuable scientific formulas. 

In 1965 three Tarzan films were released, this time Dara Singh appeared as Tarzan with Mumtaz as his heroine in Tarzan comes to Delhi. This film was produced by Surinder Kapoor, the father of Anil Kapoor and Boney Kapoor. The film was an average in Bollywood but the audience liked Dara Singh as Tarzan.

This film was a remake of TARZAN’S NEW YORK ADVENTURE (1942).  Rekha (Mumtaz), and her professor father go to a jungle with a guide Shekhar played by Sidhu, who steals a priceless necklace off of a tribal idol. The tribesmen blame the theft on the interlopers and threaten the life of the professor until it is returned. With Tarzan’s help, Rekha and her father search for the gem and it takes them from the wilderness to the big city of Delhi where the jungle man experiences a mighty big case of culture shock.

The second film was "Tarzan and Kingkong", in this film Tarzan is played by Randhawa, the younger brother of Dara Singh. Dara Singh appears in this film in a Guest appearance. The highlight of this film was the role of Kingkong played by himself.

This film was produced by A Jaiswal and directed by A Shamsheer, who earlier directed "Tarzan And Delilah" with Azad as Tarzan, now take Randhawa as Tarzan. A jungle queen (Bela Bose) captures the survivors of a plane crash, planning to sacrifice them to the goddess Bali. Tarzan (Randhawa) intervenes and in the process falls in love with Sharmila (Mumtaz), one of the stranded passengers.

The queen teams up with her commander, Romi (Shyam Kumar), and a strong-man named King Kong (King Kong), to destroy Tarzan and his lady love.

The third Tarzan film was "Tarzan and Circus" with Azad once again as Tarzan. This film was produced by S.J.Rajdeo and directed by Shiv Kumar with Chitra as the heroine.

IN this film we see a ringmaster of a circus who has lost his only son; Bimla, a love-hungry circus owner; and Keshav (Mohan Sherry), the wicked circus manager whose goal is to gain Bimla’s wealth and possess Malti’s youth. Malti is played by Chitra. 

In 1966 three Tarzan films released. The first release was Tarzan Aur Herculis produced by Herculis and directed by Mahmood, not the comedian Mehmood. The other film was Tiger And Jadui Chirag and the third was Tarzan Ki Mehbooba

Azad once again appears as Tarzan, his life is in danger, both from monsters created by a magician who is searching the jungle for a buried treasure and by royals who have discovered that the jungle man is the lost heir to a kingdom they have overthrown

D R Films Tarzan Ki Mehbooba was directed by Ram Rasila. In this film, Tabassum was the heroine of Tarzan played once again by Azad.

Tarzan loves a jungle nymph named Nimoni (Tabassum), who is the daughter of a tribal chief, Tomoki. The tribe’s witch doctor, Limo, wishes for Nimoni to become his bride, and to help make that happen he murders Timoki and takes over as chief. He then sets out to destroy Tarzan’s peaceful rule of the jungle.

In 1968 another Tarzan film released, directed by Sushil Gupta with once again Azad as Tarzan in Tarzan In Fairyland

The star cast includes Azad, Indira, Shyam Kumar, Amar, Ram Kumar, Ram Mohan, Sheikh, The story about a professor and his daughter (Indira), who are in search for a treasure thought to belong to a civilization that was buried during an earthquake thousand of years before. They run afoul of a mad magician, who captures the group. Tarzan came to rescue them from the magician and help them to find the treasure.

In 1970, a new Indian Tarzan was introduced, this time the great wrestler Master Chandagiram( Hind Kesri 1962 and 1968). The film was produced by Radhakant, who earlier a Tarzan film in 1963.

Tarzan (Chandgi Ram) takes to task a band of gold smugglers while at the same time falling in love with the gang leader’s pretty daughter, Rama (Shabnam).

Slowly the attraction of Tarzan was fading new characters were emerging like Rambo or Rocky. It took 15 years for Tarzan to reappear in 1985 film TARZAN (aka: ADVENTURES OF TARZAN)

The film directed by B Subhash, starring Hemant Birje, Dalip Tahil, Kimi Katkar, and Om Shivpuri. The film was successful commercially. The film was much talked about in its time, mainly due to the steamy scenes between the lead actors and popular hit songs. 

Like earlier films here also A small boy, lost in the jungle, becomes the ward of the jungle animals and grows up to become Tarzan (Hemant Birje). He was found by Dr. Sethi and his daughter, Ruby (Kimi Katkar) whom he saves. They fall in love. 

Ruby's dad and D.K plan to capture Tarzan and take him to work for the Apollo Circus, owned by Krishnakant Verma. Tarzan is captured before Tarzan and Ruby's romance could take wing. Tarzan is chained and taken to the circus and made to spend the rest of his days performing various acts, 

17 years later The sequel of the above movie named Tarzan Ki Beti was released in 2002. Tarzan was played by Hemant Birje. This movie was released in 2002 under the banner of Kusum Art International as a sequel of the Adventures of Tarzan. 

The star cast includes Hemant Birje, Ritika Singh, Gouri Varma, Raza Murad, Dhananjay (Junior Dharmendra) which was a look-alike of Dharmendra. Hemant Nirje plays Tarzan and Ritika Singh plays his daughter.

Dhananjay Singh plays Arjun, he loves an orphan girl Kiran.  When they are about to be married. Kiran knows from her mother that her father is Tarzan. Kiran also has a sister, Aarti who still lives in the jungle. Some hunters try to catch Arti in the jungle. A forest ranger helps Aarti to reunite with her family. 

In 2004 a film was released Tarzan and Wonder Car starring Ajay Devgan. The film was not a Tarzan film but there was car named as Tarzan. Ajay Devgan plays Deven who was an Automobile engineer who possessed this car. He was killed by four of his friends to grab this car. Ultimately this car was purchased by Deven's son after many years.  Deven's spirit possesses Taarzan and starts killing all the gentlemen responsible for the murder, including Inspector Sanjay Sharma. Since the car now belongs to Raj, he becomes a suspect in eyes of Inspector Khurana (Gulshan Grover)

Songs of Tarzan

Song of Toofani Tarzan 1937

Song of Zimbo 1958

Song of Tarzan Aur Jadugar 1964

Song of Tarzan Comes to Delhi 1965

Song of Tarzan 1985

Song of Tarzan 1985

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Shyama- One of the Busiest Actresses of the Golden Era

Shyama (7 June 1935 – 14 November 2017) was one of the busiest actresses of the 50s and 60s. She appeared in as many as 80 films, mostly in leading roles. In 1963, she had as many as 18 releases and in 1964 she had 17 releases.
Shyama started her career from the bottom of the ladder but soon worked with the Top Heroes Of Golden Era with Dev Anand in Sazaa 1951, Tarana(1951) with Dilip Kumar, Raj Kapoor in Sharda and with Guru Dutt in Aar Paar.
Many memorable songs were picturized on her, An early song where Shyama first made an impact is the second version of the main love duet, ‘Tu Mera Chand Main Teri Chandni’, from A.R. Kardar’s Dillagi (1949) starring Suraiya and Shyam. 
There was magic whenever Geeta Dutt lent her voice for Shyama. This vibrant singer and exuberant actress complemented each other perfectly through several films be it Shrimatiji, Aar Paar, Musafir Khana (1955), or Chhoo Mantar (1956). But if one song truly stood out in their collaboration, it has to be the beautiful ditty from Bhai Bhai composed by Madan Mohan, Ae Dil Mujhe Bata De. 
She acted a serious character in Bimal Roy’s Maa with equal ease. Came Shart, another acting triumph of hers. Since then she played all sorts of roles in all sorts of pictures. Her notable films include Chandan, Sharda, Mirza Sahiban, Aar Paar, etc. She topped her acting triumphs by her memorable double role in Do Behnen. Her work in Sharda brought her the 1959 Filmfare award for the best supporting role.
In later years, her memorable roles came in films of Rajesh Khanna such as Masterji and 'Ajanabee (1974 film) and others such as Sawan Bhadon and Dil Diya Dard Liya.
In her long career, she played the lead, second lead, and vamp roles in around 147 films. The last film she did was the Sanjay Dutt starrer Hathyar.
She was married to cinematographer Fali Mistry in 1953. The couple had three children, two sons, Faroukh and Rohinton, and a daughter Shirin. Fali Mistry died in 1979, thereafter she continued to stay in Mumbai.
Shyama died on 14 November 2017 due to a lung infection at the age of 82. She is buried at Badakabarastan, Marine Lines.She was given Dada Saheb Phalke Award.

Song of Dillagi 1949

Song of Shrimati ji 1952

Song of Aar Paar 1954

Song of Aar Paar 1954

Song of Aar Paar 1954

Song of Shart 1954

Song of Bhai Bhai 1956

Song of Duniya Rang Rangeeli 1957

Bollywood's Love for Bicycle

Two days back I heard the news that one of the oldest bicycle manufacturers(Atlas cycle) of India closes its factory. This made me upset, I started to think, how useful is a bicycle to us. Riding your bicycle regularly is one of the best ways to reduce your risk of health problems associated with a sedentary lifestyle.
Bicycle remained an important part of our life, many films or scenes were created in this mode of transport. Cycle scenes or songs have been picturized on a variety of actors from the Black &White era to the recent films. The first Hindi film on this subject was Khajanchi released in 1942. In this film a cycling chase was picturized on character actor Janki Das, who was introduced in this film, he was a ‘World Cycling Champion’The highlight of the film was the cycling feat of Janki Dass through the lanes and bylanes of Lahore. 
Jankidas served as the only Indian member of the International Olympic Committee at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin and was the only Indian to have broken the world record in cycling between 1934 and 1942. He broke eight cycling world records between 1934 to 1942.  

Actress Shubha Khote was a National Cycling Champion and was given a special chase scene on cycle in her debut film Seema in 1955. In 1959 film a love story started with a cycling accident. Incidentally, Shubha Khote was also in this scene among the girls singing and cycling.
Another film Shor 1972 the hero of the film enters into a cycling competition to win the prize money for treating his son. 

Jo Jeeta Woh Sikander, the 1992 film was based on cycling. The film story revolves around cycle races. First in a school competition. Aamir Khan trumped over the conniving Deepak Tijori.

Dil Dhadkne Do 

 Piku

Barfi

For the last 10 years, many films had cycle scenes, there was a cycle chase in Burfi, Amitabh Bachchan cycling on the street of Kolkata in Piku, paddling away in the streets of one of the most beautiful cities in the world along with your new-found love. Anushka and Ranveer show us exactly what to do after you fall for each other in Dil Dhadkne Do 

Salman Khan who is an avid cycle enthusiast in real life asked director Kabir Khan to keep a cycling scene in Bajrangi Bhaijaan.  Salman Khan gave a lift to his ladylove Kareena on his cycle.

Song of Khajanchi 1941

Song of Paying Guest 1957

Song of Anari 1959

50 Years of Jeevan Mrityu

Released on 4 June 1970, Jeevan Mrityu is a Rajshri Production starring Dharmendra and Rakhi, the debut film of Rakhi. If you are a Dharmendra fan this film is for you. Dharmendra gives one of his best performances in this film. 
Dharmendra was at his best. Usually, he is known for his action but in this, you see him as a well-educated man who reaches the top in a short span with his hard work. Dharmendra has given an answer to all those who think he cannot perform emotional scenes well.  It wouldn't be wrong to say that the entire movie depends on Dharmendra's performance.

 The film was a remake of a 1967 Bengali film Jiban Mrityu starring Uttam Kumar and Supriya Devi in lead roles. The story was about a bank manager played by Dharmendra who is falsely implicated in a case of embezzlement by his colleagues Harish (Ajit), Jagat Narayan (Kanhaiyalal), Barrister P. Amarnath (Ramesh Deo) and Ramakant (Krishan Dhawan) for stealing Rs 10 lakh. and sent to jail for seven years. 
After completing his seven-year term, he finds a benefactor in Raja Ranvir Singh (Bipin Gupta) and plots revenge against his colleague. After Ashok is mistakenly reported to be dead, he takes on a new identity( In a disguise of a Sardar)  and sets off to get his former colleagues. 

Raakhee looks pretty in Dharmendra’s company, especially the melodious song, “Jhilmil Sitaron Ka Aangan Hoga”, featuring them in the first half of the movie. The sad version of this song, a solo of Lata Mangeshkar in the second part.
The film was a big hit as well the song "Jhil Mil Sitaron Ka" composed by Laxmikant Pyarelal. It will always be remembered as one of the finest offerings from the house of Tarachand Barjatjya, known to give quality films that could be viewed by the entire family.

Song of Jeevan Mrityu 1970

Song of Jeevan Mrityu 1970

Song of Jeevan Mrityu 1970 (Sad Version)

Raj Kapoor had a great ear for music

Have you ever thought, why the music of all his films remains immensely popular? The reason being he himself had a great knowledge of music. He learned music in his childhood. In his early days, he wanted to be a music director. He even sang in his earlier films like Dil Ki Rani, Chitchor, Chittor Vijay, Jail Yatra, and Gopinath.
His music journey started with Papaji (Prithviraj Kapoor) in theatre in Calcutta. When he came to Bombay he learned classical music playing Harmonium, Tabla, and Sitar at Narayan Rao Vijay Academy. He was also with Anil Biswas for some time.
He was very fond of composing tunes, he composed tunes with Ram Ganguli with whom Shankar, Jailishan used to play Harmonium and Tabla. It was there the birth of the Team of Shankar Jaikishan and Raj Kapoor took place, that entertained the music lovers.
Lata Mangeshkar in an interview said that a filmmaker has to be a musician himself to understand the quality of music needed in his films. She said that Raj Kapoor had a sharp music sence. Raj saab was a complete musician. He played the tabla, the harmonium, and the piano. He composed songs and sang them in his own voice before handing them over to professional playback singers.
Raj Kapoor's song sittings were very famous, all the stake holders of the song used to be invited on the sittings, time was no limit, every one present cold give his suggestion. He loved to listen to tunes, to prune and trim the compositions, to correct the singers. He also sit with the Lyricist to change a particular line or word which is not matching the tune, he perfected the compositions to suit his taste.
Lata Mangeshkar at a function said that the music of RK Films may have been attributed to Shankar-Jaikishan or Laxmikant Pyarelal in Bobby or Satyam Shivam Sundaram but it had the final finish of Raj Kapoor which used to be icing on the cake.
Raj Kapoor was of the opinion that songs are the important ingredient of Hindi cinema.He beeived that these should carry the story ahead. Like his peers Bimal Roy and Guru Dutt, he gave as much importance to the execution of a song as to a scene.
For him, the songs were truly not only audio but audio-visual. He saw music as it were; and only when he could how the song could be filmed, did he okay its recording. His use of elaborate sets, of light and shade to convey sombreness and technicolour to project joy, were all part of his visual perception.
Songs in RK films were never just 'there'; they were seamlessly woven into the fabric of the film, used intelligently and sensibly to complement the narrative.

Song of Barsaat 1949

Song of Awaara 1951

Song of Shree 420 1955

Song of Chori Chori 1956

Song of Anari 1959

Song of Jis Desh Men Ganga Behti Hai 1960

Song of Sangam 1964

Song of Teesri Kasam 1966

Song of Mera Naam Joker 1970

Bollywood Songs Picturized in Foreign Location

It is believed that Sangam 1964 was the first film shot in Foreign but on researching, I have found that Naaz(1954) was the first Bollywood film shot in Foreign Locations. The film starring Ashok Kumar and Nalini Jaywant. This movie was shot in England and Egypt. 
In 1960, two films Bewqoof starring Kishore Kumar and Singapore starring Shammi Kapoor had songs picturized in Italy and Singapore.
There was another film "Hongkong" released in 1962 was shot in HongKong and Singapore. A couple of songs were picturized on Helen and Om Prakash. Yes, it is true it was Raj Kapoor's Sangam that popularized  Rome, Venice, Vatican, Switzerland.
In the 60s films like An Evening In Patis, Love In Tokyo, and Humsaya encouraged more producers and directors to shoot songs on foreign locations. Yash Chopra had a fascination for picturizing songs on foreign locations starting from the evergreen  'Dekha Ek Khwab....' song from his 1981 film 'Silsila' in the Netherlands, and his film 'Faasle' (1985), in Switzerland. 
The video of Naaz 1954 film is not available so the first song of my this blog is from the film Bewqoof 1960 which was picturized on Kishore Kumar and Mala Sinha. The sing was picturized in Italy. This song was sung by Kishore Kumar and Asha Bhonsle, with one line in Manna Dey’s voice, slipped in.

Song of Bewqoof 1960

Singapore (1960) was an Eagle Films Production movie. It was produced by F C Mehra and directed by Shakti Samanta. the movie had Shammi Kapoor, Padmini,A couple of songs were picturized in Singapore

Song of Singapore 1960

Hongkong 1962. This film was produced by the actor Omprakash
The song is picturized on Helen where she is seen wooing Omprakash.on a beach in Singapore.

Song of Hongkong 1962

Sangam was the first film that was shot in Switzerland. the famous multi-lingual song in the voice of Vivian Lobo. The song is built from the lines ‘I Love You’ said in five different languages. English, Russian.German, and French. The song was picturized in the background when Raj Kapoor and Vijyantimala visit Europe after their marriage. 

Song of Sangam 1964

The success of Sangam and the craze of the Indian public to see the foreign locations encouraged Indian filmmakers to shoot or picturise songs..

 Love in Tokyo was one of those rare Hindi films of the 60s that was set almost completely in Japan, and it had several songs that were shot outdoors. 

Song of Love In Tokyo 1966

“Around the world” (1967) was another film of the 69s, many songs were picturized in this film,this song Dunia Ki Sair Karlo was shot in the USA 

Song of Around the world” (1967)

An Evening In Paris is a 1967 film that revolves in the French capital city of Paris. The movie stars Shammi Kapoor, Sharmila Tagore The title song was picturized in Patis, Another song Akele Akele Kahan Ja Rahe Ho was shot in Switzerland.

Song of  An Evening In Paris 1967

Song of  An Evening In Paris 1967

In 1967 another film Aman was released which was shot in Japan. There was a song picturized on Rajendra Kumar and Saira Bano

Song of  Aman 1967

The film ‘Spy In Rome’ was released in 1968, starring  Dev Kumar, Jaimala, Rajendra Nath, A couple of songs were picturized in the beautiful and historic city of Rome. We can see Dev Kumar and Jaimala strolling through the streets of Rome,

 

Song of Spy In Rome 1968 

1968  popular song De Data Ke Naam from Aankhen was shot in Beirut

Song of Aankhen 1968

The 1970 film Prem Pujari was Dev Anand's first film as director, the song " Pholon Ke Rang Se" was shot in Switzerland.  Grimsel Hotel can be seen in Background.

Song of Prem Pujari 1970 

Purab Aur Paschim  was also 1970 film, one song of this film "Koi Jab  Tumhara Hridaya Tod De"   this song was actually filmed at Oxford University in London

Song of Purab Aur Paschim 1970

In 1972 actor Feroz Khan turned into Producer, Director with the release of Apradh starring Mumtaz and himself. It was the first Hindi film introducing Formula One Car racing. This film was shot in Germany. A couple of songs were shot in Europe

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Song of Apradh 1972

In 1974 Dharmatma was the second film of Feroz Khan as producer and director. This film was shot in Afganistan. This song was shot in  Bamyan Valley. 

Song of Dharmatma 1975

More songs in Part 2