The Evolution of Bollywood Dance

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 a lavish 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

 was in Bharata Natyam,

 

Song from Sadhna (1958) 

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

Dance from Guide 1965

This dance is from Amrapali , a 1966 historical Hindi film directed by Lekh Tandon, starring Vyjayanthimala and Sunil Dutt as leads. Music of the film was by Shankar-Jaikishan. Vyjayanthimala is truly one wonder woman.Personality,figure,her position,style,communication

skills, her dance graceful,

Dance from Amrapali 1966

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 is the 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

Song from Devdas 2002

Memorable Bollywood Songs Completing 50 Years This Year(2018)

If Hindi cinema is your passion, then you'll definitely love Songs and dance.The movies released in 1968 are now completing their 50 years.The songs from those movies are also completing 50 years.In this Blog I have included 10 songs as per their popularity.As we all know Binaca Geetmala was the popular countdown programme those days,the songs are put in that order.
The List of songs is as per their Popularity by Binaca Geetmala

1.Song From Shagird (1967),Music Director LaxmikantPyarelal and Singer LataMangeshkar,the song  Dil vil pyar vyar mainkya jaanu re

Song From Shagird (1967)

2.Song from Padosan ,Music Director R D Burman and Singer Kishore Kumar,the song  Mere samnewali khidki mein ik chand ka

Song from Padosan 1968

3.Song from Hamraaz, Music Director Ravi,Singer Mahendra Kapoor and the song  Neele gagan ke taley,dharti ka pyar paley

Song from Hamraaz 1968

4.Song from Brahmchari Music Director Shankar Jaikishan,Singer Suman Kalyanpur, Mohammed Rafi and the song  Aaj kal tere mere pyaarke charche har zubaanpe

Song from Brahmchari 1968

5.Song from SaraswatiChandra,Music Director KalyanjiAnandji,Singer Mukesh/LataMangeshkar and the song  Chandan sa badan chanchal chitwan 

Song from Saraswati Chandra 1968

6. Song from Jewel Thief,Music Director S D Burman,Singer LataMangeshkar,Bhupinder and the song  Honthon mein aisi baatmain dabaake chali aai

Song from Jewel Thief 1968

7.Song from Ram AurShyam,Music Director Naushad,Singer Mohammed Rafi and the song Aayi hai bahareiñ mitayzulm o sitam

Song from Ram Aur Shyam 1968

8.Song from Ankhen,Music Director Ravi,Singer LataMangeshkar and the song Milti hai zindagi meinmuhabbat kabhi kabhi

Song from Aankhen 1968

9.Song from Shikar,Music Director Shankar Jaikishan,Singer Asha Bhosle and the song Parde meiñ rehne do parda na uthaao 

Song from Shikar 1968

10.Song from Patthar KeSanam,Music Director Laxmikant Pyarelal,Singer LataMangeshkar and the song Bata dooñ kya lana tum laut ke aa jana

Song from Patthar Ke Sanam 1967

The Most Memorable Performances Of Dilip Kumar

Dilip Kumar is not only one of the earliest superstars of Hindi cinema, but also one of the few legendary artists India has seen.. Born as Yusuf Khan in Peshawar on December 11, 1922, it’s said that it was Devika Rani who spotted him at Pune’s military canteen. She told him to come to Mumbai and offered him his first film Jwar Bhata (1944).Since then in 6 decades he appeared in 65 films.His span across a staggering 50 + years, is full of some classics and utterly dedicated performances.He won as many as 8 Filmfare Awards for Best Actor (Daag, Azaad, Devdas, Naya Daur, Kohinoor, Leader, Ram Aur Shyam, Shakti)
Daag 1952

Dilip Kumar won the first ever Filmfare Award in the Best Actor category for his performance in this film. The Awards were instituted from 1954. The film fared well at the box office and was declared a hit.Dilip Kumar played the character of Shankar .Who was  addicted to alcohol.He is attracted to Parvati (Nimmi), who also lives a poor lifestyle. Shankar wanted to marry her but being a drunkard her step brother Jagat Narayan refused. In a dramatic turns of events, Jagat Narayan agrees to marry Parvati with Shankar, Shankar quits alcohol and the film finally finishes with a happy ending.

Azaad (1955)

 It was the top grossing Hindi film in the year of its release, and one of the biggest Hindi film hits in the decade.After so many films Dilip Kumar played a light-hearted role and the result was this swashbuckling adventure. The tragic hero was transformed into a Robin Hood character who is also a master of disguises. He uses guile and charm to outwit the villain and woo the heroine played by Meena Kumari who too seemed glad to be out of her three handkerchief roles. 
Devdas 1955

The film had Dilip Kumar in the title role and Vyjayanthimala in her first dramatic role where she played as Chandramukhi, a hooker with a heart of gold and Suchitra Sen in her Bollywood debut as Parvati in the lead. Motilal, Nazir Hussain, Murad, Pratima Devi, Iftekhar and Shivraj were playing other significant roles with Pran and Johnny Walker in extended cameo appearances.
Dilip Kumar played a man driven by unrequited love into being a drunkard to perfection. His eyes are hazy throughout the film and his silences are eloquent. He got so much under the skin of the character that it’s said he had to go to London and consult Harley Street psychiatrists to overcome depression. 

Naya Daur 1957

For this film, Dilip Kumar won the Filmfare Award for Best Actor for the third time in a row, being his fourth overall.Man Vs Machine was the theme of this pioneering film which made you question the price of progress. Director BR Chopra’s socialist strand was ever present in this humanist drama. Dilip played the rustic Tangewala to perfection, flirting outrageously with his firebrand heroine Vyjayanthimala. 
Madhumati 1958

The film stars Dilip Kumar and Vyjayantimala in the lead roles, with Pran and Johnny Walker in supporting roles. The plot focuses on Anand, a modern man who falls in love with a tribal woman named Madhumati. They are unable to have a relationship during their lifetimes and are reincarnated.Excellent performances by both Dilip and Vyjayanthimala. It won nine Filmfare Awards; including Best Film, Best Director, Best Music Director, Best Female Playback Singer, Best Dialogue, Best Art Directionand Best Cinematographer—the most awards for a single film at that time. It also won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi.
Kohinor 1960

Kohinoor cast Dilip Kumar and Meena Kumari to play a prince and princess of different kingdoms and was full of sword fights, songs and dances. This film is also notable for some rare comical and funny scenes by Meena Kumari, who is otherwise known as the tragedy queen. Its tone was light and it lacked the intense characterisations of their earlier films. It was a major hit of the year.It had great music by Naushad. Gems like Madhuban mein Radhika naache re (Dilip Kumar reportedly learnt to play the guitar to lend authenticity to the song) and Do sitaron ka zameen par hai milan regale us even today.

Mughal-e-Azam 1960

 Released on 5 August 1960, it broke box office records in India and became the highest-grossing Bollywood film of all time, a distinction it held for 15 years.Starring Prithviraj Kapoor, Dilip Kumar, Madhubala, and Durga Khote, it follows the love affair between MughalPrince Salim (who went on to become Emperor Jahangir) and Anarkali, a court dancer. Salim's father, Emperor Akbar, disapproves of the relationship, which leads to a war between father and son.

Ganga Jamuna 1961

The film stars Dilip Kumar, Nasir Khan and Vyjayanthimala in leading roles, and Azra, Kanhaiyalal, Anwar Hussain, Nazir Hussain and Leela Chitnis in supporting roles.The film features real life brothers Dilip Kumar (Muhammad Yusuf Khan) and Nasir Khan in the title roles.  It was one of the biggest hits of the 1960s and one of the most successful Indian films in terms of box office collection, domestically in India and overseas.Dilip Kumar's performance as Ganga is considered one of the finest acting performances in the history of Indian cinema.

Ram Aur Shyam 1967

This was perhaps Dilip Kumar’s last big hit as a solo star and what can be more fitting than the fact that he played a double role in the film? It’s to his credit that he was able to infuse two different personalities to the roles.Dilip Kumar’s capability isn’t limited to performing serious roles. He can play a light-hearted or comical character in a commercial film too with equal ease.
Immortal songs of Dilip Kumar

Song from Andaz 1949

Song from Aarzoo 1950

Song from Tarana 1951

Song from Deedar (1951)

Song from Daag (1952)

Song from Footpath 1953

Song from Azaad (1955)

Song from Naya Daur (1957)

Song from Madhumati (1958)

Song from Kohinoor(1960)

Song from Ganga Jamuna (1961)

Suraiya -The Top Singing Star of Independent India

There was a time when traffic jams at Marine Drive (Mumbai) were caused not due to a long line of cars, but because of a young charismatic actress - Suraiya..
During the mid-forties the two faces which dominated the film world with their music were Suraiya and Noor Jehan. 
Noorjehan left India after Partition so she became the Top Leading Singing Star of Bollywood.Both of them appeared together in that celebrated Mehboob’s musical Anmol Ghadi. Though overshadowed by Noor Jehan, it goes to her credit that Suraiya, even in a supporting role, was able to hold her own and make her presence felt with her evergreen melodies like “Socha tha kya, kya ho gaya” and “Man leta hai angrahi”.
Suraiya with her distinct individual style, her sweet seasoned voice and direct simple diction succeeded in captivating the listeners and her popularity knew no bounds.She had 3 box-office hits in quick succession were “Pyar ki Jeet” (1948), “Badi Behan” (1949) and “Dillagi” (1949).In her heyday she was known as 'Malika-e-Husn' (queen of beauty), 'Malika-e-Tarannum' (queen of melody) and 'Malika-e-Adakaari' (queen of acting), all rolled into one.
She was born on 15 June 1929.She was the only child of her parents.She received basic training in music when her mother used to take her to a Hindustani music teacher or 'Master ji' for training. She first sang for a children's program for All India Radio in 1937. Later on Naushad gave her on the job 'training', while recording. She went on to become one of the most successful singing film stars of Bollywood.  

She made her debut as a child artist in Madam Fashion in 1936 as Miss Suraiya, along with Nargis as Baby Rani. The film was directed by Jaddan Bai, mother of Nargis, with Jaddan Bai herself as heroine,
As a child artist, she acted and also sang in Tamanna (1942), Station Master (1942), and Hamari Baat (1943). As an adult, Suraiya initially played as a heroine in K. Asif's Phool as Shama, with Prithviraj Kapoor as hero,and as a co-star in Mehboob Khan's Anmol Ghadi (1946), (which was written by Aghajani Kashmeri, also known as Kashmiri) and Dard (1947).
She acted as a heroine in the film Tadbir (1945) on the recommendation of K. L. Saigal, who liked her voice during a rehearsal of a song for Jayant Desai's film Samrat Chandragupt (1945) in which she was acting. He recommended her to Desai, opposite himself in Tadbir (1945). She went on to co-star with K. L. Saigal in Omar Khayyam (1946) and Parwana (1947 film).Suraiya appeared in scores of films, including at least 25 between 1946 and 1950, and at her peak was one of Bollywood’s highest-paid stars. She worked only a few films after 1952 and retired in 1963 at the age of 34.
She played the leading role with almost every famous star of her time and also sang with the leading playback singers like Mohammad Rafi, Talat Mehmood and Mukesh

. 
The most striking and much-publicised episode of Suraiya’s life was her romance with the upcoming young actor Dev Anand in the early 1950s. It was then the ‘talk of the town’, the very stuff legends are made of. She was Dev Anand’s heroine in seven films which had moderate success . During the shooting of a film, a boat capsized and Dev Anand saved Suraiya from drowning. This incident was the beginning of their romance. Suraiya fell in love with him and both of them planned to get married but Suraiya’s grandmother opposed the relationship and persuaded her to turn down Dev’s marriage proposal. She chose to remain unmarried throughout her life and died a lonely woman on 31st January 2004.
Suraiya's Great Songs

The first recorded song of Manna De and Child Suraiya

Song from Tamanna (1942)

Song from Tadbir (1945)

Song from Anmol Ghadi 1946

Song from Dard 1947

Song from Parwana 1947

Song from Pyar Ki Jeet 1948

Song from Vidya 1948

Song from Dillagi 1949

Song from DASTAN 1950

Song from Rajput 1951

Song from Mirza Ghalib (1954)

Song from Waris 1954

Song from Shama (1961)

Ramesh Sippy- The Golden Director Of cult classic in Bollywood

The film Sholay is synonymous with the name Ramesh Sippy – its maker. Ramesh Sippy, one of Bollywood’s finest producers and directors.His first film was Andaz in 1971with Stars like Shammi Kapoor, Hema Malini and Rajesh Khanna .  .Although this was only a moderate success, his second film Seeta Aur Geeta (1972) was highly successful.
He was born on 23 Jan 1947 at Karachi. He was just 6 years old when he entered on the set of a Hindi Film, it was shooting of his fathers film "Sazaa" and he was there as a visitor. Soon he started working in film industry as just three years after his first visit to a film set he played role of son of Achla Sachdev in the 1953 film "Shashenshah".
After the Sholay, Ramesh went on to Direct "Shaan" in 1980 and this time also Film was with stars like Amitabh Bachchan, Shahi Kapoor, Sunil Datt, Shatrughan Sinha, Bindya Goaswami and Parveen Bobi but like the Sholay's Gabbar Singh highlight of the Film was the "Shakal" a villain role played by Kulbhushan Kharbanda. "Shaan" proved a mile stone film for Mazhar Khan for his role of "Abdul" in the film but this film has also established Ramesh Sippy as the Director of Star.
His next film was Shakti in 1982,he brought two most popular stars and actors in his Film,the veteran actor Dilip Kumar and Amitabh Bachchan.The film was moderately successful at the box office.After that  he went on to bring back the teen age silver screen romance of Rishi Kapoor & Dimple Kapadia [Debut Film Bobby] in the Film "Sagar" released in 1985 and looked as the come back Film of Dimple.
He directed few films.after that Bhrashtachar (1989), Akayla (1991), and Zamana Deewana (1995) none of these did well in box office.
Beside the Films Ramesh Sippy also Directed "Buniyad" one of successful Television serial, telecasted in 1987 on Doordarshan. The serial was based on the subject of Partition of India. 
In the year 2003 he returned back to silver screen of bollywood but this time as Producer for the Film "Kuch Naa Kaho" Directed by his son Rohan Sippy. 2008 released film "Chandni Chowk to China" with star cast of Akshay Kumar, Deepika Padukone and directed by Nikhil Advani is the last Film Produced by Ramesh Sippy which brouht box office glory, though he also produced Film "Dum Maro Dum" again Directed by his son Rohan Sippy but the Film didn't proved notable on box office.
Sippy's father was producer G. P. Sippy. His son Rohan Sippy is a film director.He is a winner of the civilian honour of Padma Shri in 2013.
Song's from Ramesh Sippy Films

Song from Andaz 1971

Song from Seeta Aur Geeta 1973

Song from Sholay 1975

Song from Shaan 1979

Song from Shakti 1982

Song from Sagar 1985