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
This immortal song from Pakeezah(1972) was originally a solo sung by Lata Mangeshkar, intended for use as a dancing number, the fascinating solo version was cut from both the film and record released, later a romantic version, a duet was recorded. You may have noticed it or not, Rafi sab has sung but just a single line in it which is the Mukhda. Amazing how a single line sung by Rafi sab had made it an immortal Rafi song. This was the only song in this film having a male voice. All the other songs were female solo. The music of this film was given by Ghulam Mohammad. He composed a total of 15 songs for the film out of which only six were used. The remaining songs were released in 1977 in an album called "Pakeezah Rang Barang". This album was released exclusively by Saregama in 1977. This film took 16 years to complete. The mahurat of the film happened on July 16, 1956, and the film got released in Feb 1972. The music of the film was recorded by the end of 1959. Kamal Amrohi wanted this film to be a musical so 15 songs were recorded earlier. The shooting of the film was halted in 1964 due to mutual differences between lead heroine Meena Kumari and her director-husband Amrohi. In 1968, the composer of the film passed away. So, when the film was revived in 1969, Naushad was roped in to complete the background music for the film. Many exhibitors suggested Kamal Amrohi change the music according to the then-popular trend and style. To this Amrohi said that he would have readily done this if only Ghulam Mohammed was still alive but now he cannot betray a man, who gave him such melodious songs, after his death. So he kept his music intact but used fewer songs as planned to keep up with the fast-changing trend. In 1969 the shooting of the film resumed after a gap of five years. By this time Meena Kumari's health got deteriorated. She was suffering from Liver Cirrhosis. Few songs were yet to be picturized. Her condition became so bad that during the filming of the grueling emotional Mujraa “Teer-e Nazar,” Meena Kumari collapsed. Keeping in mind her medical condition, a body double was brought. Actress Padma Khanna played her body double in this song as she was an adept Kathak dancer which was an urgent requirement of the song. Meena Kumari personally trained her for the scene, and the song was filmed with the majority of the dancing done under a veil in order to hide her face. Similarly in this song too Padma Khanna acted as Meena Kumari. Her face was actually never shown in the song.
Song of Pakeezah 1972
Chalo Dildar Chalo - Lata Solo version not in the film
Released on 12th June 1970, Sawan Bhadon was the debut film of Rekha and Navin Nischal. It was also the debut film of the famous villain Ranjeet. Dancer Jayshree T also came into limelight with this film. The film was produced and directed by Mohan Segal. The film was a surprise hit. Sawan Bhadon celebrated a jubilee run in over 30 theaters across the country
It had a few catchy numbers like "Kaan Mein Jhumka, Chaal MeinThumka" was very popular among masses. The music was composed by Sonik Omi, not a big name in the music industry at that time, only Dil Ne Phir Yaad Kiya(1966) was their earlier film was noticeable.
Sawan Bhadon was a run-of-the-mill film. Sawan Bhadon is the tale of Vikram played by Navin Nischal, a wealthy guy who’s been living in Europe when he decides to return to India. He has a step-sister Dolly and step-mother Sulochana, who are very cunning and greedy and steal Vikram's money during his absence from India.
Vikram, on his way home, is blocked by some thugs, who are actually the men hired by Sulochana's brother to kill him. But a village girl Chanda(Rekha) and her friends help him.Both of them fall in love with each other and plan to marry with Chanda's family's consent. But Sulochana is against the marriage and tries to force Vikram to leave her, but Vikram does not obey her.
Vikram comes to know that behind his back, Sulochana has fraudulently acquired properties of the villagers and he decides to return them to their rightful owners. Sulochana decides to kill him with the help of Madan by planting a bomb in his car before he heads towards Bangalore. The car explodes as per her plan and everyone including Chanda believes that Vikram is dead. All enemies of Vikram celebrate his death but Vikram survives.
Vikram returns home but Sulochana does not believe that he is alive. She tries to prove by all means that he is not Vikram. But Vikram proves that he has escaped merely with some injuries.Sulochana decides to kill the Vikram look-alike by poisoning his milk but he survives again
In the end, she confesses that she saw him falling out and burning from the exploded car and had bashed his head. The Vikram look-alike then admits that he is not Vikram, but CID Inspector Vinod.
Chanda is very disappointed about Vinod acting as Vikram, but Vinod tells her Vikram is not dead really but survived with injuries. This film lifted the career of Jayshree T, who had 3 songs in the film. Ranjeet became a villain and of course Rekha and Navin Nischal.
If you enjoy lots of melodrama,energetic music and thrill, this is the film for you.
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 1937It 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 1958Hindi 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 theExplorers 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)
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.
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.
