Guru Dutt, The Romantic in Hindi Cinema

If ever there was a passionate romantic in Hindi Cinema, it was Guru Dutt. He was perhaps the only one to create something of a personal cinema within the commercial format, complete with song and dance. He is the one who came nearest to a form fashioned out of drama, story and song, with one complementing rather than interrupting the other. He also combined the most romantic elements of both Urdu – Muslim and Bengali- Hindu culture.

I found these lines scribbled in a diary of a dear cousin brother of mine.

Searching for the source of these lines about Guru Dutt, I found that these lines were written by Chidananda Dasgupta, filmmaker, film critic, film historian and one of the founders of Calcutta Film Society along with Satyajit Ray in 1947, a man passionate about Cinema of Guru Dutt and Ritwik Ghatak. The source of the lines turned out to be an article written by Chidananda Das Gupta titled New Directions in Indian Cinema, leven pages written for Film Quarterly, Vol. 34, No. 1 (Autumn, 1980), pp. 32-42

An article to which I have no access.
Searching more about Chidananda Das Gupta and Guru Dutt, I came across a news story in The Hindu that informed me that:

[…]there is a book he is penning. Interestingly called "Unpopular Cinema", it is likely to be brought out by Macmillan early next year. "It focuses on individuals and films. It talks of the Guru Dutt-Ghatak filmmaking and the like[…]"

In the same interview, Dasgupta says:

"[…]Dutt's Kagaz Ke Phool was a monumental failure but a good film, and Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam was not a big failure, not a big success either."

-0-

About the poster of Guru Dutt:
Guru Dutt
with Waheeda Rehman in 'Kaagaz Ke Phool'
with Waheeda Rehman in 'Raaz'
with Waheeda Rehman in 'Chaudvin Ka Chand'
with Shyama in 'Aar Paar'
in 'Pyaasa'
with wife Geeta and two sons
with Mala Sinha in 'Pyaasa'
with Madhubala in 'Mr. and Mrs. 55'
with Waheeda Rehman in 'Pyaasa'

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Famous Old Faces of Doordarshan

Some people recall the faces and some people recall the names. Here are images of some of the famous readers and presenters of Doordarshan down the years. If you recognize any of them, leave a comment. [ Update 1 : Most of the faces now have names thanks to helpful comments by olio-gallimaufry ] [ Update 2 : Included image of one of the earliest presenters, Gopal Kaul. Send in generously from personal collection by son, Ashutosh Kaul. Sept, 2010.] [ Major Update 3: Got a tip-off about a documentary about the famous faces of Doordarshan from the makers of “The Golden Trail , DD@50 :Special feature on Golden Jubilee of Doordarshan ” from which these caps were taken. I managed to catch the incredible documentary and am adding some more faces/name and part of the docu here. New ones can be found after the image of Narotam Puri. 30th Oct, 2010] Pratima Puri. Believed to be the first Doordarshan reader.

Indian Cigarette Vintage Ads

He put a cigarette in his mouth and, as a matter of silent routine, offered one to Gwyn, who said ‘No thanks.”Richard looked at him.”I packed it in.”"You what?”"I stopped. Three days ago. Cold. That’s it. You just make the life choice.” Richard looked up and inhaled needfully. He gazed at his cigarette. He didn’t really want to smoke it. He wanted to eat it. Almost the only thing that he still liked about Gwyn was that he still smoked…Paradoxically, he no longer wanted to give up smoking: what he wanted to do was take up smoking. Not so much to fill the little gaps between cigarettes with cigarettes (there wouldn’t be time, anyway) or to smoke two cigarettes at once. It was more that he felt the desire to smoke a cigarette even when he was smoking a cigarette. The need was and wasn’t being met… While it would always be true and fair to say that Richard felt like a cigarette, it would now be doubly true and fair to say it. He felt like a cigarette. And he felt like a cig

Kishore Kumar, Yodel-ay-ee-oooo Songs, A List

*Updated with corrections pointed out by Bart Plantenga , author of some incredible book on Yodeling including Yodel-Ay-Ee-Oooo: The Secret History of Yodeling Around the World. -0- Kishore Kumar 's brother Anoop Kumar, who we basically know for the line ' O manu tera toh hua ab mera kya hoga ', used to own lots of Austrian music records. And from these records, Kishore Kumar picked up the art of Yodel singing, an art perfected in bathroom and then introduced by him to the world of Hindi film music. According to his biography 'Kishore Kumar: method in madness‎ ' by Derek Bose, "Kishore was a fan of the Swiss singer Tex Norton [* Tex Morton, an Australian cowboy born in New Zealand who sang in the gene autry / Jimmie Rodgers style ] and the Australian Jimmy Rogers [* Jimmie Rodgers , perhaps the most American and one of the most famous yodelers in the world, famous for his blue yodels ] as well." Although most of these songs by Kishore Kumar are t

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