Masterji Ki Chitthi aur Aatankari Tadpole

VIP underwearbanyaan

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Song Aa aa E eei Masterji Ki Aa Gayi Chitthi from Kitaab(1977) by Gulzar.
Table thumping music by R. D. Burman.

For the case of missing center of gravity:
aatankari tadpole aur taR'ou kay samrat computer: a scene from Om Dar Badar(1988) by Kamal Swaroop

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30 January 1948, Gandhi and the men who killed him

Mahatma Gandhi on way to his last prayer meeting

On Trial looking relaxed: (Front row, left to right) Nathuram Godse, Narayan Apte and Vishnu Karkare; (back row, extreme left Digambar Badge - the government approver)


The photographs can be found in The Men who Killed Gandhi by Manohar Malgonkar. Found these in a review of the book published by India Today dated Feb11, 2008.
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"perhaps it was not an accident that Godse began his political career as a participant in a civil disobedience movement started by Gandhi and ended his political life with a speech from the witness stand which, in spite of being an attack on Gandhi, none the less revealed a grudging respect for what Gandhi had done for the country"

-  Ashis Nandy

Long ago, I had posted an extract from an essay by Ashis Nandy titled The Politics of the Assassination of Gandhi that appears in his book At the Edge of Psychology: Essays in Politics And Culture. The extract traced the early life of Gandhi's assassin, Nathuram Godse. [the essay mentions four point-blank shots]
Checked the notes of that essay and realized that the facts of Nathuram's early life were borrowed mainly from Manohar Malgonkar's well researched book The Men who Killed Gandhi (Delhi: Macmillan, 1978), Chapter 2.

Shit Scene, Train Scene, Slumdog Millionaire, India

 Amitaabaachaan!

The young child dives into a shit pool just to get an autograph of the Mega star. Is plausible. It is written. People notice the shit drenched boy, recoil and move back. The awestruck kid easily drifts up to his idol. The Helicopter trotting Mega star, taking no notice of shit, like an automaton signs an autograph for his fan. That's definitely a comment. It is written.


That "Shit Scene" from Slumdog Millionaire [video] has nothing to do with class and all that complicated stuff. Had Amitabh Bachchan been giving away special edition AB embellished Crossbows from Toofan, that shit route would have been an easy way out for a lot of kids, irrespective of class background.

Remember the "Toilet Scene" from Danny Boyle's Trainspotting [video].  Junky dives deep into shit to reclaim back his fix. In parallel analogy set in India, Bollywood is the Drug - the biggest fix offering the highest high. The loo offers the greatest escape. We dive deep. No Shit.



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That brilliant great train robbery scene having M.I.A's Paper Plane track reminded me of  'Man on the fast moving train scene' from Jhakas Anil Kapoor's - costliest Bollywood film of its time and yet dud philum - Roop ki Rani Choro Ka Raja (1993)[comparative video]. Fits the time line of the story, young Jamal couldn't have missed it.

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Slumdog Millionaire is not a jangalpani documentary on India, a country where the people of certain caste clean flushless latrines of other caste people using spades and carry the shit in leather bags hung on their back and in open metal trays on head. It is not a film about India where this practice is now officially banned. Slums,  yes we do notice them, we notice them the day a green tipped white minaret crops out of them.

Slumdog Millionaire is not a 'think' film - see Salaam Bombay, a film that Jamal wouldn't see, a film that couldn't set cash registers ringing. Slumdog Millionaire is a 'feel good' film, a fable on Bollywood lines. Formula, yes it has one, but couldn't' perfect it, Bollywood has perfected them all- see Manmohan Desai  films from late 70s and early 80s.

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 Sometime ago, a frieind of mine saw two phirangi guys dancing and singing Jimmy Jimmy Jimmy Aaja Aaja Aaja in the middle of a road. What a world, we dance on their roads and they dance on our roads.

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previous related post: A.R. Rahman on way to Oscars

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The Indo-Sri Lanka Peace Accord was signed by Rajiv Gandhi and the Sri Lankan President J.R.Jayewardene in Colombo on 29 July 1987. The very next day, on 30 July 1987, Rajiv Gandhi, while receiving an honour guard, was assaulted with a rifle butt by a Sinhalese naval cadet named Vijayamunige Rohana de Silva. Rajiv Gandhi was agile enough to save his head form any serious injury and survived this bid on his life. Rohana was court-martialled and sentenced to six years in prison but he was released after two years of serving his term. According to a news report, Rohana de Silva now sells Hindi music cassettes.
 
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There are no Cinema Halls left in Kashmir. Some burned up, all shut down.

Just finished reading Curfewed Night, an autobiographical-reportage Novel by Basharat Peer on Kashmir of post 1989. Even that book isn't free from Bollywood. On seeing his first bollywood film in a theater in the town of Aligarh, the Kashmiri author-protagonist gets his 'Aazadi'. And just a paragraph earlier, he writes about seeing emaciated Rickshawallas for the first time in his life. His grandfather pays the rickshawalla twice the fare for a ride and thinks, 'There is terrible poverty here.' The author-protagonist notes: ' The poverty in Kashmir wasn't as desperate.' These words reminded me of lines by early European travelers to Kashmir who documented the abject poverty of Kashmir. In 1831, a French botanist named Victor Jacquemont (Born in Paris on August 8, 1801 and died in Bombay on December 7, 1832) arrived in Kashmir valley and wrote '...nowhere else in India are the masses as poor and denuded as they are in Kashmir. It is the only country where the price of work is really as low as we believe, mistakenly, to be generally in India.'

I also remembered the slogan that cut through Arundhati Roy like a knife and clean broke her heart: Nanga bhookha Hindustan, jaan se pyaara Pakistan. (Naked, starving India, More precious than life itself - Pakistan.)

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I heard someone say India would have fought a war with Pakistan over 26/11 had Slumdog Millionaire not started making News around the globe.

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13 Funniest Print Ads

Found these classic ads in a piece titled Humour in Advertising, Gentleman magazine, June 2000

Papa's Cafe
The manager has personally passed all the water served here.
Improve Your English. We have over twenty part-time and full-time courses to help you read write and speech (sorry, speak) correct English.

The British Council
Agency: Ogilvy & Mather Singapore

New York 
Lotto
Hey, you never know

Agency: DDB Needham

It's our contribution to road safety, may we point out that drinkers of our beer will never drink and drive, because after three nobody ever remembers where they parked the car.

Ad created by Neil French for XO Beer (cerveza)

Classic Ad for Alka Seltzer

Claudine went to the Ladies to power her nose.

In Paris, you drop the 'd'

Ad for Pernod Fils

The pregnant pause.Make sure you're not the father
 The Economist

Agency: Abbott Mead Vickers

We have chosen not to disturb your Sunday morning with a "Surprisingly ordinary prices' advertisement
Volkswagen Ad
Agency: BMP DDB

Papa Bear Mama Bear Baby Bear

Ad for Complan
Agency: Chaitra Leo Burnett

Ad for Curry on the Roof

Copy: Freddy Birdy
Art: Naved Akhtar
Agency: Mudra DDB Needham

Smirnoff The Other Side

Agency: Lowe Howard Spink

Her dad owns the brewery

Ad for Boddington's Beer
Agency: Bartle Bogle Hegarty

After party, the host is often faced with several almost-empty Scotch bottles.
And there's a natural tendency to consolidate the leftovers in a single bottle.
Guess whose.
Now we don't intend to comment on the morality of this. (We're king of flattered that the Chivas Regal bottle should so often have the honor.)
But please don't. You're not fooling anyone. Anyone who knows Scotch, that is.
Chivas Regal is a very distinctive whiskey. many people consider it the smoothest of all Scotches.
It's made with prize Glenlivet whiskies from the oldest distillery in the Scottish highlands.
And every drop is aged 12 years.
Newcomers ask us how much training it takes to tell Chivas regal from others.
order a glass at your local bar.
Sip it, neat.
That should do the trick.

Agency: DDB Needham

Agency: Trikaya Grey (more about this ad here)

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Manthan(1976), mero gaam folk song, Amul

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Mero gaam katha parey

Gujarati folk based original music by Vanraj Bhatia for Shyam Benegal's Manthan (1976).

In 1977, this film, produced by 500,000 farmers of Gujarat, won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi and National Film Award for Best Screenplay for Vijay Tendulkar.

Preeti Sagar, the voice of this song, won Filmfare award for best female singer that year.
A more mainstream version of the song was later used as the soundtrack for the television commercial for Amul. [video].

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You can also check out Vanraj Bhatia's Soundtrack for Tamas here

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Manthan is now available for free viewing thanks to Amul.tv.
They have also uploaded some episodes of Siddharth Kak produced popular show Surabhi. 
Amul never fails to surprise: Amul Girl hit ads, spanning 1976 - till date, were already availabe online, and now they have also uploaded some old ads of Amul.

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Also, you can watch video of two utterly butterly old television ads of Amul here and here

Kamal Swaroop, Dadasaheb Phalke, film

" Kamal Swaroop...you mean panditji?"
The reply I got from my elder cousin when I asked him if he had seen the film Om Dar Badar by Kamal Swaroop.


A comment on my previous post about Om Dar Badar led me to an interesting website about the documentary being made by Kamal Swaroop on Dadasaheb Phalke, father of the Indian film industry.

"I was born in Kashmir in 1952.My father was an educationist. I was brought up in Ajmer Pushker."

Kamal Swaroop's story board on Phalke starts with these lines that trace his own origin.

So my cousin did remember.

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Here's an excellent video (thanks to cdsjaik) on how the film on Dadasaheb Phalke is coming together. This one traces Dadasaheb Phalke's days in Nasik, his birth place . The episode narrated here, interposed with some archival footage, involves Phalke's daughter Mandakini, who also acted in his films:

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Why do Newspapers have ads for escort and massage services?

Late at night: a television channel about History has slot for eyesight restoring magnetic goggles, a News channel has slot for magical pendents pitched by men in fake holy beard, a channel Religion has slot for definitive hair restorer oil showcased by some small time actress.

Why waste the space?

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''General Motors and AT&T are major distributors of pornography,''

 - Racy Magazine Ads Expose Inconsistency In Publishers' Stance, The New York Times, March 12, 2001 

(Flynt?)

"craigslist donates 100% of net revenue from "erotic services" ads to charity, while newspapers and yellow pages make a profitable business out of them."

 - FAQ for craigslist.org

These surrogate advertisements are common on certain days on certain specific pages of some newspapers and magazines.

- Trafficking in Women and Children in India
By P. M. Nair, Sankar Sen, Institute of Social Sciences


read some views at DNA , December 3, 2007

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That image is from Hindustan Times.

More Machines, Industries and other Oddities

 Some more ads from year 1972

The world's latest can making technology now comes to India You can enjoy all its benifits

Ad announcing collaboration between American Can Company and Indian Can maker Poysha.
 

BRALCO Metal Industries
Since 1919

                                            Mahale Piston Goetze Piston Rings Suko Piston Pins

 Eveready Nulite Torch
 Union Carbide

According to Wiki page about Eveready Industries:

By the time of the Bhopal Disaster in 1984, the company was ranked twenty-first in size among companies operating in India. It had revenues of Rs 2 billion (then equivalent to US$170 million).

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Previous post on: Machines, Industries and other Oddities

Soundtracks from tele-film 'Tamas' (1987)

[contd. from post on Om Puri and Tamas]

The tracks composed by Vanraj Bhatia for Govind Nihalani's tele-film Tamas(1987) won him National Film Award for Best Music Direction in 1988.

Here are the haunting Title track ('Ho rabba') and instrumental End tracks from Tamas (set to a video put together by me using some select scenes from the film)

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Another track that was used in the film: Purza Purza kat marey

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gagan dhamaamaa baajiou pariou neesaanai ghaao
The battle-drum beats in the sky of the mind; aim is taken, and the wound is inflicted.
khaeth j maanddiou sooramaa ab joojhan ko dhaao
The warriors enter the field of battle; now is the time to fight!

 [for translation of more lines from this song, visit chowk]

This religious song from sikhism is usually sung at Prabhat Pheris or morning processions, and is also a war song.

The song is used twice in the film, the second time with a chilling effect:

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When Reader's Digest introduced you to women

 We'll introduce you to more women than anyone else in India

The Reader's Digest
March, 1972


So who's interested, raise your hand.

But there's a better chance that the guy with the raised hand is pitching that offer to the bald portly old guy.

Chandni Chowk's Paranthewali Gali

In 1960s, the famous lane of parantha makers in Old Delhi's Chandni Chowk had around 20 shops selling vegetarian-doused-in-pure ghee paranthas. Now only 3 of these shops remain.

The real name of the place is Chota Dariba or Dariba Kalan ( from Persian word Dur-e-be-baha - Pearl without compare, and hence the name - 'The street of the incomparable pearl').

William Dalrymple in his fine book The Last Mughal writes that this place meant Jewellers, money lender baniyas and a market famous for cloth merchants and silverware ( 'meena' hence the name 'Silver Street'). After the Great Mutiny of 1857, Dariba Kalan bore the brunt of British voilence, they demolished many of Chandni Chowk's 17th century mansions to make place for a parade ground.

But, only a couple of decades later, the first of the parantha shops opened at Dariba Kalan. These shops were set up by the new immigrants who came from neighbouring Northern Province (U.P.). The popularity of these paranthawallas grew, owners brought in relatives from their towns and villages and slowly more shops opened up. By 1911, it had so many parantha shops that this street came to be known as Paranthewali Gali or Gali Paranthewali .

Today, in that narrow lane, the oldest of these shops still exist.

Parantha Shop of Pt. Gaya Prasad Shivcharan.

The legend: Estd. 1872
People here are already celebrating the film 'Chandni Chowk To China'.

An old photograph on the wall: Pandit Nehru, his sister Vijayalakshmi Pandit and daughter Indira Gandhi dining in the shop. Notice the earthen pot 'Khullar' used for serving lassi.

Indira Gandhi. These photographs on the walls have a "marriage album" feel to them - people getting garlanded, people looking glum in suits, people with hands in plate, mouths stuffed and waiting for the next morsel.

My friend wanted to try out the famous khurchan parantha - it's a parantha filled with a milk-based sweet made specially in Old Delhi. The day is Sunday, time is somewhat past 5 PM and the place is bustling with hungry people. No luck, khurchan was off the menu. Someone from another table asked if he could have Brinjal paranthas, the guy making the paranthas laughed and said he will prepare and serve it but then be sure that you eat it. This shop offers more than14 types of vegetable paranthas. We ordered lemon paratha, pudina parantha, mix parantha, meethi parantha - each one Rs. 20 a piece. To make it all perfect, we ordered a single glass of lassi. The plates came stacked up with cooked kachaloo (Sweet potato), fresh carrot pickles, pudina chutni, and a fine tangy Banana apple chutney. A few minutes later, hot paranthas came rolling in.
A completely tasty and a completely filling meal.

Then we walked out of the Parantha street and had some Daulat ki Chaat. Another Chandni Chowk specialty.

A chaat unlike any other Chaat, this one is basically milk froth sprinkled with some crunchy stuff called khurchan. Slightly sweet, Daulat ki Chaat is melts-in-the-mouth kind of thing.

One of my friends still had space for more. He went on to eat some Giant Dahi Bhalle of the lane just opposite to Paranthewali Gali.

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Read more about Paranthewali Gali at this article from The Tribune

I got to know a lot about the place from that article of year 2002. Stuff like:

"The three famous shops are Pt Kanhaiyalal Durgaprasad (estd 1875), Pt Dayanand Shivcharan (estd 1882). Pt Baburam Devidayal Paranthewale (estd 1886)."

But the thing is: I had paranthas at the shop of Pt. Gaya Prasad Shivcharan and its hoarding declares year of establishment as 1872.
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Dress Midi, 1970s

John Burr Fairchild owner of powerful fashion trade journal Women's Wear Daily declared 1970 to be the year of the Midi. June Weir, the first woman Vice President at Fairchild Publications, was running this Midi campaign. The back ground story goes like this: Fairchild first got the midi notion in 1966 when he saw Zhivago-inspired coats in Paris. By the following spring, the look was beginning to show up in ready-to-wear collections, and June Weir coined the word midi to describe it. [Time Magazine, Out on a Limb with the Midi, Monday, September 14, 1970]

They all tried to convince women that Midi was going to be the dress of the year.

And yet, Midi dress found few takers. American women rejected this calf-length dress, instead they were happy in their 60s style mini skirts.

And yet, by late 1970s, Midi made it to the Indian shore.

A comic scene from the film Pati Patni Aur Woh (1978) in which we were introduced to the "Midi".

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A.R. Rahman on way to the Oscars

Rahman became the first Indian national to win the prestigious Golden Globe award — winning for Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire in the category of Best Original Score.

The story goes that Danny Boyle planned to and in fact had already used the song Choli ke Peeche Kya Hai  [now an international hit, check this video] by Laxmikant-Pyarelal form Subhash Ghai's blockbuster Khalnayak (1993). But then Danny Boyle met A.R. Rahman. Rahman showed keen interest in the project and ended up doing the score for the film, in his words, it took "two months of planning, two weeks of completing."

The project grew, M.I.A, the British musician artist of Tamil decent, who turned out to be a fan of  Rahman, was roped in. M.I.A, no stranger to Indian film music - as a child she actually used to dance to the Bappi Lahiri track "Jimmy Jimmy Aaja" from Disco Dance1983 [ her Jimmy song video], contributed with sounds from her track "Paper Planes".

And some where in this all, the song Choli ke Peeche Kya Hai still made it to the film's soundtrack, it echos in the track "Ringa Ringa" though sadly minus the original cook cook cook.



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The song Choli ke Peeche Kya Hai, rougly translating to "What's behind the Bodice?", was initially censored off the screens. The words were deemed inappropriate, vulgar, raunchy, demeaning and all of that. Most people were angry because Neena Gupta, in the voice of Ila Arun, was asking the question, others were angry because there were strange sounds in the song and still others were angry because Madhuri had body parts that danced.

As a kid, I remember being booted out of the room every time this song got played on TV. No, they couldn't and wouldn't change the channel. It was and remains an infectious song.

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I want to thank Rahman for making me feel like a hero every time I hung on to a fast moving six-seater auto, latched on using two fingers and a thumb toe. Wind blowing in my hair, everytime I could only hear strains-chorus n'all from Urvashi Urvashi followed by Chaiya Chaiya. I got the message: Keep the harmony, don't push and shove the guy dancing right next to you, remember there is always space for more. The point is to get to the top and then, dance. Get high on top of buses, trains, bikes, helicopters, trees, women, mountains, statues, monuments, buildings and then, dance. 

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A.R. Rahman really made the 90s special. A phenomena from south the conquered the north, and now the world. Who the hell knew what chikku pukku chikku pukku [video] meant. Initially, Hindi dubs of his hit south songs sounded imperfect, most of the time insane, and yet his music - fresh, pure and unique - touched millions of hearts across the country.

It's almost perfect that he won international recognition for the music of a film like Slumdog Millionaire, after all, it tells the story of a person who grew up in India of the 1990s.

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And yes, we don't make song and dance routines like those anymore.

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Listened to the Rahman song Konjam Nilavu/Chandralekha from Thiruda Thiruda (1993) in a loop while writing this.[video]

A.R. Rahman, thank you for the music!

12 Jan, 2009

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22 Jan, 2009

Oscars are next!
Rahman has been nominated in the category of Best Original Score and also two nomination each for the Songs Jai Ho and O Saya in the the Best song category. this is the third time A.R. Rahman has been nominated for Oscar.
Also, Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire has been nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay (Simon Beaufoy), Best editing, Best Sound Editing, Best Cinematography, Best Picture, and Best Director (Danny Boyle).
And...Resul Pookutty, a product of Film and Television Institute of India, Pune, has been nominated in the category for Best Sound Mixing.

Read more about this guy from Anchal of Kerela's Kollam district here

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Indian Radio Jingles from 1970s

Listen in on two radio jingles found in the film "Pati Patni Aur Woh"(1978).

First one, in English, is for Bombay Dyeing:

Youuuu the beautiful woman in your husband's life
You You You
the beautiful woman in your husband's life
Show your husband all the woman you are in 100% polyester and polyester georgette Sarees by Bombay Dyeing

ting-tong

and the second one (in Hindi and in the voice of Ameen Sayani) is for Halls Vapour Action:

Galay may ho kharaash
ya ho bandh naak
Halls Vapour Action
Arram dilaye phoran
Galay ki kharaash mitaye
Band naak phoran khul jaye
Halls Mentho-Lyptus Vapor action

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Notice the keyhole effect in the video. I guess they wanted the audience to realize that the sound is coming from the Radio and that it's not the sound of ads jingles played in the middle of the film by the theater owner.

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Related post: three jingles from a 1970 film

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You may also like to check out the opening sequence of  the film "Kasme Vaade" (1978) that has the signature tune of AIR playing in the background [video].

Bhu'pho, Buffon

A scene from Hrishikesh Mukherjee's Bawarchi (1972), in which we get to see buffon hair.

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  Cast:  Kali Banerjee  Manisha (left, tip-off: Vikas Zutshi) and AK Hangal

Chidiya ka Ghosla
Buffon hairstyle - a giant bun nestled on the head, started somewhere in the '60s, thrived, wriggled to reach late '80s, survived a few years of '90s and then vanished.

Adam and Eve animated in a Hindi film (1978)

Alif naked Adam and Eve running in slo-mo to a hindi song with alif naked little fairies buzzing all around them.

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The story of Adam aur Hauwa told in the animated title sequence of Hindi film "Pati Patni aur Woh", released 1978. This B.R Chopra film, scripted by acclaimed Hindi writer Kamleshwar, was a comedy themed on the idea of "seven year itch". According to this film's title sequence, the forbidden apple means the other woman. Wonder how this sequence passed India's film censor board. 1978 may provide the answer. End of Emergency brought in a new sense of freedom.

Applause Meter, Hindi bol (1965)

Ameen Sayani, in his typical "Bhaiyo aur Behno" style introduces the song "O Mere Pyar Aaja" by Lata Mangeshkar from and in the film Bhoot Bungla (1965).

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Probably the first onscreen invocation of the still popular line "Hindi may bol!". We hear it all the time when someone wants you to speak in plain hindi.
In this clip we also get to see a thing called Applause Meter. Apparently these "taalimeters" were quite popular in those days.

This one was by Avery. I think it was made by these folks.

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previous related post: Ramu Maali of Bhoot Bungla

A King in New York meets the communist boy

"One of the minor annoyances of modern life is a revolution."

- opening lines of Charles Chaplin's film A King in New York (1957)

Exiled from United States in 1952 after being changed with being a member of the Communist Party, Charles Chaplin produced A King in New York in England.

The film was a critique on the American culture of 1950s and a scathing satire aimed at anti-communist hysteria that swept across America of that decade.

My love for humanity is a fundamental deep-seated instinct, but my love for the crowd depends on my mood. At times they are inspiring, at other times frightening, for I instinctively sense that they are capable of either loving or lynching
- Charles Chaplin,  1933

This film was not released in U.S. until 1975.

Chaplin as his last appearance in a leading role played King Igor Shahdov, the Monarch of a European country named Estrovia. After a dubious revolution in his country, Shahdov, along with his prime minister, is forced to flee to America where using his money he plans to use atomic energy for creating a Utopian society. After all kinds of cultural shocks in the city of New York, Shahdov meets a young boy named Rupert Macabee, a Marx reading son of communist parents. It's a hilarious meeting that sees Shahdov getting almost bulldozed by a ten year old who shoots lines like, "Leadership in government is political power and political power is an official form of antagonizing the people." However, the two soon become fond of each other. This sets off events that see Shahdov getting suspected by authorities of being a communist.

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The scene in which King Shahdov meets the communist boy. The role of young fast talking "Communist" boy was played out perfectly by Charles Chaplin's son Michael Chaplin.

 A [rough] transcript of the dialogue between the two:

And what’s that you are reading?
Karl Marx.
Sure you are not a communist!
Do I have to be a communist to read Karl Marx?
(Rupert!)
That’s a valid answer. Well if you are not a communist, what are you?
Nothing.
Nothing?
I dislike all forms of government.
Well somebody must rule.
And I don’t like the word rule.
Well if we don’t like the word rule, let’s call it leadership.
Leadership in government is political power and political power is an official form of antagonizing the people.
What magazine did you say he edits?
[A commentary on current events.]
But my dear young man politics are necessary.
Politics are rules imposed upon the people.
In this country rules are not imposed upon the people, they are the wishes of all free citizens.
Travel around a bit and then you will see how free they are.
But you didn’t let me finish…
They have every man in a straitjacket and without a passport he can’t move a toe.
But if you will allow me to finish…
If a free world they violate the natural rights of every citizen.
But you don’t let me fully…
They have become the weapons of political despots.
Yes but may I…
And if you don’t think as they think, you deprived of your passport.
But, will you allow me…
To leave a country is like breaking out of jail and to enter a country is like going through an eye of a needle.
But…
Am I free to travel?
Of course, you are free to travel!
Only with a passport!
Will you allow me to say some…
Only with a passport!
Ba…
Do animals need passport?
Ae...ae. Are you finished?
It’s incorrigible that in this atomic age of speed we are shut in and shut out by passport.
If you will you shut up and let somebody else talk?
And free speech, does that exist?
No you got it all.
And free enterprise.
We were talking of passports.
Today is sole monopoly.
All right!  Now will you…
Can I go into the automobile business and compete with the other truck.
If I can get in a word…
Not a chance. Can ago into the grocery business and complete with the chain store?
Will you shut up!
Not a chance. Monopoly is the menace of the free enterprise. As I look back sixty years ago…
Where were you sixty years ago? [] Very well now, have you finished? Now let me say something. Let me tell you how wrong you are. In the first place…in the first place…now I have forgotten what I wanted to say.
On the atomic bomb.
Aha..
It’s a crime that when the world cries for atomic energy, you want to make atomic bombs.
Me! I am against atomic bombs.
You want to wipe out civilization. Destroy all life on this planet. You don’t…
I lost..I lost my throne because I didn’t want atomic bombs.
You and your kinds think atomic bombs can solve your problems.
Listen you little rat…
Today man has too much power. The Roman Empire collapsed with the assassination of Caesar and why?
If you…
Because of too much Power. Feudalism blew up with the French revolution and why?
aa…
Because of too much Power.
And today the whole world will blow up. And Why.
[Because of Too Much Power]
The monopoly of power is a menace to freedom. It’s grave and victimizes every individual. And where is the individual.
I don’t know!
Locked in terror because he is draped in hate instead of love. If the civilization is to survive we must combat power until peace and dignity of man are restored.

These dialogues uttered with conviction by a ten year old make the scene comic enough, but the atrocities unleashed on to King Shahdov by the other children and the King's equally odd response - a soup head massage, that makes it a perfect chaplinesque scene.

Now why didn't Charlie Chaplin of talkie era recieve his dues.

galli galli mein shor hai

from Candid Camera section of 33rd Anniversary Issue of India Today magazine dated 29th December 2008 - a time when war clouds had gathered thanks to 26/11 Mumbai Attacks [wiki]

Left page had a picture (by Bhawan Singh) V.P Singh riding an Enfield Bullet motorcycle from village to village amid slogans that rang a question, a question about money and brokers: V.P. Singh ka ek sawal, paisa khaya kaun dalal, the year was 1988 and the era was that of Bofors scandal that spelled doom for Rajiv Gandhi government of the time.

Right page had a full page Ad for BAE Systems, the company now associated with 155 Howitzers by Bofors

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The killers of Rajiv Gandhi had earlier done a helpful trial dry run on VP Singh.

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Another famous slogan from that time: 'Galli galli mein shor hai, Rajiv Gandhi chor hai'.  I don't remember this slogan. What I do remember this this: One fine bandh day, a day between 2 December 1989 and 10 November 1990 - the tenure of VP Singh's prime ministerialship, I saw an image drawn on a side wall of a closed shut shop. Drawn in coal was a big happily chubby face of the hat man from Uncle chips wrapper. But the mustache and the hat was different. These were the famous V. P. Singh mustache and Karakul hat. Just below this apparition, scribbled again in coal but boldly, were the line: Galli galli mein shor hai, VP Singh chor hai. After Rubaiya Sayeed kidnapping fiasco and Mandal commision immolations, he was not the most popular person around.

I last saw him on TV in winter of 2007, he was visiting families of Nithari victims. He had his Karakul hat on and was dressed in a Kashmiri pheran - looking immobile.

V.P Singh died on 27 November 2008. In the backdrop of Mumbai mayhem that started 26/11, the News wasn't big enough.

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Lhasa Tibetan Refugee Market

Winter means:

Lhasa Tibetan Refugee Market

Long Live Indo-Tibet Friendship

Free Tibet

Thanks Visit Again

And the other side reads:

Note:

1. Goods once sold will not be taken back
2. Exchange within 2 days from sales date
   

         (Conditions Apply)
         A. Goods should be as good as it is on sales date
         B. Availability of goods
                                    THANKS

Nude Models Wanted, 1993

Copy: Alok Nanda
Art: Vikas Gaitonde
Agency: Trikaya Grey

Got'ya!
No better way to describe baby models. Probably one of the funniest and smartest Indian print advertisement ever. In the year 1993, this simple 30cm ad, published on some inside page of Newspapers, caught the attention of almost everyone and drew smiles.

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You can check out another Trikaya Grey classic ad here

Ghayab Aya! Ghayab Aya!

Ghayab Aya was India's first completely "Made in India" serialized animation film. The film, serialized in 10-part, was first shown on the National television network Doordarshan on June 17, 1990. The story revolved around the adventures of Ghayab the friendly always do- gooder 'Casper type' naughty ghost.

Ghayab Aya was directed and animated by Suddhasattwa Basu, who first started his career in 1981 as a designer and an illustrator for the famous TARGET magazine for children.

Episode 8 of Ghayab Aya has been uploaded to Youtube by its maker Suddhasattwa Basu. A big thanks for bringing it all back! Do visit his page and say your thanks. And here is the video:

video link

Link to part 2

The much loved peppy title song still rings in my ears sounding like GaYa Baya GaYa Baya. Ghayab somehow, for no reason, reminds me of those sweet pink bubble gums that always came molten stuck to their paper wrappers. When I watched this video, I realized that the face of the bumbling bad guy had somehow got stuck in my memory. Also, I shockingly realized that the series was actually in Color! To hear friends say that it was in color is one thing, and to actually see it with your own eyes is another. We had a B&W those days.

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Here's the much loved title track of Ghayab Aya, have cleaned it up a bit using a sound editor:
Ghayab Aya Ghayab Aya [1.37 min,128kbps,1.5 MB, .MP3]