At The Edge

Detective Moochhwala in "Robot Raiders" by Ajit Ninan (1988) Gardhab Das by brothers Neelabh and Jayanto Banerjee Both are from 1988 Annual issue of Target Magazine Want to see more Check out some more Requiem-ing done by Anita & Amit

Cover of Target Magazine 1988 Annual Issue (June) It's a copy that a cousin brother of mine owns. Years ago, I discovered this wonderful magazine only thanks to him. I was too young, about seven, when I first laid my hand on it. I never owned a single copy, my cousin used to do the buying. By the time I decided it was time for me to buy my first copy, the publishers had called quit on the magazine. Yes I did buy a copy of Teens Today. But never again. On the cover image above, one can see Granny, Gardhab Das, Detective Moochwala with his Pooch and many other characters that made this magazine special . -0- Related post: Cherry Blossom ad featuring Gavaskar from this magazine -0- Update: Apr 23, 2014 Rama shared April 1988 issue of Target Magazine 

Khatau bring you the pick of the bunch - the first flowers of early spring! Khatau's Terkosa All 'Terene' and 'terene'-cotton Sarees from The Reader's Digest, March 1972 I believe that the model on the right is Persis Khambatta . A search for names of some other Sari models of that era leads to Shobha Rajadhyaksha (now De of TOI), Meher Mistry (now Castelino) and Geeta Khanna. In 1972, Garden sarees/Vareli dress material ran a print ad campaign based on floral prints. The Khatau campaign on the left seems to have been in response to the Garden Sari ad. Interestingly, Persis Khambatta, famously, became the face of Garden sarees only much later in 1985 in an ad that with the catch line, 'you fascinate me', revived the fortune of Sari fashion in India. A fashion that began in 1970s with the growth of Surat based Sari czars of synthytic textile industry. 'Terene' was the synthetic wonder textile of that era ( just like lycra of this e

Basohli Paintings evolved in the 17th and 18th centuries as a distinctive style of painting by fusion of Hindu mythology, Mughal miniature techniques and folk art of the local hills. The painting style derives its name from the place of its origin - hill town of Basohli about 80 Km. from the centre of district Kathua in the state of Jammu & Kashmir. This style of painting was first introduced to the world in the annual report (1918-19) of the Archaeological  Survey of India published in 1921. At that time this style was yet to be properly categorized and studied. Ananda K. Coomaraswamy , who was first to publish them, in Rajput Paintings in 1916, wrote about this style of painting believing it to be Jammu style. Discussing these Jammu paintings, Coomaraswamy observed: The Jammu are well and vigorously designed often with a decorative simplicity very suggestive of large scale mural art. In several examples there reappears that savage vitality which has been already remarked in t

The age of 'Terene' Intricate prints Dramatic colours In non-crush, non-wrinkle, non-iron, textured 'Terene'/cotton. For dresses, Kurtas, Kameezes and pant-suits. For the finest in fabrics...simply ask for simplex Terene Registered trademark of Chemicals and Fibres of India Limited  -Manufacturers of fibre. No, I cannot tell you if Kameezes is actually a word or not, but to make up  for that I can tell you more a bit about Terene. Terene was the magic fabric of that era. A polyester. A trade name for Polyethylene terephthalate. More by a more popular trade name: Terylene ( trademark of ICI ). Still some women were still interested in natural fabrics....at least this ad did try to interest them: People are doing exciting things with Century Sarees Join the new X-citement! Like wear up a Century Saree with new flair. Like turn a saree into a kaftan; a kurta; a lungi. Try the Century range from Anuradha, Kadambini, two x two Monica, Rohini, Ka

In 1973, the signature tune of Doordarshan was first brought to life by Ustad Ali Ahmad Hussain Khan during his shehnai recital in an hour and a half long inauguration ceremony of Doordarshan Television Channel held at Vigyan Bhava in new Delhi. Ustad Ali Ahmad Hussain Khan was the one who first breathed life into that sad sounding tune. As more and more cities started receiving the signals of Doordarshan, the number of its viewers kept increasing. It became a truly powerful medium. But, a medium of what - this was yet to be decided. Indira Gandhi, the Indian Prime Minister at the time, understood the power of this new medium. A common sentiment of the public during the turbulent 70s was: Nehru was a visionary, Shastri a revisionary, and Indira Gandhi a televisionary. Indira Gandhi knew how to wield and harvest the power of television. Indira Gandhi wanted the signature tune of Doordarshan to be based on the national song of India - Iqbal's saarey jahan se acha . The task of

(The virulent opinions (no they are not ramblings) expressed in this series are entirely mine and do not reflect the general opinion of India. India has its own set of problems with China.) I think it all started with the Chinese in Haqeeqat shooting Dharmendra in the back. A really bad start. In the movie, scenes of Chinese Army attacking the Indian post were chilling to the bone. It was like watching waves of brain dead zombies attacking the last human outpost. Picture this: The last few soldiers keep shooting but the undead just keep coming in, walking in ranks, walking in straight lines. It was like watching million ants attacking a wet sugar cube. Screenshots from the song ' kar chale hum fida' penned by Kaifi Azmi. The song was a sort of sum up of the film. This was the first genuine Indian War film and a conscious effort at that. Some of this conscious effort translated on screen into: A Girl, a Ladakhi, in love with an Indian soldier, a girl trying save her

If areas around Indian railway tracks (at least in the north) are the dominion of Shahi Dawakhana and Hakeem Sahib, then area around Indian roadways are the dominion of Dr. Bengali. Why the roads? Is it the truckers and the soldiers? Maybe. More baffling is the question why the areas around railway tracks? Is it the coach driver? Anyway… In Jammu city you are more likely to see ads for and expect help from Dr. Malhotra. But, the area along the highway to Kashmir is again under the monopoly of Dr. Bengali. Advertisements offering guaranteed cure for unmentionable diseases and unlimited power over unforgivable weaknesses appear all along the road to Kashmir. All along the road their limp message, effective design, snazzy coloring and generous appointment hours(actually a whole day) with the "Dr" hardly change. The frequency of their occurrence is rather high around Udhampur district as here you can't look away from them as almost every third shop has these ads painted on t

For those who remember their white fleet shoes that were meant for school. "After over a 100 tests, how could a white shoe cleaner possibly matter to me? You'd be surprised!' Cherry Blossom White cleaner ad featuring Sunil Gavaskar Most folks remember Sunil Gavaskar's baseball ad from the late 80s and the early 90s for Dinesh Suiting. Sunil Gavaskar was one of the two greatest cricketing star of the time. The other star at that time was Kapil Dev and he was busy singing Palmolive da jawaab nahi . This was a time when the theories on concept of cricketers as brand ambassadors were still in infancy. Now, this concept has been done to death. Anyway, found this old ad in 1988 Annual Issue of the (great) Target magazine . I was surprised to find that the magazine had almost no other advertisements except this one. -0- You may also like to read the previous post on cherry blosson vintage ad -0- Check out rest of the posts from the series on vintage ads

Jammu 9th June, 2008 Time: Around 7:00 AM Shot these photographs of rain clouds just moments before the first rain drop hit the ground. update: You can enjoy these photographs of clouds in a video too

(Continued from my previous post on Tahaan: a boy with a grenade) Came across the trailer of Tahaan on youtube at IDreamProduction channel Have a peek at what the movie promises: Yes the voice-over is irritating. Too HBOish! (They removed this trailer. Guess the voice over was really over the top) Here is the new trailer: Here is one more with a better use of the soundtrack: Since the movie is still not out in the theaters (it will be in October), I am going to pontificate about the 2 minute trailer. And here I go: The little boy commanding his donkey in Kashmiri to Pakh! Pakh! (Walk! Walk!) is a fine linguistic experiment. The background score just in the mid of the trailer is authentic Kashmiri music and absolutely stunning at that. These are the fast beats of Chakkri . The music is set by Taufiq Qureshi , son of Ustad Alla rakha, younger bother of Zakir Hussain and a person of Kashmiri origin. The soundtrack sounds brilliant. Apart from all this,