At The Edge

Originally written for EPW Blog B R Chopra's Dharmputra (1961) was the second film directed by Yash Raj. It was based on a novel by Acharya Chatursen Shastry (who died in 1960). The screen adaptation was by Akhtar-Ul-Iman. The story is set in Delhi during the time of partition. Although the film is often described as story of a Muslim child who is adopted by a Hindu family and grows up to be a Hindu fanatic, the film is in fact about two religious families and their response to religious fanaticism - a response based on their interpretation of religion, a response steeped in a mishmash “Hindu Humanism” and “Nehruvian Humanism”. The usual: Humanity is the real religion, all religions are equal, so on and so forth. Husn Bano, daughter of Nawab Badruddin, was in love with commoner Javed who was her tutor. Of course, she gets pregnant. Nawab, although a progressive man, was worried about his status and didn't allow the two to get married. He sought help of Dr Amrit Rai, so...

Originally written for EPW Blog   "…how much does he earn?" "Once he gets married, he will start earning too." "So, does he not earn anything now?" "He does but a man can't always win. Sometimes he loses too." "Loses!" "Isn't that's true of gambling?" "So, he's a gambler!" "No, not a gambler but once he gets drunk, he obviously can't help playing a hand or two." "Gambler and a drunkard too. But he's too nice a person according to you!" "Of course! Once married, he will stop visiting that dancer's house and his drinking-gambling days will be over too" "So, he goes to the house of some dancer too!" "What's wrong with that? Only bluebloods have such taste." "Alright then, tell me about his bloodline too" "As soon as we find anything about his bloodline, we will cert...

Ritwik Ghatak's Subarnarekha (1962) -0- Subarnarekha (1962) is often described as Ritwik Ghatak's critique of Partition but that is just an understatement. There is a lot more actually happening in the film. A lot more that is said without being said. The film is in fact Ghatak's meditation on human beings and their condition under cyclic churning wheels of history. It about people going through same deceptive loops over and over again. According to the film, the wheel of history is mechanised, predictable. People would go through the same story over and over again. Failures leading to hopes, false hopes and fallen hopeless people getting up and and running again towards the golden shore, beyond which lies a paradise. We only make fresh mistakes with every fresh beginning. The cycles forever going. In the first few minutes of the film the directors lays before us the process by which the film will emphasis this cyclic churning of history....

"Do cheezon ke liye main banoo musalmaan. Ek seekh kabab aur doosra Waheeda Rahman" ~ Tom Alter in Kashmir -0-

Beena Roy in Anarkali (1953) Madhubala in Mughal-e-Azam (1960) Raj Kumar in Neel Kamal (1968) -0-

Cross-posted from my Kashmir blog . A young Mani Kaul in Basu Chatterjee's Sara Akash (1969). -0- Complete film available here -0-

-0- Available of Youtube .

A bunch of monkeys beating down on a metal roof. Creating much sound and a big ruckus. Dara Singh flies in through the air with a corrugated steel sheet on his head. Hunuman promises protection from monkeys. [Ad break over. Ramayan continues.]  from ' Bollywood Posters '. -0- from around 2 years ago.   -0- -0-

 "The masses should keep a little of love they feel for me today for my tomorrow which is when I will need it more than I do today." ~ Rajesh Khanna in 1976. "My luck may run out and the public, which is so kind, may turn cruel but when that happens I'll go down with a smile"  ~ Rajesh Khanna in 1971. -0- There are essentially two Anands. One, Ikiru Anand. Two, Bluebeard  Anand. Between the two of them, there are lot of songs, happy double-winks and shoulder swings. A Superstar like never before. The scope and scale of stardom: Aav ai Aav ai Rajesh Khanna/Syeeth-Syeeth Dimpul Khanna   Aav ai Aav ai Rajesh Khanna/Syeeth-Syeeth Tinkle Khanna  Here comes Rajesh Khanna, Here comes Rajesh Khanna, along comes Dimple and Twinkle Khanna. ~ Chorus of a satirical Kashmiri song still popular at weddings and similar occasions.  

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Came across this gem by Mario in December 1, 1972 issue of Filmfare. This was part of the public  debate triggered by Khosla Committee Report (1968-1969). -0- For further study: this mind-altering rendition of Chintamani Bhatta's Suka Saptati or 'The Seventy tales of the Parrot' done by bollywood in 1985.

Movies I watched last year. Or 100 movies you need not watch before you die.  Collected these over the last year from a  '5-in-1' shop in a basti (now demolished) in Gurgaon.  -0-

Rupa Publications Pages 375 Rs 395 ' Isak ki baat to besua jaane/ hum bahu beti hain, hum ka jaanein ' (The art of making love is known only to the prostitute/ we women of the household, what do we know of it.) A book that starts with a quote like that plucked from the back of a truck has to be great. First 100 pages are filled with quotes after quotes after quotes after quotes from every 'thinking' man or woman (but mostly man) ever born, right from Xenophon to our own Tarun Tejpal, with Derridas, Foucaults,  Sartres, Mae Wests, Enslers thrown somewhere in between and even our own Gandhi ji drops in a line or two. Basically anyone who ever thought about sex and  wrote about it, pictured it and then wrote about it, is present in this book all to make a case for 'A History of Female Sexuality in Indian Films'. So by page 103 you tell yourself it would have been just as fine if the writer (a professor of  Political Science at Allaha...

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An ad from filmindia July, 1943. Came across above image in 'Wanted cultured ladies only!: female stardom and cinema in India, 1930s-1950s' by By Neepa Majumdar ( Google Books ) Leela Chitnis and Master Vinayak in ''Better Half' from filmindia, January 1940 The above image (minus the caption) was recently shared on twitter by Pavan Jha . He posted it as a quiz. Quite a few comments raised the issue of 'Smoking in Indian Cinema'. I came to know about the image via Facebook where someone asked me if I knew the answer. I recalled coming across it in filmindia collection shared with me by Greta . I was able to recall it because of the appealing caption: kiss The Kiss. Devika Rani and Himanshu Rai in Karma (1933) Speaking of Captions... From Filmfare, November 1989  Speaking of Ads... June 1982 -0-

Zaheera and Shabana are asked in Star & Syle, October 22, 1976

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Rita Ray  (1924-1983) was a regular cinephile, someone who certainly understood the art of it, someone who could interpret the things she saw on screen, someone who had strong views on cinema and what it ought to stand for. But her views underwent some drastic changes after she agreed to be on the advisory Panel of Censor Board. All of a sudden she found herself on the evil side, a side much cursed and secretly envied. Rita began to see things from the other side, the other side of the argument. Now she too asked herself the question, the rallying cry of that side, ‘What about the average person? Would he/she be able to handle it?’ At the same time she did wonder how to go about defining the ‘average’. She did note the rather unintentionally comic manner in which the serious business of Censoring was conducted. She took note of her fellow panelists, bored middle-aged women who had never seen a film in life, pretentious intellectuals who only wanted to be bothered abo...

"Muhammad Ali, celebrated heavyweight boxer, has been offered the role of an African revolitionary in the film 'Zameen', written by Harbance Kumar and to be produced by Prakash Mehra. The film's hero Amitabh Bachchan, the producer, and Amitabh'a younger brother can be seen in photograph at Muhammad Ali's home in Los Angles." From Debonair, December 1979

Shammi Kapoor, Saira Bano and  imagined Kashmir in 1961 film 'Junglee', a film that was supposed to be originally titled 'Mr. Hitler'. (a bit of  trivia from Shammi Kapoor Unpugged , one of the finest web original series produced in India) -0- video link Shammi, Rajshee, Faiz and Kashmir in Janawar(1965). This is the second and 'romantic' rendition of the Faiz Ahmed Faiz creation in the film. Quite typical of a Shammi Kapoor film, the first rendition occurs in a crude comic set-up. He was a rebel, but the kind of rebel that by the end of film gets reformed. -0- -0-