All right, we had some hiccups with the original ‘Classic Bollywood’ quiz, because some readers got confused about how to submit answers. Never mind. I always have more trivia up my sleeve! So, an updated quiz. Forget about the last one; I’ve already posted the answers to most of those questions, at the end of the post.
What I’m doing is: I’m changing most of the questions (basically, the questions people didn’t get right). And here’s a mostly-new quiz.
The prize remains the same as last time: a signed copy of my book, The Eighth Guest & Other Muzaffar Jang Mysteries. Or, if you’ve already read that, one of my forthcoming books. And the chance to dictate the theme for my next ‘Ten of my favourite songs’ post. The prize goes to whoever is first in with all correct answers. If nobody manages that, the first person to get the maximum correct answers gets to dictate-a-theme. No book, sorry.
Edited to add:
Important Announcement regarding Prizes:
Okay, I’ve been giving it some thought. I’m revamping the prizes somewhat. Now:
1. First in to get the maximum answers correct (even if nobody gets all the answers correct) – gets the book and dictate-a-theme.
2. Second person to get the maximum answers correct also gets to choose a theme for a top-ten songs list on my blog.
Back to the original post:
The rules (very important!!):
1. Do not put the answers in comments on the post, please. You don’t want others borrowing your ideas, do you? (Plus, it deflates enthusiasm among the more trivia-mad). Instead, if you have my e-mail address, send in your answers to me. If you don’t have my address, put in a comment to that effect, and I’ll send you a mail to which you can reply.
(Note: Answers written in comments will be arbitrarily deleted).
2. I’ll accept answers till 2000 hours (that’s 8 PM), Indian Standard Time, on October 4, 2011.
So here we go, the questions:
1. In the film Detective (1958), what is the profession of the character played by Pradeep Kumar?
2. The West Indian cricketer Frank Worrell, the first black to captain the West Indies, appears in a Hindi film in a cameo role. Which film?
3. Which was Sahir Ludhianvi’s first ghazal to be recorded as a song in a Hindi film after he came to Bombay and joined the cinema industry?
Edited later to add a hint (since blog reader AK put this question in a comment on the earlier quiz, and I thought it unfair on readers who haven’t visited those comments): the operative word is ghazal.
4. Raj Kapoor, O P Nayyar, Naushad, Shankar Jaikishan, and Burman are among the film personalities mentioned in the lyrics of which song written by Qamar Jalalabadi?
5. Two films—one made in 1957, the other in 1963—had the following dialogue. In each case, the dialogue is between the hero and the heroine’s friend:
Woman: Soorat toh buri nahin. (The face isn’t bad.)
Man: Seerat bhi buri nahin. (Neither is the nature.)
Woman: Woh toh abhi dekhna hai! (That we’re yet to see!)
Man: Dekhnewaale dekh chuke hain. (Those who had to see, have seen.)
Woman: Acchha? Toh phir der kis baat ki hai? (Really? Then why the delay?)
Man: Shehnai bajaanewaale chhutti pe gaye hue hain! (The men who play the shehnai at weddings have gone on vacation!)
Name the two films.
(Hint: Both conversations occur between the hero and the heroine’s friend, in the presence of the heroine).
6. What were the ‘Filmfare Awards’ known as before they came to be called that?
7. British novelist Marie Corelli’s books were used as a basis for a number of films – only one of which was a colour film, and that too in Hindi. Which film was it?
8. Which actor appears only in a photograph in the Asha Parekh starrer Kati Patang, as the man whose dead wife Asha is impersonating?
9. In which film does Nargis dance to the hit Ritchie Valens song, La Bamba?
10. For Hai apna dil toh awara (Solvaan Saal), who actually played the mouth organ Sunder is shown to be playing?
Good luck, all! I’m waiting to see who wins.
And, by the way: nobody’s attempted the non-quiz question I asked at the end of my last quiz. It’s a fun question, not part of the quiz, but just interesting trivia.
Which famous cinema personality appeared in a cameo role as a boatman alongside Premnath, in the song Naiyya teri majhdhaar in Awara (1951)?
Dustedoff 
You are mean! This one is tough! :( Thank heavens you gave us time! And yes, I need your email.
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:-D
I’ve sent you a mail, Anu, so you can respond on that whenever you’ve decided what your answers are going to be!
Good luck!
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i need ur mail id too :)
maludeneha84@gmail.com
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Sent! (though you’d probably be able to see my mail ID on your blog’s dashboard, against each comment I’ve left on your blog…)
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Wow, what a quiz!
And I remember the last question, which you added as a comment to my maajhi post!
this is really tough. I don’t think I’ll get it!
but all the same: WONDERFUL!!!!!!!!!!
but I think flattery doesn’t help to get the prizes, does it? ;-)
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Yes, I remember adding that last, non-quiz question in your maajhi post. Anu had asked me then too to reveal the answer, but I thought I’d keep it till I hosted this quiz, even though – since I am not absolutely certain who it is – it isn’t part of the quiz.
Let’s wait a few days and see if anybody has anything to say about that unknown maajhi’s identity, and if nobody does, I’ll reveal it.
And no, flattery doesn’t help get any prizes! Not here! :-D
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please send me your email id
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Done, Ravi. Good luck!
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This is too tough for my poor addled brain!
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You have one week, Lalitha! – in which to watch Kati Patang, as many Nargis films, and as many films from 1957 and 1963 as you can. ;-) Plus, make some educated guesses. If you decide to take the plunge (what have you got to lose, anyway?), let me know, and I’ll send you my mail address.
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I will pass! I am waiting to see the answers, after others have sent them in and you publish the final list of winners!
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The answers have been published now! :-)
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I think the maajhi with Premnath is Sajjan.
The other answers are really difficult to guess/find DO (except the name of filmfare awards).
It’s more difficult than the annual King William’s College quiz, Isle of Man. :)
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Pacifist, thank you for initiating a discussion I was hoping someone would venture into! :-) After all, that last question isn’t really part of the quiz, so I’d love to have people discuss it.
No, it isn’t Sajjan. In fact, this man wasn’t an actor at all – but his name is very, very familiar to almost anybody who’s into Hindi cinema from the 50s and 60s.
Yes, I do admit that some of these questions are pretty difficult to answer. One reason I wanted to make them that way was to ensure that not just anybody could simply do a Google search and find all the answers!
But do feel free to ask for hints. I can always provide some (I’ve added one below one of the questions, because someone asked me something…)
Go on, guess! :-)
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Was it Jaikishan of Shankar Jaikishan? :-/
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Close… warm, but not hot. ;-)
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Shailender is known to have made a couple of cameo appearances. Is this one of them?
If you say no, I’m going to suggest Hasrat Jaipuri. LOL
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Bravo! :-)
Yes, it is Shailendra. You can see a resemblance in this photo of his:
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Well, I’m glad this is out of the way, and I can think about the quiz now. :)
I know answers only to 6, 7, and 8.
A couple of other unsure answers.
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Keep at it, keep at it! From what I know of you (… those linked posts…), you’re a dab hand at guessing! :-)
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I don’t think that’s Shailendra in Awaara. I seem to recall reading somewhere that it was Om Prakash Mehra the production controller of Raj Kapoor studios.
You can see Shailendra here in Musafir (1957):
and also in Shree 420 as Raj’s secretary when he’s working in the office.(contacting a Japanese person).
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Nobody is going to believe me, but I thought that as well!
I wasn’t really convinced of my answer, but it was like a gut feeling! Hope it sees me through the other question!
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Well, I can believe you, Harvey! You underestimate yourself. :-)
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Shailendra was also on Boot Polish:
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Thanks, Upendra. Now this is getting a little confusing, since my uncle (who was a guitarist, and played in Awara) said it was Shailendra… but yes, the two men do look different, except for the drooping eyelids.
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Hi Madhu,
The quiz is a great idea! Now we’re going to know who really knows their Hindi films! Apart from you of course! Could you send me your email please? I’d like to have a go. Probably going to get most of them wrong anyway!
Am trying to think laterally for the last question. going to guess at Hasrat Jaipuri. Warm or am I barking up the wrong tree?
Anoushka
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Anoushka, I’ll send you a mail within the next five minutes. In the meantime: yes, not just warm but downright hot! One more step, and you’ll have guessed it. :-)
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So it was Shailendra! Close enough. Should’ve asked my Dad really. He’s a massive RK fan.
My Nana once judged a Hindi poetry competition with Shailendra, somewhere in UP, and he wasn’t enamoured of the experience.
Pretty sure I know the film from 1957 that you’re talking about. I saw that movie about 4-5 years ago but loved the cheeky dialogues and this one stuck. Not sure about the other film though.
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That’s an interesting anecdote about your Nana having judged a poetry competition with Shailendra, and not being enamoured of the experience… was the poetry so bad, or wasn’t Shailendra all a judge should be?
I own both the 1957 and the 1963 films, and have seen them lots of times. The first time I came across that particular dialogue in the later movie, it made me blink and go “Huh?” and then of course I had to pause everything right there and scurry across to see the scene in the earlier movie… and sure enough, there it was again. Exactly the same dialogue.
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I am all at sea, I know the answers to just 2 questions that is 6 and 8. Poor me.
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Ah! You know the answer to 8? That isn’t bad, Shilpi, actually – because I know if I hadn’t made a note of it when I was watching the film, I wouldn’t have remembered offhand.
Not poor you at all!
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I should go and drown myself in chullubhar pani, as they say.
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I’ll join you. To which chullubhar pani are you going to? ;-)
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Harvey, from the answers you’ve submitted, I can tell you this: for you, no chullu is going to fit!
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LOL!!
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Come, come, Neha! Given up so easily? Not what I’d expected from you!
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Heehee, I don’t know as much as you think I would Madhu! But because you were nice enough to give me a push, i will try :)
And Harvey, you are good enough not to deserve a chullu :P
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That’s the way! Do try. :-)
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I just realized I know ans 10!!! WOhoo!!
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:-D
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OK an update LOL!!
I ‘think’ I have 6 answers.
Miles to go still :-/
You would want all the answers together I imagine DO?
In my excitement I was about to mail answer by answer as I found/thought/confirmed them, but realised the stupidity of it :-D
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Heh, I have 6 answers too, but the others are real whammies! She’ll have us all sweating out this week, and I’m already snowed under with work. :( (That, by the way, is to make Madhu take pity on me… d’you think it will work? Flattery doesn’t, as harvey proved…)
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No, pity doesn’t work either! ;-)
I did think about half those questions were sitters for anybody who knew how to do some good web searching. So I had to balance them out with some tough ones, no? Stuff you couldn’t find just by Googling?
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Not bad at all, pacifist! 6 answers out of 10 is good.
Yes, I’d like all the answers together, because what I’m doing is to maintain a spreadsheet with a date and time record for every set of answers I receive from a participant. If anyone sends answers in one at a time, it’ll be unfair on the others…
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For everybody who’s been sweating it out…
… something to help loosen you up a bit. A friend shared this with me, and it made me laugh so much, I had to show this to all of you. It’s cinema-related (not classic, but anyway), and if you can read Devnagri and understand some of the major dialects of Hindi, you’ll probably enjoy this as much as I did. Have fun!
Movies in Bhojpuri
1. Titanic – नौका देले धोका
2. Ghost Rider – भूत चढ़ गएल
3. 3 Idiots – तीन ठो बुद्धू
4. Ghajini – टकला के बदला
5. Silence of the Lambs – बकरिया बोलत नाही
6. Black Hawk Down – काला बटेर मर गईल
7. Kung Fu Panda – कुंग फू पांडे
8. Mission Impossible – भैय्याजी ई न हो पाई
9. Mission Impossible 2 – हम फिर कहत रहीं… ई न हो पाई बबुआ
10. Mission Impossible 3 – अब कितनी बारी कहीबे… ई नाही हो सकत
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Hahahahahahaha!
This is absolutely hilarious!!
The Mission Impossible ‘series’ is riotous. :-D
‘Silence of the lambs’ Gajhani ROTFL
Now with renewed energy I’m going to tackle the rest….hopefully.
PS: Am I allowed to paste this elsewhere?
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Same here – I simply loved the equivalents of Ghajini, Silence of the Lambs and the Mission Impossible movies. (P.S. Have you seen Ravi’s comment, below, suggesting one for Mission Impossible 4? Another fabulous one, I thought). :-D
Go ahead and pass this on. This isn’t copyrighted stuff; it’s doing the rounds on Facebook and even elsewhere on the net. Share the fun!
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dustedoff, this is hilarious! I showed this list to my husband, and he says that when they showed Spiderman (the earlier one) in Alexandra Theatres (Bombay), its Hindi title was called ‘Hawa mein latka aadmi ko phatka’.
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That reminded me of the Hindi equivalent of Dunston Checks In (and this was the actual, official name): Ek Bandar Hotal ke Andar. :-) Actually, considering the content of the film, that rhyming name is kinda cute!
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good one.
by the way baTer is a quail – hawk will be baaz. am just wondering what would mission impossible 4 be called. “sasuraa maanat naahee.n, de chimaaT kheench ke’
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Yes, I know a bater is a quail, but I didn’t want to tamper with the original. ;-) It was too delightful even for the mistakes to be corrected!
I think your suggestion for Mission Impossible 4 is absolutely fantastic!! :-D
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LOL good one, ravi. One does lose ones patience finally :-D
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And now I’m wondering what The Planet of the Apes (or maybe even The Rise of the Planet of the Apes) would be called in Bhojpuri…
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Am seeing this only now…lovely! I love old bollywood quizzes.
The questions are very good – if rather tough! (But, tbh, I’d rather have them this way than easy “googleable” questions). What fun would a trivia quiz be otherwise?
At first glance, I can say I am 100% sure of answers to only 2 of these. *hanging my head in shame*. I know 4 and 10 – and am pissed off with myself for not knowing at least one part of 5. (I SHOULD be knowing this, I’m positive I heard this dialogue very recently but just can’t remember when/where).
Also not happy with the fact that I’m not able to get 2,6 and 8.I should be knowing all of these, having read about them (and being a Worrell fan) but the answers just elude me at the moment. Yes, I know I’m losing it! ;-)
Btw, Madhu, can I send you an e-mail with just 2 answers now and possibly send you an update later or am I allowed just one bite at the cherry?
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>I’m positive I heard this dialogue very recently but just can’t remember when/where
I’m having the same problems raja.
I’m trying to fit the dialogue to the actor. I know I heard it, I hear him speak but the face eludes me. Could it be Manoj Kumar or Rajender Kumar, …..it can’t be Dev Anand.
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—or maybe it can? :-/
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My lips are sealed. Smiling, but sealed. :-)
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Exactly! Where’s the fun in a trivia quiz if the answers can be found off the Net?
But no, I’m sorry you can’t send in answers in instalments – then the sequence in which people submit answers would go haywire, wouldn’t it? Till now, two people have sent in their answers. So if you send in two answers now and three more later in the week, will you be #3, or something else? (Considering the prize goes to whoever is first in with all correct – or maximum correct – answers).
So, take your time and get all (or as many as you can) answers together before you mail them to me. Don’t worry, neither of those who’ve mailed me their answers have even answered all the questions, let alone got them right!
Good luck. :-)
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Please send me your email id.
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Done. Good luck!
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5 and 9 were easy for me :)
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I got your answers, thanks!
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Are there no consolation prizes? :P
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Ah… now I’m thinking about this. Let me give it some thought. :-)
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I like the idea, especially for losers like me who can’t get even half right :P
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Look at it from another angle: you’ll get to learn so much more trivia! :-)
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Important Announcement regarding prizes:
Okay, I’ve been giving it some thought. I’m revamping the prizes somewhat. Now:
1. First in to get the maximum answers correct (even if nobody gets all the answers correct) – gets the book and dictate-a-theme.
2. Second person to get the maximum answers correct also gets to choose a theme for a top-ten songs list on my blog.
Happy winning!
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Why not make it like the film awards nowdays, then perhaps everyone might be eligible for some award or other.
Something like;
-the most hilarious answer/answers
-the widest off the mark answer/answers
-the least off the mark answer/answers
-the most original answer/answers
-sympathy award for person with no clue
etc etc
I might get one of these at least. :-D
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pacifist, LOL! That reminds me of the Koffee with Karan episode where they had critics come to give the Coffee Awards – and at one point, Koel Purie says ” This can’t be like the Filmfare Awards, guys ki jo aaye, use kuch na kuch award de diye!
I do hope dusteoff will ignore this, and pay attention to your scenario. :)
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This one’s really got me thinking… I was so busy concocting ‘awards’ for this quiz, I stayed up till well past my bedtime last night! But yes, I think I’ve finally figured out how to do it. Maybe not everybody, but nearly everybody will get some ‘award’ or the other!
Thank you for the suggestion, pacifist! :-)
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This quiz is doing something to my ego, i always though it was an above average bollywood knowledge buff, ah well and a big lol at that suggestion from Pacifist. I couldn’t even answer any apart from say one, looking forward to the answers
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So shall we award you the Sympathy Award? ;-)
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Ok, I’ve just sent in my answers, Madhu. Not expecting to win anything but that was never the idea. It was just to have fun trying. :-) Thanks a lot for this quiz.
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I got your answers, raja – thanks! And the quiz results are out. :-)
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