Ever since I announced the classic Hindi cinema quiz last week, though I’ve published no new posts, I’ve had a lot of traffic on my blog – and a large amount of it to the quiz post. Thank you, everybody, who commented on it, gave up on it (!), and – very especially – sent in answers. Even if they weren’t all correct, even if they were just wild guesses. Your enthusiasm touched me and encouraged me. You’re the reason I keep this blog alive. Thank you.
Okay, we’ll get around to the winners in a little while, but first, the answers:
Q1. In the film Detective (1958), what is the profession of the character played by Pradeep Kumar?
Answer: A magician. Anu was the only one who came close – she thought he might be a street entertainer. (If you listen to the song Aankhon pe bharosa mat kar, duniya jaadoo ka khel hai – “Don’t believe all you see, this world is a magical show” – it does contain a hint).
The detective in the film is actually the father of the character Mala Sinha plays.
Q2. 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?
Answer: Almost everybody got this one right. Yes, it’s Raj Kapoor’s Around the World (1967). Frank Worrell has a very brief scene, as himself, when Raj Kapoor’s character stops en route in the Caribbean.
Q3. 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?
Answer: My father – among whose favourite TV channels is Zee Classic – heard this interesting bit of trivia on a programme and phoned me excitedly to tell me. No, it’s not Mohabbat tark ki maine, as most people thought. Sahir’s first ghazal to be recorded as a song in a Hindi film was actually Tadbeer se bigdi hui taqdeer bana le, from Baazi (1951).
The important fact to remember here is that a ghazal is not determined by its music (it need not necessarily be soulful and gentle!) but by its lyrics – technically, a ghazal must follow a certain rhyme pattern. And yes, no matter what tune S D Burman gave it, Tadbeer se bigdi hui taqdeer bana le is a ghazal.
Q4. 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?
Answer: Another answer which nearly everybody got right. This one’s a delightful Johnny Walker song from the Shammi Kapoor-Nutan starrer, Basant (1960). The song is Ghoomke aaya hoon main.
Q5. 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).
Answer: Was this one of the reasons Anu, submitting her answers, ribbed me about me having a ‘sadistic streak’?! I guess so. This was obscure, but Anoushka got it right anyway: the first film is Paying Guest; the conversation occurs between Dev Anand and Shubha Khote.
Six years later, it was repeated in Phir Wohi Dil Laaya Hoon, this time between Joy Mukherjee and Tabassum.
Q6. What were the ‘Filmfare Awards’ known as before they came to be called that?
Answer: Not a difficult one, that, if you do a little Googling – or just are fond of Hindi film trivia. They were called the Clares, after Clare Mendonca, who was the film critic for The Times of India.
Q7. 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?
Answer: Plenty of people got this one right, too. The Marie Corelli novel in question was Vendetta (aka The Story of One Forgotten), written in 1886. (You can download a free – and legal – copy here if you wish to read it). The Hindi film adaptation was Intequam (1969), starring Sadhana, Sanjay Khan, Ashok Kumar and Rehman.
P.S. Anu tells me that there was a Tamil film, Marmayogi (1951), which starred MGR. Intequam was based on Marmayogi. Both Karthik and Pacifist submitted Ek Tha Raja as their answer for this question, and on doing a little research, I found that Ek Tha Raja was the Hindi version (dubbed, I guess) of Marmayogi.
Q8. Which actor appears only in a photograph in the Asha Parekh starrer Kati Patang, as the man whose dead wife Asha is impersonating?
Answer. Another easy one – perhaps because Kati Patang is such a familiar film to so many of us? Sujit Kumar was the actor. His only appearance in the film is in a photograph, as Shekhar, the husband of the character Naaz plays.
Q9. In which film does Nargis dance to the hit Ritchie Valens song, La Bamba?
Answer. Okay, I thought this one was a toughie, but a surprisingly large number of people got this right. The film is Raat aur Din. One night, while she’s admitted in the mental hospital, Nargis’s character plays La Bamba on the console in her room and dances wildly to it.
Q 10. For Hai apna dil toh awara (Solvaan Saal), who actually played the mouth organ Sunder is shown to be playing?
Answer: Another question that nearly everybody answered correctly. Yes, that’s Rahul Dev Burman, playing the mouth organ for this song composed by his father, Sachin Dev Burman.
Well done, everybody! I thought there were some difficult questions in this quiz, but most of you got quite a few of them right (which means the next time I host a quiz on this blog, I need to raise the level of the questions!) Thank you for participating, and for being such enthusiastic and supportive readers. And thank you, Karthik, for egging me on to give a ‘consolation prize’ – and pacifist, for giving me ideas on what they could be: prizes, as in the film awards, that allow everybody to go home happy, secure in the fact that they’ve won something.
And now, the winners: the two people who came in first with the maximum correct answers. Nobody got all the answers right, but two people got 8 out of 10 answers right.
Da Winnah! *drum roll*
– Anoushka Dave, who gets the Bollywood Trivia Award. Even if she hadn’t been the first person to have submitted the maximum correct answers, Anoushka would still have got a prize: the Dark Horse Award, because this was the first time she’d commented on my blog.
And the runner-up: Anu Warrier, who sent in an equal number of correct answers as Anoushka – but a few hours later. Anu, in her mail, told me that a lot of her answers were ‘wild guesses’. In that case, she also gets the Best Guesser Award. (Sorry, Anu: this one gets combined with your runner-up prize).
I’ll be sending both of you individual e-mails soon. Meanwhile, congratulations!
Congratulations, also, to everybody else who won. There are several other awards:
The First-off-the-Mark Award goes to Ravi, who answered really quick – on September 28 itself.
The Quick Worker Award goes to Harvey. Harvey had to leave town on September 30 and will be back only on October 10, so unless he sent in his answers before September 30, he’d not have had a chance. But he did – and he got 7 answers right. I am impressed.
Neha gets the Hope Springs Eternal Award. The fact that she knew less than half of the answers didn’t deter her from submitting them. Atta-girl!
The Innovative Ideas Award goes to Pacifist. Not because her answers were crazily off the mark, but because she was the one who came up with this idea of “lots of prizes”, film awards-style.
Raja, who sent in his answers just about half an hour before the quiz deadline gets (what else?!) the By the Skin of His Teeth Award.
… and, last but not least, Karthik – who gets the Just for the Heck of it Award. (I have to admit to not having been able to think up some exciting enough award to bestow on you, Karthik – sorry!)
To all of you: congratulations, a very heartfelt thank you, and the assurance that each of you will get a prize sometime within the next couple of months, in the form of a post specially for you. Wait your turn and see what I come up with!
Dustedoff 
Yaay, I won something! :-)
I know it’s going to sound very lame but I almost typed “Paying Guest” in my answer for 5 – and then changed it to “Tumsa Nahin Dekha” (well, it is the type of thing Shammi would say ;-)) Now that you mention it, I remember the dialogue very well between Dev Anand and Shubha Khote. And this movie was also written by Nasir Hussain, so it makes sense that he re-used the dialogue in PWDLH.
Loved the quiz, Madhu. Like I said in my mail, it was a major humbling experience. And also an educational trip. Thanks a lot! Hope to see another one of these soon. :-)
LikeLike
You are too sweet, raja, to say that it was a humbling experience. Frankly, the only reason I was able to come up with this absolutely crazy trivia was because whenever I watch a pre-70s Hindi film, I write copious notes about it – including anything odd that I come across. So that’s where most of that trivia comes from. If someone asked me questions like that, I don’t think I’d be able to answer all of them, either – they were pretty tough.
P.S. Yes, Anoushka wrote in her mail that she guessed Nasir Hussain reused his dialogue from Paying Guest too. It was a good one!
LikeLike
Nice one! I wish I knew about the quiz earlier. I knew at least three answers :) I need to get online more often, just to check out the B-blogs. Thanks for the fun quiz and answers, Madhulika. My congrats to all who won.
Is there another one coming up any time soon?
LikeLike
I’m glad you liked the quiz, Kanan! Yes, there will be more, of course – but when, I don’t know. (By the way, if you like trivia, you might want to check out the quiz I’d posted just before this one – that went haywire, because I should’ve asked people to mail me the answers instead of putting them in the comments… but some interesting trivia there too). The answers are at the bottom of the quiz.
LikeLike
Congratulations Anoushka and Anu Warrier :)
8 correct!!! Well done.
And yaaayyyy!! for ‘all’ the winners which enables all of us to enjoy the post DO is going to write especially for each winner.
Now that perks up our egos after the beating it got (for some of us).
Yes, as raja and Bollywooddeewana have said, it’s a humbling experience. I thought I was an authority on old films.
My half correct answer of paying guest was a late lighting of the bulb.
Thank you DO for this most interesting quiz that kept us all involved so much.
LikeLike
Yes, exactly! “Yaaaaay for all the winners!”
I kept racking my brains for a long while, trying to figure out prizes for all of you, then decided ‘individually-dedicated posts’ would give me a chance to say a personal thank you.
LikeLike
I missed the quiz, last couple of weeks I was terribly busy. Not that I would have come any closer to cracking the quiz. But I enjoyed the questions and answers, and I am mighty impressed by the winners.
LikeLike
Yes, I was very impressed with the winners too. Besides Anoushka and Anu, who both got 8 answers right, two other people – raja and harvey – got 7 answers right. I think that is very well done, indeed.
LikeLike
Congratulations, Anoushka!
And I won?! This must be the first time I ever won anything! *Reminder to self: Bone up on old Hindi movies before Dustedoff thinks up another one of these zingers, so I’m not guessing as much!*
Madhu, I agree with everyone else on how *humbling* an experience this was! I did pride myself on my knowledge of old films. And yes, I think, finally, we are all winners – after all, we’re going to get a whole bunch of interesting posts out of this.
LikeLike
Congratulations, Anu!
I’m glad you enjoyed the quiz. And, with your track record, I’m pretty sure you needn’t bother with boning up on old Hindi movies to tackle any forthcoming quizzes on this blog – you could probably sail through them with one arm tied behind your back! :-)
LikeLike
Congratulations to all the winners. I missed the quiz, but really, I would have been at the bottom of the pile had I submitted anything and maybe won the ‘Bottom of the Pile’ award.
LikeLike
:-D
LikeLike
Congrats to the winners. I might be wrong but wasn’t there a ques regarding Naiyya teri malhdar too? I’d love to know the answer.
LikeLike
You’re right, neer, there was a Naiyya teri majhdhaar question, but it wasn’t part of the quiz – it was just a fun question. The man shown in the screen cap is the lyricist Shailendra; he did a cameo, along with Premnath, in that song.
LikeLike
Congratulations to all the winners here! My hats off to all of you for taking a stab at it and most of all, to Madhu for taking the time to compile this quiz, definitely not an easy job for anyone!
LikeLike
Thank you, Lalitha! I had a lot of fun compiling the quiz – and I’m so glad to have found people who were actually game to try it. :-) The enthusiasm of my blog readers really makes my day!
LikeLike
Thanks every one for your kind wishes! Congratulations to Anu and all the winners as well as participants.
Thanks especially Madhulika for being such a worthy quiz master and for awarding such inventive prizes. It was a doozy, ranging from stuff you either know or don’t to the finer points of the ghazal. By the way, would love to know more about the form.
This blog is special because of all the people who read and comment on the various posts because of their enthusiasm for Hindi movies, interesting insights and information. I’ve only started reading the blog recently and am already addicted. Keep writing everyone!
LikeLike
“This blog is special because of all the people who read and comment on the various posts because of their enthusiasm for Hindi movies, interesting insights and information.”
I couldn’t agree more! I began this blog about three years ago, just because I wanted to share my enthusiasm for old cinema. Since then, I’ve made friends – through the blog – with many wonderful people. I’ve learnt from them, laughed with them, disagreed with them, groaned with them (Oh, those sessions on Leader! Or Bhabhi) – and I’ve enjoyed every moment. Thank you all, and thank you, Anoushka.
LikeLike
I just went through your posts on Leader and Bhabhi, and am wondering why it took me so long to discover your blog! This is the perfect place to come to when you want a good laugh! Thank you, Madhu!
LikeLike
And thank you, Lalitha! There’s one thing to be said for bad movies: they make for painful watching, but they provide good material for reviews. These ones were just terrible.
(By the way, two other movies that I’d advise steering clear of are Ek Phool Do Maali and Akashdeep). *nudge*
LikeLike
I did not send in an entry since I did not know any answers. Not even close to hazarding a guess. Now that I see the answers, I may have been close to a couple.
An excellent quiz, and congratulations to those who won and also to those who got at least one right, i.e. one more than me :))))
LikeLike
Oh, I’m sure you’d have been able to answer at least some of them, Samir – even if only with the help of some judicious Googling! ;-) That one about the Filmfare Awards being known as the Clares, for instance.
Next time, perhaps?
LikeLike
Dusted off,
I started visiting your blog in recent times and was quite impressed with the info and entertainment it provides to the reader/listener.
Your quiz,which I tried first privately and when I realised that I would get minus marks and a special ” who asked you ?” award,I kept the answers to myself.
After reading the answers,I felt like ” a levelling/grounding with a thud experience”.Now I know where I do not stand !
Looking forward to another quiz to improve my private scores….
Thanks.
-AD
LikeLike
Welcome to my blog, AD! And thank you for commenting.
There will be another quiz coming up… sometime (I need time to think up interesting questions that can’t be easily Googled – or at least not all of them!)
But I am curious; what were the answers you thought of? ;-)
LikeLike
Dusted off,
I feel very awckward,but since you want to have a hearty laugh,here is my (ridiculous) answer;
1 – Stage artist
2 – Dev Anand’s Awwal Number
3 – Nil
4 – Mera Naam Joker
5 – Tumsa Nahin Dekha and Dil Deke Dekho
6 – Clare Awards
7 – khoon ka badla khoon(I hope there is such a movie)
8 – sujit kr.
9 – Nil
10 -R D Burman
-Arunkumar Deshmukh
LikeLike
Oh, you underestimate yourself. That isn’t bad, you know – you got the answers to Q #6, 8 and 10 right, and your answers to 5 were very logical ones – in fact, others have also listed those as the movies they thought contained that dialogue.
Khoon ka badla khoon is a film, but it’s from 1978, and Awwal Number is of course much later – whereas this blog devotes itself to films no later than 1970 (or, in the very exceptional case – like Pakeezah or Caravan – a couple of years down the line). So those two films would never have been part of the answers. Better luck next time!
LikeLike
Although I’m very late for this party too, am sooooooooooooooooooooo happy to see that I still win something and nothing less than Quick Worker Award!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hurrah!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Am sooooo curious to know what I will be winning! and am looking very much forward to the post for me!
Thank you Dustedoff, for the quiz! It was very entertaining, though not really very good for my job! ;-)
I feel very sheepy that I didn’t even get the answer partially right to the dialogue question. After all I reviewed Paying Guest on my blog one and half years back!
BTw the prizes don’t matter, I will participate in any quiz even if you don’t offer any prizes.
I am also looking forward to read allt he Edwina posts. But I think I will manage it only on Friday. Got loads of work to complete!
LikeLike
Good to have you back in cyberspace, Harvey! And I hope you’ll like what I’ve got lined up for you as a prize. ;-)
The Edwina posts are great fun – I like the way she writes, even if that haywire punctuation and random capitalisation makes the editor in me cringe. LOL.
LikeLike
dustedoff, you too? I thought I was the only one going through twitchy fingers when I read. LOL.
Harvey, welcome back. Do you have a fruit / vegetable / flower / variation thereof post lined up for us? :)
LikeLike
Yes, I do have a post lined up, but no ghas-phoos this time, it is all about being bound up in jail and elsewhere! ;-)
LikeLike
That sounds very interesting! Zulf ke phande phans gayi jaan and stuff like that? Or Qaid mein hai bulbul? I can’t wait to see! :-)
LikeLike
:-)
LikeLike
You will be very much surprised!
LikeLike
Anu: Oh, yes. Very twitchy fingers! I mentally and automatically edit everything from newspaper articles to restaurant menus to signboards. (By the way, we saw this sign beside a highway on a recent trip: “Rob work in progress.“. They were relaying the road surface, but I couldn’t stop laughing – it just seemed so appropriate that an Indian government undertaking was admitting so openly to corruption!)
LikeLike
You too? I though I was the only one afflicted with that illness! It’s quite irritating (to me) sometimes that I can’t just *read* something.
That sign is hilarious indeed! I like reading the signs on the back of the trucks too – some pithy (if unintentional) humour there. Makes up for the tedium of road travel. :)
LikeLike
You forgot trees :-D Peepal ke chchaiyaan tale types.
LikeLike
That’s a coincidence! I was thinking of asking Harvey when he’d be doing a ‘tree songs’ post too. :-) I was thinking more along the lines of Parbaton ke pedon par shaam ka basera hai, but yes, being the botanist he is, he should be species-specific. Does that line from Kashmir ki kali hoon main – “Rangat meri bahaaron mein, dil ki aag chinaaron mein” count? ;-)
LikeLike
peepal ke chhaiyaan tale batiyan banaiy ke….
LikeLike
How about Kachchi kali kachnar ki? Though I guess that could also be classified as a flower song.
LikeLike
You are right this should have been in the flower list! but can’t really say that it would be in any way a favourite.
LikeLike
It doesn’t matter what you have got lined up for me. Even if you write “dkjfdkjgkjgdkldsjgdsjkgkjdskg” I’ll be happy! Okay, now I am exaggerating! But, really, I’m just happy that you will be posting something specially for me and just that thought makes me feel warm, esp. in the Fall here.
LikeLike
Oh, it wouldn’t be anything as mundane as “dkjfdkjgkjgdkldsjgdsjkgkjdskg” (Yes, I know you’re exaggerating, but still, that reassurance is necessary). Wait and see!
LikeLike
@harvey, Regarding that kachnar song: Yes, it may not have been in your favourites list (it isn’t even in mine – I don’t like it one bit), but if someone set me a list of flower songs to do (or even tree songs, come to think of it), I’d go so mad trying to think up songs, I’d probably include this. Though I wouldn’t label the post as ‘favourites’! ;-)
The good thing about kachnar kalis: they make fabulous achaar!
LikeLike
!!!!!
Oh my god!!! My name on your blog with an AWARD!! I am SO honoured :D WOHOOO *does a little dance*
Thank you, thank you THANK YOU!
LikeLike
:-D
Wait and see your prize – I’ll probably publish it sometime in November. :-)
LikeLike
Awesome Madhu! Can’t WAIT. :)
LikeLike
oh!
i could get only 2 answers correct
OMG
tadbber se bigadi hui
and
hai apana dil to awara- R D Burman.
get a new quiz soon!
thats my only request!
:-)
LikeLike
Someday, someday. :-) When I can find sufficient questions for which answers aren’t easily available through Google.
LikeLike