The other day, scrolling through previous posts, I realised I hadn’t reviewed any Hollywood films for a while (to be honest, I’ve not even watched many Hollywood films over the past couple of months). I also realised that it’s been ages since I watched any films starring Tyrone Power, one of my favourite Hollywood actors. Time to amend that, I decided. So I got out a Power film I hadn’t watched before. An Irving Berlin production, replete with good songs and plenty of Ty candy.
Author Archives: dustedoff
Restaurant Review: Benihana
We’d heard, sometime late in 2013, that Benihana—the US-based Japanese restaurant chain—was going to be opening an outlet at Epicuria. Since my husband and I are both very fond of Japanese food, this was something to look forward to. We saw, every weekend when we visited Epicuria, the progress being made: the interiors being finished, the furniture being brought in, and finally, the restaurant being opened to the public in the winter of 2013-14.
Benihana, at Epicuria Mall.
The Poetic Pathways of Shahjahanabad
The Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH), in tandem with the Kri Foundation, organised a two-day long event called Dilli ka Apna Utsav on March 22 and 23. This was a combination of different events—performances, walks, and … Continue reading
Ten of my favourite Nanda songs
This wasn’t the post I’d planned for this week on Dusted Off. I’d been thinking, instead, of reviewing a Hollywood film—one which I happened to be watching when I received the news that Nanda had passed away on the morning of March 25. I changed my mind about writing a review; instead, I had to do a tribute to Nanda. Not just because I share my birthday with her, but because I think of her as an actress who deserves to be more highly regarded than she usually is.
The funny side of blogging
I’ve been blogging for more than five years now, and over the years, I’ve discovered a lot of things that make me want to continue. One is the enthusiasm and support of readers. Another is the vast amount of knowledge I’ve gained, simply by blogging and watching so much cinema—a lot of which I’d probably never have seen otherwise.
And, there’s the laughter one gets out of logging into my blog’s dashboard and checking out the day’s stats. WordPress has a fairly comprehensive statistics page, with detailed information on stuff like how many views my blog got, which have been the most popular pages and the most popular posts, who comments the most on my blog—and, the icing on the cake—the web searches that bring visitors to Dusted Off. Most of these are fairly innocuous: o p nayyar songs list, madhubalasongs, humraaz, and so on. Fairly predictable search terms to arrive at Dusted Off.
Occasionally, however, there are absolute gems, stuff that makes me laugh. For instance, on November 10, 2013, according to my stats page, someone arrived at Dusted Off using the search term song tum mere paas aa naa shaky video.
Book Review: Farah Ghuznavi’s ‘Fragments of Riversong’
In a conversation with a very experienced journalist the other day, I was told, “I can’t imagine why publishers should be so wary of publishing short stories. They’re so much more difficult to write.” The implication being that if a … Continue reading
Ten of my favourite wind songs
The other day, with a storm in full force, I could hear the crash and rumble of thunder, the pitter-patter of raindrops (and, as it grew more stormy, huge splashes of water against the windows)—and the wind, gusting and whooshing all around. It struck me then that nature, even when it’s not living nature—not birds and animals, but water and wind and clouds—makes its own music.
Wind, in my opinion, wins when it comes to ‘natural music’. From the soft swoosh of the breeze blowing through the leaves of a tree, to the howling, gooseflesh-inducing gusts that can be well mistaken for a banshee: the wind has a life all its own. Appropriate, then, that at least two types of musical instruments—wind chimes and Aeolian harps—are played by the wind.
And the wind, of course, has long been an important motif in Hindi film songs. There have been songs addressed to the wind, songs about the wind. Here are ten of my favourites, in no particular order. The only restrictions I’ve imposed on myself are:
(a) As always, the song should be from a film I’ve seen, from before the 1970s
And (b) the song should have a word synonymous with wind (hawa, saba, pawan, etc) in the first line of the song.
The Library of Dara Shukoh
I’m nearing the end of my series of occasional articles on little-known secular historical structures in Delhi, but before I end this series, I did want to mention one particular building that should be close to the heart of anybody … Continue reading
Nakli Nawab (1962)
Muslim socials are among the genres I can never have too much of. Back in their heyday, they had some of the best music around (remember Chaudhvin ka Chaand? Barsaat ki Raat? Mere Mehboob? The inimitable Pakeezah?) There was the chance to savour the mellifluous sound of Urdu; to peek into a social structure and lifestyles that often went otherwise unexplored in cinema; and to see women in shararas and men in achkans [the latter, like military uniforms, equipped with some inexplicable means of making even Bharat Bhushan and Rajendra Kumar look good].
Restaurant Review: Soda Bottle Opener Wala
Let me begin with a disclaimer: I’ve never been to one of those classic Bombay Irani cafés. I’ve heard praises (and seen photos) from friends in Bombay, though, and they’ve invariably waxed eloquent. When I heard, therefore, that a Parsi … Continue reading
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