Bronenosets Potyomkin (1925)

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Years ago, when I was a child, Bronenosets Potyomkin (The Battleship Potemkin) was shown on television. I must have been about 10, perhaps 11—but no more than that. Five minutes into the film and I got bored of the grainy, jerky picture (this was an unrestored version) and the lack of dialogue. A silent film? And that too about a mutiny? Um, no.
For some 25 odd years, that remained my only memory of Bronenosets Potyomkin, even long after I’d discovered that it’s regarded as a sort of cult classic.
An omission, I realised, that needed correction. It was time to dust off Sergei Eisenstein’s magnum opus and see what it was really about.

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Upcoming Event: Books, Travel, Reading

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For everybody who lives in Delhi and is fond of books, here’s an opportunity to indulge… on Sunday, March 28, 2010, Friends of Books is organising an event that promises to be enjoyable (and I’m not saying that simply because I happen to be one of the authors who’ll be reading at the event)!

In the words of Arti Jain, of Friends of Books:

Programme:

Ongoing : Book Swap (6:00-8:15 P.M).

6:00-6:30 Madhulika Liddle reads from her travel writing and novel followed by Q&A

6:30-:7:00 Puneetinder Kaur Sidhu reads from Adrift followed by Q & A

7:00- 7:30 Mridula Koshy reads from her forthcoming novel set in Kerala and in the US Midwest.

7:30-8:15 Open Mic

Entry Fee : Free!

The authors featuring at the event are women who at some point chose to take a slightly different path, as authors and as people.

Puneetinder Kaur Sidhu cut loose from the pressures to conform and decided to travel through Europe-alone and for the cost of a dozen beers. Madhulika Liddle, a one time corporate employee left it all behind to wear many hats. A blogger and an author, Madhulika Liddle writes both about her journeys to far off places and about an excursion back into history with her evocative thriller set in Mughal era Delhi. She also takes a jaunt down cinema’s memory lane with her popular blog https://dustedoff.wordpress.com. Mridula Koshy has been a cashier at a Kentucky Fried Chicken, swap-meet sales clerk, backstage dresser at fashion shows, waitress, polisher of silverware, writing adviser, a professional advocate of multiculturalism, a house painter, receptionist at a law firm, collator of tax forms, union organizer and community organizer. She has also made life-altering journeys between two continents and woven her experiences into stories.

At the ‘Open Mic’ session, share your own stories about places far and close or read from your favorite travelogue or memoir, take us to another era- past or future. Take us on a journey.

Join us for the Book Swap where you get to take back as many books as you bring to the table. Sharing is caring! (Note that any books you bring must be in good condition).

Ek Nari Ek Brahmachari (1971)

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Though I usually restrict this blog to films up to about 1970, I occasionally make exceptions for films that have a 60’s feel to them—Fiddler on the Roof, for instance. And this one, which despite the bell bottoms, the unbelievably gaudy outfits of the supporting cast and the horrendous decor, has a definitely 60’s feel about it. Another reason (and one which I’m not ashamed to admit is probably the main reason) that I’ve decided to make an exception for Ek Nari Ek Brahmachari is that it stars the lovely and vivacious Mumtaz, one of my very favourite actresses.

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The Householder (1963)

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Okay, one last post for Shashi Fest.

There’s something a little strange about seeing a film you’ve heard so much about. An English film, but with a primarily Bollywood star cast? With a story line that wavers between the usual hiccups of a middle class urban couple, doing the painful transition from carefree single existences to married life—and an American, floundering about as he tries to reach for a higher spirituality? Part Indian, part foreign outlook? And all of it with its roots in the Manusmriti, which says that of the four states of man, that of the grihastha (the householder) is the most important…?

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Pyaar Kiye Jaa (1966)

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I’d planned to watch (and review) something quite different this week, but when Beth announced Shashi Fest, I couldn’t resist the temptation to participate. That resolve was strengthened when I realised that in a year and a half of blogging about cinema, I’ve never once reviewed a Shashi Kapoor starrer. For shame! This, therefore: a farcical and fun film that never lets itself slip into seriousness. It features some of Hindi comedy’s greatest stalwarts, has superb music, and—of course—stars Shashi Kapoor, showing how good he is at comedy.

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Lifeboat (1944)

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The other day, just for kicks, I was trying to make a mental list of all the directors, 30’s-60’s, whose work I admire. Guru Dutt. Akira Kurosawa. Hrishikesh Mukherjee. Bimal Roy. Raj Khosla (usually). And, of course, the inimitable Alfred Hitchcock. That led to another realisation: I haven’t seen, or reviewed, a Hitchcock film in months. Therefore this, an unusual Hitchcock in that it’s not a suspense film. Instead, it’s a ‘journey’ film, set in a lifeboat bobbing about on the high seas during World War II.

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Waaris (1969)

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Today’s Holi and much of Delhi has been busy slathering everybody else with colour. Out in the street (and in the neighbours’ yard) I saw people drenched in purple, green, yellow and red.
My husband and I don’t celebrate Holi—we’re both too fastidious and have better things to do in life than wasting hours getting colour off ourselves. So here’s my way of celebrating Holi: watching a Hindi film. And that too a colour film—yes, I’ve suddenly realised that the last Hindi colour film I reviewed was Leader, way back in June 2009. A situation pleading to be amended!

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Ladri di Biciclette (1948)

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The first time I heard about this film, it was in connection with the Hindi film Do Bigha Zameen (1953), the story of a poor family that tries desperately to cling on to the one thing that stands between it and utter destitution—a tiny plot of land. I’d heard that Do Bigha Zameen was based on Vittorio De Sica’s Ladri di Biciclette (The Bicycle Thieves).
Having finally seen this, I have to admit I find little similarity between the two films. True, as in Do Bigha Zameen, here too only one thing can save the family from starvation: in this case, a bicycle. And here too, it’s the father and his young son who set out together in a desperate attempt to save themselves. Other than that, the tone, the story and the general mood of the two films is very different. And much as I admire Bimal Roy, I have to admit: De Sica wins. Ladri di Biciclette is much more powerful and haunting than the relatively melodramatic Do Bigha Zameen.

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Ten of my favourite Talat Mahmood songs

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It just so happened that the last film I reviewed on this blog was Sone ki Chidiya, which starred Talat Mahmood—better known as a singer, a man with one of those heartrendingly beautiful voices that can turn even a so-so tune into something sublime.
Today is the birth anniversary of Talat Mahmood: he was born on February 24th, 1924. Had he been alive, today would have been his 86th birthday. And so, to celebrate: a listing of ten of my favourite tunes sung by the Sultan of the Soulful Song (my appellation for Mr Mahmood). All from the 1950’s and 60’s, and all from films I’ve seen. These are in no particular order, though my absolute favourites are towards the top of the list.

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Sone ki Chidiya (1958)

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In Sone ki Chidiya, a poet tells a film actress why poor people go to the cinema: “For five annas’ worth of false dreams. And the glow of your beauty.”
On the surface, this may seem as cynical a comment on the Hindi film industry as Kaagaz ke Phool, but it isn’t, really. It’s a much more mainstream commercial film, with all the trappings of melodrama, dewy-eyed romance and oppressed heroine. I saw it because it stars one of my favourite actresses—Nutan—and one actor whom I’m very fond of: Balraj Sahni. And (this came as a surprise to me) the cast also includes someone whom I count among my favourite singers: Talat Mahmood.

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