Since I am a writer, I’m always on the lookout for good books to read—there’s so much to learn from other writers. And, when the book in question happens to be about cinema, the film fanatic in me rejoices. A … Continue reading
Happy 2014! May this year be filled with happiness, good health, and prosperity for you all. Although it’s not strictly related, a Mughal festival that was similar to the celebration of the New Year was Nauroz (literally, ‘new day’). This … Continue reading
It’s wedding season in Delhi (has been, in fact, for the past couple of months). Almost every night, there’s a large shamiana at our local municipal park. There are traffic jams because of huge baaraats, all the women laden with jewellery and tinsel. We see white mares (or, in some cases, a pair of mares pulling a flower-bedecked ‘chariot’) trotting along on roads. We hear a lot of music—or what passes for music.
In fact, every time I hear the sort of music that’s played at many Delhi weddings, I’m tempted to go up to whoever’s acting the DJ, and ask them to play some good shaadi songs.
Since I can’t actually do that, I decided to create my own list: ten Hindi film songs that are directly related to weddings. (Which is why Ab ke baras bhej bhaiyya ko baabul or Laali-laali doliya mein laali re dulhaniya don’t qualify; the words relate to a wedding, but the context is completely different).
Ten wedding songs, therefore, from pre-70s films that I’ve seen. Enjoy!
Aka Indiscretion, which doesn’t sound quite so Christmassy (in fact, it sounds rather more like a Hitchcock film) but describes this one better. Because this film, while it is about an eventful Christmas in Connecticut, is more about an indiscreet little bunch of lies, and the amount of hot water they land their perpetrators in.
Here’s wishing all of you a very happy Christmas, and much joy, good health, and prosperity over the year to come. And, just in case you were wondering: this painting is a Mughal one. It’s by the very accomplished Basawan … Continue reading
The Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) at New Delhi is currently hosting—since November 21st, 2013, up to December 31st, 2013—an exhibition titled ‘The Mughals: Life, Art and Culture’. I’d read a notice about this in the newspapers … Continue reading
Pretty much in the heart of Lutyens’s Delhi is the imposing mansion known as Teen Murti Bhawan (named for the three bronze statues that stand on the traffic island in front—the statues commemorate the Indian cavalry regiments that fell in … Continue reading
This was not the post I had intended for this week. As a matter of fact, I had not given any thought to what I’d write about, but I had imagined it would be something light-hearted (perhaps a song list I’ve been working on for a while). Something, definitely, cheerful—to help me get over the sadness of one of my favourite actresses having passed away. Something too, to build up the spirit of good cheer for Christmas.
Instead, I began the week by learning that another favourite actress of mine, Joan Fontaine, award-winning lead of Hitchcock’s Suspicion (and the female star of his superb Rebecca), had passed away, at the age of 96, on the 15th of December. Just a day after the death of another legendary star, Peter O’Toole, the Lawrence of Arabia (which I heard about only on the 16th, as it happened).
Mention the name Shalimar Bagh, and most Indians are likely to immediately think of the beautiful terraced Mughal gardens in Srinagar (Pakistanis would probably think of the Mughal gardens of the same name in Lahore). But ask a resident of … Continue reading
On my laptop, I have a bunch of wallpapers of some of my favourite actors and actresses. Every now and then, depending upon whose films I’ve been watching—and therefore, who’s my current favourite—the wallpaper changes (right now, in anticipation of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, it’s Richard Armitage). For a short time, the wallpaper had been one of Eleanor Parker.
Dustedoff 