Tag Archives: Din dhal jaaye

Ten Situations, Two Heroes, Twenty Songs

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Caution: Long post!

It’s been a while now, but last year this blog hosted a Classic Bollywood Quiz. The prize for the runner-up was the chance to dictate a post: a theme for a list, for example.

Our runner-up, Anu Warrier, like me, likes both Shammi Kapoor and Dev Anand a lot. So, when we were discussing how both Dev Anand and Shammi Kapoor had acted in some similar films, Anu submitted her request for her prize post. Ten similar situations in which these two heroes find themselves in their films, and one song, respectively, that they sing in that situation. Easy? No, it wasn’t, as you can see from the fact that it’s taken me a long time to compile this list. But fun? Oh, yes!

So, Anu: here you go. Two of our favourite leading men in ten similar situations, and twenty songs that arise out of those situations. Enjoy! All of these are from 50s and 60s films that I’ve seen. And, no two songs from the same film.

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Dev Anand in Ten Moods

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As teenagers, my friends and I were unanimous about one thing: there was no beating Shammi Kapoor and Dev Anand as the most watchable stars. Not that they were then in their prime; this was in the very late 80s, but as far as my pals and I were concerned, Hindi film heroes stopped being interesting somewhere in the 60s. Both Shammi Kapoor and Dev Anand were all we starry-eyed sahelis could’ve hoped for: utterly handsome, always in films that were generally happy (we conveniently forgot Guide), and always singing the most awesome songs.
We weren’t mature enough then to appreciate that Dev Anand was actually also a good actor, who could switch from melancholy to philosophy, tapori to suave gentleman, in a jiffy.

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Ten of my favourite daaru songs

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A friend of mine on Facebook recently posted her favourite daaru song, as she called it: Yeh jo mohabbat hai, from Kati Patang (1970). And since I’m not one to let inspiration go a-begging, I decided I had to do a post on my favourite daaru songs. Classic Hindi cinema is replete with these: songs induced by alcohol, songs praising alcohol, songs reviling alcohol (even if sung in an alcohol-induced half-stupor; remember Yeh laal rang kab mujhe chhodega)?
So here’s a list of ten of my favourite daaru songs, all from films of the 50’s and 60’s that I’ve seen. Cheers!

Ek jaam... jaam ke naam (a toast to a toast)

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