Potential Quizzes

 What/Who comes to your mind, when you see these words?

1. The Skull Cave/Col. Worobu/Guran

2. Gestures Hypnotically

3. Ina Mina Dika

4. Chupke Chupke Raat Din

5. Ek taraf uska ghar, ek taraf maikada

6. Gori tera gaon bada pyara

7. Ye kya ho raha hai?

8. Bindiya chamkegi, choodi khankegi

9. Woh kagaz ki kashti, woh baarish ka pani

10. Made in India

11. Shola jo bhadke dil mera dhadke

12. Hum kale hain to kya hua dilwale hain?

13. Tu auron ki kyun ho gayi?

14. Dil mein ek lehar si uthi hai abhi

dialogue

1. Mogambo khush hua

2. Peene ka pani alag, gutter ka pani alag

3. Behno aur bhaiyon..

4. Lilly, don't be silly

5. Don ko pakadna mushkil hi nahi, naamumin hai

6. Babu moshai,...

7. Ek chutki sindoor ki keemat tum kya jano.

8. Ye kya ji, goda chatur, goda chatur? 

9. Pushpa, I hate tears.

10. kkk..Kiran..

Actors and Roles

 Some actors made some roles/characters they played famous. Just like some professors- Kotler, Parasuraman, CK Prahalad- made the universities they worked in famous.

Good to recall a few-

Sean Connery, Roger Moore- James Bond

Peter Sellers- The Pink Panther's Inspector Clouseau.

Charlie Chaplin- Hitler, in The Great Dictator. A tramp, common man in many films. 

Amol Palekar- Man next door, in Rajnigandha, Chitchor and Chhoti si Baat

Amjad Khan- Gabbar Singh in Sholay

Rekha- Loveable rebel in Khoobsurat.

Rajesh Khanna- a positive thinking cancer patient in Anand

Rishi Kapoor- a young romantic, often paired with Neetu Singh

Sanjeev Kumar- Khilona, a 'mad' person

Amitabh Bachchan- Angry Young Man

Mithun Chakraborty- Disco Dancer

Dev Anand- the romantic, in many films

Helen- Club dancer, in multiple films

Julie Delpy- Before Sunrise, first of a trilogy - of two people meeting in a train, spending a night talking..

Friends Through Golf and IIM Indore

 Golf has given me a lot of new friends- teaching it, I mean. One of these I taught on request, was a talented actor from IIM Indore FPM program, Prachi Jain. She also brought in Akansh, another young actor who'd also acted with her in a play directed by Shweta Kushal- The Merchant of Venice, in Feb 2020. Through her, I got to meet and make friends with a few more Ph.D. students. These will all be stars of the academic firmament soon. Some pics from a recent get-together where we got to eat some good food, accompanied by banter- both very tasty :)

Geeti, me, Prachi, Akansh, Pratishtha, Minali, Vartika, Neeti, and Puloma, above.

Getting lovey-dovey, below- Puloma and Minali.

The eco warriors (from Economics area) pose -above,  and the whole jing-bang, below.

Next stop- a Golf Driving range.

Branding in Bollywood

 I have been a movie-goer since I was around 10. But I learnt about branding only during my MBA. So this is about looking back at some of the big brands that Bollywood has had over the last five deacdes, with emphasis on the earlier times.

Directors- Vijay Anand directed some of my favourite films- Jewel Thief, Johnny Mera Naam and Teesri Manzil. He was known for a slick script, good picturisation and music in films he made.

Manmohan Desai did potboilers very well, with a mix of all masalas- comedy, action, drama and emotion. He used Amitabh well in Amar, Akbar, Anthony.

Ramesh Sippy made Sholay on a scale only recently matched by Bahubali, RRR and others. This was in 1975, without too many computersied special effects- sound effects were used well. 

K. Asif, likewise, for Mughal-e-Azam. Made on a scale that was unprecedented.

Hrishikesh Mukherjee with his unique style of comedies (Golmaal being a great example), Basu Chatterjee with his own realistic films (Rajnigandha, Chitchor), Shyam Benegal on social issues (Manthan, Ankur)

Actors

Madhubala for versatility- she dominated tragedy (Mughal-e-Azam) and comedy (Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi) with aplomb. Matched by Kishore Kumar - he was serious in some of his home productions.

Dev Anand, Dilip Kumar and Raj Kapoor. Each very different, and projecting a different association- Romance, Tragedy and the plight of the Common Man (done in a Chaplinesque manner).

Rajesh Khanna the romantic hero, Amitabh, the Angry Young Man. Aamir Khan, the perfectionist with a variety of roles

Singers

Shamshad Begum, with a nasal twang, Lata Mangeshkar with an amazing voice and range, Rafi who had a great voice and trained in music, Kishore Kumar who was an untrained or self-trained genius, Asha Bhosle who had the best cabaret songs requiring a come-hither quality, Manna Dey who excelled at classical and light songs (he sang many for Mehmood), 

Defining Songs

 There are songs that define actors and singers, as far as I am concerned. Sometimes, more than one song. But at least one.

Yahoo, chahe koi mujhe janglee kahe for Shammi Kapoor. 

Beqarar dil, for Sulakshana Pandit.

Yeh dil aur unki nigaahon ke saye.. for Lata M.

Piya tu, ab to aaja for Asha B.

Yeh shaam mastani and Zindagi ek safar hai suhana for Rajesh Khanna

Yeh dil na hota bechara for Dev Anand, and Main zindagi ka saath nibhaata chala gaya.

Aaj phir jeene ki tamanna hai for Waheeda  Rehman.

Gori tera gaon bada pyara for Amol Palekar

Zindagi ittefaq hai for Mumtaz.

Muskurata hua, gul khilata hua mera yaar for Vinod Khanna

I am a disco dancer for Mithun Chakraborty

Ankhiyon ke jharonkhon se for Ranjeeta

Main jat yamla pagla deewana for Dharmendra

O meri o meri o meri Sharmeelee for Shashi Kapoor and Raakhee

Main chali main chali for Saira Banu

Oye Oye for Sonam

Churake dil mera for Akshay and Shilpa Shetty

Tu cheez badi hai mast mast for Raveena Tandon

Raj Kapoor- Sab kuch seekha hamne na seekhi hoshiyari..

Govinda- Kisi disco mein jaayen.

Parveen Babi- Jawani janeman haseen dilruba. 

Biswajeet- Lakhon hain yahaan dilwale

Sunil Dutt and Nutan- Saawan ka maheena, pavan kare sor.

Mehbooba, mehbooba, -RD Burman the singer

Wahan kaun hai tera, musafir, jayega kahaan.. SD Burman, singer

Ek pal ka jeena, phir to hai jaana.. Lucky Ali

Hrithik Roshan.. Kyun chalti hai pavan

Leena Chandavarkar- Haye re haye neend nahin aaye

Jeetendra (Jumping Jack)- Mast bahaaron ka main aashiq .. 

Meri bheegi bheegi si.. Sanjeev Kumar

Navin Nishchol- Ratkali ek khwab mein aayi.

Yeh jawani hai deewani for Randhir Kapoor.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wooden Actors

A Wooden Spoon is what a guy who comes last in a race gets.. some actors in my view who need to get this for their acting chops-

Kishan Kumar- this was a relative (son?) of the famous Gulshan Kumar and exclusively appeared in movies produced by him.

Kumar Gaurav- he had only one expression for all situations, and hence went out as fast as he came into films.

Ok, (deep breath)- Manoj Kumar, Rajendra Kumar (mere naam par batta), and,...the guy who was with Simi Garewal in the marvelous song Chalte Chalte mere yeh geet yaad rakhna in the film Chalte Chalte..don't even know his name.

Karisma Kapoor and Harish Kumar, in her debut film Prem Qaidi, seemed to compete for the Wooden Spoon. She improved, and (thankfully) we did not hear of him again.

And in contrast, we have great ones like Pankaj Kapur, Om Puri, Irrfan Khan, Naseeruddin Shah, ...

Sridevi Passes Away

An unfortunate accident took her away at 54, it seems. I was not exactly a big fan, but I enjoyed quite a few of her roles. She had star power, and a great screen presence. I particularly liked her in the exuberant roles such as Chaalbaaz and Mr. India, than in the serious ones.

Along with Rekha and Hema Malini, she was one of the South Indian actresses who held their own in the otherwise male-dominated film industry for many years. I think that-being a strong woman- was itself a contribution she made to films in Mumbai.

Her return in the film English Vinglish was noteworthy because she played a character her age, and played it well. This was written and directed by Gauri Shinde, a good woman director of recent times. Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari is another woman director whose work I liked a lot- Bareilly ki Barfi and Nil Battey Sannata were her films.

Anyway, she is now one with the stars above, and I hope she is doing well someplace.

Great Actors

Out of the ones I have seen on screen, I would classify these among my greats-

Kishore Kumar, Mehmood, Amitabh Bachchan, Irrfan Khan, Naseeruddin Shah, Prithviraj Kapoor, Om Puri, Smita Patil, Madhubala, Rekha, Kajol, Guru Dutt, Waheeda Rehman, Dev Anand.

There are of course many others who were good, but had some flaws- Raj Kapoor imitated Charlie Chaplin a bit more than necessary, though he played the simpleton pretty well.  Rajesh Khanna was very good in some roles, but could not pull off some others, and became a stylised version of himself in his later films. Anand, though, remains one of my favourite (best?) films, and it starred him.

Smita Patil brought an element of mystique to many roles she played. Shabana was also good in some of her roles, many offbeat. Rekha also played some woman-centric roles like in Khoobsurat with great confidence. Her transformation from a raw, dark Southie to the mainstream was remarkable. Kajol is one of the most natural actresses ever, and I wish her career had lasted longer.Of recent actresses, Vidya Balan has acquitted herself well in diverse roles, and may make the list.

Dev Anand gets into this list after discounting some of his later films, which were atrocious, but he pulled off a lot of memorable roles, and acted well in at least a couple of classics like Guide and Tere Mere Sapne, while entertaining a huge fan following in a variety of roles in his early films up until Des Pardes. Johny Mera Naam is a classy masala Bollywood film of his.

Actors of a Kind

This is about actors who played bit roles or villain's roles in Hindi films.

Ajit was a villain who cracked one-liners with aplomb, and became the most "joked-about" villain due to them. Mona darling, Raabert, and Michael, tum cycle par jao..etc. were the stuff of legend.

 Another actor (actually two- Keshto is with Utpal Dutt) who always made a mark, usually as a drunkard, with his characteristic hichki, was Keshto Mukherjee. The scene below is with another actor with terrific comic timing, Utpal Dutt, who brought the house down in Golmaal with his role of a hater of clean-shaven guys.