Dharmendra Musical Show in Pune

 We saw a sizzling musical show called Sadabahar Dharmendra yesterday (16 May 2026) at Pune. It was a great evening filled with memories of an evergreen hero who came from Punjab and won the hearts of many, including a Dream Girl. Some great songs were sung.. 4 very good singers, Ali Husain, Makarand Patankar, Swarada Godbole and Radhika Atre. Saira was the compere, and did a good job of it. Pics-

Ali Husain and Swarada on the stage

A link to one of the songs -

https://photos.app.goo.gl/HZqmhg9kVChpvxq76

Shikaar- Film Review

 Stars Dharmendra Asha Parekh, Sanjeev Kumar and Helen. All have strong roles, and an interesting Whodunit with some twists. Rehman as the heroine's Dad also has some meaty scenes. Johnny Walker is good in a supporting role too.

Starts with a killing, and a disappearance within the first few minutes. Then there are good songs like Parde mein rehne do, parda na uthao.. a big rage at the time. Another good song is Main albeli pyar jata kar leleti hoon dil..

Shankar Jaikishan have scored the music, and Atma Ram, Guru Dutt's brother, is the producer/director.

Interesting.. watched it as a tribute to Dharmendra, who died recently.

Kuchh Kuchh Hota Hai

 What's it about the titles of films? There was a producer-director who insisted on starting his titles with an A. No, he did not direct Awara, but many other films later- Aap ki Kasam was one I think, Aasha another, and several others.

Rakesh Roshan liked K better, so he made Koyla, Kaho Na Pyar Hai, Krrish, and so on.

Then there was another K fan who was also a Dharmendra fan, and made Khel Khiladi Ka, and so on. I think his name was Arjun Hingorani. Rekha sang Maine Ais to nahi kaha tha, to Dharmendra's Rafta Rafta where they are hanging on a JCB a few hundred metres from earth.

Not sure if there were any fans of B, C, D or E. But B.R. Chopra seemed to like one word titles- Hamraaz and Gumraah being examples. Both also had Ravi as their music director, and great songs by Mahendra Kapoor. Neele gagan ke tale and Chalo ek baar phir se ajnabi ban jaayen hum are my favourites. He also made Dhund, and Ittefaq, and Kanoon, I think.

Handsome Hunks of Bollywood

 There were lots of them in Bollywood. I will begin with Dharmendra. He was also well-built, and carried himself well. But he was very handsome, most will agree.

Dev Anand was a typical romantic hero, his speciality being charming the pants off (not literally-just a term) anyone. Was very good till the seventies at whatever he did. 

Shashi Kapoor was handsome in a suave and polished way, and acted in some Hollywood movies as well, apart from the stage.

Rishi Kapoor was probably the second guy I would choose from the clan. He made so many rom-coms in his twenties or thirties, many successful.

Sanjay Khan was very handsome, though he had very few memorable films. He later turned producer and also made The Sword of Tipu Sultan for TV.

Among non-heroes, I thought Pran and Ajit were quite good-looking, and if they were not playing villains, could pass off for heroes. 

Mahendra Kapoor- the Unsung Hero of Singing

In the era that was dominated by Rafi, Kishore Kumar and Lata and Asha (still termed the Golden Era of Hindi film music by many), there were a few other singers who were pretty good. One such was Mahendra Kapoor. Though he may not have had the range of Kishore and Rafi, he had a few great songs, which I am a fan of.

I think one of his best was from Gumraah- Chalo ek baar phir se ajnabi ban jaayen hum..beautiful lyrics by Sahir Ludhianvi and great music by Ravi added to the overall effect. Check it out here- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzbO1mjFPOM

Another song from Hamraaz had the same effect, and was a big hit- Neele gagan ke tale, dharti ka pyar pale- it has a tranquil quality that is rare in love songs. It was well-picturised too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoityCJ22hs

Lakhon hain yahaan dilwale, aur pyaar nahin milta, from Kismet, filmed on Biswajeet, is another favourite of mine.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrqMT9rbyUI

Some of his duets with Asha Bhosle were big hits too. One was this Mumtaz-Dharmendra song from Aadmi aur Insaan- Zindagi ittefaq hai, kal bhi ittefaq thi, aaj bhi ittefaq hai.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wsl8QOj2tHA

The Nobel and Other Awards

This is a reflective piece-don't say I didn't warn you!

Some people get awards-others don't. Does not usually mean that the others are not worthy. If I remember this right, Dharmendra never got a best actor award. But we enjoyed his acting in many films- Sholay, Chupke Chupke and Satyakaam, to cite just three.

Mahatma Gandhi did not win a Nobel, while lesser mortals got it. Murakami has not yet got one, and given the controversy about the Academy, this year is unlikely for him too. Point is, awards or no awards, every one of us may be contributing in our own way to something good. Award-givers are human, and can't possibly be right in selection all the time.

From a different angle, artists may get love and affection from their fans, which is bigger than other awards (for them) and helps sustain some of them for long periods.

Nothing against awards-many of my students have got them regularly, and I am proud of them. But I am also proud of those who did not get the awards, but are good at anything they do-or, are simply sensible human beings.

Sholay Ke Chaalis Saal

These are some dialogues I remember, almost verbatim, from Sholay, 40 years after..

Arey o Sambha, kitna inaam rakhein hai re sarkar ham pe?
Poore pachaas hajaar..

Hamara naam Soorma Bhopali aese hi nahi hai..

Itni badliyon ke baad bhi, hum nahi badle, ha, ha..

Gaonwalon, ...budhiya going jail..in jail, budhiya chakki peesing, and peesing,..

Yeh suicide kya hota hai?

Kitne aadmi the? ..Woh do the, tum teen,...phr bhi wapas aaye, khali haath..  bahut beinsaafi hai..

Mujhe Gabbar chahiye,..zinda..

Holi kab hai? kab hai Holi?

Yeh Ramgadh wale apni ladkiyon ko kaunsi chakki ka aata khilate hain re?

Basanti, in kutton ke saamne mat naachna..

Bahut yaarana lagta hai re..

To, mausi, main yeh rishta pakka samjhoon?

The posters for Sholay said, "The Greatest Star Cast Ever Assembled, The Greatest Story Ever Told.."  ..just a little bit of exaggeration there, but it was a movie like no other. 

Lasting Contributions of Bollywood Heroes and Heroines

This is a TIC (tongue-in-cheek for backward people) look at lasting contributions of Bollywood Celbs of my time and yours-

Alia Bhatt- the jokes, of course. After Ajit (a villain), these are the most formidable.

Jeetendra- the white shoes are his legacy.

Mithun-da- Turning, twisting, gyrating, redefining Newton's Laws of Motion.

Rajesh Khanna- the look, a romantic one.

Dharmendra- Main tera khoon pee jaaonga . The dialogue.

Jaya Bhaduri- her laugh

Dev Anand- his scarves, and the delivery of dialogue without punctuation. The way he said, ..well, anything.

Madhubala- the crooked smile which floored the straight guys.

Helen- Her slimness in a world of overflowing adipose tissue. Amazing.

Mehmood- His anti-Fair and Lovely anthem in Gumnaam. Hum kaale hain to kya hua dilwale hain.

Shatrughan Sinha- Khamosh! One-worder rather than one-liner. But also had one liners like "Tum jis school mein padhte ho, hum uske Headmaster hain"

Om Prakash- his facial expressions were classic.

Navin Nischal- not sure, he didn't last too many Sawans or Bhadons, took the Victoria no.203 and went away..

Raj Kapoor- The Charlie Chaplin walk, look,..

Zeenat Aman- The glam quotient. Paved the entry to non-actresses with hot looks, that continues to this day.

Parveen Babi- Gave (Namak) Halal a sizzle that was as good as the steak (Advertising fraternity might get this one..)

Lalita Pawar- a blueprint for all Ekta Kapoor successes.

Election Speech 2

This is in the tradition of the Sholay-Dharmendra-Water Tank episode. In Hindi..

Gaonwalon, agar aap log (AAP log nahin, aap log) hamari party ko vote denge, toh hum sab har roz Holi aur Diwali manane lagenge...taaki Gabbar phir se kabhi yeh sawaal na kar sake, ki "Holi kab hai?"

Gabbar ne aapse loota hua sara rupaya kisi doosre gaon ki tijori mein chhupa ke rakha hai, main aur Jai use wapas Ramgadh layenge, aur gaon ke saare taangon ki marammat mein lagayenge. Basanti, mausi, sun rahi ho na?

Ye shaharwale (aur ye angrez) hamesha laptop ki baat karke hamein neecha dikhate hain. Hum itni khush-hali layenge, gaonwalon, ke hamare har ghar mein bachche 'laptop' yaane maa ki god mein khelenge.

Gaonwalon, McDonald's ki dhoom jaise videsh mein chalti hai (aur Coffee Day ki shaher mein), bilkul waise hi hum har sadak par chai ki dukaan khulwa denge, taki sab log aram se apni baaten kar sake. Hamari line hogi, "Bahucharchit chai."

Hum gaon ki khush-hali chahte hain, isliye yahan ke khet hare-bhare karne mein koi kasar nahin rahegi. Jab Kaalia aur Gabbar ke aadmi use dekhenge to apne bare mein sochenge ki woh kis khet ki mooli hain? Aur dakaiti chhod ke woh bhi kheti karne lagenge.

Gaonwalon, mujhe yakeen hai, jeet hamari hi hogi. Mera gaon, mera desh Zindabad!

Sholay Revisited

Celebrating 60000 views of my blog (and 900 posts too)..

I first saw it at a grand theatre, Ramakrishna 70 mm, in Hyderabad along with my dad and brother. The effect was mind-boggling. This version was in 3D, and some scenes had an added zing, when objects like bullets or logs in the train robbery sequence flew at us.

But this is a tribute to a legend of a film. The editing is first rate, and won for M.S. Shinde a Filmfare award. Truly well-deserved. Maintaining the tempo for three and a half hours is tough, and he along with the Director, Ramesh Sippy, achieved what few others in cinema have. 

The story is quite ordinary, but the characterisation (with unique mannerisms, accents etc.) and treatment enhance the effect so much that you are engrossed, captivated and cannot take your eyes off the screen. The acting is superb. More so from the first-timer Amjad Khan. What a dream debut he had! Even the bit actors like Keshto, Jagdeep, Hangal, Sachin, and Kalia and Sambha (screen names of Viju Khote and Mac Mohan) are wonderful. Asrani for me had the role of a lifetime as a Chaplinesque jailer.

The dialogues are cutting-edge, and add a lot to the enjoyment.  Even simple lines are well-written, like Ab aayega mazaa. Or Kitne aadmi the? Or Budhiya going jail, jail me budhiya chakki peesing, Hum angrezon ke zamaane ke jailer hain, Holi kab hai? etc. have become classics. Every scene blends into the next seamlessly. Actors seem to have enjoyed the process, and it shows.  The background music is very good, particularly during the initial Basanti tonga ride sequence. And Mehbooba, mehbooba is a rocking number. Even ten of today’s item songs together can’t equal it for effect. Great fun revisiting Sholay.

Amir Garib- Movie Recall

This is not Total Recall, but a partial one. On a flight recently, they showed an old classic (for me) Dev Anand film called Amir Garib. Though I missed a favourite song of mine sung by him with a trumpet in hand (Main aaya hoon, leke saaz hathon mein..in case you are interested) because I watched only a part of it (coz I was dozing, in case you are interested), I enjoyed what I watched.

Well, it's a masala classic, if you must know, and has a message- that the poor are better than the rich. This used to be the message in a lot of films those days. These days, the message might be what Gordon Gekko told us (Greed is good, unless you get caught).

Anyway, there is this female thief called Soni and our man is Moni. But wait, he is Moni by day, and Bagla Bhagat, a kind of Robin Hood who steals, by night. I remember Dharmendra starred in  a film where he played a Robin Hood character- in Jugnu. That also had Hema Malini in the female lead, and ran in Mumbai for 50 weeks.

It's all good fun, with the villain's den in garish colours, her's sister engaged to a cop whose mission is to catch Bagla Bhagat, and Premnath in good form as the (real) villain- a rich man, naturally.

Great fun to watch after all these years.

London, Paris, New York, Nagpur

This is about reviews and me. Incidentally also about a film called London, Paris, New York. I started writing reviews in my teenage years. One (of Ram Balram, the weird Amitabh-Dharam starrer) even got published in Filmfare. My style of reviewing was influenced by Khalid Mohammed, who did some great take-offs on films. But those were the days when we did not know what was to come later. To put it in perspective, Amar Akbar Anthony seems like a classic today. Anyway, over the years, I have mellowed. Don't know the causative factors yet, but I have become somewhat sympathetic to the film making community. Having been to a couple of film shoots, and looking at the chaos they are, I am surprised that any sense can come out of it at all. Therefore, my sympathies lie with the makers. No doubt, as a viewer, we have a right to complain if we find garbage being churned out, but...

Another disclaimer..or disclosure. I like Aditi Rao Hydari, the heroine of this film called London, Paris, New York. Some more reason for a sympathetic review. The story in parts is a repeat of the Rockstar (which was not about Rock) idea that a man and a woman who go together on a motorbike or otherwise for a day tend to fall in love. Quite possible, I would say. Such a relief to meet someone in person rather than on Facebook, that it is within the bounds of reason. And if the location happens to be exotic, all the better. My choice would have been Venice instead of NY, though. If you must have traffic, why not over water?

The lead pair look cute, go through their song, dance, love, fight, reunite routine without taxing your brain too much. The songs could have been better, but they are OK. The dialogue is quite good, and up to date, with teenage lingo used liberally. The intended takeoff on feminists comes through, though Aditi hardly behaves like one in many sequences. But then, cute looks compensate for lack of consistency..all in all, a nice stroll through the cities mentioned. Don't expect a lot, and you should be OK.