Best Female Dancers in Hindi Films

Helen takes the cake there. She is just too good, in a variety of dancing situations, mostly on the stage, and the highlight of a song. But among the other ladies (leading or otherwise), here are a few favourites-

Mumtaz was on song in many a dance, but my favourite one will remain the Shammi Kapoor duet, Aaj kal tere mere pyar ke charche har zubaan par,..from Bramhachari.

Vyjayantimala had numerous great dances to her credit, and just one highlight was Hothon mein aisi baat main dabake chali aayi from Jewel Thief. I also liked the Main ka karoon Ram mujhe buddha mil gaya from Sangam, and her duet with Uttam Kumar - Chhoti si mulaqaat pyar ban gayi, pyar banke gale ka haar ban gayi, ya ya hippi hippi ya ya ya..

Asha Parekh did full justice to her dances when given a chance, as in Aaja aaja, main hoon pyar tera in Teesri Manzil, or Parde mein rehne do, parda na uthao, or Sayonara, sayonara, my first intro to the Japanese language in Love in Tokyo.

Hema Malini was also a trained dancer, and she sometimes got to show her mettle, but she was as good in pure commercial stuff like Naseeb (Mere naseeb mein tu hai ke nahin), and Sholay (Jab tak hai jaan jane jahaan mai nachungi).

Leena Chandavarkar had a few good outings in the times of Jeetendra, with Haye re haye, neend nahin aaye being my favourite.

Madhuri Dixit was a graceful dancer too, and my favourite of hers is from the film Raja- Ankhiyan milaun kabhi ankhiyan churaun kya tune kiya jadu..

Pakeezah had some great dances, but it is rumoured that someone else did the dance steps, as Meena Kumari was too ill.

My favourite heroines

This I will begin by describing some heroines from earlier years-my major movie-going ones.

I liked Mumtaz for her vivaciousness. She came across as a regular girl, unlike the heavenly Madhubala (who is also a favourite, like 100 percent of the male population who has ever watched her films), and had quite a few roles where she acted well. Khilona, for instance, where she takes care of a mad Sanjeev Kumar, and Apradh, where she has a vampish role with Feroz Khan. Rajesh Khanna and Dev Anand are two others with whom she did well on screen. Tere Mere Sapne and Roti (Gore rang pe na itna gumaan kar was a favourite song of mine, from Roti) were two with these guys I remember well.

Hema Malini was and is the most beautiful of the heroines for the last 40 years. She actually got the correct label of Dream Girl in her first film, and it stuck. Her romance with Dharmendra was of course one aspect, but she was fantastic teaming up with Dev Anand (Johny Mera Naam is my favourite here, particularly the duet O mere Raja). Sholay's Basanti was a classic too.

I liked Saira Banu for her exotic looks and her good role in the film Padosan, which I think is a film that is hard to beat on many counts-humour being the foremost. Her solo songs, and the innocence she brought to her role was fantastic.

Rekha was another favourite, particularly her roles in the films Muqaddar ka Sikandar and Khubsoorat. Particularly the latter, where she espouses the cause of freedom and delight- nirmal anand.

Smita Patil was another gorgeous woman of substance. Any role she played got elevated a few notches by her presence. I saw quite a few of her films, and liked her in art and commercial films (Namak Halaal, Chakra).

Vidya Balan and Kajol will probably round up the list. Vidya was capable of much more than we saw of her in films like Kahani. Kajol was like a breath of fresh air-completely original. Gupt and Dilwale Dulhaniya are two of my favourite films of hers, apart from Baazigar.

Some others who might make it to the list are Tanuja, and Chitrangada Singh. The former in Hathi Mere Sathi, Jewel Thief, and the latter in Hazaaron Khwahishen Aisi were great.

Shriya Saran and Tapsee Pannu are two recent heroines I liked in one film each that I saw of theirs. And Deepika Padukone, in most films. Queen's heroine Kangana also gets an honourable mention. She was good in Tanu Weds Manu also.

Southern Contributions to Bollywood

The South has contributed substantially to Bollywood over the years. More heroines than others. Two or three of the most successful have been from the South of India- Waheeda Rehman, Hema Malini and Rekha.

Lots of Southern directors like T. Rama Rao made a series of hit films which resurrected Jeetendra's career along with heroines like Sridevi and Jayaprada- Mawali, Judaai, et al. K. Vishwanath was a talented Telugu director who made Sargam and Kaamchor in Hindi. Bapu directed an offbeat movie called Hum Paanch based on the Mahabharata, made contemporary. LV Prasad made a lot of Hindi films, and so did Nagi Reddy.

S.P. Balasubramaniam has sung a lot of Hindi film songs in the early films of Salman Khan, and also for Kamal Haasan in Ek Duuje Ke Liye. Many recent films of Salman Khan and one of Aamir (Ghajini) were originally Telugu films.

In olden times, many tunes were copied from Telugu or Tamil films into Hindi and vice-versa. The hit song from Kalakar, "Neele neele ambar par chand jab chhaye," is a copy of a Tamil film song "Ilaya nila,.." that I happened to watch during my stay at IIM Bangalore in 1983.

Romantic Icons of the 70s

There were quite a few romantic heroes/heroines of the 1970s whom I grew up watching on screen. The music added a lot of charm to many of their films. Some of those were-

Rishi Kapoor, often paired with Neetu Singh, who dazzled with his rom-com roles in Rafoo Chakkar, Khel Khel Mein, Amar Akbar Anthony, Bobby (with Dimple Kapadia), Hum Kisise Kam Nahin (with Kajol aka Sunita Kulkarni). Don't know why Shailendra Singh stopped singing for him and Kishore Kumar took over.

Dev Anand, the 'evergreen' romantic, was in his element in Gambler (Dil aaj shayar hai), Johny Mera Naam, Prem Pujari (Pholon ke rang se, Shokhiyon mein ghola jaaye), and Hare Rama Hare Krishna. His teaming with Hema Malini in Shareef Badmash and Chhupa Rustam worked for both. Tere Mere Sapne with Mumtaz (another cute looker) also was a good film.

Rajesh Khanna, of course, was the king of the 70s with Aradhana, Kati Patang, Aan Milo  Sajna (Accha, to hum chalte hain), Aap Ki Kasam, Mere Jeevan Sathi (O mere dil ke chain), Namak Haram (Nadiya se dariya), Amar Prem, Daag, Prem Nagar (Yeh laal rang kab mujhe chhodega).

Shashi Kapoor was also a good-looking dude and managed to hold his own, though none of his solo films were spectacular. Pyar ka Mausam had some excellent music though (Tum bin jaoon kahaan and Nisultana re, pyar ka mausam aaya).

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.

Yash Chopra and His Films

Kabhi Kabhi was one of the most poetic films made in Hindi cinema-even more than Silsila. The protagonist was a poet, and sang a song which won the lady's heart at a college gathering. In an age where disco was rampant, this was indeed novel.

Deewar had an undercurrent of violence and revenge, but it was far less macabre than what we have witnessed in recent times. And less crude- much less.

Trishul was actually quite a well-made movie about corporate shenanigans like bidding intrigue. Sanjeev Kumar had a really good role, akin to his Sholay character in age. So did Shashi Kapoor and Hema Malini. Kitaabon mein chhapte hain chaahat ke kisse , haqiqat ki duniya mein chaahat nahin hain, were some good lyrics in the song Mohabbat bade kaam ki cheez hai.

Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge was an updated version of Sangam (he did not direct it, Aditya did, but his stamp was on it somehow), with a romp through Europe and some melodrama to close the narrative. Very beautifully filmed, and both Kajol and Shah Rukh were awesome.

Ittefaq, a murder mystery, Waqt, a lost and found tale with a zabardast song Ai Meri Zohra Jabeen, and Joshila with a mesmerising song- Kiska Rasta Dekhe, ae dil ae saudai, were some of his films I remember a lot.

Will miss his brand of movie-making. aesthetically pleasing, soft, and powerful.

Rowdy Rathore- Not a Review

What you have here is a picture of Rowdy Rathore (me) circa 1984, at a Delhi location- undisclosed, of course, because of security concerns. I am really amazed at the titles the cinema producers/directors come up with these days. Nothing against macho sounding names- after all, action movies have a wider appeal than love stories, just like wars have a wider appeal than peace initiatives, as history has proved. A so-called peace-loving nation like the U.S. is perpetually at war with someone just to prove the point.

But at least the titles can be a bit imaginative, like Sholay or at least Dabangg. Why a Rowdy in the title? Is the idea to put off family audiences (assuming they ARE put off by such things). On another note, Hema Malini disapproves of mainline heroines doing item numbers, if her views have been correctly reported. I would agree with her whole-heartedly. Helen was the ultimate item girl, and she was a specialist. The mainline heroines try too hard, and it shows, besides throwing professional dancers out of work. 

On a more positive note, Nagpur Crossword is doing a promotion of my book titled (no, not 'Rowdy Me', sorry to disappoint you) 'My Experiments with Half-truths', which is an autobiography that I wrote sometime ago. Coming Saturday, 7 pm. So I will get to taste celebrity status for a little while. Will let you know how it feels after the event. Shah Rukh, watch out, here I come!