Since 1999
Articles
Articles on Hindi Films
- Details
Cover photo from the book by Sudhir Mahadevan.
Before I saw my first film, Shreematiji (1952), I saw bioscope show many times, earliest from 1950-51. The songs played were from Awara (1951). The knobs are used to move the images. The operator would shout Dilli Ka Kutb Minar Dekho, Agre Ka Taj Mahal Dekho etc. He will always show a scantily dressed fat white lady reclining in her bedroom with her fanny covered by a Japanese style folding fan. He would linger on the photo and say, Barah Man Ki Dhoban Dekho! (see the 12 mound washerwoman) Then, mischievously ask, pakkhi kitthe ai (where is the fan?), we all shouted in unison, aanne vaalee thaan te (where the money is)!
Now You Know!
- Details
The Database Website is both in English and in Hindi, whereas the HFGK is only in Hindi. In fact, the database was typed in Hindi and the English version was generated with a little Python script I wrote. There was no easy way to produce names like Vishwnath, so I went for char-to-char substitution, giving phonetic English. Here is a sample from the Tollywood search in Hindi (see Musing 961).
What about Urdu? Some people can read neither English nor Hindi.We decided to use Google Translate for that. Here is what it gives for the same page in Urdu.
Not too bad. I have actually implemented many Indian languages. Here is Punjabi.
Amusingly in a few places feet is translated as the lower extremity :)
Now You Know!
- Details
I was too young to be taken to the movies when Nagin (1954) came out. I bought the song booklet with my pocket money, memorized all the songs and sang along whenever the songs were played, during festivals, marriages, in the paan shops of Moti Bazar in Malerkotla.
I saw it in 1967-68 in Chandigarh at a Matinee show. Of course, I enjoyed it thoroughly. One scene stuck in memory and puzzled me. I S Johar was a theater owner. He had thick eyebrows, fake mustache, fake glasses, walked in a funny sort of bent way with hands on hips and talked very fast.
The mystery was solved a few years later when I saw my first Marx Brothers film, Duck Soup, in Pittsburgh.
I S Johar was doing an impression of Groucho Marx!
See a clip here
Now You Know!
Page 418 of 812
