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Published: 30 January 2024

Last Updated: 30 January 2024

Star of the silent era, acted opposite his wife Sunita Devi, later became producer and director.

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New DS-0001

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Published: 25 September 2023

Last Updated: 25 September 2023

Fellow veteran RMIMer Abhay Jain is from Indore, read more about him here

Abhay Jain, an Audio-Restoration Fanatic

Among other things, he watches movies and writes down interesting information. Many people do, but he is a fanatic like me. He watched almost 4,000 songs from Hindi films (1961-1970) and wrote down who was singing on-screen, and, in many cases, who was present in the background. He was kind enough to share his spreadsheet with me. He must have spent months preparing it, I am grateful to him for sharing it.

I compared my spreadsheet with his. We agreed 99.9% of the time. This was a very useful check on my work. In a few places, I found new information in his work, and, also, I caught some of my mistakes.

I appreciate the hard work he did and the fact that he shared it with me. We need more people like him!

Here he is with Shamshad Begum when he interviewed her for his Radio Program

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New11 Court Dancer (1941)

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Published: 19 February 2024

Last Updated: 19 February 2024

I moved to San Diego in 1998. My guru, mentor and friend Prof Raj Kumar Pathria had moved there to be near his son and two daughters. We had dinners in each other's houses, discussed everything under the Sun, but he never mentioned that Indurani, a star of the early era of Hindi films lived there! She passed away in 2012. I can only imagine how much information about that period of Hindi cinema I would have gained from her in 14 years we were in the same city!

When he casually mentioned this fact in 2017, I immediately got in touch with her family, interviewed her eldest son, Salim Shah, received full support from her other children, and published her biography.

The whole book may be read here

https://hindi-movies-songs.com/joomla/index.php/hindi-films/books/384-indurani-an-unsung-but-unforgettable-heroine-of-the-early-talkies

The above is a screenshot from her first film Sati Savitri (1936, Marathi).

She passed away on February 18, 2012. Her favorite phrase was

"Knowledge is the greatest wealth".

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