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Published: 28 January 2026

Last Updated: 28 January 2026

She was one of the three ladies who sang in the first playback song in Dhoop Chhanv (1935). The other two were Parul Ghosh and Suprova Sarkar.

The song is main khush honaa chaahun, khush ho naa sakuun

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Published: 02 February 2026

Last Updated: 02 February 2026

Video camera movements are very complex but there are three basic ones. Pan is from left to right, tilt is from up to down, tracking is going forwards and backwards. All these movements are very common in modern Hindi films. Luckily we have the first silent movie at least part of it is available.

So I watched the film Raja Harishchandra (1913). To my surprise quite early in the film I found a panning movement. The camera stand is stationary but the camera rotates to follow the movement of people. In the video you can see the coastline moving when the people are moving too.

I'm sure this is well known to film historians.

If not then I take the full credit for discovering this for the first time :)

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Raja Harishchandra Panning

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Published: 09 March 2026

Last Updated: 09 March 2026

My friend Shankar Iyer asked me some questions about this film, when it was first proposed, how long did it take to complete.

I looked at my collection of magazines and found a picture of an early announcement in the film from a Filmfare issue of 1957. I could not find anything else.

Naturally I return to the gurus at RMIM. Within minutes, I got replies :)

K C Pingle mentioned that it was announced in November 1956 with Vyjayanthimala and music by C Ramchandra. Madhubala & SJ replaced them in Oct/Nov 1957. It went on the sets IIRC in Feb 1957. Muhurat - Raman Studios Dadar - 24 Feb.

Then Nikhil Iyer posted a photo with Kishore Kumar & Madhubala in Jwala from 1958 Jan filmindia

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