Nutan mania
I've decided to become a full-fledged promoter of Nutan! Below you'll find pictures of her I've collected since I've started watching films with her. For those who are fed up with her, you can go here (for example!)
Practical Info
About me
I'm a French lover of Indian cinema, but I'm also interested in literature, science, art, and reflection in general. This blog will reflect these tastes more or less!
Categories
- letstalkaboutbollywood (47)
- film reviews (93)
- practical info (1)
- Book reviews (18)
- miscellaneous (3)
- Trip to India (8)
Nutan photos
Bolly blogs I visit
- Greta's Memsaabstory
- Madhulika's Dustedoff
- Bollyviewer's Old is gold
- Sharmi's old films and me
- Bollywooddeewana
- Carla's blog Filmigeek
- Beth loves Bollywood
- A2line's Bollyblog
- Amodini's movie reviews
- Anu's conversations over chai
- Daddy's girl's Dharmendra praise blog
- The fabulous Pitu
- Harvey's blog
- Satyam's blog
- Shweta's Apni EA Company
- Julie and Jenny's Diablog
- Post-punk CC
- Nida's Bitten by Bollywood
- Sanni's So they dance
- Stephen 's Bollywood banter
- Blissful Nirvana
- Maria's Filmiholic
- Philip Lutgendorf 's fil-ums
- Darshit's dunkdaft
- Ajnabi's Paisa Vasool - or not
- Shell's Bollyworld
- The BollywoodFan
- Alan's Bellevue to Bollywood
- Pessimisissimo's Exotic entertainment
Subscribe to the posts
Latest posts
- Their hands can see: Sparsh
- Peepli live: long live the media!
- Subarnarekha, Ritwick Ghatak's ode to Life
- Chhalia, Nutan's contribution to the Indo-pakistani peace process
- Mera Naam Joker: too big? Too much?
- Kanchanjungha, the moment of revelation
- Dhobi ghat, looking for a new centre
- Yeh raate, yeh mausam
- Ram teri Ganga maili, RK's last opus
- Abhijan, a remarkable moral fable
Archives
- février 2012 (1)
- janvier 2012 (2)
- décembre 2011 (2)
- novembre 2011 (2)
- octobre 2011 (1)
- septembre 2011 (1)
- juillet 2011 (1)
- juin 2011 (4)
- avril 2011 (1)
- mars 2011 (4)
- février 2011 (1)
- janvier 2011 (1)
- décembre 2010 (5)
- octobre 2010 (2)
- septembre 2010 (4)
- août 2010 (8)
- juillet 2010 (2)
- juin 2010 (3)
- mai 2010 (3)
- avril 2010 (3)
- mars 2010 (2)
- février 2010 (1)
- janvier 2010 (2)
- décembre 2009 (4)
- novembre 2009 (3)
- octobre 2009 (2)
- septembre 2009 (1)
- août 2009 (2)
- juin 2009 (4)
- mai 2009 (4)
- avril 2009 (1)
- mars 2009 (1)
- février 2009 (2)
- janvier 2009 (1)
- décembre 2008 (1)
- novembre 2008 (2)
- octobre 2008 (2)
- septembre 2008 (1)
- août 2008 (3)
- juillet 2008 (4)
- juin 2008 (4)
- mai 2008 (2)
- avril 2008 (4)
- mars 2008 (4)
- février 2008 (4)
- janvier 2008 (3)
- décembre 2007 (3)
- novembre 2007 (5)
- octobre 2007 (3)
- septembre 2007 (6)
- août 2007 (3)
- juillet 2007 (5)
- juin 2007 (6)
- mai 2007 (5)
- avril 2007 (4)
- mars 2007 (3)
- février 2007 (7)
- janvier 2007 (5)
Samedi 28 mars 2009
6
28
/03
/Mars
/2009
18:24
Dilli ka thug (1958) might be tossed aside as a jumble of loosely connected narrative titbits that have been put together for two main purposes: Kishore Kumar’s clowning, and Nutan’s youthful charm. A messy God seems to have been presiding over this movie, viz the DVD box received from Nehaflix, where the title reads “Dilli ka thag, starring Kishore Kumar and Mala Sinha”… It tells the story of a petty “Dilli” thief who falls in love with the girl he was supposed to be engaged with but whose family rejected him for some obscure reason, and this takes place in the context of a fabricated medicine scandal. Kishore the apprentice thug will become the hero who will expose the real thugs, […]
Lundi 16 février 2009
1
16
/02
/Fév
/2009
22:00
Khaled Hosseini is not an Indian writer, but an Afghan-American writer. But having read The kite runner (2003), I wanted to include my review of it here, because it’s a book about the region, and I know that a lot of people have read it in and around India. The literary phenomenon which the book represents, along with Hosseini’s second opus, A thousand splendid suns, also explains my breach of practice. The kite runner has the charm, the naturalness and the emotionality of great works of world fiction, but its first quality is its obviousness: you start reading it, and you’re immediately at home. There’s no artistic pretexts, no frills, no style, almost. Hosseini, unlike so many […]
Dimanche 8 février 2009
7
08
/02
/Fév
/2009
01:01
Mother India…That title resonates like everything a Bollywood-lover should pine for: aren’t we all somehow in love with Bharat mata? Aren’t we all her children up to some extent? As for me, I’d say that ever since I’ve been writing this blog (more than 2 years now), it’s been winding up to Mother India. First Nargis is one of my great heroines, and if I’ve come across Mehboob Khan’s movies only once so far, it’s enough to say he’s one of the greatest. This epic movie is like his final tribute to the Cinema: after a long career of about 100 films, and mastering his art to the full (we’ll detail this later), the master gives us his grandiose masterpiece. Where do I start? Perhaps with […]
Vendredi 2 janvier 2009
5
02
/01
/Jan
/2009
18:16
I don’t know how many of Raj Kapoor’s movies are called “his best”. This one belongs to that collection, judging by most IMDb user comments (on the other hand, very few bloggers have written about it…). Sangam (“Confluence” in English), which came out in 1964 is perhaps not Raj Kapoor’s best movie, but it has some excellent credentials to the title. At the time, the actor/director had broken up with Nargis and struck up an affair with Vijayantimala, who stars in Sangam. Certainly, Raj Kapoor’s genius cannot be limited only to a reflexion about love and desire, but I believe that his relationships with women or models have had a great role in the shaping of his art. By the way, this […]
Mardi 2 décembre 2008
2
02
/12
/Déc
/2008
22:40
The critical fame of Teesri Kasam, the 1966 film by Basu Bhattacharya, starring Raj Kapoor and Waheeda Rehman, is absolutely justified; it’s a tale of love and sadness, of beauty and melancholy; it enchants you, it pulls you along, it arrests you: in short it’s a little jewel. The blend of simplicity, poignancy and musicality is unparalleled, I think. It has a charm only equalled by the best Indian movies, such as Shri 420. The story is rather simple: Hiraman, a cart-driver who is involved in black-marketing is almost caught by the police, and, upon escaping, vows he’ll never trade smuggled goods any more. He then reverts to bamboo trafficking, but that’s also a failure, and similarly […]
Lundi 24 novembre 2008
1
24
/11
/Nov
/2008
23:00
« Meenaxi, tale of three cities » by M.F. Husain (2004), is exactly that, a Bollywoodian befuddlement. The film is a pathetic attempt at building “something else” than a traditional love-story, and, because of lack of inspiration or lack of artistic common sense, the result is just a bad film. There’s everything it needs to be bad: no story, instead an arty reflexion on story-telling, elaborate touting technique, using sexy actors, suggestive but unconnected symbolism, and glossy photography (the film’s only merit). The whole thing reminds me of Shabd, another very boring movie where Aishwarya Rai and Sanjay Dutt were striving to do their best in a writer’s filmed “experiment”. The […]
Mardi 18 novembre 2008
2
18
/11
/Nov
/2008
22:55
Well! I’m pleased to announce that I too have escalated the Everest… Er, I mean I finally read Vikram Seth’s 1472 page novel “A suitable boy”, and that it has been a fascinating experience: thanks M. Seth! Such a length is said to be unparalleled in English literature, and indeed the length in itself is amazing. Fancy actually writing that incredibly long story, and controlling it from beginning to end. It took him seven years to complete, he said (and three to recover). Some people actually complained it strained their wrists, LOL. But there you are, if you are a lover of classic writing (some have said Austenian), if you love reading beautifully well developed prose, you’re the one […]
Lundi 13 octobre 2008
1
13
/10
/Oct
/2008
01:23
While I was reading about Satyajit Ray’s Charulata (1964), and thinking of Pakeezah (1972), critics mentioned Abrar Alvi's (or Guru Dutt’s - he apparently was almost as much behind the camera) Sahib Bibi aur Ghulam (1962) as a paradigmatic sort of film. So I thought I had to check it out! Sahib Bibi aur Ghulam is a meditation on Initiation (1). The film starts at the end, with a mature engineer meditating on time and experience, as he re-discovers a ruined building in which he had lived fundamental things in his youth. Sorrow and nostalgia pervade the scene, and soon memory takes the lead. The long flashback begins. The young and naïve Bhootnath (Guru Dutt), not yet an engineer, who […]
Lundi 6 octobre 2008
1
06
/10
/Oct
/2008
13:00
Yash Chopra… Say this name and immediately vast landscapes appear, green slopes where lovers mirror their gaze in the other’s eyes, enchanting music lifts up a crowd of spring birds, dark men march towards their destiny, violence smoulders in the heart, suffering mothers obey their dharma, and love reigns supreme in spite of all odds. Mr Chopra’s reputation as an incurable romantic is so ingrained that it’s difficult to start with something very different! You might as well adore him or hate him, in fact. YC is Bollywood at its best, or at its worst. And love, melodrama… with so banal a theme, such a typically Bollywoodian feature, why does the man stand out? Where does the legend (and […]
Jeudi 4 septembre 2008
4
04
/09
/Sep
/2008
01:03
What attracts one to Juhi Chawla is her absolutely irresistible smile. Okay, she was “only” a Miss India (1984), but frankly, Yash Chopra’s idea to cast her as Shahruhk Khan’s idol in Darr is not a bad one, far from it. I believe one can really fall passionately, desperately in love, and perhaps go as far as kill if that passion is not satisfied. I know this does sound extreme in today’s easy-going, emotionally relaxed world, but many works of world literature testify to that possibility. Juhi Chawla’s glow, her warm expressive eyes, her girlish ways, her adorable face (I’m trying not to add anything!) – well, she’s certainly way up in the “most lovable” feminine All Time list. And for […]
Jeudi 28 août 2008
4
28
/08
/Août
/2008
19:06
The Stranger (1991) is an atomic experiment. Satyajit Ray imagines what might happen when a normal urban family of three (the target) is bombarded with a high-energy free electron in the shape of a long lost uncle who enters their lives from outer space, and decides to hit them full blast. Will the target be disintegrated? Will it resist, and if so, what changes will it suffer? What by-products will be created in the collision? Ray knows that we "civilised" people have a number of protections against invasions from alien elements: politeness, customs, a well established identity, social practices, etc. When somebody barges into the fabric of a given society, the society defends itself, […]
Vendredi 22 août 2008
5
22
/08
/Août
/2008
01:35
Here’s another beginner – after Aag – Shyam Benegal’s first long feature film shot in 1973, after he had finally got enough appraisal for his work shooting advertisements (apparently more than 900!) and documentaries. Ankur means “seedling”: some people wonder exactly what Benegal had in mind when naming his film; we’ll come back to that, but certainly it’s a good title for the first film in a long series of socially-oriented, politically-committed movies. The quartet of Ankur (1973), Nishant (1975), Mathan (1976) and Bhumika (1977) are well-known for having introduced what is called “Middle cinema” (cf. also New Indian Cinema). The film is also a beginner as it’s Shabana Azmi’s first […]
Mardi 12 août 2008
2
12
/08
/Août
/2008
23:56
Aag: fire. In this Early Raj Kapoor Movie, fire is a symbol of love, naturally, but also creation and destruction. It is fit that this film stands at the beginning of Raj Kapoor’s career (his first movie as an adult was in 1943), since there is a strong stance on the autonomy of the artist and creator. Indeed, doesn’t Kewar (Raj Kapoor) refuse to follow the path laid down for him by his family, and justify it by insisting on freedom and the refusal of the easy but inauthentic future? Similarly, Raj Kapoor’s cinema probably wanted to affirm its independence at a time when young India emerged on the world scene. But let me give you the story. It’s in fact a long flashback, told by a […]
Jeudi 31 juillet 2008
4
31
/07
/Juil
/2008
17:58
I’d seen other films with her before, but I really discovered Tabu thanks to Cheeni kum. “Cheeni Kum” means “less sugar”. And that’s what Bollywood has to offer with Tabu: a less sugary actress! With Tabu, the sweetness of many other mainstream actresses is absent: there is no exuberant emotionality, no fits, none of that Bollywood nonsense which we like so much. The colourful and musical extragavaganza seems out of place… Even if recently so. Because Tabu has been in the past an actress like the score of others who have thrived in the escapist, glamorous, emotional, action-packed products which are as quickly forgotten as they are watched. Her image today is that of a concentrated, […]
Mardi 22 juillet 2008
2
22
/07
/Juil
/2008
23:06
Of all the commentaries I have read about Kamal Amrohi’s 1972 movie Pakeezah, this one (Upperstall.com) corresponds most to what I thought of it : “Pakeezah is a stylized, larger than life mythicization of the familiar tale of the prostitute with the heart of gold (…)In the film Amrohi turns to the milieu and culture he is a product of - Uttar Pradesh's feudal elite, its life of ease and elegance, of romantic love, poetry and mujras. Its decadence is not without a touch of class and has sometimes resulted in much creative upsurge. Pakeezah inherits that legacy. There is grandeur in Amrohi's filmmaking - an epic magnitude of treatment. The evocative songs and the background music create […]