bollywood talk

So much has already been said about this Yash Chopra 1981 movie… And here I am adding to the pileup! Well, I hope it won’t be too long and too boring to read. In fact what I want to say can be quickly summed up: I’m perplexed at actors accepting to stage...

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Thanks to Ashok I have been fortunate to discover the treasure trove of these Old Indian photos , where much more than what will be discussed here is to be found: it’s a real Ali Baba’s Cave. But going through some of its riches, I stopped at these pics...

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Hello all, It's been some time I wanted to share with you some of the clownish photos of Nutan that I've been collecting, and well, why not the occasion of her death anniversary coming up this Feb 21st? Nutan passed away 22 years ago on that date. I know...

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Yash Chopra passed today; because of the importance of the guy, I decided to post this eulogy of him written some time ago, but which I still feel is appropriate. Yash Chopra… Say this name and immediately vast landscapes appear, green slopes where lovers...

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Hi, sorry to have been away so long, too many things in the going. This one took me some time assembling and researching, but was great fun! When I was a boy, my brother François and I used to collect stamps, mostly French ones of course, and I still...

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You probably all know - but I don't care: Memsaab's latest instalment is a hard day's scanning work of 75 pages of text and awesome portraits from a 1952 book by Baburao and Sushila Rani Patel’s called “Stars of the Indian Screen.”And it's FABULOUS. For...

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Hallo all Nutan lovers (Harvey and Bollywooddeewana, especially!) I have been reminded by the above Nutan afficionadoes (like tornadoes?!) that aaj yeh Nutan ki janmadin hai (check Harvey's correction of my hindi in the messages section!!), so I thought:...

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Dhobi ghat (Kiran Rao, 2010) is a pleasant enough film to watch; it has a seductiveness, an allusiveness whose charm lasts a while in the mind, and one wonders, after the last unfulfilled pictures have gone, what was this? What sort of movie did I watch?...

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As unofficially self-proclaimed supporter and glorifier of Nutan, I am proud to admit within the very close circle of Nutan worshippers Sharmi , whose site is devoted to pastime movies, and especially contains some wonderful praise of Nutan Behl. She...

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Hi, I've found this text written a long time ago probably after having seen KKHH one of the first times! Enjoy! Where does the poignancy of love come from? This love in need of love, this need which screams in the face of the loved one “I will make you...

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This is going to be ABSOLUTE INDULGENCE. Veer-Zaara . Ah, lieutenant Veer, Zaara… and miss Saamiya! I think this is the movie I watched most, perhaps 4 times… Not a lot compared to some, but for me, yes! This is for me the “foundation movie”. Why did...

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This is a rewriting of a post dated April 4, 2007. The blog output is so low these days that I am resorting to rewrites! ( in fact, I’m busy with other things...) I don’t know if you’re like me, but most people around me still don’t really appreciate...

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Basant (1960) is a loony movie where what you see is more important than what you understand. There is a story, sort of, (tolerably interesting in the first half but totally zany in the second!) but you must forget about it, because the chief interest...

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I recently heard a journalist ask the question « Is Bollywood nothing more than a cinema made for India, or is there something universal about it?” – and I thought this question deserved a little post. Every one knows for a fact that the Indian cinema...

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For me the yearly Cannes festival is not much more than an industry's self-celebration which is probably best left unwatched, but these days, it’s difficult to miss Cannes photos and interviews even if you’re only slightly interested in Bollywood. Aish...

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