The lyrics for the most popular song from the album Paisa were likely written by Shaleen Sharma with inputs by the rest of his band-mates in Agosh in 2002. The music for Mujhe mil jo jaye thoda paisa would also be a band collaboration with major composition by R. Anandh who went on to compose…
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When the film Tashan was released in early 2008, it had everything going for it. Produced by Yash Raj Films, who had been on a roll for quite a while at the time; Some of the biggest, most dependable stars available, Akshay Kumar, Kareena Kapoor and Saif Ali Khan; An interesting plot; Music by Vishal-Shekhar,…
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In 1996, Sunil Shetty had more than half a dozen film releases. They were all likely action/revenge/angry-young-man pot-boilers of various kinds, and Shastra was one of them. I’ve never seen the film, from what I can remember, and it is difficult to remember because so many of these very similar products were released in the…
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Do Dooni Char was a film made in 1968. It was based on Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors, a source that would be referenced by Hindi films on several occasions in the future. Speaking of mistaken identities and doubles, a film of the same name, but with a mildly different spelling, would also be made in…
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By the 1980s, Amitabh Bachchan was at the height of his stardom. While the decade was not the most vibrant for the Hindi film industry in general, Amitabh went on to do some of his most iconic movies at the time. Their success can in no small part also be ascribed to some of the…
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Dil Chahta Hai will remain a landmark film in the world of Hind cinema for many reasons. While it didn’t have the sheer bravado of something like Lagaan from earlier that year, this 2001 film included a change in what was possible within the old tropes, it introduced some important players, and it re-introduced some…
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Raj Kapoor is most often remembered for working on and in his sometimes lavish, opus-like home productions, but he did plenty of other films in his time, like any other star at the prime of their career. Laga chunari mein daag is a song from Dil hi to hai, one such movie, released in 1963.…
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Karam, released in 2005 would certainly qualify as unconventional for a Hindi film, even though it subscribes to all the tropes of its genre. A noir film about an assassin wanting to leave the business for love isn’t exactly standard Hindi film fare, and while it was a decent film, it pretty much sunk without…
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As a director, Manmohan Desai will always be known as the one who took the Hindi masala movie to its pinnacle from the 1960s to the early 1980s. He had a dream run of mostly successful films, all depending on a cornucopia of drama, a focus on mass entertainment above all other considerations, and a…
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Songs stick in our memory and become important to us for various reasons, often coloured by our associations with them, rather than the songs themselves. In my case, there are a whole range of old Hindi songs that have childhood memories for me, to do with when I first heard them or how. Ajeeb dastan…
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Hemant Kumar, while never gaining the sort of insane popularity as other playback singers of Hindi cinema during his time, always had a unique presence. On the surface, the slightly quivering quality of his voice set him apart from the rest, but beyond that, he had a honest cadence and a truly emotional delivery that…
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The smoky confines of bars, the garish halls of old brothels, and such houses of mostly ill-repute have long been a great excuse for Indian films to break into song. In the old days, this on-screen responsibility was as likely to be handled by one of the main cast of actresses, as it was to…
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