Between
lofty words and platitudes, everything there is to say about Lata
Mangeshkar's vocal prowess has already been said ad nauseum. Truth be told, she
lost my 'favourite singer' mantle to younger sister Asha Bhosle sometime in the early '80s (and later dropped to third place below the far less prolific but intense Geeta Dutt), when time was tied to the hands of the faithful radio set, and Laxmikant
Pyarelal were challenging the limits of her chords with compositions like "Solah
baras ki baali umar ko salaam" (Ek Duuje Ke Liye, 1981). It must be clarified that this is merely a matter of preference and not a critical assessment of her oeuvre.
But Hindi cinema is replete with Lata classics that warm the cockles––she is, after all, our most prolific singer and blessed with timbre dipped in divinity––from the time before shrillness of pitch drowned the sweetness of voice, most evident in several of Madan Mohan's best compositions.
Asha Bhosle’s unparalleled vocal range has allowed her to sing evocatively for heroines and vamps alike. Some of Hindi cinema’s finest dance numbers down the decades have been backed by Asha’s supple voice. Apart from singing for Bollywood’s accomplished dancers, she has also delivered hits with actresses who weren’t famous for being nimble footed and immortalised relatively unknown artistes such as Minoo Mumtaz in “Saakiya aaj mujhe neend nahin aayegi” from Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam.
As it was for this year’s women where we had a clear front-runner in the performing sweepstakes, Ranbir Kapoor in Imtiaz Ali’s Rockstar steals a march on this year’s field, holding together a film that otherwise seems to be coming apart at its seams. In the opening montage, he is the recalcitrant rock star, a rebel who fights through a barricade to take the stage in a giant amphitheater filled with thousands of his fans, and as the camera swoops unto his almost upholstered frame, we segue into flashback mode, with Kapoor now in college tweeds and a marked air of deference, busking with his guitar at a road crossing. Over the course of its running time, the film takes us through his character’s progression, and although the styling of his ‘look’ is an important part of the transformation of a gauche kid with cropped hair to a straggly haired rock icon, Kapoor inhabits each change like a second skin.
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Earlier this year, our mid-year picks brought out the indie soul of Bollywood, before a litany of blockbusters took over the box-office in quick succession. Female actors often have precious little to do in many of these ‘100-crore’ bonanzas. However, this year has certainly reaped a rich harvest of great turns by women, several of which have been in films that have done reasonably well commercially. A common theme that has emerged is how the ‘bad girl’ seems to have been catapulted centrestage, indicating that audiences are perhaps increasingly able to view women outside the mould of tailor-made propriety.
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Asha Bhosle has entered the Guinness Book of World Records for the most single studio recordings. In a tribute to the versatile songstress, our guest contributor Rajiv Lele list 10 of her lesser-known gems. Each one an exquisite rendition by an artist of unmatched vocal prowess.
1) Naina hain pyase mere | Aavishkar (1973) | Kanu Roy | Kapil Kumar
An absolute stunner. The way Asha glides effortlessly through the intricacies of this song—coiling, twisting and uncoiling like smoke rings from a scented stick—has to be experienced. It just cannot be expressed in words.
As another edition of Mumbai’s premiere film festival gets underway on Oct 13th, here’s our selection of some of the films that may tickle your senses over the coming week, in all the right ways.
MELANCHOLIA (Denmark / 2011 / Col. / 130’)
It’s a shame that the cinematic achievement that is Lars Von Trier’s Melancholia has been all but obscured by his pro-Nazi comments uttered in jest at a Cannes press conference. The director was declared persona non grata by the festival directors, while actress Kirsten Dunst’s appalled countenance as she reacts to Von Trier’s public unraveling, became one of the defining images from the festival. Dunst’s searing performance as one of two sisters (the other is played by Charlotte Gainsbourg) caught up in a far-fetched but unnervingly immediate pre-apocalyptic scenario (a planet on a collision course with Earth) is a beguiling tour-de-force, light years removed from the franchise movies she usually traipses around in, and won her the Best Actress award at the festival.
A devastating turn from Kirsten Dunst in Melancholia
At any film festival, it is always interesting to find out what the films that deal with Indian themes, whether diasporic or local, have to say about us as a culture. Usually the mainstream cinema we are accustomed to, supplants our cultural identity with a manufactured one that is woefully one-dimensional (all that spice-loving singing and dancing). Luckily, that kind of cinema is under-represented at most prestigious international festivals. That's when a different kind of picture emerges—something more rich and diverse—that for a second the miscellany almost fleetingly represents a kind of 'national' cinema that a country of such immense contradictions surely deserves. Here are ten films that form the 'unofficial Indian selection' at the Toronto International Film Festival.
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A round-up of what eight celebrated international directors have to say about Indian cinema. Some of these opinions have been stated during interactions with Indian journalists, who are ever eager to get the low-down on anything and everything desi, including our cinema. That's the stock question that provides good copy (or at least a headline of some import) to the local press, but which visiting filmmakers must secretly dread, given the general quality of our celluloid output. Of course, there is no reason to believe that the directors featured here are being less than candid.
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Before the onslaught of out-sized holiday blockbusters, it's always quieter in the first half of the year. The first six months of 2011 has been privy to films that aren't usually the kind of fare that our cinema is associated with (and we’ll be back to overblown gaudiness soon enough). After last year's middling mid-year harvest, this year has been a revelation, with some truly worthy efforts, very often by first-time film-makers, who represent a new brat pack of upstarts and rule-changers. Here's a look at the very best of the lot.
The rains bring out the best in Hindi film lyricists, composers and even choreographers. And some of the most popular actresses have done memorable dances in the rain. Here's a list of a dozen favourites:
