Category: Legendary Artists

RITUPARNO GHOSH – The RENNAISANCE man of Bengali Cinema

On By Jayashree ChakravartiIn B. Retrospective - Looking Back, Best Of Lists, Legendary Artists1 Comment

Rituparno Ghosh – I call him the RENNAISANCE man of Bengali Cinema.The world of Bangla cinema was almost on ventilation with Mrinal Sen and Ritwick Ghatak already taken a long hiatus; and even the mighty Ray had significantly reducing his work and finally left everyone bleak and dry in the year 1992. It had gotten marred by the meaningless ramblings of a certain P-C-TP trio of leading men, and equally disappointing Roys – D or S as the leading women. Content had died its natural death, the cinelovers had gone completely blank on anything positive in Bengali cinema, and the urban middle class had stopped going to the theatres to watch bangla films. It was at this time that Ritu’da (as he was lovingly called by all) brought in a fresh lease of life to the perishing industry.

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Rabindra Sangeet in Films – This Millennium

On By Jayashree ChakravartiIn B. Retrospective - Looking Back, Best Of Lists, Legendary Artists, Remembrance - Special Days, Soulful SongsLeave a comment

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The songs composed by Rabindranath Tagore have always been a lifeline of Bangla films. For decades, they have been the voice of soul in our films, and when at the turn of the century a decision was taken to allow experimentation with the arrangement in Tagore Songs, there was a fear that it would be a disaster as far as preserving the sanctity of these songs was concerned. Has it really been the case on the whole?

Yes, there has been a Oo lala added to a Pagla Hawa in some cases, but Rabindra Sangeet has stood firm with its soul and its form preserved for the most, a few modern rhythmic adaptations like Jagorane jaaye bibhabori have actually worked, and in most cases even the form has remained as pure as possible. How much ever our storytelling might have changed, our filmmakers still fall back to the ever reliable and the deepest emotions of Rabindra Sangeet even today, and rightfully so.

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Ek Deewana Tha – Timeless Melodies of RISHI KAPOOR

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An era came to an end when Rishi Kapoor left for a more peaceful abode on April 30th, 2020. A career that spanned five decade saw a growth trajectory that is rare for the Hindi Film Industry. While he ruled hearts and box office with his classic lover boy image for decades in the first 25 years of his career, the last two decades saw his terrific and fearless transformation to wittier, darker and more intense characters. From Luck by Chance to Agneepath, from Hum Tum to Do Dooni Chaar, from Kapoor and Sons to Mulk, and so many films in between, it was the most delectable second innings.

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Happy Birthday Basu Chatterjee!

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The world of Hindi Cinema has got a lot of its simplistic and heart felt beauty courtesy the warm and endearing cinema of Basu Chatterjee. Along side Hrishikesh Mukherjee, he made those evergreen everyday commoner stories that we could all relate to, revolving around protagonists who were so very you and me. A Chhoti si Baat, Baaton Baaton Me, Khatta Meetha or a Rajanigandha hence become any time watches for many. As we watched and rewatched, we fell more and more in love with the films, and with life. At the same time, there is the brilliantly adapted Ek ruka huya faisla, or Swami, or Apne Paraye in his filmography as well which have their own emotional and cinematic appeal, all attacking very different topics. With Kamla ki Maut, a story and a style was chosen much ahead of the times. That is the versatile talent of the man, as much as we try to box him within a sugary sweet zone.

Happy 90th birthday Basu’da! The treasure chest of Hindi cinema looks far more richer for the gems you added to it.

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Amitabh Bachchan – Most Memorable Characters!

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Amitabh Bachchan – The Biggest Superstar ever of Hindi Cinema completely 50 years of ruling the screen today! The range of his body of work is incomparable, and he has been tremendous in everything that he has done from Action to Comedy to Drama to Extrovert to Introvert to you name it, but my favorite ones have been his serious understated types! Making his debut as the voice narrator in Mrinal Sen’s award winning Bhuvan Shome in 1969 and then with an on screen debut with Saat Hindustani in the same year, the Maestro has come a long way! The Dadasaheb Phalke honour, Padma Vibhushan, 4 national awards, 15 filmfare awards, 41 filmfare nominations and a host of innumerable other accolades and counting, his journey continues! May be his performance of the lifetime is yet to come!

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Essential KHAYYAM : A Dozen Soulful Gems

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Mohammed Zahur “Khayyam” Hashmi, fondly known as Khayyam, has always been one of those legends who had always let his music speak instead of himself. And it does speak beautifully, reverberating in melody & pathos, creating its own soothing soulful aura.

A second world war veteran, with growing up years deeply impacted by partition, Khayyam found his calling in music composition as early as 1948 for the film Heer Ranjha, when he made his debut along with partner Rahman Varma as Sharma’ji of the Sharmaji – Varmaji composer duo. However this partnership didn’t last long, as Rahman Varma decided to move to Pakistan, and the event turning a blessing in disguise for Khayyam. He soon found his footing as an independent music composer for Biwi in 1950, and from that point on Khayyam didn’t ever have to look back.

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Kishore Kumar – A Playlist of Underrated Melodies

On By Jayashree ChakravartiIn B. Retrospective - Looking Back, Best Of Lists, Legendary Artists, Soulful SongsLeave a comment

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If you are a cinema and music lover, you are bound to be in awe of Kishore Kumar! A Sampurna Kalakar with God gifted voice and talent, he has to be most popular playback singer across generations. In a career spanning 41 years, he sang to many beautiful compositions of the most respected music directors. My personally favorite phase of Kishore Kumar songs are the gems he produced with S.D. Burman, Salil Chowdhury, Hemant Kumar and others in the pre-Aradhana phase, but it was post Aradhana in a period of time in 70s to mid-80s where he almost single-handedly topped the musical charts of hindi films, being the voice of some of the most popular and evergreen songs. Naturally, there are so many of his songs which still dominate our playlists to date and offer a diverse listening pleasure.

However, there are so many beautiful songs of Kishore’da that are still less heard or remembered and can easily be part of best of his playlists. Many of these songs are from the post Aradhana phase of his career, where a host of more popular songs hogged the lion’s share of limelight. So on his 90th birthday, here is an attempt to list down 50 such less appreciated solo songs of Kishore Kumar – they aren’t necessarily all rare, but some of them are also in the list because they somehow don’t get remembered as much today because they weren’t either part of a popular film, or got overshadowed by a more popular song of that album, or just have not received as much love as they deserved.

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Jaidev – The Underrated Genius

On By Jayashree ChakravartiIn B. Retrospective - Looking Back, Best Of Lists, Legendary Artists, Soulful Songs2 Comments

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There is only one way to describe the immortal music composer Jaidev – The underrated genius! For an artist whose entry into films was as a child artist, he induction as a composer happened as an assistant to stalwarts like Ali Akbar Khan and then Sachin Dev Burman. His first break as a music composer came in the year 1955, and over the next thirty plus years that he was active in, he score music for just over forty hindi films. And yet, he was the first music composer to be recognized with three national awards. That is the musical prowess of the man, who turned everything he touched to gold, and he didn’t need any big banner films to get attention and be heard.

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When Rafi Saab sang for S.D. Burman, Magic happened!

On By Jayashree ChakravartiIn B. Retrospective - Looking Back, Best Of Lists, Legendary Artists, Soulful Songs3 Comments

If one has to talk about the finest music composer and the finest singer that Hindi cinema ever had, one has to talk about Sachin Dev Burman and Mohammad Rafi.

So, what else could be a more musical way to remember the two legends but recalling some of the best music that this duo created, melodious to the core, displaying a range of emotions that is mind boggling!

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A.R. Rahman – The Divine Connection

On By Jayashree ChakravartiIn B. Retrospective - Looking Back, Best Of Lists, Legendary Artists, Soulful Songs1 Comment

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A.R. Rahman is a musical revolution – and that is not saying anything new about him. Amongst the best music directors that India ever had, his music stands apart in the way he brought in fusion between traditional Indian classical music with electronic music, influences of world music. There is a very unique sound of his music that one can recognize just by listening to his songs, and all the national and international awards under his belt, or the legendary nicknames he has been given deservingly recognize his genius, his divine blessings.

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