Category Archives: Hindi Film 101

American Musicals Post: La La Land and Vennilave

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This is one of those situations when I get SO FRUSTRATED with how everyone is going “WOW! Did you see this?”  While I am going “Yes, when I was 5 years old…..Do you, like, never watch anything before 1980?”, and I just CAN’T TAKE IT ANY MORE!!!!  So I am going to force you all to learn the basics of American musical/dance history on film, so you can better appreciate how that interacts with modern Indian film, and the occasional very very rare modern American musical.

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Hindi Film 101: The Samarth-Mukherjee Family

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Oh boy, another family saga!  I can settle in for a good long discussion.  This is also one of the oldest families in Indian film, on both sides, and pretty much the only matriarchy from the Samarth side. Older than the Chopras and as old as the Kapoors.

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Hindi Film 101: Woman Filmmakers, Why So Few?

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This is partly inspired by the Op Ed that was in the Washington Post a few days back.  It was a so-so article, there were some things that I felt weren’t fully explored, but then on the other hand it was just a brief article for an audience with no background in the Indian film industry, so he couldn’t really explore everything.  But I can!  I want to zero in on one point from the article, how there are so few films with women working behind the scenes, and even fewer films with real female lead roles.  This isn’t something that just came up in the past year, and it isn’t something that will be solved overnight.

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Hindi Film 101: Poor Parveen Babi

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After taking a little journey through film as a family industry and the Ratnam-Rahman connection, back to the old reliable Hindi Film 101 topic, tragic film heroines!  Parveen Babi is a strong contender for “most tragic”.  And part of that tragedy is how very short her story is, I bet I can do it all in one post.

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Hindi Film 101 One-Off: The Importance of Ratnam-Rahman and the Director-Composer Relationship

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Happy Tuesday!  I did a quick two-parter on Nepotism (really more the history of Hindi film as a family business) last week, now I want to do another quick one inspired by Kaatru Veliyidai on why it is so especially exciting when a new Ratnam-Rahman movie comes out, and why that director-composer relationship is so special. (also, usually in this posts I try to use images instead of songs, but because of the topic, this will be an all songs post.  I encourage you to actually watch all the videos too)

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Hindi Film 101: Nepotism in the Hindi Film Industry, Part 2

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Happy Thursday!  On Tuesday, I started a discussion of Hindi film history and industrial development, inspired by all the discussion of “nepotism” popping up lately.  I don’t usually plug my book in these posts, but if you find these posts in particular interesting, I go into much more detail in my book, so you should check it out. (part 1 here)

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Hindi Film 101: Nepotism Through History in Hindi Film, Part 1

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Happy Tuesday!  I was planning to do a Hindi Film 101 One-Off today on Sanjay Dutt’s court case or something, related back to the Nargis series I just finished.  But “nepotism” has become the catchphrase of the day, so I thought it would be interesting to take a look back at the history of families working together in Hindi film, where it started and why.  Oh, and I don’t usually plug my book in these posts, but this one is really very similar in tone and contains some content that I go into in more detail there, so if you like it, buy the book!

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Hindi Film 101: Nargis Dutt, Part 3, the Congress Party, Death, and the Black Sheep Son

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Welcome back to the grand ending of Nargis Dutt!  Really, the saddest part of her story is that it is so short.  Only 52 years.  But writing these posts, I am beginning to realize how very happy most of those 52 years were.  (part 1 here, part 2 here)

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Hindi Film 101: Nargis Dutt Part 2, The Greatest Love Triangle of All Time (M+M+W Version)

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I was going to just leave it at Greatest Love Triangle of all time, but then I remembered Rekha and Jaya and Amitabh, so I am modifying it to be Greatest Love Triangle of All Time Between Two Men and One Women.  (Nargis part 1 here)

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Hindi Film 101: Nargis Dutt Part 1, Nargis Before Raj

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Nargis Dutt!  Finally!  After teasing her for the past several weeks.  And also, yet another actress after Rekha and Meena.  Why is it that actresses have so much more interesting personal lives than actors?  Or is it just that I find their lives more interesting?  Or is it that the media plays up their lives a little more than with actors?  It’s probably the last.

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Guide The Book: Dev Anand Gave Us a Stronger Rosie

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I finished Guide-the-Book!  It was a good book in general, and an easy read, I recommend it.  But it was really really really interesting to read it in partnership with the film.  There were so many things that had to be changed to make a film version work, and they all revolved around Waheeda’s character.

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Hindi Film 101 One-Off: What is OSHO?

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By popular demand, and my own inclination, I am going to do a post on Osho! Otherwise known as “that weird religion that made Vinod Khanna run off to Oregon in the middle of his career.”  Just to skip to the end for a second, it’s calmed down in the decades since and is now a kind of normal sort of meditation center.  But it was very very odd for a while in the middle!

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Malavaadi Arts Club: A Malayalam Take on the Boy Band

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My first Malayalam movie from my huge online shopping haul!  It was so-so.  I think I remember why it was recommended to me, because it was Nivin’s first movie, and the first movie Vineeth directed.  It was kind of cool to see how both of them started out, and the movie was also sort of interesting in its own right to look at how a plot I have seen in Hindi and Tamil films was done in Malayalam.  But I wouldn’t say it is exactly a “Great Film.”

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Hindi Film 101: Meena Kumari Part 2, The Years as a Wife

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Welcome back to Meena Kumari part 2!  As I mentioned in the first part, this is almost entirely based on her classic biography, published within weeks of her death.  It’s not a completely unreliable source, but it’s also the version that people were remembering just after she died.  One thing that does seem clear is that she was a woman who never fully controlled her own destiny.

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Hindi Film 101: Meena Kumari Part 1, The Years as a Daughter

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I’m finally doing Meena Kumari!  Because she was consistently the second choice every time I gave you options.  And because I have this book (be aware, it’s written in an unusual style for a bio.  But it’s still fun!) for a source, so it’s easy.  The thing with Meena, is that she was never able to really live alone or control her own destiny, she just went from man to man, starting with her father.

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Guide Part 3: The Actual Film, the Ending, and Dev Anand

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Guide part 3!  This is what happens when I write about Great Movies, I just go on and on and don’t know how to stop (16 parts into DDLJ, by the way, and not even to intermission). But I am going to be firm with myself this time and try to keep it down to just 3 parts.  Especially because, unlike DDLJ, this isn’t a movie all my readers will necessarily have seen. (part 1 gives no plot details of the film, just background on the pre-production, part 2 starts with a general discussion of the style and techniques of the film before getting into plot.  Read them both before you read this, because I will be referring back!)

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Hindi Film 101 One-Off: Amitabh, from ABCL to Mohabbatein by way of KBC

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Another one-off post!  This week is just killing me between church and work and friends, so I don’t have the energy to start another big series.  Plus, I never gave you a chance to vote!  So instead, another Amitabh one-off, this time covering his most recent re-invention, from failed international businessman to TV star and back to movie star.

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Guide Part 2: The Actual Film (Well, The Beginning of It)

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Yesterday I did an in depth post on the whole behind the scenes process of making Guide and who all the personalities involved where and what their background was and so on and so on (not including the Murder and Sex Cult part of the Anand brothers’ story, because those hadn’t happened yet).  I wanted to say aaaaaaaaaaaaaallllllllllllllllll of that before I got into discussing the actual film.  Which is what I will do now, only I will be referring back to stuff from the other post, so read this first!

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Hindi Film 101 One-Off: Fearless Nadia Wadia and the Real Story Behind Rangoon

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I’m still in the middle of my Chopra family series, I’ll be back to it next week for the family feud in the second generation and the joining with the Mukherjee family.  But right now, I wanted to make sure we all knew the “real” story behind Kangana Ranaut’s character in Rangoon before we go see the film.

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Guide: Everything I Need To Say Before I Say Things About the Film

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As you know, if you read my blog regularly, I went on a trip recently.  And I decided the perfect time to finally watch Guide was on my smartphone on the flight.  And it was perfect!  I had no other options, so I couldn’t put it off any longer.  And I was able to watch it with intense focus, since I was holding the screen right up at the end of my nose.  And this was a film that really really really deserved close watching!  And close analysis, which is why I am starting with a post that just gives background before I even talk about the film itself.

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Hindi Film 101: The Chopras Part 2, Yash Raj Films and The Mahabharata

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Less scandalous than usual, the Chopras are a super nice family who worked hard and did good work.  But still interesting!  To learn how they are all related to each other and their own particular talents and so on.  (part 1 here)

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