Guru Dutt is probably the only Indian film-maker who, within the parameters of the box office, made a personal statement with his cinema. His films stand testimony not only to his own genius but also to the creativity of his team, comprising stalwarts like cameraman V.K. Murthy, music director S.D. Burman, and writer Abrar Alvi, among others.
In Ten Years with Guru Dutt: Abrar Alvi’s Journey, Sathya Saran looks at the tumultuous yet incredibly fecund relationship between the mercurial director and his equally talented albeit unsung writer, a partnership that evolved over a decade till Guru Dutt’s tragic death in 1964. Starting his career as a driver and chaperone to Guru Dutt’s producer on the sets of Baaz, Abrar soon caught the attention of the director with his sharp ear for and understanding of film dialogue.
With Aar Paar in 1954, Abrar rewrote the rules of dialogue-writing in Hindi cinema, till then marked by theatricality and artificiality. He followed it up with masterpieces like Mr and Mrs ’55, Pyaasa and Kaagaz Ke Phool, before donning the director’s mantle with great success in Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam. Brimming with lively anecdotes—about how Abrar honed his skills by writing over 300 love letters; how an accident involving a buffalo led to the discovery of Waheeda Rehman; Guru Dutt’s visit to a kotha to get the ambience right for Pyaasa—this acclaimed book is a warm and insightful look at two remarkable artistes who inspired each other to create movie magic.
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Swar Samrat Mohammad Rafi by Choudhary Zia Imam
The boy had the blessings of a fakir who would wander around in his village, singing songs. The boy would follow him around, singing after him. One day, the fakir picked him up and said: 'Son, the world shall take your name with love and reverence, people will aspire to become like you.' The boy grew up to be Mohammad Rafi.
In this vivid biography, Zia Imam tells us things we never knew about the greatest playback singer India's Hindi film industry has ever had.
In this vivid biography, Zia Imam tells us things we never knew about the greatest playback singer India's Hindi film industry has ever had.
Thursday, February 9, 2012
The Wedding by Nicholas Sparks
After more than 20 years of marriage, Wilson Lewis, son-in-law of Allie and Noah Calhoun (of THE NOTEBOOK) is forced to admit that the romance has gone out of his marriage. Desperate to win back his wife Jane’s heart, he must figure out how to make her fall in love with him...again. Despite the shining example of Allie and Noah’s marriage, Wilson is himself a man unable to easily express his emotions. A successful tax attorney, he has provided well for his family, but now,
with his daughter’s upcoming wedding and an impending empty nest, he is forced to face the fact that he and Jane have grown apart and he wonders if she even loves him anymore. Wilson is sure of one thing - his love for his wife has only deepened and intensified over the years. Now, with the memories of his in-laws’ magnificent fifty-year love affair as his guide, Wilson struggles to find his own way back into the heart of the woman he adores.
with his daughter’s upcoming wedding and an impending empty nest, he is forced to face the fact that he and Jane have grown apart and he wonders if she even loves him anymore. Wilson is sure of one thing - his love for his wife has only deepened and intensified over the years. Now, with the memories of his in-laws’ magnificent fifty-year love affair as his guide, Wilson struggles to find his own way back into the heart of the woman he adores.
The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks
Noah Calhoun has just returned from World War Two. Attempting to escape the ghost of battle, he tries to concentrate on restoring an old plantation home to its former glory. And yet he is haunted by images of the beautiful girl he met there fourteen year before, a girl who captured his heart like no other.
But when these memories begin to slide into reality, the passion that had lain still is ignited once more though so much is in their way the miraculous force of their love refuse to fade.
But when these memories begin to slide into reality, the passion that had lain still is ignited once more though so much is in their way the miraculous force of their love refuse to fade.
24 Akbar Road by Rasheed Kidwai
In India’s constantly changing political, social and economic milieu, the Congress party has stayed one step ahead by constantly reinventing itself to stay in touch with peoples’ aspirations and the political realities of the day. Normally, a political party is known for its commitment to specific economic, social and political issues, but in the case of the Congress, ‘ideology’ does not seem to matter in equal measure. In most cases, the Congress’s concept of ‘continuity with change’ has helped the party tide over many crises.
However, even though it is always adapting and changing, the Congress can by no stretch of the imagination be viewed as an ideologically-neutral organization. Over the years, the grand old party has developed an ideology of its own, albeit in a rather flexible and amorphous manner.
This book tracks the story of the contemporary Congress – its key characters, its ideology, its failure and its success, in the years after the Emergency. Using the Congress seat of power at 24 Akbar Road as his vantage, author Rasheed Kidwai draws a compelling account of the rule – both backseat and forefront – of the various Congress leaders, from Indira Gandhi to Rahul Gandhi, who have helped steer its course.
However, even though it is always adapting and changing, the Congress can by no stretch of the imagination be viewed as an ideologically-neutral organization. Over the years, the grand old party has developed an ideology of its own, albeit in a rather flexible and amorphous manner.
This book tracks the story of the contemporary Congress – its key characters, its ideology, its failure and its success, in the years after the Emergency. Using the Congress seat of power at 24 Akbar Road as his vantage, author Rasheed Kidwai draws a compelling account of the rule – both backseat and forefront – of the various Congress leaders, from Indira Gandhi to Rahul Gandhi, who have helped steer its course.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India - William Dalrymple
A Buddhist monk takes up arms to resist the Chinese invasion of Tibet—then spends years trying to atone for the violence by hand-printing the best prayer flags in India. A Jain nun tests her powers of detachment as she watches her best friend ritually starve to death. A woman leaves her middle-class family in Calcutta, and her job in a jute factory, to find unexpected love and fulfilment living as a tantric in a remote cremation ground. A prison warden from Kerala becomes, for two months of the year, a temple dancer and is worshipped as an incarnate deity; then, at the end of February each year, he returns to prison. A devadasi initially resists her initiation into sex work, yet pushes her daughters into a trade she now regards as a sacred calling.
These are among the nine lives whose mesmerizing and unforgettable stories William Dalrymple tells with an almost biblical simplicity in his first travel book in a decade. A distillation of twenty-five years of travelling around and observing India, Nine Lives takes us deep into worlds we would never have imagined existed, even as it explores how traditional forms of religious life in South Asia have been transformed in the vortex of the region’s rapid change.
These are among the nine lives whose mesmerizing and unforgettable stories William Dalrymple tells with an almost biblical simplicity in his first travel book in a decade. A distillation of twenty-five years of travelling around and observing India, Nine Lives takes us deep into worlds we would never have imagined existed, even as it explores how traditional forms of religious life in South Asia have been transformed in the vortex of the region’s rapid change.
The Butterfly Generation - Palash Mehrotra
Half of India’s population is under the age of 25. In 2020, the average person in India will be only 29 years old, compared with 48 in Japan, 45 in Western Europe and 37 in China and the United States.
Palash Krishna Mehrotra paints a compelling portrait of young urban Indians today. His memories and experiences of a bygone socialist era are contrasted with the sights and sounds of a contemporary Americaized india. The book, a no-holds-barred journey through the world’s youngest nation, tells in vivid kaleidoscopic detail the story of one man and one generation. How do Indians in the age group of 25 to 35 reconcile their disparate worlds? How does the author himself reconcile them?
Part memoir, part travelogue, part commentary, The Butterfly Generation is the first book about New India to be written from an insider’s perspective. Some of the stories it tells are of a doomed call centre worker, a drug dealer on the make, an airline pilot, Versova’s scriptwriters, watching Doordarshan in the eighties, the coming of MTV, the rise of heavy metal bands, the Gay Pride March, Valentine’s day, ragging in Indian hostels, McJobs, the single life.
Old enough to remember the steam train but young enough to appreciate broadband, free to flirt with the West and take on their dreams, The Butterfly Generation flits back and forth between Hindi and English, Bollywood and Hollywood, the little black dress and the six-yard sari.
Palash Krishna Mehrotra paints a compelling portrait of young urban Indians today. His memories and experiences of a bygone socialist era are contrasted with the sights and sounds of a contemporary Americaized india. The book, a no-holds-barred journey through the world’s youngest nation, tells in vivid kaleidoscopic detail the story of one man and one generation. How do Indians in the age group of 25 to 35 reconcile their disparate worlds? How does the author himself reconcile them?
Part memoir, part travelogue, part commentary, The Butterfly Generation is the first book about New India to be written from an insider’s perspective. Some of the stories it tells are of a doomed call centre worker, a drug dealer on the make, an airline pilot, Versova’s scriptwriters, watching Doordarshan in the eighties, the coming of MTV, the rise of heavy metal bands, the Gay Pride March, Valentine’s day, ragging in Indian hostels, McJobs, the single life.
Old enough to remember the steam train but young enough to appreciate broadband, free to flirt with the West and take on their dreams, The Butterfly Generation flits back and forth between Hindi and English, Bollywood and Hollywood, the little black dress and the six-yard sari.
Friday, January 20, 2012
Castes Of Mind - Nicholas B Dirks
The author argues that caste is neither an unchanged survival of ancient India nor a single system that reflects some core culture. Rather than being an expression of Indian tradition, he argues that caste, as we know it now, is a relatively modern phenomenon, the product of the encounter between India and British colonial rule. This is not to suggest that the British invented caste, but to show that it was on account of British domination that caste became a single term capable of naming as well as subsuming India s diverse forms of social identity and organisation. Dirks also examines the rise of caste politics in contemporary India, in particular caste-based movements and their implications for Indian nationhood.
Lajwanti - Mulk Raj Anand
Our country was once an ocean of stories. In our own time the short story has been the most popular form of creative writing. It has become a kind of extension of the folk tale, with many underlayers of feeling, texture and technique adopted from the west. I have my own way of handling the intense moments of my own soul experience, in the seasons of hell we are going through. And I have offered these pieces to Jaico, because isolated writings have a habit of getting lost in an author's workshop.
Beautiful Thing: Inside The Secret World Of Bombay's Dance Bars - Sonia Faleiro
Sonia Faleiro was a reporter in search of a story when she met Leela, a beautiful and charismatic bar dancer with a story to tell.
Leela introduced Sonia to the underworld of Bombay's dance bars: a world of glamorous women, of fierce love, sex and violence, of customers and gangsters, of police, prostitutes and pimps.
When an ambitious politician cashed in on a tide of false morality and had Bombay's dance bars wiped out, Leela's proud independence faced its greatest test. In a city where almost everyone is certain that someone, somewhere, is worse off than them, she fights to survive, and to win.
Beautiful Thing, one of the most original works of non-fiction from India in years, is a vivid and intimate portrait of one reporter's journey into the dark, pulsating and ultimately damaged soul of Bombay.
Leela introduced Sonia to the underworld of Bombay's dance bars: a world of glamorous women, of fierce love, sex and violence, of customers and gangsters, of police, prostitutes and pimps.
When an ambitious politician cashed in on a tide of false morality and had Bombay's dance bars wiped out, Leela's proud independence faced its greatest test. In a city where almost everyone is certain that someone, somewhere, is worse off than them, she fights to survive, and to win.
Beautiful Thing, one of the most original works of non-fiction from India in years, is a vivid and intimate portrait of one reporter's journey into the dark, pulsating and ultimately damaged soul of Bombay.
Thursday, January 12, 2012
The History Of Indian Film Music by Rajiv Vijayakar
Do you know anything about a 1940s film called Ek Thi Ladki? Okay heres helpremember the song Lara lappa sung byLata Mangeshkar! Does that ring a bell? That's the power of film music. You may have never seen a film may not remember its name or cast but its melodious tracks are something you'll instantly relate to. There have been instances when a film became a hit just due to its rich music, never-mind a lousy storyline. It's a rule before a film comes its music. And if the music can woo your audience there's no looking back.Where would Indian cinema especially Hindi cinema be without its music? Hindi film song is all about telling a part of the story in a different way. Hindi cinema has been endowed with this art form which has been pivotal to its popular appeal. Music, orchestration, lyrics, vocalization, picturization, choreography have all played a role in the creation of the phenomenon called Film Music. This book traces the musical journey of Indian Film Music. It unravels the milestones and magical moments of this rich music that has enthralled millions across the world with its richness, variety and creativity.
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
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