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Subhash K Jha revisits Vikramaditya Motwane’s Lootera starring Ranveer Singh and Sonakshi Sinha as it celebrates 12 years.

A beautiful but deeply flawed film , Vikramaditya Motwane’s Lootera floors you with its audacious sensitivity and its proclivity to use silences to punctuate emotions.Indeed the sequences between Varun and Pakhi, played with compelling intensity by Ranveer Singh and Sonakshi Sinha, bristle and burst at the seams with unspoken feelings. There are long passages of muted lyricism in the narration where silences are used to accentuate the growing passion between a lonely emotionally and sexually insulated daughter of a feudal family in Kolkata, and the attractive stranger who walks into her life with the promise of passion, only to break her heart into wounding shards.

The love story, apparently inspired by an O’Henry short story moves in mysterious magical ways but often tends to lose its way in its search for...

Kalyanji and his brother Anandji were known as hit makers during the 1960s, 70s and 80s when they ruled the charts with one evergreen song after another. The elder of the two , Kalyanji started his musical journey by playing an unusual musical instrument called the clavioline which sounded exactly like the been (the instrument used to animate snakes) for Hemant Kumar’s film Nagin.

Explaining why a perfectionist like Hemant Kumar Mukherjee chose to fudge the sound of the been in the blockbuster film Nagin Kalyanji explained, “The actual been is not a very rangy instrument. It couldn’t create the versatile sound that Hemant Kumar wanted. I suggested the clavioline. When Hemantda heard the sound he immediately said yes. Luckily for us, my brother Anandji and I… Otherwise been bajaata bajaate hum has-been ho jaate. (otherwise our career would have gone nowhere)”

That was Kalyanji for you: full of jokes and quips.

The Power of Flashback in Vikramaditya Motwane’s ‘Lootera’: In Hindi films, flashbacks occupy a critical role. Not only do they allow for the possibility of a non-linear narrative, but they also add a self-reflexivity to the story. So, it is also not uncommon to see a whole film play out as a flashback as a character reflects on the story. It is fair to say, however, that the flashback technique has been used both used and abused countless times in Hindi films. When done right, it helps to add another layer to the characters and the story. A minute detail is enough to make the film more than itself.

Flashbacks are also unique to the medium of films, coming as an extension of story writing. As a fact of life, the way flashbacks play out on screen is not supposed to make sense. And yet, while Anurag Kashyap...

‘Chalte chalte yuhi koi mil gaya ttha’, ‘Thare rahiyo ho baqe yaar re’, ‘Inhi logon ne le lee na dupatta mera’, ‘Aaj hum apni duawon ka assar dekhenge’, ‘Chalo dildar chalo chand ke paar chalo…’and then there were the sublime solos by Lataji that were not in the film: ‘Tanhai sunaya karti hai, Pyare babul tumhari duhai’ and ’Pee ke chale’….Every song by Lataji in Pakeezah is an exquisite jewel in the croon.

To imagine this ageless ode to romance and music without that voice is as inconceivable as Agra without the Taj Mahal. Director Kamal Amrohi’s son Tajdar Amrohi said, “It was always my Choti Ammi (Meena Kumari) and Lataji in Pakeezah. If either one of them said no, Pakeezah wouldn’t have happened.”

Lataji who sang the immortal songs of Pakeezah reveals that there is a whole album of her songs in Pakeezah that never made it into the film.

Lootera, which released in 2013 and is now back on the big screen!

A beautiful but deeply flawed film, the eagerly-awaited Lootera floors you with its audacious sensitivity and its proclivity to use silences to punctuate emotions. Indeed, the sequences between Varun and Pakhi, played with compelling intensity by Ranveer Singh and Sonakshi Sinha, bristle and burst at the seams with unspoken feelings. There are long passages of muted lyricism in the narration where silences are used to accentuate the growing passion between a lonely, emotionally and sexually insulated daughter of a feudal family in Kolkata and the attractive stranger who walks into her life with the promise of passion, only to break her heart into wounding shards.

The love story, apparently inspired by an O’Henry short story, moves in mysterious magical ways but often tends to lose its way in its search for that elusive horizon where two socially, culturally,...

It is one of Hindi films’ most cherished and eternal romantic songs, featuring the urbane Guru Dutt and the ethereal Waheeda Rehman, but the dream-like music for “Chaudhvin Ka Chand Ho” was scored by its composer within 10 minutes and its opening lyrics took even lesser time. Music director Ravi, to whom we owe this melody, revealed the tune came to him as he was returning home from work and it took him “just 5 to 7 minutes” to refine it.

Stopping there, he called up lyricist Shakeel Badayuni and recited “Chaudvin ka chand ho…”. In a minute, Shakeel responded with “Ya aftaab ho…” and after another couple of minutes, added “Jo bhi ho tum khuda ki kasam, laajawab ho”.

“Chaudvin ka Chand” (1960) proved to be a pace-setter for Ravi, who was born in Delhi on this day (March 3) in 1926, for it established his reputation, and he went on to score for many...

Sampooran Singh Kalra, more famous by his pen name ‘Gulzar’, is renowned as a man and master of letters, in Urdu, Hindi and Punjabi, with over seven decades of rich contributions to the literary arena as well as Bollywood. On Saturday, Gulzar and Jagadguru Rambhadracharya, Sanskrit scholar, spiritual leader and educator, were declared the recipients of the coveted 58th Jnanpith Award-2023.

For Gulzar (89), this is yet another feather in his artistic cap brimming with an Oscar Award, a Grammy Award, five National Awards, the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, the Sahitya Akademi Award (Urdu), Padma Bhushan, and 22 Filmfare Awards. He also served as the Vice-Chancellor of Assam Central University besides being decorated with many more honours and accolades.

Born in Dina, Jhelum district (now in Pakistan), Gulzar started coining and penning couplets and ‘shayris’ from an early age, earning his father’s ire over his passion.

Post-Partition, when his clan also suffered a split,...

Taking a stroll down the memory lane, actress Moushumi Chatterjee has shared about her debut film ‘Balika Badhu’, recalling how she used to elope in between the shots from the set. The 1967 Bengali film ‘Balika Badhu’ is directed by Tarun Majumdar.

Talking about the shooting experience of her debut film, the senior actress said: “I debuted at a very young age. I was 12 years old when I did the Bengali film ‘Balika Badhu’. Initially, I was enjoying the lifestyle but later, I started getting bored, and I started eloping in between shots from the set (laughs). Then the funny thing was, with my dad’s permission, the production team used to lock me inside a glass room till my next shot sequence.”

“Even director Tarun Majumdar Saab, who is like a father figure, used to be anguished by my behavior on-set, and he ended up giving me a funny punishment...