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Articles on Hindi Films

Details: Published: 30 October 2017; Last Updated: 30 October 2017

In the British days, they did not care for kissing etc. but censored the political stuff with a heavy hand. Many examples exist. After independence, we still banned kissing etc, but also material that was deemed to be sensitive for religious or/and political reasons. What kind of scenes did they censor? I used to read in the magazines details of scenes that were cut, skirt above knees, dress too revealing etc. But I could never find an example of what was cut. Not until now! Here is an image from a deleted scene from 5 Rifles (1974)

5 Rifles

Now you know!

Listen to Pushpanjali (1970)

Details: Published: 22 August 2017; Last Updated: 03 November 2017

Number 2 2017/08/17

Music in the 30s

One often hears that in the early days of the talkies the music was made using harmonium and tabla. How do we find out about this? We can ask people. Ardeshir Irani mentioned that they used harmonium, tabla and violin in the first talkie. You can also listen to hundreds of songs from the thirties available on my website. Try the songs of Laal-e-Yaman (1933) http://hindi-films-songs.com/main/1933_laal-e-yaman.html You will find in song 13 a very familiar tune, which was used again a few times.

Also, we know that in the Parsi theater they used more than harmonium and tabla. Knowing that a lot of early talkies were either filmed plays or based on the plays, we can guess that many instruments would have been used. Even in the era of the silent movies, the screenings were accompaniments by lots of instruments. So, if somebody tells you that only harmonium and tabla were used in the early times, don't believe them.

Now you know!

Details: Published: 06 December 2017; Last Updated: 06 December 2017

I had suspected but had not known for sure that Times of Indiai newspaper has been digitized. I am happy to report that the archives going back to 1838 and to the current issue are available in many academic libraries. It seems that one does not even need to be associated with a university to access them. I found out about it late Saturday night and did not get much time. But I managed to get this.