Archive for the ‘Actors & Actresses’ Category
Mumtaz
Mumtaz realised an impossible dream. In an industry notorious for its nonegalitarianism, she was that rare actress who rose from non-featured roles to become the most saleable actress of the early 70s, through sheer charm, sunny good humour and fiesty sexuality. Though Mumtaz, with her youth and jaunty insouciance, very obviously fit into the image ...
Sanjeev Kumar
Sanjeev Kumar asserted the primacy of talent over looks, dancing skills and other such commercial considerations. He established a prodigious reputation as an actor par excellence by doing an amazing spectrum of roles. Which other actor could have been accepted as Jaya Bhaduri’s lover in Anamika (’73), within months of playing her father in Parichay ...
Veena
Veena was a famous character actress. She was born as Tajour Sultana on July 4, 1926 in Quetta, Balochistan (present day Pakistan). At some point in time, her family shifted to Lahore’s Chuna Mandi. She made her debut in Punjabi film made in Lahore – Gawandhi (1942) – opposite Shyam. The film was a hit ...
Sadhana
The serendiptuous 60s — the decade of all those popular, remunerative musicals. No heroine defined this decade better than the luminously lovely Sadhana. Not only was she a basic talisman for many of these 60s bits of ephemera but what gave Sadhana the edge over contemporaries like Asha Parekh and Saira Banu, was her gift ...
Mala Sinha
Behind the wrought iron gates of her multi-storeyed bungalow in Bandra, Mala Sinha does not live locked in any ivory tower. Mala is astringently honest when she reminisces about her career: “I was not particularly good looking like Madhubala. All I had going for me was my talent.” Mala Sinha’s sell-it-to-the-last-seat theatrics immensely pleased the ...
Shammi Kapoor
The on screen lives of most the 50s heroes was one long agony of self-repression till Shammi Kapoor struck like lightning with his brash, cocky swagger and his eagerness to rebuke convention. His rebel yell, ‘Yahoo’ is not a word that will be found in any dictionary; but with this one word, Shammi Kapoor announced ...
Nutan
She left her budding film career mid-way to join a Swiss finishing school — La Chatelainie. On her return she unabashedly agreed to wear a swimsuit (Delhi Ka Thug), transmitting shock waves that reverberated for long. She battled her mother in court over misappropriation of funds. She slapped Sanjeev Kumar in a fit of temper. ...
Vyjayanthimala
Danseuse extraordinaire, Vyjayanthimala’s greatest legacy to cinema is that today it is de rigeur for every girl who enters the Hindi film industry to be an accomplished dancer. Yet there was more to light-footed Vyjayanthi than magical moves. True, she became a major star when the crowds repeatedly bought tickets for her Nagin (’54) only ...
Balraj Sahni
Balraj Sahni never fitted into the idiom of the conventional hero — nor did he want to. All of 40 when he won lasting fame as the downtrodden but optimistic peasant, Sambhu Mahato in Do Bigha Zameen (’53), Balraj is remembered for his efforts to champion a nascent art movement with Garam Coat, Seema, Anuradha ...
Geeta Bali
Geeta Bali outclassed the movies she starred in. Easily one of the five best actresses ever to grace the Hindi screen, she unfortunately never found a vehicle worthy of her prodigious talents. Gifted with effervescent naturalism and a delightfully dead-on sense of comic timing, Geeta, however, frittered away her talents in a multitude of B-grade ...
Cineplot Music
Cineplot Photo Gallery
Bollywood – Year by Year – 1981
Dariush Mehrjui (1939 - )
Cinema and Films - Top 10
S.M. Yousuf
Bollywood - Year by Year - 1904