For those who don’t know this yet, the great Padmini dance that I posted yesterday was from Payal (1957), a movie that I’ve talked about quite a bit already. I’ve also posted a few songs from this movie over the past year or two, but none of those clips were of the same quality as the clips that Tommydan1 just put up, and I don’t think any of them had the English subtitles that he’s included either. So, in light of the way Tom improved on all of these (actually making them look better on YouTube than they look straight from my DVD), I am going to post every remaining song that he uploaded from this movie, even if I’ve posted the song once or twice before…
By the way, I guess I should mention (as I have before) that Payal is one of those Indian movies in which there is a pretty big gap between the quality of the performances and the quality of the script or the way the plot progresses. The musical numbers are fantastic – there’s fine music by Hemant Kumar, with singing by Rafi and Lata, and there are those great dances… I think some of the acting is also very nice, especially the performance by Baby Naaz. But don’t be disappointed by the peculiar jumps in the plot or the not-so-interesting antics of some silly bad guys (not to mention the smaller jumps in the middle of scenes caused by the bad quality of the source print, I would guess)… As the saying goes, you can’t have everything, but from the musical numbers alone, you do get a lot.
I would guess that yesterday’s dance, “Jaago Aur Jagao,” was the most famous dance in this film (and with good reason). But I think “Jaa Re Saanwale Salone Natkhat Banwaari” is pretty famous too, and that seems to be the source of a lot of promotional stills of Padmini that were floating around. There is one shot of Padmini from this that most people (myself included) find very pretty, too… Although, apparently, there was one rather obnoxious critic who complained about the extra amount of stomach poking out from the middle of Padmini’s costume, but I actually find it kind of cute, and besides, it doesn’t really have a whole lot to do with the quality of this fine dance…
Tom also posted an excellent clip (much superior to what was up there before) of a song I love, “Yeh Duniya Rail Niraali.” Agha does a very uplifting performance here, “singing” with the wonderful voice of Rafi. The lyrics (by Rajendra Krishan) are a lot of fun also (and oh so true), plus I love the banjo playing part.
Next among my favorite scenes is the very first scene in the movie, the Padmini and Ragini dance “Piya Milan Ko Chali Radhika”:
And, of course, I love the dance with Minoo Mumtaz (also featuring another spirited performance of Rafi on Agha):
Incidentally, Payal also is known as a Sunil Dutt starrer. For some reason, though, I barely noticed him in this movie. But when I think about it, I can remember some nice scenes with him in them…
