As promised, a little something for the death anniversary of Anil Biswas… I decided to go back to Pardesi/Journey Beyond Three Seas…
Here’s a new copy of “Naa Dir Dim” (one of the greatest-ever Lata-on-Padmini songs).
I also love this song, with Meena Kapoor picturized on Nargis:
This scene contains a great song by Manna Dey, pucturized on Balraj Sahni:
And here’s the goodybe song:
That brought back some nice memories. What lovely songs. There is a sweet song that Nargis sings to her child at the end of this film, I dont remember the words right now. Then there is that sad song – Rasiya re man basiya re.
I wish Padmini’s skirt had been a wee bit shorter, to let us see her footwork.
Hi, Ava. Yes, those songs are good too. And I saw them up at YouTube also. I just wanted to select a few for posting here, but now that you mention it, maybe I’ll add them in comments. (Possibly tomorrow – with all the copies out there (some terrible), it takes a little time to find the right ones. :)
I guess it would have been nice to see more of Padmini’s footwork, but at least we get a clear view of those beautiful arm movements!
I was just talking to a Ukranian in her 30s last week. She was telling me how mcuh they enjoyed Hindi films, they were the one of the few foreign films allowed in ussr at the time: and she remembered Pardesi as one of the collaborations that made big news there and that they were proud of!
Russians and people (older than 30s) from other Soviet republics get tears in their eyes when they recollect the indian films they watched then.
One Armenian professor once told me how they had to stand in a line to get a ticket for Shree 420.
Wonder why Anil Biswas didn’t give more music to Hindi films in the 50s?
Funny that they show women going to fetch water from the well inpouring rain. maybe they do it someplace. But what from I have seen in karnataka, villagers used to just put their pots or buckets outside and collect water and no way one would go to wash clothes in rain!
Though my paternal grandmother from Odessa had already been in the U.S. for a while by the late ’50s, maybe I have some Ukrainian cousins who were big Raj Kapoor fans. :) And maybe that’s another excuse I can come up with when someone acts baffled about how I could have such an affinity for old Hindi films (given that I’m a native New Yorker with nothing close to an Indian background)… Must be the Ukrainian blood in me! :)
As I’ve mentioned before, there is a street in Russia named after Padmini. (Haven’t gotten any more details about that, but I’ve seen it mentioned in a few places. I think/guess it’s in Moscow?)
i searched under Padmini ulitsa in google maps but with no success