Happy birthday, Vyjayanthimala!
Seven Dances for Vyjayanthimala’s Birthday
13 Friday Aug 2010
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13 Friday Aug 2010
Posted in Uncategorized
Happy birthday, Vyjayanthimala!
Yay!- for someone who’s a great actress, a superb dancer, and very beautiful. Happy birthday!
Just to satisfy my own curiosity: is that Helen vs Vyjyanthimala song from Dr Vidya? I’d seen the film too long ago to be able to recall it, but I remembered it had Helen and Vyjyanthimala in it, and the dialogue sounded like what it would’ve been in the film.
Hi, Dustedoff. Thank you for the cheers, and glad you like this post. (Superb dancing, fine acting, and beauty – yes, those are the things we love her for. :) )
And, yes, the film is Dr. Vidya… I haven’t seen Dr. Vidya myself, but I’ve seen a few scenes and it looks like a lot of fun.
By the way (as you might have noticed), I just replaced the clip posted yesterday with a new Tommydan1 edition.
Happy Belated birthday to her, saw her a few days ago in Aas ka panchi and she had a cute dance in that, one of my fave Vyjayanthimala songs and one i associate with her is kahoji tum kya kya from Sadhna
Hi, Bollywooddeewana. That dance from Sadhna has long been one of my favorites too. But I have watched it many times and have put it up on this blog in the past. And for the most part, I decided to put up songs this time that I hadn’t put up on this blog and/or seen too many times before (maybe with the exception of the spectacular bharatanatyam bit from New Delhi, which I admit I’ve put up before and probably pointed out quite a few times in different places :) )…
But now that you have put this Sadhna dance up in comments, I have absolutely no objection to it being here. :)
Aas Ka Panchi is another matter… Unlike with Sadhna, I don’t own a DVD of this film and I don’t know anything about it. Well, I’ll have to look at the YouTube clips soon…
By the way, I was wondering if you would do a Sridevi birthday post just as you did on the same day that I did my previous Vyjayanthimala birthday post… But if you couldn’t get around to it this time, that’s OK – just wanted you to know I remembered that. :)
Dr Vidya is a little unusual (in a good way): it speaks up for women being well educated professionals, ‘even if’ they’re better educated than the men they marry. There were some things in that film I didn’t agree with, but on the whole, it’s very watchable.
I like Sadhna a lot. Such a good film, and such good music!
Oh I missed Vyjayanthimala’s birthday. A belated wish is in order.
Love her films. The latest one I saw was Saathi. No dances though. She’s a nurse in that.
That’s a real feast (pun intended) you have served up, Richard. :-)
Good choice with a variety of forms of dances.
The last one was really interesting. It is the first dance you learn if you study Bharatnatyam. I have seen this danced so often on stage when I was in school. I was also sent to learn Bharatnatyam, but alas, never progressed beyond learning a few mudras.
I am glad that people are enjoying the Vyjayanthimala feast.
Dustedoff, yes, Sadhna has been one of my favorite Vyjayanthimala films for a while. I had already seen the dances on YouTube many times before I got the DVD (and also listened to the soundtrack, thanks to Stella_1), so when I finally got the DVD, I was jumping with delight when I started playing it. (Also, it is from the Yash Raj films B.R. Chopra Collection, and the quality is pretty good as these things go.) It was very much also Vyjayanthimala’s film (and not Sunil Dutt’s at all by comparison :) )…
Pacifist, yes, I was hoping to have some variety in the “dishes.” I haven’t seen Saathi… The last Vyjayanthimala film I watched was Kath Putli, but that was second time around (showing it to some other people). In late June/early July, I watched Gunga Jumna and Anjaan. Before that, let’s see, um, Madhumati, Bahar, Nagin, New Delhi, Aasha, Amar Deep, Naya Daur, Sadhna, Sunghursh, Vanjikottai Valiban (though without subtitles)…well, those are the ones I’m coiming up with off the top of my head (and also looking at my shelf)… Most of her films were very good, but not all of them. Gunga Jumna was kind of uneven (wasn’t it?)… And then there were some I just couldn’t get through: I watched about an hour of Sangam (though I understand a lot of people liked it a lot) and I couldn’t make it past half an hour of Leader (which many people recognize as a bad film with a very good soundtrack). But that’s not Vyjayanthimala’s fault. :)
Regarding Saathi, though, why would someone make a film with Vyjayanthimala and not give her any dances? That doesn’t make sense to me. (Even in the Padmini films that I’ve complained about having a lack of dances, they always did provide at least one dance for her to do.)
Ava, I didn’t know this was the first dance everybody did when they learned bharatanatyam… But I knew it was pure bharatanatyam, the real deal. And she does that the best, I think, wish she’d done more straight bharatanatyam in the movies (not just after them).
Interesting that you learned some bharatanatyam dancing too. A few people reading this have done that. I guess it’s pretty common in India, can’t say it is here in the U.S. I have a sister and two teenage nieces who have studied classical western dance (ballet) and also performed it in front of audiences sometime in their lives. Unfortunately, I can’t seem to drum up much interest among them for classical Indian dance, oh well.
Yes the Alarippu from New Delhi is very nice (that is what the first dance is called.) You’ve probably seen this Hema vs VJ clip:
Sophy – Alaripu – thats the name of the dance, thanks.
Richard, we had to take a class in school called Music and Dance when we were kids. We were taught how to belt out Sa-re-ga-ma-pa on a harmonium, and learn to bleat out a couple of songs, bhajans mostly. I didn’t see my kids go through that routine, so I think schools have cut that out now. Not that my music and dance class helped a bit, but it was more fun than, say, mathematics.
I stuck to my bharatnatyam classes for a month, before I realised it was eating into my precious hanging-out-time with my friends and quit.
Oh, that’s right, it’s Alarippu. (Thanks, Sophy. And thanks for the link, which I turned back into a regular link, as you wished (no control over when WordPress converts these). I’ve seen that clip before…but never thought Hema Malini was as good at this dancing as Vyjayanthimala.)
Anyway, I’ve seen Alarippus a few times in the past…
Ava, I guess your lessons went something like this?
http://youtube.com/watch?v=7K4rGCuIEiQ
I’m late to the birthday party, but lovely post! I have never seen that first clip before- thanks for posting. It’s always nice to discover a new Vyjayanthimala clip! I’m with you in wishing that Vyj would do more straight classical BN- it’s such a treat when films go for the real deal, and no better person to do it than Vyj! :)
Thank you, Minai!
And it’s good to see that you agree with me that it would have been nicer had Vyj done more straight bharatanatyam… I do think there were a couple or few dancers (that I know of) in these old films who were even better “to do that” than Vyj, but that’s a minor quibble. :)
O I missed the birthday party completely!
A fabulous feast you have there!
A great talent there!
Have any idea what ‘Papa jhamar lo’ means?
Thank you, Harvey!
Re. “Papa jhamar lo,” if even YOU don’t know what it means… I don’t know, do you think they might just be scatting?