O Priya Priya

There are a few versions and variations of this song.  Some say this version was a ripoff. (That is, that Anand-Milind, who composed this for the Hindi movie Dil, ripped off Ilaiyaraaja without giving him credit.  Dil came out in 1990 and the other version did appear in the 1989 Telugu film Geethanjali.  So, is this accusation true?  And does it matter?)  But I think the Dil version might also be the best, as well as the best remembered…  I particularly like the lyrics in the subtitles.  (BTW, nice singing by Suresh Wadkar and Anuradha Paudwal.) And these are some intense scenes. (Madhuri Dixit is impressive here, no?)  

Dil looks like another movie on the have-to-see list.

P.S.  You’ll notice that the word “Priya” coincides with the subtitles “my dear” and “my beloved.”  Well, as I discovered, that’s what the word “Priya” means, in Hindi and, originally, Sanskrit.  People who aren’t Indian (myself included) might first assume that it’s just a woman’s name because, while we don’t know Indian languages, just about everyone knows someone named Priya.  But, no, it’s actually a word.  

Another Place for Bollywood Movies in New York City: 28th and Lex

I’ve been so focused on Jackson Heights since I moved here a year ago, that I’ve ignored some of the other good places to be found in New York City.  Ellen 9 has reminded me a couple of times about the stores in the upper 20s on Lexington Avenue in Manhattan.  And in fact, I was quite aware of them, especially when I lived in other parts of the city before – such as the year before this past year, when I lived at the bottom of the South Bronx, right on the Number 6 subway line, which would get me to Manhattan’s bigger Little India in less than half an hour.  (I say “bigger Little India” because Manhattan has another Little India, where people (mainly tourists) go to find restaurants, down on East 6th St., but I rarely go to visit that one, just maybe pass through on my way to other things.)  I would usually go to this upper-20s area to pick up rice and bread and packaged dahl, to be found in several little stores within three blocks.  And one of those stores is actually much more a Middle Eastern food supply store (though they have some Indian goods too), which has a little “deli” counter upstairs, with a few seats within it, next to some big windows looking out on Lexington Avenue.  I became very fond of going to this store, sittiing upstairs, and relaxing next to the window as I ate one of their excellent mujadara sandwiches (used to do that pretty often, and once in a while I still do).

Right across the street, almost parallel to that window (though a little below it) is the window of a second-floor store that advertises Hindi and Tamil films.  There were many times when I thought of going into the video store but didn’t get around to it, especially after I had moved to Jackson Heights.  But I realized today, when I finally strolled into the place, that I had underestimated it.

This video store is a delightful cozy little spot (with great air conditioning – much appreciated today), with a lot of old Bollywood movies.  It’s much quieter and less trendy than the couple of stores that I’m most familiar with on 74th Street in Jackson Heights, which specialize more in the latest music.  Around the time when I started this blog, when I was much more interested in 21st Century desi club music, those stores were more interesting to me.  But that might be changing for me now that my tastes have strangely shifted so much to mid-20th Century Indian films.  

What I liked about visiting the store on 28th Street was not just that it was physically more comfortable and quieter (something I can sometimes appreciate now that I’m middle aged), nor just that it had a fun selection out on display, but that the guy I spoke to instantly knew what I was talking about when I asked him for certain things.  (Though he didn’t have to be so insistent on correcting my pronunciation – and I have to tell you, it was a bit embarrassing to me when I found out that I wasn’t pronouncing my beloved Padmini’s name perfectly.)  This, though, had not been the case when I went into that last store on 74th Street in the Jackson Heights, where the kid didn’t know of the movies I was asking for.  But then, the kid in the Jackson Heights store probably would have been pretty sharp if I asked him about the latest DJ bhangra hip-hop music (I’m not sure of this, but I’m guessing that would be the case).  The guy in the 28th Street store seemed fairly young (and somewhat hip) too, but he knew the old movies well.

So, while the guy in the Jackson Heights store didn’t know what I was talking about when I mentioned Naya Daur, this guy told me instantly that they had two copies, both the black and white and the colorized.  And when I told him that I was looking for this film with Raj Kapoor and Padmini, he instantly took out a copy of Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behti Hai.  And that was pretty cool!

Not so cool, though, are the prices.  He said that Naya Daur was $20 and Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behti Hai was $18.  He also said that this was because the company putting out the movies happened to charge very high prices.  I wondered if the prices would be as high if I did find both movies in Jackson Heights, where I was able to pick up Shree 420 for $8, and I’ve been able to pick up soundtracks for $5.  (As I’ve said, it could be that the Jackson Heights stores are selling used/promo/repackaged stuff sometimes – though if they are, I can’t tell.)   With this in mind, I’m going to have to check out a couple of more stores around here, just to make sure…  (Maybe I wouldn’t be so picky about prices if I actually had a job right now, but unfortunately…) 

I will also take Sita-ji up on one of her suggestions to check the library.  And if the library proves successful, I’ll probably end up there.  (Plus, I’ll update this post to report of that success.)

But if I can’t find a library-borrowable copy or a much cheaper copy, then I’ll be happy to give some of my money to the aforementioned store, while I still have that money left.  Maybe I’ll do it sometime next week, if/when I go to the Barnes & Noble in the area to pick up the new paperback edition of Mihir Bose’s Bollywood: A History – which Sita-ji also recommended a while back.   (By the way, the paperback edition came out yesterday, according to the computers – yea! – but still isn’t on the shelves for some reason, so I ordered a copy, which they’re saying should take three to four days.)

And if anybody else is wandering around Manhattan looking for Hindi and Tamil movies, take my word that it’s worth visiting this place.

—————

P.S.  Yes, I know about the online buying option, but I’m a little averse to that.  I generally don’t buy things online (I never even activated the card that I would need to do that with – since I can’t use the old credit card anymore), and if I’m actually buying a movie, I’d like to have the thing on CD in my hands, with packaging and all, bought from a live human being, at a real store.  (This is especially true since I’ve had some troubles downloading movies from certain sites lately, but it’s also true in general.    Maybe another way I’m just not keeping up with the changing times.)  If I have that option…

P.P.S. A note 6 years and 6 weeks later: Wow, I see in stats that people are still going to this post! I guess lots of people are still searching for Bollywood movies in New York! But I feel that I should add a couple of points now… First of all, I think that the Jackson Heights store that I discuss above might have folded. Quite a few have, unfortunately. Or else, the store has changed a lot since I wrote this, or I have gotten a different impression… In the past few years, I’ve mainly gone to two stores in Jackson Heights, on 74th Street, near 37th Avenue (east side of the street). Both stores have actually been pretty helpful to me in my search for old films – not only from the ’50s, but from the ’40s, too. In these stores, I haven’t encountered the limited sales guy whom I talked about before. I think that the sales guys in all three stores (i.e., including the one in Manhattan) have been about equally good. Nowadays, there are times when none of them can recognize the films that I’m looking for (even though my pronunciation is actually better now), but that’s because I search for things that are more obscure! And I don’t think I’ve gotten a very hipster vibe from anyone in the Jackson Heights stores in the time since I wrote this post (which is good).

Unfortunately, in the past year or so, the store on 28th Street in Manhattan was reduced to half its size. I asked what happened and I was given the obvious answer, that they couldn’t afford the rent. Unfortunately, a lot of stores in Manhattan have completely folded in the past few years for the same reason… I hope that enough people will still go to this one to keep it open, even at half the size. I don’t buy films there much anymore, but I have gotten music. Some months ago, I found a fantastic double CD, The Genius of Khursheed (Khursheed Bano, that is). Unfortunately, I have gone to this store quite a few times since, hoping to find something similar – Rajkumari, perhaps – and no such thing has turned up. But I am happy to keep looking…

Yardi Nee Moghini (1958 – featuring early Helen and a great rockabilly number at the end)

This is from the move Uthama Puthiran. I’ve mentioned this a couple of times because of the many great dance scenes starring Padmini and Ragini (for which I’ve watched the whole movie twice, first without subtitles, then with), and also for the fine performance by Sivaji Ganesan. But this particular number is most notable, first, for the appearance of Helen in the middle (in another one of her earliest movie scenes), and then for the wild rockabilly number at the end. (Music by G. Ramanathan.)

Mera Naam Chin Chin Chu

Performer: Helen; singer: Geeta Dutt; film: Howrah Bridge (1958)

Tandoori Jukebox – Chin Chin Chu

A band from Boston. Worth it just for the band name alone. But the performance is very nice, and the song choice is excellent.

Naseeb – Lots of Fun!

Yes, I really enjoyed this movie, Naseeb, made in 1981.  Everything was so over-the-top but in an invigorating way.  And beyond all of the crazy action and plot twists (of which there were very many), it might give you some profound thoughts about destiny and fate.

Anyway, here’s a good clip. (The music, once again, is by Laxmikant-Pyarelal. The song is “Mere Nasib Mei Tu Hai,” sung by Lata Mangeshkar, picturized on Hema Malini, with Amitabh Bachchan running around):

Nice Info on the Original Gypsies and Rajasthan

My latest research into the origins of the Gypsies started with a post at Transpontine’s South East London Blog, where I learned a little bit of South London Gyspy history, along with the fact that over in the UK, June has actually been Gypsy Traveller Roma History Month.  Back on Transpontine’s blog, there was some discussion about the origins of the Gypsies, in terms of both time and place.  I participated, but a little late in the game, to the effect that I was probably at that point only talking to myself.  However, in the process, I got some very nice and succinct history of the Gypsies over at a Rajasthani tourism page.  Here it tells us that:

Before they left India, little is known about the culture which generated the Gypsies, except for their migrations, within and out of India. Linguistics and historians believe that the Gypsies were originally from North Central India. Their first known migration started around 300 BC, when they moved to North Western India. The Persian Book of Kings relates an incident corroborated by independent chronicles that took place in the fifth century, when the Indian King Shankal made a gift of 12.000 musicians to the Shah of Persia. It is assumed that those musicians were the ancestors of the Roma since after a year the Shah sent them away from Persia.

Why and when, then, the Roma left India is clouded in uncertainty, yet some scholars state that the Gypsies entered southeastern Europe in the last quarter of the 13th Century. Because they arrived in Europe from the East, they were thought by the first Europeans to be from Turkey, Nubia or Egypt, or any number of non-European places. They were called, among other things, Egyptians or ‘Gyptians, which is where the word “Gypsy” comes from. All analysis seem to corroborate the fact that the Roma ancestors are linked to this common lineage in India. As well, the Roma have been known as entertainers and inspired musicians in every country they have traveled, as some of the nomadic groups present in the Thar Desert today.

The page then goes on to describe several tribes of Rajasthani Gypsies, which is very interesting information that I haven’t seen before.

One of those tribes is the Kalbeliya, or “snake charmer caste.”

And it just so happens that are a lot of very nice current-day Kalbeliya dance clips available. Here’s one with a song that I’ve known well for over a decade, because it was on Musafir’s Gypsies of Rajasthan LP:

Hawa Hawaii (from Mr. India)

I love this song, and I love Sridevi in this. (Well, I love Sridevi in just about everything, but particularly in this.) Admittedly, the men’s costumes may not always be in the best of taste (can’t say I quite know what’s going on with that)…

P.S. Music by Laxmikant-Pyarelal (I’m beginning to realize that they had quite a fondness for on-the-beat face slaps), with great singing by Kavita Krishnamurthy, now known as Kavita Subramaniam. Year of release was 1987.

On Tour In The U.S.: Queen Harish!

Oh, did I say something about challenging gender roles?

I was delighted to see that Queen Harish is on tour and will start dancing in New York City within the next couple of days. Her schedule is up on her blog site  right now.  

Here’s a fun scene from a new movie that Queen Harish is in, called Appudappudu:

Sometimes Gender Roles Do Need to Be Challenged – Or Even Reversed

 

Two versions of “Choli Ke Peeche Kya Hai” from Khalnayak (1993), which I watched on YouTube late last night.  

The first one has great dancing. (Madhuri Dixit is one of my favorites among the Bollywood actress-dancers who were born the same decade as I was – and maybe the only one among those favorites who isn’t from the southern part of India.) The second clip is quite funny – and actually pretty good all by itself.  (Yes, Sanjay Dutt is good in this clip too – and I should give some more credit to the guys sometimes, shouldn’t I?)

That second one does get a little unpleasant at the end, though – gender reversal maybe (at least in the dance, if not the reception), but I wouldn’t exactly call this feminist…

I wrote up this movie a little more at first, but I’ve scrapped that, because it just isn’t sticking with me.  It’s the songs that I like – good songs.  (Composed by Laxmikant-Pyarelal, by the way. Singer on the famous clip is Alka Yagnik, the male version is sung by Amit Kumar.)