I’ve been looking at, and listening to, a lot of stuff from Lollywood this past day (yes, looking for something a little different…), but it’s getting late now and I wanted to post something, so I’m going to cut the theme short. That is to say, I’m not going to try to post a whole lot of stuff connected to the old Sufi poem “Terey Ishq Nachaya” by Baba Bulleh Shah (I’m not even going to get into the old movie by that name that had vocals by Noor Jehan – though I might do so in another post), because tonight/this morning, I just wanted to mention two things from contemporary Pakistan that really caught my attention…
First, a fine dance by the mujra dancer Nargis, with Naseem Vicky. I like Nargis a lot… She is even a bit different (and funny and charming) when she does the usual bawdy stage mujra bit, but she is even more unique when she does this sort of thing once in a while…
…And then there’s the film that this particular (version of the) song comes from, the 2006 film Majajan, featuring the Lollywood actress Saima, who also produced the film, and the actor Shaan, who is the dancer in this great scene below. I guess the scene is exceptional mostly because you don’t usually see the guy dancing with bells on his ankles while the woman in the scene plays the singer-musician. But it’s also a very good dance, and there is really nice singing by Azra Jahan.
Reading about this film a little, I see that it was directed by Syed Noor, written by his older wife, Rukshana Noor (apparently, he made Saima his younger wife sometime during the filming), with music by Wajid A. Nashaad. Most of the songs look pretty good; it looks OK for a contemporary film, and I see there hadn’t been many good films coming out of Pakistan in recent years… It would be nice to find a copy of this film with English subtitles (unlikely, though, but it’s worth a thought, I guess).
Dances on the Footpath 
Off-topic:
you might like this dedicated to very early film music
http://indianbaja.blogspot.com/
There is a sister blog called Indianraga, with recordings dating back to 1907 (the earliest I have heard).
Thank you, Bawa. There isn’t much there yet, but I definitely like what I see so far!
Oh, yes, and Indian Raga – I’ve seen this one before. There is a lot of stuff there! Less well known to me, but definitely worth exploring some more.
Finding a contemporary “Lollywood” movie with subtitles is indeed a problem! Though some of the movies like Khuda Ke Liye or Khamosh Pani might be available with subtitles, however the movies which are made “in the system” and are entirely aimed at native speakers.
I have yet to see Majajan, but Ive heard its a “nice” movie, and it spurned a few similar movies. Perhaps, the one to see would be Zille Shah, which is essentially very similar to Majajan (perhaps a remake, but touted as a sequel) and was directed by Shaan himself. It also has a very nice soundtrack, and I’m in love with a couple of songs
Yes, this could be a nice movie to see too. The song clip is good, thanks. Though I don’t like it as much as “Tere Ishq Nachaya”… :)
(And by the way, now that you brought me back to this old post, think I’ll change that title from “Terey” to “Tere,” which appears to be more correct(?). Maybe a little later…)