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All posts for the month March, 2011
That’s right, Hollywood… Because the “Bolly” bloggers out there who’ve been doing Hollywood now and then just haven’t gotten to her much, and I’ve been enjoying this lady’s dancing a lot this week.
By the way, I posted the first one a while back. It could be my favorite Hollywood dance number ever…and, actually, it’s not all that out of place in a “Bolly” blog… But the other clips are wonderful too!
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P.S. Of course, the source of this video, Gillbiesgmail, is just another name for Minai.
I’ve posted this before, but it disappeared for a while… The best rockabilly song ever to break out in an 18th Century(?) Tamil kingdom, from Uthama Puthiran (1958). For those who don’t know this already, wait til you see who spins into the scene at 3:17!
I am delighted to announce the release of Tom’s new compilation DVD, Padmini: The Hindi Films. As many readers of this blog know, I have written countless words about Padmini, who was my first greatest love in classic Indian cinema. So here, I will simply convey a slightly modified version of Tom’s own description, which is enticing enough all by itself. (And those who want to know more of what I have to say about Padmini can just do a search on this blog. Can one praise her enough? If one can, at this point, I may have already done so.)
The DVD consists of 26 songs and dances from 17 different movies featuring this great dancer and actress. It’s available for free to anyone who wants it, just for the download.
(However, if this is the first of Tom’s compilations that you’re getting, you will also want to see the Instructions.pdf, which explains how to put the DVD together. Plus, Tom has uploaded a software folder that contains all the programs you might need for this process.)
These are the menu screens for the DVD. The songs/dances appear in chronological order, from the earliest (1952’s Mr. Sampat) to the most recent (1970’s Mastana):
If you want to learn a lot more about the DVD before you download it – or after you download it, for that matter – you can also read the accompanying PDF file, which contains some great descriptions throughout.
You can also actually check out all the dances first on YouTube, in Tom’s Padmini playlist. The first 26 songs are the same ones, in the same order, as appear on the DVD. And he’s added a few more after those also. (By the way, when you click on the first song, or any song after it, the next songs will play automatically.)
All the songs in this compilation DVD are fully subtitled in English, with translations provided by Ava. Her work is a huge help for the “Hindi challenged’ among us, and we are truly grateful…
Just as we are grateful to Tom, himself, for doing extra work to clean up these videos, “code” them, etc. They are often of much higher quality than what you’ll find anywhere else.
One might wonder why this DVD consists only of Padmini’s Hindi language songs and dances, considering that she did much of her best work in South Indian films… And the answer is that Tom just doesn’t have much access to movies on VCD or DVD from South India. He’d love to create a DVD of Padmini’s South Indian work, but he would need to have the songs and dances supplied by others (and also the English translations). So, Tom would like to send along the following request:
If any readers happen to have a good collection of Padmini’s work in South Indian films and are willing to share it, and/or if anyone is willing to translate some of that South Indian work into English, just leave a comment below this post.
Searching my own memory, I know that some readers out there have mentioned having excellent collections of Padmini’s South Indian films, but I’m not certain if they are willing or able to share them, and I don’t know exactly who could/would translate them, nor do I even know who among those people is still tuning into this blog. But if Tom does get a sufficient response to his request, I can just about guarantee that the results will be fantastic.
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Of course, I had no way of knowing when I wrote my post about Sheila Vaz in June 2009 that just two months later, Upperstall would have a great article about her with an interview and a very nice picture. Today, I happened to glimpse one of the Sheila Vaz songs on YouTube again, and I decided to search a little, and I landed on this. I’m shamelessly lifting the picture (hope you don’t mind, and please let me know if you do). I heartily recommend the article.