Bollywood, the 1960s and 70s:
"For years, the favorite setting for the big dance number has been a cabaret, with its atmosphere of forbidden liquor and sexual permissiveness, with its mixed audience of privileged Indians, industrialists, playboys, princes, and its foreign decadence..." And no one was more at home this exotic milieu than an Anglo-Burmese refugee who began dancing in films at 13 to support her family. Her pale skin and vaguely foreign looks, along with a collection of colored contacts and wigs, allowed her to play white women, Asian women, whatever titillating role was called for. She was
Helen, Queen of the Nautch Girls (
part 2,
part 3,
part 4).
[more inside]
posted by bookish
on Aug 10, 2008 -
24 comments
Rare Kishore Kumar Songs is a website dedicated to the music of legendary Bollywood
playback singer and comic actor
Kishore Kumar. There are hundreds of songs, many with other Bollywood legends, such as Asha Bhosle and Lata Mangeshkar. There are also songs by Kishore's son Amit. All songs and videos are in Real Player format and in low quality.
posted by Kattullus
on Jun 16, 2008 -
9 comments
Cornershop's "Brimful of Asha" and
Panjabi MC's
collaboration with Jay-Z don't mark
Desi's lone inroads into mainstream European and North American culture. The creative hybridizaton might not be widespread, but the impact is felt well beyond pop music, from examples that often range from the
comedic to the
dramatic to the
controversial, giving a glimpse into the ongoing conversation between widely disparate cultures and traditions, going beyond convenient media stereotypes.
posted by Rothko
on Aug 1, 2005 -
5 comments
Hollywood? Old. Bollywood? That's soooo 2003. Make room for
Nollywood, Nigeria's own film industry which is growing by leaps and bounds every year, and is currently worth about
$45 million dollars. About 400 Nollywood films are produced every year many on a budget of around $15000 and are distributed almost entirely by VHS and VCD. The stories are very much
simplistic and pulpy (check out 419 Stalk Exchange. Yes, 419 as in the email scam) but are much
preferred by local residents and emigre's than the usual arthouse fair one often thinks of when talking about African cinema. Now if you'll excuse me there's a bucket of popcorn and a copy of
GSM Connection waiting for me in the living room.
posted by PenDevil
on Jan 19, 2004 -
13 comments
The Mullet - Bollywood Style!! Ah, the mullet. Absolut Films tells of the birth of this maligned sartorial trend in "Mulit", a tongue-in-cheek branded content piece with '70s Bollywood flair. Both a :60 trailer and feature, "Mulit" is a musical love story about a man, a woman and an unfinished haircut that transcends class structures, fashion trends and predilections for bad hair. Without such roots, phrases like the 'short-long', 'hockey hair' and 'work in front, party in back' would be meaningless and '80s rock would still be searching for a signature style.
posted by turbanhead
on Jun 28, 2003 -
9 comments
From the
You Learn Something New Everyday file: I had no idea there was such a huge move industry in Bombay, India, known worldwide as
Bollywood. I need to get out more, I'm becoming quite the ugly american lately...
posted by mathowie
on Aug 16, 1999 -
0 comments
