The Life and Times of Devika Rani PDF Download

Author:
Publisher:
ISBN: 9789389152470
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 442

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Author: Dilip Kumar
Publisher: Hay House, Inc
ISBN: 9381398968
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 429

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Book Description
An authentic, heartfelt and compelling narrative – straight from the horse’s mouth – that reveals for the first time numerous unknown aspects of the life and times of one of the greatest legends of all time who stands out as a symbol of secular India. Dilip Kumar (born as Yousuf Khan), who began as a diffident novice in Hindi cinema in the early 1940s, went on to attain the pinnacle of stardom within a short time. He came up with spellbinding performances in one hit film after another – in his almost six-decade-long career – on the basis of his innovative capability, determination, hard work and never-say-die attitude. In this unique volume, Dilip Kumar traces his journey right from his birth to the present. In the process, he candidly recounts his interactions and relationships with a wide variety of people not only from his family and the film fraternity but also from other walks of life, including politicians. While seeking to set the record straight, as he feels that a lot of what has been written about him so far is ‘full of distortions and misinformation’, he narrates, in graphic detail, how he got married to Saira Banu, which reads like a fairy tale! Dilip Kumar relates, matter-of-factly, the event that changed his life: his meeting with Devika Rani, the boss of Bombay Talkies, when she offered him an acting job. His first film was Jwar Bhata (1944). He details how he had to learn everything from scratch and how he had to develop his own distinct histrionics and style, which would set him apart from his contemporaries. After that, he soon soared to great heights with movies such as Jugnu, Shaheed, Mela, Andaz, Deedar, Daag and Devdas. In these movies he played the tragedian with such intensity that his psyche was adversely affected. He consulted a British psychiatrist, who advised him to switch over to comedy. The result was spectacular performances in laugh riots such as Azaad and Kohinoor, apart from a scintillating portrayal as a gritty tonga driver in Naya Daur. After a five-year break he started his ‘second innings’ with Kranti (1981), after which he appeared in a series of hits such as Vidhaata, Shakti, Mashaal, Karma, Saudagar and Qila.

Author: T. J. S. George
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 244

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Biography of Nargis Dutt, 1929-1981, Indian motion picture actress.

Author: Ashokamitran
Publisher: Penguin UK
ISBN: 9385890840
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 90

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Reminiscing of a time long lost, Fourteen Years with Boss gives a delightful insight into the workings of the Gemini Studios of Madras—one of the most influential film-producing organizations in India—and its founder, the brilliant and multifaceted S. S. Vasan. Filled with vivid sketches of actors, extras, directors and the ‘boss’, Ashokamitran recreates life at the studio so that it materializes in the reader’s mind with the perfect balance of humour and nostalgia.

Author: Kishwar Desai
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1471101533
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 215

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In a small town in the heart of India, a young girl, barely alive, is found in a sprawling house where thirteen people lie dead. The girl has been beaten and abused, and the house still smoulders from the fire that raked through it. The girl now awaits her trial for the murders that the local police believe she has committed. But an unconventional social worker, Simran Singh, is convinced of her innocence. As Simran begins to examine the circumstances around the case, she encounters a terrifying web of prejudice and deceit in which lives of women are endangered from birth. Brilliantly descriptive of tradition-bound Punjab, Kishwar Desai's debut novel introduces the feisty and independent Simran, whose determination to seek out the truth places her at odds with her environment. What she discovers will change her forever.

Author: Kishwar Desai
Publisher: HarperCollins India
ISBN: 9788172236977
Category : Motion picture actors and actresses
Languages : en
Pages : 442

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Book Description
Biographies of Sunil Dutt,1930-2005 and Nargis Dutt, 1929-1981, Hindi motion picture actors.

Author: Kishwar Desai
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 935629478X
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 447

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She was India's first international superstar in the 1930s and 1940s. Astonishingly beautiful, prodigiously talented and a great-grandniece of Rabindranath Tagore, Devika Rani earned rave reviews for her first film, Karma. Shortly afterwards, she married Himansu Rai, and together they set up India's first truly professional studio, Bombay Talkies. Over the next few years, the studio became the launch pad for some of India's best-known talent, including Ashok Kumar, Leela Chitnis and Dilip Kumar. After Himansu's controversial death in 1940, Devika took over Bombay Talkies. She ran the studio with a steel hand, squashing all rebellion and constantly walking a tightrope when it came to the men around her. Then, one day, she met the handsome and reclusive Svetoslav Roerich, and, just like in a Hindi film, nothing was ever the same again. Devika died as she had lived, in the midst of controversy, and an enigma to most. In The Longest Kiss, for the first time, through her letters and documents, is pieced together the life that she kept away from the world. The romance and the abuse that characterized her marriage with Himansu, the struggle of being a woman at the helm of a hyper-male domain, the circuitous ways in which cinema found its feet in Bombay, and the soaring happiness and tragedy of a life lived on the edge, always.

Author: Saʻādat Ḥasan Manṭo
Publisher: Penguin Random House India Pvt.Limited
ISBN: 9780143430117
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 210

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Book Description
Unforgettable reminiscences about the eccentric, glamorous, yet angst-ridden Hindi film world of the 1940s. Saadat Hasan Manto, one of the greatest short story writers of the Urdu language, was also a film journalist and story-writer for the Hindi film industry in Bombay. As an insider he was privy to the most private moments of the men and women who have dazzled generations of audiences. In this series of sketches, Ashok Kumar, the screen idol of yore, emerges as a shy, yet brilliant actor, forever looking to flee the eager advances of his female fans; Nargis comes across as just another young girl looking for companionship among her peers before she steps on the ladder that will forever take her away from the comforts of an ordinary middle-class life; and Shyam-the dashing, handsome hero-is portrayed as a straightforward, flirtatious young man pining for the woman he loves. Manto also describes in detail the obsessions of Sitara Devi; the unfulfilled desires of Paro Devi; and the intriguing twists and turns which transform Neena Devi from an ordinary housewife into a pawn in the hands of film companies. He writes with relish about the bunglings of the comedian V.H. Desai and the incredible dedication of Nawab Kaashmiri to the art of acting. There are also stories about the rise of Nur Jehan as the greatest singer of her times; and the various peccadilloes of the musician, Rafiq Ghaznavi. With subjects ranging from film journalism to the sexual eccentricities of these stars, Manto brings to life a generation with his characteristic verve and honesty.

Author: Debashree Mukherjee
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231551673
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
From starry-eyed fans with dreams of fame to cotton entrepreneurs turned movie moguls, the Bombay film industry has historically energized a range of practices and practitioners, playing a crucial and compelling role in the life of modern India. Bombay Hustle presents an ambitious history of Indian cinema as a history of material practice, bringing new insights to studies of media, modernity, and the late colonial city. Drawing on original archival research and an innovative transdisciplinary approach, Debashree Mukherjee offers a panoramic portrait of the consolidation of the Bombay film industry during the talkie transition of the 1920s–1940s. In the decades leading up to independence in 1947, Bombay became synonymous with marketplace thrills, industrial strikes, and modernist experimentation. Its burgeoning film industry embodied Bombay’s spirit of “hustle,” gathering together and spewing out the many different energies and emotions that characterized the city. Bombay Hustle examines diverse sites of film production—finance, pre-production paperwork, casting, screenwriting, acting, stunts—to show how speculative excitement jostled against desires for scientific management in an industry premised on the struggle between contingency and control. Mukherjee develops the concept of a “cine-ecology” in order to examine the bodies, technologies, and environments that collectively shaped the production and circulation of cinematic meaning in this time. The book thus brings into view a range of marginalized film workers, their labor and experiences; forgotten film studios, their technical practices and aesthetic visions; and overlooked connections among media practices, geographical particularities, and historical exigencies.

Author: Gp Editors
Publisher:
ISBN: 9789389157994
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 86

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Book Description
Dilip Kumar was born Mohammad Yusuf Khan-to Ayesha Begum and Lala Ghulam Sarwar Ali Khan in a Muslim Hindko-speaking Awan family. For most of his childhood, he lived in Peshawar, North West Frontier Province. His father was a landlord and a fruit merchant, and he owned orchards in Peshawar and Deolali. He moved to Bombay when his father came back after a brief stint in the upcoming city and realizing it offered a lot of opportunities. After finishing his college education, Yusuf left his home in a huff after a disagreement with his father. He arrived at Poona (now Pune) and that was his first tryst with earning his own keep. He recalls having left his house with just forty rupees in his pocket! His coming into what we now know as Bollywood was quite accidental. He just happened to be at the right place at the right time and Devika Rani saw what Yusuf had never seen in himself-untapped potential. Since the pay was quite good, he decided to go ahead and give this profession a shot. It was his movie Jugnu with its huge hoardings that gave him the first taste of stardom. The movie posters were hung all around the town, and clued his father in about what he had been secretly indulging in. His affair with Madhubala was widely publicized and there have been many accounts of their breakup-with each party holding onto their side of the story. The fact remains Dilip Kumar married Saira Banu and they have been an indomitable team for years to come. Dilip Kumar had ruled Bollywood during his days by adopting a screen name because he didn't want to associate his family name in this business as his father wasn't too happy about his decision to join the nautanki business.