#upkaar movie | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

bollywoodirect · 8 years ago

Photo

Tribute to Mahendra Kapoor (9 January 1934 – 27 September 2008), one of Hindi cinema's most prominent singers, on his 9th death anniversary.

Mahendra Kapoor was born in Amritsar, but soon moved to Mumbai. At an early age he was inspired by singer Mohammed Rafi but he started learning classical music under classical singers like Pt. Hussanlal, Pt. Jagannath Bua, Ustad Niaz Ahmed Khan, Ustad Abdul Rehman Khan and Pt.Tulsidaas Sharma. Kapoor created a style of his own and won the Metro Murphy All-India singing competition, which led to his debut as a playback singer in V. Shantaram's Navrang in 1958, singing Aadha Hai Chandrama Raat Aadhi, under the musical direction of C. Ramchandra.

Some of Kapoor's most notable songs were the ones he performed in B.R. Chopra's films (Dhool Ka Phool, Gumrah, Waqt, Hamraaz, Dhund and Nikaah) and for Manoj Kumar (Upkaar, Purab Aur Paschim).

Kapoor had a very large vocal range, and he is sometimes known as The Vibrant Voice of India. He was the first Indian playback singer to record music in English. He was asked by the group Boney M to sing their songs in Hindi with Musarat from Pakistan, which resulted in the Pop Album M-3. Some of the songs on the album are "Chori Chori Chalo!!"(Original, Hoorray! Hoorray! by Boney M), "O Meri Champe Ki Daali". Most of the songs sung by Mahendra Kapoor are famous, whether they are from B R Chopra movies or Manoj Kumar's movies. His song from 'Bandhan', 'Shakti'. 'Doli', 'Ek Nazar', 'Admi Aur Insaan', 'Sangam', 'Tawaif' are also quite popular.

Mahendra Kapoor also sang a duet with Mohammed Rafi. The song was "Kaisi Haseen Aaj Baharon Ki Raat" from the 1967 film "Aadmi", which was originally recorded as a duet with Rafi and Talat Mehmood. Manoj Kumar, one of the lead stars refused to use Talat's voice for him and the song was re-recorded with Kapoor replacing Talat. Mahendra Kapoor also sang the dohas, mantras, chopaiyan and also Title track of Mahabharat 1988 TV series.

Kapoor sung in a large number of Indian languages, and is the playback singer who has performed in the largest number of in Gujarati, Punjabi, Bhojpuri and Marathi movies. He also performed the title song for the TV series Mahabharat. In Marathi he was very popular for being the voice of Dada Kondke in all his movies. In spite of being associated with Dada Kondke's colloquial style his singing for Marathi movies was not limited to Dada Kondke's movies only.

Kapoor was married and had three daughters and also one son. His son Rohan Kapoor is an actor and singer, who acted in a few films in the 1980s such as Yash Chopra's Faasle (1985) and Love 86 (1986), and Prakash Mehra's Imandaar, and later did stage shows together with his father.

On 27 September 2008, Kapoor died following a cardiac failure. He was survived by his wife, children, children-in-law and grandchildren.

Mahendra Kapoor is one of the golden era singers when Mohd Rafi, Kishore Kumar, Mukesh and Manney Dey was ruling the main platform of playback singers of the bollywood. He remained as one of the most popular singer in the Bollywood who has given his voice to almost all of the popular heroes like Dilip Kumar, Shammi Kapoor, Raj Kapoor, Dev Anand, Shahsi Kapoor, Biswajeet, Raj Kumar, Dharmendra, Amitabh Bahchcan, Manoj Kumar, Vinod Khanna, Shatrughina Sinha and many more. For Punjabi movies he has given his voice to Varendra, Mehar Mittal, Prem Nath and many more. Till to date, there is many clones of Mohd Rafi, Kishore Kumar and Mukesh but there is none close clone to his voice. His voice was the most highest vocal in Bollywood.

Like बॉलीवुड डायरेक्ट Bollywoodirect

#Mahendra Kapoor #Bollywood #Bollywoodirect

4 notes · View notes

jayprakashdoshi · 8 years ago

Video

Upkaar - Peeli Peeli Sarson Phooli

MOVIE: Upkaar 1967, SINGERS: Asha, Shamshad, Manna Dey, Mahendra Kapoor, LYRICS: Prem Dhawan, MD: Kalyanji Anandji

0 notes

bollywoodirect · 8 years ago

Photo

Wishing Prem Chopra many happy returns of the day who turned 82 today.

Prem Chopra (born 23 September 1935) is an Indian actor in Hindi and Punjabi films. He has acted in 320 films over a span of over 50 years. He has a soft-spoken diction despite being a villain in most films. His 19 films with him as antagonist and Rajesh Khanna in the lead role remain popular with audiences and critics.

In Shimla, Prem Chopra developed an interest in acting as he had begun to take part in many plays in his college days. Despite stiff opposition from his parents, he managed to go to Mumbai to pursue his dream of acting in Bollywood films. In his initial days he stayed at guest-houses in Colaba, Mumbai. He started visiting film studios to display his portfolio: The response was not encouraging.

To survive in the fast life of Mumbai, he took up a job with The Times of India while trying to gain a foothold in the film industry. He looked after circulation of the paper in Bengal, Orissa and Bihar and was required to tour 20 days a month. Prem used to cut his touring time by calling the agents to come and meet him at the station so that he could quickly return. This way a tour that would normally take 20 days would get completed in 12, and he would spend the rest of the time going from one studio to the other. While traveling by the suburban train one day, a stranger accosted him and asked if he was interested in joining films. Chopra nodded in agreement and went with that stranger to Ranjit Studios where the producers of Chaudhari Karnail Singh were in search of a hero. Jagjit Sethi, a Punjabi producer, gave him a break as Jabeen's hero in Chaudhary Karnail Singh, a Punjabi film. His debut film was a Hindu-Muslim romantic love story set against the backdrop of Indo-Pak partition and it turned out to be a big hit. The film even won the National award. He was paid Rs 2500 for his debut film. The movie took almost three years to complete.

During his stint with the Times of India, he worked in Punjabi films including Sapani and Hindi films such as Woh Kaun Thi?, Shaheed, Main Shaadi Karne Chala and Teesri Manzil. Prem did not consider acting as a full-time profession in the early 1960s, but he kept trying to get roles in films due to his passion for acting. Among his early films he played Sukhdev in Shaheed, one of his rare positive leading roles. Prem had done four movies before Woh Kaun Thi?, a box office hit of 1964, had released. On the sets of Woh Kaun Thi? which had Manoj Kumar as lead hero, Prem met Manoj for the first time. Manoj offered Prem a positive role in Shaheed, for which Manoj was the presenter. During the shooting of Main Shadi Karne Chala someone suggested that he become a villain. He continued working with ToI, when he was already a part of box office hits like Nishan, Sikandar E Azam in 1965 and Sagaai, Mera Saaya in 1966. After Teesri Manzil and Upkaar, he was flooded with films as a villain.

After Upkaar in 1967, he left The Times of India to concentrate solely on acting.

Since 1967, he has been a leading villain in Hindi films and his peak period as main villain was from 1967 to 1994. In the 1970s he got plum roles as villains often with Amjad Khan and Ranjeet. In a few films he played secondary villain to villainous characters of Ajit, Madan Puri, Pran, Jeevan in the 1970s and 1980s and to Amrish Puri and Amjad Khan in the late 1980s. In the critically acclaimed comedy film Hulchul (1971), a remake of Anubhavam Pudhumai, he played the lead hero in this suspense thriller. He played the main lead in the 1970 box office hit small budget comedy film Samaj Ko Badal Dalo as lead hero, and was paired opposite Telugu actresses Kanchana and Sarada. The song sung by Rafi and picturised on Prem Chopra - "Tum Apni Saheli Ko Itna Bata Do Ki Usse Koi Pyar Karne Laga Hai" from this 1970 film and the song "Rah Mein Kaliya" - a song sung by Kishore Kumar and performed on-screen by Prem Chopra in the film Nafrat (1973), a box office flop, continues to be popular. The dialogue " Prem naam hai mera, Prem Chopra" (My name is Prem, Prem Chopra) from the film Bobby has been very popular. Another famous Prem Chopra dialogue is from the film Souten - "Main wo bala hoon jo sheshay se pathar ko todte hai" which closely translates to "I am that trouble which crushes stones with glass". Another dialogue from Souten was - "Jinke Ghar Sheeshe Ke Hote Hain Woh Batti Bhujakar Kapde Badalte Hai". "Main jo aag lagata hoon use boojhana bhi jaanta hoon" from Kati Patang was famous as well. He was the regular in villainous roles in the films with Rajesh Khanna in the lead role from 1969 to 1991 from Doli (1969) till Ghar Parivaar (1991). The duo of Prem and Rajesh Khanna acted in 19 films together and 15 of them were box office hits, and they were very close friends in real life till Khanna's death. Prem quoted in an interview "Rajesh Khanna and I were considered a lucky pair and distributors used to tell Rajesh Khanna that we don't care who your heroine is, all we want to know is whether Prem Chopra is in the film." He also mouthed dialogues in the song "Aaj Pila Dey Saathi Apni" sung by Mahendra Kapoor from the film Doli (1969).He also mouthed dialogues in the song "Lo Mera Pyar Lelo" from Nafrat in 1973 with Asha Bhosle and "Kab Se Ye Dil Hai Pyaasa" from Mera Muqaddar in 1988.

Unlike other villains, Chopra's on-screen evil didn't rely on gizmos, his characters didn't rely on henchmen to do the dirty work and he never needed wicked names. Some of his famous dialogues from the 1990s include - "Sharafat aur imaandaari ka certificate ye duniya sirf unhe deti hai jinke paas daulat hoti hai" from Aag Ka Gola (1990), "Bhains poonch uthayegi to gaana to nahi gayegi, gobar hi degi" from Aaj Ka Arjun (1990), "Tu Madhuri se thodi kum aur Mandakini se thodi zyada hai" from Aaj Ka Goonda Raj (1992), "Rajneeti ki bhains ke liye daulat ki lathi ki zaroorat hoti hai" from Khiladi (1992), "Kar bhala to ho bhala" from Raja Babu (1994) and "Nanga nahayega kya aur nichodega kya" from Dulhe Raja (1998).

Like बॉलीवुड डायरेक्ट Bollywoodirect

#prem chopra #bollywood #bollywoodirect #hindi films #indian cinema

2 notes · View notes

bollywoodirect · 8 years ago

Photo

Remembering actor Kanhaiyalal Chaturvedi on his 35th death anniversary.

Born in 1910 in Varanasi, his father Pandit Bhairodutt Choube, popularly known as Choubheji, was the proprietor of the Sanatan Dharm Natak Samaj in Varanasi.

He was fond of plays and came to Mumbai to find a space on stage. He staged his own written play Pandrah August in Mumbai, later he tried his luck in films. He also had written many plays. In the 1939 film Ek Hi Raasta as Banke he got a break in Hindi films and in 1940 he got a role of moneylender (Sahukar) in a Mehboob Khan's film Aurat as Sukhilala. After that he later acted in many films as a character artist. When Mehboob Khan was directed his film Mother India, he again picked Kanhaiya Lal to act as Sukkhi Lala, a character that came alive with his natural acting. After that Kanhaiya Lal played same type of roles in Ganga Jamuna, Gopi, Upkar, Apna Desh. His other notable movies are Dushman, Bandhan, Bharosa, Dharti Kahe Pukar Ke, Hum Paanch, Bhookh (1947). He is known for his roles in Mother India, Gunga Jumna, Upkar etc.

His memorable roles include those as villainous scheming moneylender in the films Mother India and Upkaar As he recalled in an interview, “An actor playing Motilal‘s father had not reported on the sets, so there was an opportunity to step into the breach. The dialogue I had to speak ran to a full sheet of foolscap paper. Almost everyone on the sets was ready to laugh at my trying to set up as an actor, but God helped me and I did my job.” The film was ‘Jhul Badn’, written by K. M. Munshi (the founder of Bhartiya Vidya Bhawan), directed by Sarvottam Badami and starring Motilal and Sabita Devi. To his elation, his speaking role début fetched a ten rupee increment as his salary rose to Rs.45 a month. “Another promotion I earned was to play grandfather instead of father. This was in ‘Sadhana’, also of Sagar. My grandson was the hero of the film, Prem Adib. That was my first big role after which I became ‘acceptable’. I was quite young but I thus started playing old roles. And, down the years, I got older and older but my roles didn’t grow younger and younger!”

For ‘Sadhana,’ he also functioned also as dialogue and lyric writer. In fact, it was while he was reading out the dialogue he had written that Mr. Chimanlal Desai, proprietor of Sagar, offered him to enact the role. “I must also record that when the film was being made, quite a number of people thought I was bogus and withheld coöperation. However, the film was a big hit and ran to a silver jubilee at the Imperial Cinema.”

Getting frustrated at drawing a blank for directing a film, after Sadhana he returned home to Varanasi. When he returned to Bombay, it was with the understanding that he would help Virendra Desai (son of Sagar Movietone boss, Chimanlal Desai). He rewrote the dialogue of ‘Sanskar’ as also its lyrics but it came to naught.

However, the ascension of his career graph was kick-started by Mehboob Khan with writer Wajahat Mirza playing catalyst at whose insistence he was selected for the role of Sukhilala in ‘Aurat (1940), the wicked moneylender who has designs on the young widow. As he reminisced in an interview, “On this production, too, I had the feeling that the ice had yet to be broken. There was no make-up man free or willing to attend to me. When I explained this difficulty to Faredoon Irani, the cinematographer, he calmly said, ‘Don’t worry. Just appear as you are and I will photograph you without makeup.’ He did just that. My make-up consisted only of a moustache. There are not very many cinematographers who will stake their reputation by agreeing to photograph artistes without make-up. I admired Mr. Irani’s courage and self-confidence. I regard my Aurat role as a really good one. I was helped tremendously by the lines Wajahat Mirza wrote for me. In fact, I firmly believe that what an actor needs most of all are good dialogue to enable him to do well.”

During the shooting of the scene in which the house collapses on the salacious Sukhilala, Kanhaiyalal got hurt. In honour of the dictum, the show must go on, he right away told Mehboob Khan not to call a doctor immediately but to finish the remaining shots. When he came out of the set eventually, the doctor was waiting for him. Aurat had a golden jubilee run with Sardar Akhtar (Mrs. Mehboob Khan) playing the lead. When Mehboob remade ‘Aurat’ as ‘Mother India’ (1957), only Kanhaiyalal reprised his role, a first in Hindi cinema with the same actor replaying the same character 17 years later.

Telescoped into the stereotype that bears his signature, early in his career he experimented much more than in his later years. “In Mehboob’s film ‘Bahen,’ (1941) I had the role of a good-natured pickpocket. Here, four scenes originally conceived for me were spun out into about fourteen by Wajahat Mirza.

In National Studios’ ‘Radhika,’ (1941) directed by K. B. Lall I played a temple priest and in ‘Lal Haveli,’ (1944, again by Lall) I played the comic role of a Pandit. Yakub starred in the film and his frequent punch line telling me ‘Chacha, pasina aa raha hai’ became quite famous.”

Gunga Jumna (1961) he again excelled as a ‘munim’. He also shone in Mahesh Kaul’s ‘Sautela Bhai’ (1962) but the film tanked. Gemini’s ‘Grahasti,’ (1962) in which he played a station master gave him immense satisfaction and he said, “In my opinion, it’s the first picture from the South to achieve that much versatility.”

The trouble monger continued his winning streak with Upkar, Ram aur Shyam (both 1967), Jeevan Mrityu (1970), Apna Desh (1972), Karmayogi (1978) and Hum Paanch (1980).

After completing a century of roles in Bollywood, Hathkadi (1982) became his swan song as his histrionics breathed their last on 14 Aug 1982. He was 72.

Here’s to remembering and raising a toast for this screen talent on his death anniversary.

Like बॉलीवुड डायरेक्ट Bollywoodirect

#Kanhaiyalal Chaturvedi #Kanhaiyalal #Sukhi Lala #Mother India #Bollywood #Bollywoodirect

1 note · View note