Lockdown Legends : Trivia from Bollywood

With the Lockdown of 21 days in place, I thought it fit to resume the musiblog which has been an intermittent affair now. After a consecutive run of 50 weeks in 2017 ( it seems ages now) and infrequent attempts  to resume , over the last couple of years, this is the best window of opportunity, surely. Locked down at home , it is a cinch, as they say, except  that...
there are a whole lot of things on my To Do List for the Lockdown :)

In view of the above ( as is stated in all of bureaucratic lingo !) , I shall make this a mini-blog. This means that the content will be short and sweet and related, generally to Bollywood trivia: a small tidbit to remember. Since the shots ( like those of tequila !) shall be small, there may be many of them during the period, each a separate incident or anecdote, wrapped up with a beautiful song, to hum.


So, here goes.



How Bimal Roy got his banner !
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Bimal Roy Productions was actually conceived on a double decker bus, in early 50s ! Bimal da and his friends from Calcutta ( as it was known then) had come to Bombay ( as it was known then) and saw Akira Kurusowa's classic Roshoman. On the way back to where they had put up,while on the bus they were silent, obviously awed by the film. One of them ( probably Asit Sen) said, why can't we make such films. "Who will write the story", someone quipped. Hrishikesh Mukherji, then 27 (he had already spent 5 years as editor with Bimal da) said he would.After some more discussion, it was decided to launch a banner Bimal Roy Productions.

Great endings have often humble beginnings !

The first film of the production was Do Bigha Zameen and this is a song from the film Parivar 1956

Something about the song from the film Parivar, too.

This song “jhir jhir jhir jhir badarwaa barse” is a wonderful song in all respects. Shailendra’s words are so imaginatively written. Salil Chaudhary was at his best in coming up with music that touched the heart strings of the audience. Add to it,  the therapeutic voices of Lata Mangeshkar and Hemant Kumar and we have a song that can be called a superb example of a “mental massage” song, one that is currently required in the times that we are.

This song is picturised on Sabita Chatterji and Ashim Kumar