Frames of Reference
Every Frame Evokes a Memory, and Every Memory is Worth Sharing
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Kuch Dil Ne Kaha – Playlist of Songs from the Heart
From an outsider’s point of view, perhaps the most noticeable thing about Indian Cinema is that the highlights of a movie are usually the songs from the heart. The best of them, anyway. This Playlist celebrates these Songs from the Heart.
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Bollywood Trivia – Breaking the Typecast
Breaking the typecast is one of the boldest creative risks a filmmaker can take, and when it pays off, it rewrites how we see an actor forever. From the days of the Golden Era to more modern times, directors have repeatedly taken familiar faces and placed them in startlingly unfamiliar territory. Sometimes as a deliberate…
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Guru Dutt, Dev Anand and the Birth of Bombay Noir
Gurudutt directed the Dev Anand starrer Baazi in 1951. And a new genre of Hindi movies was born – Bombay Noir. From Baazi to Jaal to CID, their collaboration produced some unforgettable gems. Separately each of them also had some great movies in this genre. Dev Anand featured in Taxi Driver, House No 44 and…
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S Janaki – A Tribute to a Rare Talent
S Janaki shared something unique with Asha Bhosle and Suman Kalyanpur. All three of them sang from the heart. They could magically shift the emotion in their voice from the innocence of a child to the playful tease of a girl in love to the rapture of devotion. Their voices had a distinct blend of…
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Sweet Sorrow – Videos of “Judai” Songs
‘Judai’ songs that express the sweet sorrow of parting tend to be the sweetest melodies, especially in Hindi Movies. They express the lingering soft echoes of parting between lovers. Which is perhaps why they tend to be audience favorites.
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Bollywood Trivia: Debut Movie of Popular Stars
This quiz is a little time machine for Bollywood lovers. With every question, you’ll see a picture of an actor or actress and travel back to the movie where their journey truly began. Some debuts will take you straight to childhood memories, family movie nights, or the first time you watched a film in a…
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Why ‘System’ Fails to Deliver: A Critical Analysis
Although promising, Ashwini Iyer Tiwari’s ‘System’ fails to deliver in many ways. System is a movie about the system that fails the common man. It is a courtroom drama. A story about the corrupting influence of money. About surviving in an unfair world fighting incredible odds. It is also a story about revenge. In other…
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Madhubala and Meena Kumari – Two Legends, Two Tragedies and Two Classics
Get content suggestions Madhubala and Meena Kumari were two luminous stars of Hindi cinema whose lives seemed to mirror each other in haunting ways. Both began as child artists, both shouldered the responsibility of supporting their families, and both rose to extraordinary fame. Behind the radiance, however, lay troubled relationships, fragile health, and a loneliness…
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Bollywood Trivia: The Odd Couples of Bollywood
“Bollywood Trivia: The Odd Couples” celebrates two major stars, both at the height of their fame, sharing the screen for a single film — and then never again. Sometimes it was fate, sometimes circumstance, and sometimes a behind-the-scenes story more dramatic than anything in the script. These are the “Odd Couples” of Bollywood — fleeting…
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Remembering Suman Kalyanpur
We remember Suman Kalyanpur as a voice that was a quiet constant in Hindi film music, from the golden era to the nineties — present across countless films, lending warmth and sincerity to every song she sang. She may not always have received the recognition her talent deserved, but her recordings have endured, and those…
