Reena Roy dominated bollywood films of 1980s.

Reena Roy

faced the strong competition of the performers of the 70s and yet could survive for more than 15 years in bollywood films. She came at a time when Hema Malini, Rekha, Parveen Babi and other actresses were at their peak. But she impressed the viewers with her natural performance in Subhash Ghai’s film Kalicharan, opposite Shatrughun Sinha. The film was based on the story of a prisoner who was reformed and given training to work in the police force and thereafter help the investigation agency in tracking down the culprits. Reena Roy’s dance performance in the song “jareja” sung by Lata, was well appreciated. In the late 70s Reena Roy kept her mark with her performance in the film Nagin. It was a multistarrer film where Firoz Khan, Mumtaz, Jeetender, Sunil Dutt, all were sublime in their respective roles. The story was based on fantasy where the snakes changed their form and took revenge against human beings who had killed their fellow snakes at different periods of time. Although the story had no practical base, but the entertaining performance of most of the stars including Reena Roy, converted a normal film into a hit venture. Reena Roy acted in multistarrer films of other directors like Manmohan Desai. In Naseeb, she played the role of a worker in a restaurant where Big B himself worked. The film became extremely successful with powerful performance of Shatrughun Sinha, Rishi Kapoor and Hema Malini. The music of the film was extremely successful. Pran and Amzad Khan played key roles in negative characters. In the 80s, with the advent of action films new action stars adorned bollywood films. Actors like Rajnikant tried their luck in bollywood after playing successful innings in South Indian films. Even during that period Reena Roy was successful in her performance opposite Rajnikant in the film Andha Kanoon. Andha Kanoon was related to the revenge that was taken by Rajnikant against Pran, Prem Chopra and Danny after they killed his family members. Reena Roy played the romantic character opposite Rajnikant and kept her mark opposite many stars in the film. Later on she married Pakistani cricketer Mohsin Khan and left films. But even these days whenever she is seen in character roles like the one in Abhishek Bacchan’s film Refugee, the viewers enjoy her presence to a big extent. The viewers expect her to continue her good work in the years to come.

Happy birthday to superstar Vaijayantimalaji

Happy birthday to superstar Vaijayantimala. Happy birthday to Vaijayantimala. The viewers of bollywood films wish happy birthday to dancing queen Vaijayantimala on 13th August, 2019. She had ruled bollywood films during the 50s and 60s, during an age when muslim actresses like Nargis, Madhubala, Meena Kumari rocked silver screen. She was the first South Indian actress to create a sensation in bollywood films and paved the way for other South Indian actresses to follow like Hema Malini, Sri Devi, Jaya Prada, Meenakshi Sheshadri, and others. There was no successful actor of the 1950s and 1960s, who did not act opposite Vaijayantimala. The list is very long ranging from Dilip Kumar to Raj Kapoor, Rajender Kumar to Shammi Kapoor, Dev Anand to Pradip Kumar, Joy Mukherjee to Uttam Kumar. In 2013, she received the lifetime achievement award too for her immense contribution in Bollywood films. Her online chemistry with Tragedy King Dilip Kumar created history in bollywood. Most of their films including Devdas, Naya Daur, Madhumati, Paigham, Ganga Jumna, Leader, Sunghursh ended up being blockbusters. Besides dancing, she was sublime in the role of a tawaif in Bimal Roy’s film Devdas, in the role of village girl in Bimal Roy’s Madhumati. Vaijayantimala used to do a lot of homework also in respect of her role. When she was awarded best supporting actress award in filmfare for her performance in the film Devdas, she did not receive the award. She said after reading the literature of Sarat Chandra Chatterjee, she found that Chandramukhi, the character she played, was equally a heroine as Parvati. Probably Madhumati, released in 1958, marks the best performance of Vaijayantimala in her entire career. Her innocence reflected in her acting and she made the audience spellbound with the lips given in songs composed by Salil Choudhury including “aa ja re pardesi”, “ghari ghari mera dil dharke”, “daiya re daiya re”, etc. She received the filmfare award for the best actress for the brilliant performance in the film. On one hand she was brilliant opposite Dilip Kumar, on the other hand she created sensation with Raj Kapoor as well. Their film Nazrana did mediocre business. But Sangam, released in 1964, was probably one of the biggest hits of Raj Kapoor in his entire life. Vaijayantimala’s stylish performance opposite both Raj Kapoor and Rajender Kumar created a benchmark which could hardly be reached. Sangam still remains one of the most landmark films based on triangular love story shot at exotic locations in London, Paris, and other European countries. Shankar Jaikishan was matchless in Sangam. The acting performance of Vaijayantimala was excellent and she received the filmfare award for the best actress once again. The last scene where Vaijayatimala questioned both Raj Kapoor and Rajender Kumar about deciding about her life, had become a trend-setter. She justified the fact that she had affair with Rajender Kumar, but from the time she married Raj Kapoor, she fulfilled all the responsibilities of a hindu wife. She had been followed by numerous actresses of the following period in similar roles. In the 60s, Vaijayantimala was matchless. Her name was enough to make any film hit. The list of her hit films include Nagin opposite Pradeep Kumar, Suraj opposite Rajender Kumar, Amrapali opposite Sunil Dutt, Prince opposite Shammi Kapoor, Choti Si Mulakat opposite Uttam Kumar, Jewel Thief opposite Dev Anand, Pyar Hi Pyar opposite Dharmender, to name a few. In fact her combination with Rajender Kumar and Shankar Jaikishan created sensation in the 60s. All their films ended up being silver jubilees including Aas Ka Panchi, Suraj, Sangam, Zindagi, etc. Her lips in landmark songs like “kaise samjhayun bai na samajh ho”, “itna hai tujhse pyar mujhe meri raazdaar”, “o mere sanam”, “titli uri” had become immortal over a period of time. Besides her standard of classical dancing in films like Katputli or Amrapali had created interest among viewers to appreciate aesthetic dance numbers which became an art in due period of time. Her films should be restored and preserved.

Rajender Kumarji and Vaijayantimalaji did well in the film Aas Ka Panchi.

Rajender Kumar and Vaijayantimala did well in the film Aas Ka Panchi. The film Aas Ka Panchi was released in the year 1961. It was directed by Mohan Kumar. The music was composed by Shankar Jaikishan. The film was produced by J Om Prakash. The hero and heroine Rajender Kumar and Vaijayantimala did well in the film. In the film it was shown that Rajender Kumar, the son of Naseer Hussain had a childhood ambition of being a military officer. His father never liked that. When Rajender Kumar passed his BA exam, he got him employed in the same office where he had worked in the post of accountant. As Rajender Kumar was not inclined for that job he could not do it properly and lost the job after some period of time. He fell in love with Vaijayantimala, the daughter of Raj Mehra. Vaijayantimala told Rajender Kumar that he could not qualify to get officerial post in the military, he could start as ordinary jawan. He took her advise and joined the army. Raj Mehra wanted to get Vaijayantimala married to a doctor played by Shivraj. As Raj Mehra expected his daughter to marry a respectable person in the society, he could not tolerate her love affair with an ordinary soldier in the army like Rajender Kumar. While Rajender Kumar represented the army in one of the wars, he was severly injured, the operation of him was done by his friend Shivraj. He finally recovered. Vaijayantimala accepted him as her husband. The music in the film was very impressive. The lyrics were written by Shailendra and Hasrat Jaipuri. The landmark songs included “dil mera ek aas ka panchi” sung by Subir Sen, “dheere chalo zara” sung by Subir Sen and Lata Mangeshkar, “tumi roothi raho” sung by Mukesh, “ab char dino ki chutti hai’ sung by Mohammad Rafi, to mention a few. Very significantly Subir Sen was given a big break by Shankar Jaikishan after the film katputli. The performances of all the character artists in the film were excellent including Raj Mehra, Nasir Hussain, Mumtaz Begum, Leela Chitnis, Sundar and others. Vaijayantimala was ruling the film industry at that time, so her name was name to carry any film. Although Rajender Kumar did not become Jubilee Kumar by that time, yet Aas Ka Panchi showed that he had a lot of promise. The film should be preserved and restored.