Saturday, April 3, 2021

Happy birthday to Jaya Pradaji.

Happy birthday to Jaya Prada. The viewers of bollywood films wish happy birthday to Jaya Prada on 3rd April, 2021. Jaya Prada was considered as one of the most gifted actresses of bollywood films of the 80s. She shook the Indian audience with her dancing skills in the film Shankaravaranam. In the late 70s her film Sargam opposite Rishi Kapoor became superhit with a brilliant story and excellent songs. She played the role of a deaf and dumb girl who had immense dancing callibre which was unearthed by Rishi Kapoor in the film. The film created sensation in both in North India and South India. The music composed by LP was brilliant by every musical standard and Lata and Rafi were sublime in the songs “dafliwale dafli baja”, “koel boli”, “ramjiki nikli sawari”, etc. In an age of action pact films of Big B, Vinod Khanna, Sargam being a romantic film with Rishi Kapoor and Jaya Prada did excellent business. From that time Jaya Prada became the no. 1 bollywood actress and acted opposite all the leading stars of bollywood. Her other superhit films include Sharabi, opposite Big B, Akhree Rasta opposite Big B, Kamchor opposite Rakesh Roshan, to name a few. She acted in a number of films opposite Jeetender as well and all of those films were successful. At that time she got stiff competition from Sri Devi, another South Indian actress who had both acting talent and dancing talent. The films where both of them acted together, the viewers were confused to choose between the two. In Akhree Rasta Jaya Prada did equally well like Sri Devi. In the 90s, also Jay Prada’s films especially opposite Big B did good business, like Indrajeet or Aaj Ka Arjun. In those films while Big B concentrated on action sequences, Jaya Prada played the romantic part to perfection. With the emergence of new actresses in bollywood films in the 90s like Madhuri Dixit and Juhi Chawla, Jaya Prada faded away from the bollywood industry. She joined politics and had been the parliamentarian for more than a decade. Besides she had played important roles in tamil films and other South Indian films over the years. A number of cinema halls in Mysore and Bangalore were named after her. In 2010, she had been expelled from the Samajwadi Party by Mulayam Singh Yadav along with other primary members. That can give her some time to devote in bollywood films as well. The viewers expect her to make a comeback in bollywood films in character roles as many of them feel that she still has a lot of acting left in her.

Happy birthday to Pooja Bedi

Happy birthday to Pooja Bedi. The viewers of bollywood films wish happy birthday to Pooja Bedi, the daughter of legendary actor Kabir Bedi on 11th May, 2021
. She was born in a star family with her mother Pratima Bedi being a classical dancerand father being an established actor. Although she came from an acting family as Kabir Bedi had experience of performing in Hollywood films as well, her contribution in bollywood films had not been that substantial. Her film Vishkanya in the early part of her career was based on the story related to snakes. In Indian films fantasies based on the life of snakes had amazed the viewers in the past. The film Nagin in the mid-70s, with Reena Roy, Jeetender, Mumtaz and others, did fantastic business. So Pooja Bedi was lucky to start her career with such films. The film was well appreciated by the audience. Later on her film with Amir Khan, Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikander, did fantastic business. The film was based on teenage romance. Amir Khan always had a special place in the minds of viewers as his romantic appeal always attracted the female audience right from the release of the film Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak. Pooja Bedi probably had given her best. Pooja Bedi’s role of a teenage girl did fit the requirement of the story and the film. All the songs in the film became successful including the song “pehla nasha, pehla khumar” sung by Udit Narayan. Viewers of different tastes appreciated the film. Her other notable films included Aatank Hi Aatank and Lootere. She was very impressive in Mahesh Bhatt’s film Phir Teri Kahani Yaad Ayee. It was a film related to human relationship and Pooja Bedi’s performance in a supporting role was appreciated by the critics. She was as impressive as Pooja Bhatt and Rahul Roy in the film. In the late 90s, all of a sudden she faded away from the industry. But she continued to appear in television shows. She was the anchor of the TV shows Not Just Page 3 and Just Pooja in Zoom TV. These programs became very popular in the years when they were telecast. In the following period she even participated as contestant in TV shows like Jhalak Dikhlaja in Sony TV, Heart Beat, Mum Tum or Hum, Jodi Kamaal Ki, Nach Baliye, etc., in Star TV, also Fear Factor – Khatron Ki Khiladi in Colors. The viewers expect her make a comeback in bollywood films in the years to come.

Thursday, April 1, 2021

Happy birthday to Jaya Bacchan

Happy birthday to Jaya Bacchan. The viewers of bollywood films wish happy birthday to Jaya Bacchan on 9th April, 2021. She was considered to be one of the most powerful actresses of films during the 70s and 80s. Her effortless performance in different types of roles had inspired other actresses to follow her later on. Jaya Bacchan started her career with an impressive role in Satyajit Ray’s film Mahanagar in 1965. She played the role of younger sister of Anil Chatterji and adapted herself in the role of realistic actress who show least amount of mannerisms in that film. In the bollywood film Guddi, she played the role of a common girl who was inspired by bollywood films. Utpal Dutta, her uncle took her to film studios to show that actors like Dharmender and others were made stars by the sheer effort of the cameraman, make-up man, director, producer and others and larger than life image is created by the technicians. Jaya Bacchan showed the innocence required from the role of a common teenager in the film. In the 70s, Jaya Bacchan acted in refined commercial films opposite Sanjeev Kumar and got appreciation from the mass and the critics. She was sublime in Gulzar’s film Koshish, where she herself along with Sanjeev Kumar played the role of a deaf and dumb couple who educated their child and learned communication by attending classes in deaf and dumb schools. She acted in the film Naya din nayi raat, opposite Sanjeev Kumar, where Sanjeev Kumar played 9 roles of 9 different persons. She left her house and met all the nine separate persons and met her husband which was also played by Sanjeev Kumar. She had very peculiar experiences of meeting drunkards, persons suffering from leprosy, smugglers, etc. and expressed her emotions very well. She was sublime in Gulzar’s film Parichay in 1972, where she played the role of the eldest sister of Sanjeev Kumar. She and her brothers and sisters became orphans after the death of their parents and were brought by Pran, their grandfather to their ancestral house. Jeetender was invited to teach the children and she got involved with Jeetender at the end of the film. She expressed her love for her father and hatred towards grandfather for not accepting her mother in the house like any intellectual actress. Her lips in the song “biti na bitai rehna” sung by Lata and Bhupinder Singh require special mention. Jaya Bachhan was equally sublime in commercial films like Sholay, Zanjeer, etc., opposite Big B. If her performance opposite Sanjeev Kumar in films like Anamika, Nauker, showed her class of acting, her performance opposite Big B in films like Bangsi Aur Birju or Abhimaan or Milli showed her spontaneous presence before the commercial crowd. In Abhimaan, all the songs of Lata like “teri bindiya re”, “tere mere Milan ki yeh raina”, etc., almost appeared like songs of Jaya Bacchan. Critics feel that she even did better than Big B in Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s classic film. She became a myth in the 70s, after performing in any time of film including Manoj Kumar’s Shor to Yash Chopra’s Silsila. Even the medium-budget films like Piya Ka Ghar did business due to sheer brilliance of performance of Jaya Bacchan. In the late 90s, she again made a comeback in character roles in films like Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham, Fiza, etc., and showed the audience that she had not lost her touch in acting. The viewers expect her to continue the great work in bollywood films, as there is no doubt that she had equal potentiality like Shabana Azmi or Smita Patil and could have been chosen for any art film made by Shyam Benegal, Govind Nihalini and others during the 80s, had she not left films for bringing up Abhishek Bacchan and her daughter.