Houseful The Golden Years Of Hindi Cinema

Published in the year 2012, Housefull: The Golden Age Of Hindi Cinema is a collection of short essays that document some of the groundbreaking film releases during the 1950s and 60s. Summary Of The Book Housefull: The Golden Age of Hindi Cinema is a collection of short essays that provide insights into the best films in Hindi Cinema during the 1950s and 60s. This book starts off with a foreword by Mahesh Bhatt, followed by a brief introduction by Salam. The readers are provided with little-known facts on the lives of actors, directors, composers, lyricists, and producers during this golden age. This book has been divided into 11 parts, most of which examine the lives of some of the greatest directors during the 50s and 60s, which include Guru Dutt, Bimal Roy, B. R. Chopra, Shakti Samanta, Raj Kapoor, Mehboob Khan, V. Shantaram and the Anands. There is a rather incongruous portion placed between these sections, called Period Films (1952-1960). Each section starts off with a brief introduction by a renowned figure in the Hindi film industry, followed by a series of write-ups on films. Only landmark films by a particular director have been included. An example of this is Bimal Roy, whose hit movies such as Devdas, Madhumati, Sujata, Bandini, and Do Bigha Zameen have been added in this book. Each essay begins with some brief information about the movie, such as the director, writers, lyricist, lead actors, and the cinematographer, which is followed by the movie’s synopsis. Additionally, the readers are given insights into how a particular movie came into being as well as behind-the-scenes stories sans any gossip. The writer of that particular section then gives their take on where the movie scores and what contributed to its success. This book consists of contributions from some of the most renowned figures such as Vijay Lokapally, Anuj Kumar, and Suresh Kohli. This book takes the readers back in time, when the eminent Mangeshkar sisters sang together and the time Gulzar was prevented from singing his own song. Housefull: The Golden Age of Hindi Cinema helps the readers understand how Indian cinematic history has evolved from films such as Mughal-e-Azam and Sholay, to Tare Zameen Par and Lagaan. About Ziya Us Salam Ziya Us Salam is an author and journalist. Salam is a film critic and renowned journalist. He currently serves as the Deputy Editor for The Hindu’s Metroplus. He has been writing about Indian cinema regularly, making his contributions to several anthologies.

A free open access ebook is available upon publication. Learn more at www.luminosoa.org. By the 1960s, Hindi-language films from Bombay were in high demand not only for domestic and diasporic audiences but also for sizable non-diasporic audiences across Eastern Europe, Central Asia, the Middle East, and the Indian Ocean world. Often confounding critics who painted the song-dance films as noisy and nonsensical. if not dangerously seductive and utterly vulgar, Bombay films attracted fervent worldwide viewers precisely for their elements of romance, music, and spectacle. In this richly documented history of Hindi cinema during the long 1960s, Samhita Sunya historicizes the emergence of world cinema as a category of cinematic diplomacy that formed in the crucible of the Cold War. Interwoven with this history is an account of the prolific transnational circuits of popular Hindi films alongside the efflorescence of European art cinema and Cold War–era forays of Hollywood abroad. By following archival leads and threads of argumentation within commercial Hindi films that seem to be odd cases—flops, remakes, low-budget comedies, and prestige productions—this book offers a novel map for excavating the historical and ethical stakes of world cinema and world-making via Bombay.

Huge amount of information is available about Hindi films on the internet. Unfortunately, not all of it is reliable. Mistakes range from honest clerical errors to outright made-up interviews with famous people. In this book the author describes his real interactions with Hindi film actresses who were active in the 40s to 60s. Most had been away from the industry for a long time and were living anonymously. The author made great effort to seek them out and interviewed them. He has obtained much rare and authentic information, clarifying many misconceptions and finding elaborations of other well-known facts about them. We hope that the readers will enjoy reading about them as much as the author has writing about the interviews.

Contributed articles.

The Indian film industry stands above most other national cinemas due to its local focus yet enormous size. Although gaining more and more international popularity, the main audience for this cinematic titan resides within India, and while this may seem a restrictive quality, the fact that India is the second most populated country in the world, combined with the local focus of Indian cinemas (in 2012 foreign imports only filled 9% of the total film box office), Indian cinema has grown to become one of the largest film industries in the world. Although the film industry is widely known as 'Bollywood', this term actually only refers to the Hindi-language films produced through the studios in Mumbai (Bombay), only one part of the incredible spectrum of Indian films, albeit the largest.The origins of cinema can be traced back to the French Lumiere Brothers. Unveiling their first short films in 1895, these revolutionary filmmakers tempted the world with a new form of entertainment. In 1896, the brothers toured their works to India for the first time, hosting a screening in Mumbai Watson Hotel. Reported as the 'Miracle of the Century' by The Times of India, it was not long until converted film fanatics started to emerge in the then British governed India. Through experimenting with techniques and technologies, early filmmaker Hiralal Sen made the first Indian short film in 1898. 1912 then saw the first screened Indian silent film, Shree Pundalik, directed by Dadasaheb Torne. Outside help was used however, with the film shot by British cinematographers and the negatives sent to London to be processed. It was the next year, 1913, which saw the first truly authentic Indian film being screened: Dadasaheb Phalke's Raja Harishchandra, and thus Indian cinema was born. Since these early beginnings India's film industry has continued to flourish, growing in popularity, size and reach. There are many factors for this ongoing growth, one of them being the affordability of cinema in the country. From the early days onwards, India cinema venues have made films accessible to the wider public, providing cheap admission, with convenient extras being sold as buyable additions, not inbuilt in the price. With the vast economic gap that is found in India, this factor has allowed film to become an art form for the people, not just for the upper class. Interestingly, in the late 1920s the Britishgovernment tried to promote UK film in India in an attempt to overtake the growingAmerican cinema, and created the Indian Cinematograph Enquiry Committee. This programme failed with this aim however, with the committee favouring Indianproduced films; it seemed that nothing could stop the growth of this national movement. With technology advancements, sound and dialogue became more and more implemented in Indian films throughout the 1930s, leading to a surge of song and dance in films, such as in Indrasabha and Devi Devyani. This element would take a strong hold in Hindi cinema, and is a renowned quality found in many Bollywood films being made today. Another influential factor in Bollywood's growth was India's independence in 1947. Proud in becoming an autonomous country, national cinema experienced a Golden Era from the 1940s to the 1960s. This era saw directors such as Satyajit Ray, Guru Dutt, Raj Kapoor andVijay Bhatt create a wide range of classic films, further establishing and redefining Indian film. It was these influential filmmakers who paved the pathway for the future of Bollywood, and its present day position as one of the largest film industries in the world.

Discover historical insights, lesser-known facts, and incredible photography of iconic movies including Mother India, Mughal-e-Azam, Sholay, and Bajirao Mastani with this gorgeous celebration of the world's biggest film industry. Bollywood charts the world of Hindi cinema year-by-year from the pioneering studios of the 1930s, through the Golden Age, to the age of Big Money in the 21st century and it's biggest modern stars. With over 1,000 films produced every year, the glitter and charm of Bollywood is unrivalled anywhere else in the world. Bollywood takes you on a behind-the-scenes tour of Hindi cinema's biggest blockbusters, with stunning film stills and plot timelines, as well as insightful biographies of iconic stars including Dev Anand, Amitabh Bachchan, Deepika Padukone, and Shahrukh Khan. Bring the spectacle home and be enchanted by the glamour and colour of Indian cinema with this glittering homage to Bollywood!