MUTTERINGS #03: PARVEEN BABI

I thought I’d do mini bios of celebrities of the movie and music world that I like….. Who better to start with than my namesake!

Born Parveen Wali Mohammad Khan Babi on 4 April 1949 (ironically, we share the same zodiac star and month too, but not year!) in Gujarat India, Ms Babi was the only child of Wali Mohammad Babi Babi and was born fourteen years after her parents’ marriage.

She was spotted by Hindi director/writer B.R. Ishara at Ahmedabad University where she was studying and he offered her a role his forthcoming movie, Charitraheen. And the rest is history. Parveen Babi went on to act in over 50 movies, with her last starring role in 1988 (Aakarshan). Movies in which she made famous and was fondly remembered for include Deewar, Namak Halaal, Amar Akbar Anthony, Shaan, Kaalia, Khud-daar and Kranti.

Parveen Babi did not marry but shared intimate relationships with married men such as director Mahesh Bhatt, actors Kabir Bedi and Danny Denzongpa (Amitabh Bachchan is also rumoured but the claim has not been substantiated). Mahesh Bhatt later wrote and directed Arth (1982), a semi-autobiographical film about his extra-marital relationship with Babi, and wrote and produced Woh Lamhe (2006) based on actual facts about his relationship with her.

His film Arth is said to have tipped her already fragile mental health (it was speculated that she was suffering from schizophrenia) and made her a recluse. She moved to the US in 1983, to seek treatment for her mental disorder (she did not trust Indian doctors) and also for substance abuse (she was known to be taking LSD, marijuana and also drinking excessively).

She returned to Mumbai in 2002 where she was unrecognizable as her former self after having put on a considerable amount of weight. She accused many foreign dignitaries and former co-star Amitabh Bachchan of conspiracy to kill her but her court petition was dismissed for lack of evidence.

Parveen Babi was found dead, alone in her Juhu residence on Sunday 22 January, 2005. The police was alerted when neighbours noticed that she had not collected her milk or her newspapers for three days.

She was found to have gangrene of the foot as a complication of her diabetic condition. It was later confirmed that her cause of death was due to complications from diabetes. Filmmakers Mahesh Bhatt and Ashok Pandit performed her last rites as she had no claimants to her body (her father died when she was young and her mother a few years previously). She was buried according to Muslim rites, next to her mother in Santa Cruz, Mumbai, on 23 January 2005.

From a revered and idolized movie star and the first Indian actress to have been featured on TIME magazine's cover (in March 1977), she was alone – in life and in death.

MUTTERINGS #03: PARVEEN BABI

MOVIE #02: THE RED KEBAYA 2006 (ENGLISH/MALAY)

It has been nearly 17 years since I watched a new Malay movie (my mum bought me some P Ramlee movies a few years back) and I was very surprised to see a Malay movie for sale at JB Hifi. Mind you, I paid $28.95 for the DVD, so I was hoping that it would be good and I was not TOTALLY disappointed.

BTW, if you are wondering what a KEBAYA is, it is a traditional figure hugging blouse, worn with a sarong, by women in the South-East Asia region, namely in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, Burma, Singapore, southern Thailand and some parts of Cambodia. It is sometimes made from sheer material (with intricate embroidery), with a chemise style lining beneath. It can also be short, stopping at the hips (see picture below), or long, usually stopping at mid thigh.

The movie is a Malaysian period drama set in the 1950s and is directed by Oliver Knott and produced by Andre Berly and Ramli Hassan. In summary, the story begins in the present day, with Latiff (Ramli Hassan, who is also the producer) a famous but lonely photographer who was orphaned as a child. He decides to photograph abandoned houses around Malaysia as his latest project and on his journey, he is haunted by images of places, children, people and a red kebaya that that he cannot comprehend. His journey takes him to the island of Penang and one day, he ‘sees’ the red kebaya in an antique shop window. As he enters the shop to inquire about the dress, he has a sense of ‘déjà vu’ when he meets the shop owner; but is told that he is mistaken - there is no red dress in the window. Latiff then sees a photograph of a house in the shop and is mesmerised by his find. He inquires about the location of the house and decides to visit it; finding it to be derelict, on the foothill of the famous Penang Hill.

Latiff finds himself transported to the past and witnesses events that occurred in the house. In his flashback, Latiff is transported to the time when the British were still in Malaya (Malaya gained its independence in 1957 and became known as Malaysia in 1963). He sees an Englishman, John Reynolds (Bob Mercer), who is trapped in a stifling marriage with his xenophobic wife. When his wife, Davinia (Samantha Schubert), briefly leaves Malaya for England, John becomes involved with a beautiful joget (a type of dance popular in Malaya until the early 70s) escort dancer, named Azizah (Vanidah Imran) who also has a young son. For the first time in a very long time, John finds happiness in his life with Azizah and her son - until a tragedy occurs.

Through this experience, Latiff comes to understand the significance of the Red Kebaya in his visions. I would not say that it was an excellent movie but it has a great storyline and would have been a better movie if it was executed properly. In my opinion, Ramli Latiff was a bit stiff in his role, maybe because of the language – he tried too hard to articulate his speech; in other words, to speak the queen’s English. Vanidah played her part pretty well but I believe that her role should have been made slightly more coy when she meets Mr Reynolds (Bob Mercer) again for the second time; noting that she is supposed to be playing a simple and demure woman, who only becomes an escort dancer in order to provide for her young son.

Bob Mercer got better in his acting as his role progressed but I think it was part of the role he played. However, Samantha Schubert stole the limelight as the detestable Davinia Reynolds, portraying a woman who obviously did not like the ‘colonies’ and found the locals to be beneath her. She played the part of a woman scorned to perfection. My main grievance was with regards to the role of Patrick Teoh, the antique shop owner. I believe the director should have introduced his role better in the movie. I could not connect to the significance of his presence in the movie.
Having said this, would I watch this movie again? For sure. And I would recommend you do too if you enjoy period films. The movie does give you a sense of nostalgia.

My rating: 3 Stars

MOVIE #02: THE RED KEBAYA 2006 (ENGLISH/MALAY)

MUTTERINGS #02: IT'S ONE OF THOSE DAYS....

MUTTERINGS #02: IT'S ONE OF THOSE DAYS....

MUSIC #02: DOCTOR ZHIVAGO 1965 (INSTRUMENTAL OST)

French composer Maurice Jarre wrote and conducted the beautiful and sensual music for this movie. His other hit music scores includes music from the “The Longest Day”, “The Train”, “The Collector” as well as David Lean’s “Lawrence Of Arabia”, which won Jarre an Academy Award. The music from Dr Zhivago is inspired from Jarre’s childhood, capturing Russian folk tunes, marches, ballads and dance tunes.

It took Maurice ten days to record the music, using a full orchestra of 110 pieces, 24 balalaika musicians and a section of Japanese instruments which included a shamisen, koto and a US$3000 gong. For portions of the scores, 40 people lent their voices to the instrumentals.

The result: music that evokes power and beauty that is Doctor Zhivago.

Doctor Zhivago: The Original Soundtrack

Side One

1. Overture From "Doctor Zhivago"

2. Main Title From "Doctor Zhivago"

3. Lara Leaves Yuri

4. At the Student Cafe

5. Komarovsky and Lara's Rendezvous

6. Revolution

Side Two

1. Lara's Theme From "Doctor Zhivago"

2. The Funeral

3. Sventytski's Waltz

4. Yuri Escapes

5. Tonya Arrives at Varykino

6. Yuri Writes a Poem for Lara

Veen's Rating: 4 Stars

MUSIC #02: DOCTOR ZHIVAGO 1965 (INSTRUMENTAL OST)

MOVIE #01: DOCTOR ZHIVAGO 1965 (ENGLISH)

The movie Doctor Zhivago is based on the novel of the same name, written by Boris Pasternak and published in 1957. The novel is named after its protagonist, Yuri Zhivago, a medical doctor and poet. The word zhivago shares a root with the Russian word for life, one of the major themes of the novel. It tells the story of a man torn between two women, set primarily against the backdrop of the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the subsequent Russian Civil War of 1918-1920. More deeply, the novel discusses the plight of a man as the life that he has always known is dramatically torn apart by forces beyond his control. The book was made into a film by David Lean in 1965 and has also been adapted numerous times for television. It is also one of the best known political novels of the century. It remains one of my favourite movies and books.

The screen adaptation, directed by David Lean, was an epic and starred Omar Sharif, Julie Christie, Geraldine Chaplin, Rod Steiger, Alec Guiness and Tom Courtenay. Lean concentrated on the romance aspect in the movie and the gamble succeeded, making Dr Zhivago a worldwide blockbuster. Ironically,the movie was not released in Russia until near the time of the fall of the Soviet Union. To be precise, it was released in 1994. David Lean is one of my favourite directors and is no wonder that all of my favourite English movies, namely ‘Lawrence of Arabia’, ‘Bridge on the River Kwai’ and ‘A Passage to India’, are all directed by David Lean.

Doctor Zhivago is definitely one of his most outstanding works. Omar Sharif delivers one of his best performances of his career and if I have one complaint about Lean, is his callousness for not putting Omar’s name at the beginning of the credits. As the main character of the movie (and title role), he should have afforded Omar the courtesy. Geraldine Chaplin was credited before Omar, although she had a lesser role but carried more fame maybe, because she is the daughter of Charlie Chaplin. Julie Christie was stunning in her role as Lara and Maurice Jarre’s music, Lara’s Theme has got to be one of my most favourite pieces of music.

The main character of the movie, Doctor Zhivago is a poet and a medical doctor, who at the beginning of the 20th Century, is caught in the historical Bolshevik revolution. He marries his childhood friend, Tonya (Geraldine Chaplin), finds that there is beauty beyond deceit, by starting an affair with an enigmatic lady which appears often in his path in the most unnoticeable of moments. Their destiny is as confused as Russia in the turmoil of its civil war. This is a long story (four hours) and is a movie to be enjoyed and not rushed. Make sure that you have plenty of comfort food, a comfortable sofa and no distractions when you watch this movie and take the beautiful trip into the past and enjoy the beautiful scenery and movie that is DOCTOR ZHIVAGO.

My verdict: 5 Stars.

Trivia: The film was shot in Spain, and not Russia, during the regime of General Francisco Franco. While the scene with the crowd chanting the Marxist theme was being filmed (at 3:00 in the morning), police showed up at the set thinking that a real revolution was taking place and insisted on staying until the scene was finished. Apparently, people who lived near where filming was taking place had awoken to the sound of revolutionary singing and had mistakenly believed that Franco had been overthrown. As the extras sang the revolutionary Internationale for a protest scene, the secret police surveyed the crowd, making many of the extras pretend that they didn't know the words.

MOVIE #01: DOCTOR ZHIVAGO 1965 (ENGLISH)

MUSIC #01: PYAR KA MOUSUM 1969 (HINDI OST)

Pyar Ka Mousum is a 1969 movie directed, produced and written by Nasir Hussain which stared Shashi Kapoor and Asha Parekh. The music is composed by Rahul Dev Burman and lyrics are by Majrooh Sultanpuri.

This is one of the few records that I can remember from my childhood and I know for a fact that my mother wore out the needle of our JVC record player from playing this record over and over again. Her favourite song was ‘Ni Sultana Re’ which at that time, then became my favourite song by proxy – at that age, I did not have a choice! But I can understand why she liked the song. It has a lovely tune that changes tempo and great lyrics to boot (lyrics available HERE).

Now however, I tend to favour my dad’s favourite from the album – the Mohammad Rafi’s version of ‘Tum Bin Jaon Kahan’. It has a beautiful haunting melody and such romantic lyrics. This is my weak attempt (with my limited comprehension of Hindi) of translating the first and second verse of this song.

Tum bin jaon kahan x2Where would I go without you x2?
Ki duniya mein aake, kuch na phir, chaaha kabhi, tumko chaahke,Since coming into this world, I have not desired anything/anyone after desiring you.
Tum bin.
Without you.

Reh bhi sako gaye kaise, ho ke mujhse juda.How can you live separated from me?
Phat jaaye gi deewarein, sun ke meri sada.The barriers will tumble upon hearing my call,
Aana hoga tumhe mere liye saathi meri suni raha keAnd you will have to come to me, you, my companion of this lonely journey,

Now isn’t that romantic? Sigh!

Overall, I give this album 4 stars out of 5.

The full tracks of this album (in movie order) are:

1. Tum Bin Jaon Kaha 1 – Kishore Kumar
2. Ni Sultana Re – Mohd Rafi and Lata Mageshkar
3. Aap Si Miliye – Lata Mangeshkar
4. Aap Chahen Mujko – Lata Mangeshkar
5. Main Na Miloongi – Lata Mangeshkar
6. Tum Bin Jaon Kaha 2 – Mohd Rafi
7. Che Khush Nazare – Mohd Rafi
8. Na Ja Mere Hamdam – Lata Mangeshkar
9. Tum Bin Jaon Kaha 3 – Mohd Rafi (movie version)

You can download the songs from my media files HERE.

Enjoy

MUSIC #01: PYAR KA MOUSUM 1969 (HINDI OST)

MUTTERINGS #01: WELCOME

Welcome all to my blog where I hope to share my passion for music and movies with like minds and also use this media to (occasionally) vent my views and frustrations.

I am no music or movie expert, just your average aficionado – so you won’t see much technical references, just my honest to goodness opinions, which may differ from those of the experts.

Not only will you see my jottings on Hindi and English music and movies, I also enjoy a variety of other European and Asian music and movies that I may include in these pages. In addition, I also love collecting pictures of old vinyl covers and movie posters from the web, some of which I restore using my limited, self-taught knowledge of Adobe Photoshop.

I hope you will enjoy ‘My Music Movies and Mutterings’. Constructive comments are most appreciated!

Cheers,
Veen

MUTTERINGS #01: WELCOME