Yeh Un Dinoñ Ki Baat Hai: Urdu Memoirs of Cinema LegendsPeppered with heartfelt accounts and charming anecdotes, Urdu film magazines were in great favour with the public from the 1930s through the 1990s – a considerable period of seven decades. Unfortunately, as Urdu got progressively marginalised in later years, these magazines were not archived, for the most part; leading to their inevitable disappearance from popular imagination. Tracking down these lost publications, Yasir Abbasi followed leads – some futile, some fruitful – to obscure towns and people's homes in a last-ditch effort to save valuable records of Indian cinema. As challenging as it was to locate faded issues and original texts, he managed to uncover and translate many fabulous memoirs covering a wide gamut of our favourite old artistes at their candid best. A gloom-laced piece on Meena Kumari by Nargis, a rollicking description by Raja Mehdi Ali Khan of an eventful evening with Manto (not to mention a mysterious woman and a house on fire), Jaidev writing about his chequered career, Balraj Sahni introspecting about the relevance of Hindi and Urdu in films – it's a rich mix of engrossing narratives brought back from oblivion. |
Contents
Meena Kumari by Nargis 2 Ashok Kishore Kumar by Iftekhar 3 Sahir Ludhianvi by Kaifi Azmi 4 A R Kardar by B R Chopra 5 Prithviraj Raj Kapo... | |
AapBeeti Reminiscences | |
Dilip Kumar | |
Kamal Amrohi | |
Nadira | |
Talat Mahmood | |
Shakeel Badayuni | |
Shyama | |
Johnny Walker | |
Javed Akhtar | |
Mirza Musharraf | |
Veena | |
Jaidev | |
Dharmendra | |
Ajit | |
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Common terms and phrases
actor actress Akhtar Anarkali artiste Ashok Kumar Asif saheb asked Balraj Bombay brother Calcutta called cinema Dadamoni Delhi Dev Anand dialogues Dilip Kumar director duniya father film industry film magazines filmmaker friends ghazals girl Guru Dutt haiñ happened heart heroine Hindi films India Kamal Amrohi Khan saheb Kishore Lahore lakhs later look Lucknow lyricist Madhubala maiñ Manikda Manto married Meena Kumari meet Mehboob saheb meiñ Mirza mother Mughal-e-Azam mujhe nahiñ Nargis Nasir Naushad Naushad saheb never Noor Jehan once one’s Pakeezah Pakistan person play Prithviraj Prithviraj Kapoor producer Raj Kapoor Raja reached replied role rupees Sahir Saigal Satyajit Ray scene screen script Shapoorji shooting Shorey saheb Shyam sing singer Sohrab Modi songs stars started stay story studio Sunil Dutt Suraiya there’s told took turned Urdu voice would’ve write