मेघदूत: "नीचैर्गच्छत्युपरि दशा चक्रनेमिक्रमेण"

समर्थ शिष्या अक्का : "स्वामीच्या कृपाप्रसादे हे सर्व नश्वर आहे असे समजले. पण या नश्वरात तमाशा बहुत आहे."

G C Lichtenberg: “It is as if our languages were confounded: when we want a thought, they bring us a word; when we ask for a word, they give us a dash; and when we expect a dash, there comes a piece of bawdy.”

C. P. Cavafy: "I’d rather look at things than speak about them."

Martin Amis: “Gogol is funny, Tolstoy in his merciless clarity is funny, and Dostoyevsky, funnily enough, is very funny indeed; moreover, the final generation of Russian literature, before it was destroyed by Lenin and Stalin, remained emphatically comic — Bunin, Bely, Bulgakov, Zamyatin. The novel is comic because life is comic (until the inevitable tragedy of the fifth act);...”

सदानंद रेगे: "... पण तुकारामाची गाथा ज्या धुंदीनं आजपर्यंत वाचली जात होती ती धुंदी माझ्याकडे नाहीय. ती मला येऊच शकत नाही याचं कारण स्वभावतःच मी नास्तिक आहे."

".. त्यामुळं आपण त्या दारिद्र्याच्या अनुभवापलीकडे जाऊच शकत नाही. तुम्ही जर अलीकडची सगळी पुस्तके पाहिलीत...तर त्यांच्यामध्ये त्याच्याखेरीज दुसरं काही नाहीच आहे. म्हणजे माणसांच्या नात्यानात्यांतील जी सूक्ष्मता आहे ती क्वचित चितारलेली तुम्हाला दिसेल. कारण हा जो अनुभव आहे... आपले जे अनुभव आहेत ते ढोबळ प्रकारचे आहेत....."

Kenneth Goldsmith: "In 1969 the conceptual artist Douglas Huebler wrote, “The world is full of objects, more or less interesting; I do not wish to add any more.”1 I’ve come to embrace Huebler’s ideas, though it might be retooled as “The world is full of texts, more or less interesting; I do not wish to add any more.” It seems an appropriate response to a new condition in writing today: faced with an unprecedented amount of available text, the problem is not needing to write more of it; instead, we must learn to negotiate the vast quantity that exists. How I make my way through this thicket of information—how I manage it, how I parse it, how I organize and distribute it—is what distinguishes my writing from yours."

Tom Wolfe: "The first line of the doctors’ Hippocratic oath is ‘First, do no harm.’ And I think for the writers it would be: ‘First, entertain.’"

विलास सारंग: "… . . 1000 नंतर ज्या प्रकारची संस्कृती रुढ झाली , त्यामध्ये साधारणत्व विश्वात्मकता हे गुण प्राय: लुप्त झाले...आपली संस्कृती अकाली विश्वात्मक साधारणतेला मुकली आहे."

Monday, July 31, 2017

Mumtaz@70....Versatile Or Not, Still My Darling

#MumtazAt70
#मुमताज़७०
Mumtaz turns 70 today, July 31 2017

Sony Max was running a contest to "Pick Your Favourite Versatile Actress" in March 2017.

The contestants were Jaya Bachchan, Mumtaz, Sharmila Tagore, Rakhee, Hema Malini.

I ignored the word versatile and voted for Mumtaz. For me, it was a no-brainer.

I have liked her in many films, even where she was supposedly playing second fiddle such as Brahmachari, 1968. There I wish she played the role of almost lifeless Rajshree!

She was really outstanding in films such as Pyar Kiye Ja, Ram Aur Shyam, Do Raaste, Sachaa Jhutha, Dushman, Tere Mere Sapne, Hare Rama Hare Krishna, Lofar, Chor Machaye Shor. Indeed in many of those films, she did better than her leading male costar.

Some her endearing qualities as a great entertainer are demonstrated in many Hindi films songs that are picturised on her, one of them being 'Kanchi Re Kanchi'.

Following is a moment where she is shooing away kids by gesticulating rather absentmindedly as her mind is really focused what Prashant Jaiswal (Dev Anand) is singing outside. For me,  it captures the best, albeit occasionally,  that Indian cinema offers me- dreaminess, melody, tenderness, beauty...

Shanti in 'Hare Rama Hare Krishna', 1971

courtesy: current copyright-holders to the film

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