Indian Lens Loves Indian Locales

Indoor and outdoor locations do not merely create a beautiful backdrop. They also provide with a beautiful canvas that is colored with story ideas. Sometimes, it’s not the director’s skills or the soulful music that go into the making of a blockbuster. The cinematographer’s depiction of locales leaves a lasting impression in the people’s minds.

Locations play such a powerful role that they can enhance the overall impact of the film. In today’s times, filmmakers create an aura of authenticity by imparting the appropriate backdrop to their cities. In Kahaani, the lens romances Kolkata’s emblematic images of the Howrah Bridge, Durga Puja and Victoria Memorial. So thoughtfully were they shown that they became an intrinsic part of the film. Like Kolkata, Mumbai and Delhi have also had their moments on the big screen. A number of films have revolved around them.

Some among our B-town films have been camping in nondescript villages and towns of India. They are benefiting from the qualities that the simple, charming and cost-effective locales are bringing to them.  Horror films and thrillers, for instance, are introducing the national audience to the face of the cities where danger lurks in street corners and mystery unfolds within crumbling buildings.

Mani Ratnam's Raavan is said to be a modern interpretation of the epic Ramayana. The film wouldn’t have been so visually attractive without Athirapally forests in Kerala, Ooty in Tamil Nadu, Jhansi in Uttar Pradesh, Kolkata, and the Malshej Ghats in Maharashtra: places that the cameraman’s lens fell in love with. Kareena Kapoor’s dance on Yeh Ishq haye in Jab We Met created magic in Ladakh and other sequences of the film were shot in diverse locations, right from ganne ka khet which was shot in Chandigarh to the slopes in Shimla and Manali.

Kangana Ranaut and R. Madhavan in Tanu Weds Manu sat pretty on a charpoy in a village in Kanpur. Udaan was filmed in Jamshedpur, Peepli Live in Uttar Pradesh/ Haryana and 3 Idiots in Ahmedabad followed suit. Ludhiana’s famous fort Sarai Lashkari Khan is the place where some of the most popular scenes of Rang de Basanti were shot. Riteish Deshmukh and his reel-turned-real life partner Genelia D Souza’s Tere Naal Love Ho Gaya was shot in various locations of Patiala. Not only that, many Hollywood directors have been helming their movies in our national locales such as the Dev Patel starrer The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel that was shot in Rajasthan and the Julia Roberts starrer Eat, Pray, Love which had sequences shot in Haryana. Prakash Jha’s Aparahan filmed in Bihar was released in 2005. Jha’s romance with small towns continued with Rajneeti, Aarakshan and the soon-to-be-released Chakravyuh that was shot in Bhopal.

In recent times, the authenticity of the locale has acquired more importance than ever before. The recently released Gangs of Wasseypur directed by Anurag Kashyap is another such example. It would have been impossible to depict the film’s atmosphere without setting camp at Wasseypur in Dhanbad. And then, of course, there are period films like Paan Singh Tomar, which took the plot to places like Chambal and Roorkee. Ishaqzaade in which Arjun Kapoor played a grandson to the patriarchal grandfather and the actress Parineeti Chopra was a small-town girl living in a house full of overprotective male members was largely shot in Hardoi, Uttar Pradesh.

One doesn’t have to belong to the film industry to know that shooting in these locales is cost-effective. Permissions can be sought more easily, while crowd management is infinitely easier. However, while less expenditure, authentic locales and imparting genuineness to the characters are significant considerations, this approach has more to it. Filmmaking, at the end of the day, has a direct link with the heart. Many filmmakers of our industry hail from some of these small towns. Hence, they get an opportunity to showcase their hometowns through their films. What is nice to see is they’re all giving us a chance to connect with our roots too.

Music Forever

With Hasta Hua Nurani Chehra, Laxmikant-Pyarelal became the virtuoso for zillions of music buffs. Popularly known as LP, they rose to conquer, inseparable souls who were born to create miracles and to make a difference in Indian music industry. They grew to the top and stayed there longer than any other music composers. Musical duo had the finish and edge to make music lovers go week and engrossed in their tunes.


Being one of their admirers, I got the thriving opportunity to meet Pyarelal recently. I spent two continuous discussional afternoons at his home which was truly a learning ride of my career. From struggles to achievements, from gurus to companions, from violin to piano, from private to public and from studio to home, all were the part of our earnest conversation. In the course of time, shook a leg with their rockstar, mithu (the parrot), His ever caring wife, Sunilaji also took me to the unseen phases of their lives. Funnily, she thought that if I am a South Indian. Pyareji has always been treated as an institution and whose work can be cashed when you hear their creations. He played, ‘ek pyar ka nagma hai’ on piano for me and also he got nostalgic while showing his yesteryears’ photographs. Let’s unfold some magic and visualize his best moments.

Early Phase

For Pyarelal, the journey from his childhood to where he is now has not been easy but all his hard work paid off. Pyarelal was born on September 3, 1940. His father Pandit Ramprasad played the trumpet but wanted his son to learn the violin. At age of eight, Pyarelal, started training, would practice for more than ten hours every day. At the age of 12, he got a job at Mumbai's Ranjit studio as a violinist in an orchestra.
Anthony Gonsalves was his guru who taught him violin, on whom he later composed a song, My name is Anthony Gonsalves in Amar Akbar Anthony. 

Bosom friends

He can’t forget that day at the Ranjit studio when Pyarelal met his lifelong companion Laxmikant. "Laxmikant was working with Pandit Husnlal Bhagatram. He would come sometimes to my place of work. After work, we would play cricket, discuss music and go to the studios of several musicians. As we were from the same age group and our interests were similar, our friendship grew," he said.
Sriramchandraji called me one day and told me he will give me good work. I told Laxmi about it. We worked together in Chennai for two and a half years on the film Devtaa. And this added value to our work and from here we never looked back.

“Moreover, people often thought that Laxmikant Pyarelal was one name. When I was getting married, my wife's relatives believed she was getting married to Laxmikant Pyarelal. Just Pyarelal did not mean anything to them," he queered.

"After the demise of Laxmi, I never thought my right hand has gone; what would I do without him. I was strong enough. But I fell sick after his death and fall into bad habits. I was in bed for six years. Since then, I have given up alcohol. Now I am fine and work for six hours everyday and there are several things in the pipeline.”

Killer opportunities

Now that he was on his way to become the big man he dreamt to be, Pyarelal wanted to go to Vienna to join the Symphony Orchestra. But things didn’t materialize at last moment.

We had recorded the songs for ‘Chhaila Babu’ earlier but that was released after ‘Parasmani’. Our past two canned films were ‘Hum, Tum aur Wo’ and ‘Piya Log Kya Kahenge’. And he hummed ‘piya log kya kahenge’ tune which they later used for ‘Dosti’ and it brought filmfare for them. (*sings ‘Piya log kya kahenge’ to the tune of ‘Aawaaz main na doonga’ from ‘Chahunga main tujhe saanjh savere’)

 "During those days, you had to purchase a coupon to select a movie for a Filmfare award. One who can purchase most coupons could win the award. We were the most amazed of all. I thought the music in ‘Sangam’ was so rich and beautifully composed by Shankar-Jaikishan, I believe it all to be the blessings of Saraswati Mata. Though, Pyarelal gives all credits to Lata Mangeshkar for their success.

Incomplete without Lataji


Lataji have a great share on making us what we are today. She was so simple and supporting that she never denied working with us which resulted into so many fabulous songs. Our first recording was ‘Hansta Hua Noorani Chehra’ where Lataji and Kamal Barot sang that song. For Lataji’s ‘Satyam Shivam Sundram’ title-song, we had used more than 100 musicians and even for Mukeshji’s ‘Chanchal Sheetal Nirmal Komal’ we had employed almost 130 musicians with more than 70 violins!
We also made Lataji to sing cabaret for us, Lataji was aware that we would give best input while composing cabaret in Inteqam for her. In ‘Aa Jaane Jaan’, we tried to bring in that kind of soft rendition style in the cabaret genre and Lataji was outstanding in that. She breathed life into our tune and the song was also conceptualized well on the screen through Helen.

Favourite maestros’

For Pyarelal, there is no better male singer than Mohammad Rafi. Kishore Kumar and Mukesh were also in his favorites list.
He said, “My father had once taken me to Rafi saheb's house to ask for money during our bad times. Once I was working with Rafi saheb and Lataji on the song ‘Yeh dil tum bin lagta nahi hum kya kare’. I remembered that I had to give Rs 500 to both of them. Rafi sahib didn't recall giving me money, Lataji did. But they told me to keep the money as their blessing for me.” "Kishore Kumar was very humorous. As he entered the studio, he would sing hello Laxmikantam Pyarelalam.” he said.

He cannot forget to mention, R.D. Burman, who was easily the finest mouth organ player in the industry. Pyarelal adds “Our careers all began at about the same time, and we indulged in healthy competition while staying the best of friends. Nobody could have composed ‘Padosan’, ‘Kati Patang’, ‘Mehbooba’ or ‘Teesri Manzil’ but him. I challenge anyone to top those scores.”


Music makeover

Today trends of composing music have been changed due to arrival of electronic instruments. At present we are living in digital age, where new and high-tech technologies are introduced in music production. Even whisper and sound of breath can be captured with accurate precision.

I admire many singers of today’s era, like Sonu, Shreya, Sunidhi, Mohit, Sukhwinder and Udit, Sanu, Kavita, Alka from 90’s were the best. I remembered once, Shaan came to my place with his father and sister. I asked him why don’t you sing and he denied that time. Now, see he is one of the finest singers of our industry.

Amongst the music composers he said, “I like the tunes of Shankar Ehsaan Loy, Salim Sulaiman, Shantanu Moitra, and many more. I liked A R Rahman work in Roza and Bombay. I keep learning from these young talented composers, they are doing fabulous job.”

Current affairs


In 2008 October, I conducted an orchestra of 188 musicians in Paris. Director Shaad Ali had presented a show on Bollywood in India Festival over there and for that we were playing our songs. And various musical tours are in pipeline, one is in Dubai early 2012.
In Farah Khan’s Om Shanti Om- song ‘Dhoom Taana’, too, I had conducted over 100 musicians. "Vishal-Shekhar came to me; they wanted LP's music," Pyarelal said. "They wanted me to do just one song -- the type of music that was played in the 1970s; a retro song. Though, they wanted me to give music for first half of the film. They had made the tune but wanted the LP trademark in it."
 "One of the reasons I accepted their offer was the importance given to acoustic instruments," the composer continued. "There is nothing electronic in this song." Hope to get more such opportunities to relive the LP trademark.

Silver Screen @ 100

Time has come to raise a toast to Indian celluloid that’s a century-old. It’s a moment of great national pride and glory for all cinema lovers. Significantly, completion of 10 decades of movies is creating a buzz in the land of cineastes.


Lights, camera, action!


It was an era where working in cinema was a taboo, where a man with vision and courage made it possible. Mumbai’s affluent crowd had no idea of witnessing something ground-breaking. Minus sound everything was perfectly set on April 21, 1913, at Olympia theatre where Dadasaheb Phalke premiered the first ever full-length film, Raja Harishchandra. A silent movie based on the legend of King Harishchandra, enumerated in the Ramayana and Mahabharata, it was released on May 3, 1913.

Indian film industry that Dadasaheb gave birth to inadvertently with his first film enters its centenary year, India is ready to pay an abiding tribute to the date he immortalized with the first public screening of the maiden full-length Indian feature film. In a nation, where more than 1,000 films are made every year, in multiple languages, when we celebrate a century of filmmaking excellence, how do we define Indian cinema?

Indian cinema encompasses regional films (Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Bengali, Gujarati, Bhojpuri, Punjabi etc) but the larger stake comprise of Hindi film industry. Larger than life movie sets for candy floss romances salted with lavish song-dance sequences shot in exotic locales, spunky underworld flicks, bone-tickling comedies, well-crafted offbeat cinemas, jaw-dropping action capers to social melodramas and titillating stories -- the Indian movies have just about touched every genre of entertainment.

Everything is so fascinating here, from top grosser blockbusters to multiplex movies tailor-made for overseas Indians, to colourful crossover films with NRI connect high on emotional content to tug at the heartstrings of homesick Indian diaspora, the platter is dynamic and diverse.

Fraternity Action

Here's an ode to every individual who strives to make that virtual space seem to be a part of our daily lives. A documentary is being made as a tribute to celebrating the 100 years of cinema, four distinguished filmmakers Karan Johar, Anurag Kashyap, Zoya Akhtar and Dibakar Banerjee will be making 20-minute short films each based on Bollywood. The four documentaries are being made under the banner of Flying Turtle Films which will give varied taste under one maincourse and will be later clubbed and released as an 80-minute documentary film, titled 'Bombay Talkies'.

According to a leading film website, Zoya's documentary has planned is titledSheila Ki Jawaani and narrates the story of a young boy and his obsession with the song Sheila Ki Jawaani. The film will unfold the tales of all the popular item numbers and how peppy and raunchy songs have become over the century. Zoya's film features Katrina Kaif and also an in-depth interview with Ranveer Singh. While Anurag's film untitled yet, but it is confirmed that Priyanka Chopra will be a part of it. Karan Johar and Dibakar haven't started work on their projects yet.

Government Action

From this year onwards, the National Film Awards will be given away on May 3 every year. At the 59^th National Film Awards ceremony in New Delhi, Ambika Soni, minister for Information and Broadcasting, said, "There are a few interesting projects to commemorate the centenary of Indian cinema. We are planning to open a museum of Indian cinema. The museum will be in Mumbai, in the heritage building of Gulshan Mahal. It will be ready before May 2013." 

The museum will showcase the history of the industry and its global impact. It will be a storehouse of information, artifacts, equipments like cameras, editing and recording machines, projectors, costumes, photographs and other material. The properties, dresses, sets, tapes, vintage equipment, posters, copies of important films, prints, promotional leaflets, developing equipment books, biographies, sound tracks, trailers, transparencies, cinema magazines and statistics covering film distribution are also expected to be displayed in a chronological manner.

 ‘Climax’ Action

Let the festivities begin. The journey from silent films to contemporary cinema has been amazing and that becomes a part of our heritage. From producers to directors, from exhibitors to distributors, from actors to villains, from musicians to technicians all are basking in glory of magical century of Bollywood. The Indian film industry will celebrate 100 years of its existence in 2013. The Indian cinema story continues… The Indian film industry continues unabated.