Dev Anand - the legendary actor - Pencil sketch

Today is Devanand's birth anniversary. Watch this ever green song filmed on the evergreen hero. This amazing song is from one of the masterpiece of Bollywood movies GUIDE (1965), Mohammad Rafi pulled off such song like this with such class & emotion. Music of S. D. Burman is timeless and what should I say about the lyrics of this song, lyrics are just the soul of this song and when you watch the movie you will realize how beautifully Shailendra sync those lyrics with the story of the movie. For your information this movie is based on novel by R. K. Narayan.

Asha Bhosle - My pencil drawings - Birthday greetings

Birthday greetings to India's one of the greatest singers Asha Bhosle, My pencil work.

Please click the following link of Wikipedia for more details of Ashaji's career and her achieveents.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asha_Bhosle

P. Bhanumati - My pencil drawing.

Remembering Bhanumathi Ramakrishna, the multilingual film actress, director, music director, singer, producer, book writer and songwriter, widely known as the first female super star of Telugu cinema. 7th September is her birth anniversary. 

Bhanumathi made her debut in Telugu cinema in 1939 as Kalindi in Vara Vikrayam (Telugu), directed by C. Pullaiah. Her first popular film was Krishna Prema.

Apart from being an exceptional actress, Bhanumathi was also a very talented musician. She was adept in both Carnatic and Hindustani music. She gave voice to her songs despite it being the norm to use playback singers for actors. Some of her songs are still popular. She also provided music to a lot of her films.

Bhanumathi acted in over 200 films in Telugu and Tamil. She was also called as Ashtavadhani by the film industry people as she was a writer, actor, director, producer, singer, music director, editor and studio owner. She also had a good knowledge of astrology and philosophy. During her later years she served on various movie related organizations. She was a Member of State Film Awards Committee for two years. She was also a Visiting Professor at the Film Institute for one year. She was Member of Children Film Society for 5 years, from 1965 to 1970.

Bhanumathi was also a talented writer with a number of short stories to her credit. Her autobiography Nalo Nenu was published in Telugu and later, released in English as Musings. Andhra Pradesh Sahitya Academy awarded her as the best short story writer for her popular short stories "Attagari Kathalu". She was a Member of Lalit Kala Academy for 5 years, and Sahitya Academy, Andhra Pradesh for 10 years. She served as Director and Principal of the Tamil Nadu Government Music College,

Bhanumathi was an eminent social worker who was closely associated with a number of Social Service Organizations. She was the founder member and treasurer of Madras branch of Altrusa International Inc., Chicago for lifelong starting from 1963. She was a life member of the 'Red Cross Society'. She established an educational institution named as "Dr. Bhanumathi Ramakrishna Matriculation School" at Saligramam, Chennai providing free education to the poor.

Bhanumathi was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 2003 for her contribution towards Indian cinema. She was honoured among "women in cinema" at the 30th International Film Festival of India.

Salil Chowdhury - Composer

Tributes to Salil Chowdhury on his 21st D.A. ( 19 November 1923 – 5 September 1995) Indian music composer . He was also a poet and a playwright. He is affectionately called Salilda by his admirers.He was an accomplished composer and arranger who was proficient in several musical instruments, including flute, the piano, and the esraj.Salil's music was a blending of Eastern and the Western music traditions. He was also widely acclaimed and admired for his inspirational and original poetry in Bengali language.His first Bengali film "Paribortan" ("Transformation") was released in 1949.The singer of his debut song was Debabrata Biswas. 

Salil da's debut in the Hindi Film Industry came in 1953 as the Music Director for Do Bigha Zamin( story was written by Salil Chowdhury himself) Directed by Bimal Roy It also took his career to new heights when it became the first film to win the Filmfare Best Movie Award and won the international Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. He went on to compose for over 75 Hindi films, over 40 Bengali films, around 27 Malayalam films, and several Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Gujarati, Oriya and Assamese films.Salil Chowdhury was married to Jyoti Chowdhury (who lives at Bandra in Mumbai, with whom he had two daughters) and later he married to Sabita Chowdhury also, with whom he has two daughters Antara, Sanchari and son Sanjoy Chowdhury who is a successful music composer himself and scored music for over a 100 feature films. Sabita Chaowdhury was a singer and their daughter, Antare is currently a performing artist. Salil being a composing exponent, he even sensed the talent of a guitarist who played in his orchestra and uttered that, "I think he’s going to be the best composer in India". The guitarist eventually turned out to be Maestro Ilaiyaraaja....................................................

Jaidev - Composer

 

Jaidev (3 August 1919 – 6 January 1987; born Jaidev Verma) was a music composer in Hindi films, most known for his work in films: Hum Dono (1961), Reshma Aur Shera (1972), Prem Parbat (1973) and Gharonda (1977).
He won the National Film Award for Best Music Direction, three times for Reshma Aur Shera (1972), Gaman (1979) and Ankahee (1985).<sup>[1]

aidev was born in Nairobi and brought up in Ludhiana, India. In 1933, when he was 15 years old, he ran away to Bombay to become a film star. There, he acted in eight films as a child star for the Wadia Film Company. He was initiated into music at a young age in Ludhiana by Prof. Barkat Rai. Later, when he made it Bombay, he learnt music from Krishnarao Jaokar and Janardan Jaokar.</sup>
Unfortunately, he had to leave his film career abruptly and return to Ludhiana, due to his father’s blindness, which thrust the sole responsibility of his family on his young shoulders.
After his father died, Jaidev took the responsibility of looking after his sister, Ved Kumari and later got her married to Sat-Paul Varma. After that in 1943, he left for Lucknow to study under the tutelage of music maestro Ustad Ali Akbar Khan.

Jaidev was the first music director to bag 3 National Award. Ali Akbar Khan took Jaidev as his music assistant, in 1951, when he composed music for Navketan Films's Aandhiyan (1952) and 'Hum Safar'. From film 'Taxi Driver' on, he became assistant to music composer, S. D. Burman.
His big break as a full-fledged music director came with Chetan Anand's film, Joru Ka Bhai, followed by Chetan Anand's next Anjali, both of these films became very popular.
Though it was with the film Navketan's Hum Dono (1961) that Jaidev true came into the limelight, with classic songs like, "Allah Tero Naam", 'Abhi Na Jao Chhodkar", "Main Zindagi Ka Saath" and "Kabhi khud pe Kabhi Halat pe". His other big success came with Sunil Dutt star, Mujhe Jeene Do (1963).
Though many of Jaidev's films failed at the box office, many of them, such as Alap, Kinare Kinare and Ankahee, are remembered for his imaginative musical scores. He had a unique capability to mix traditional and folk music into Hindi film situations, giving him a unique advantage to other music directors of his times.^[2]
He also known for his non-film album of the couplets of Hindi poet Harivansh Rai Bachchan's classic work Madhushala set to music and sung by singer Manna Dey.
He is one of the favourite composers of Lata Mangeshkar besides Salil Chowdhury and Madan Mohan. He also composed music for Nepali film Maitighar .
Jaidev never married, though he remained close to his sister’s family, who later settled in the United Kingdom. He died on 6 January 1987, at the age of 68. His last work was for the television series Ramayan. (Source : Wikipedia)

KN Singh - Bollywood's Villan and character actor.

  

Krishan Niranjan, known as K. N. Singh in Indian cinema, was a  prominent villain and character actor, who appeared in over 200 Hindi films over a long career stretching from 1936 to the late 1980s.
K.N. Singh excelled in Javelin throw and Shot Put. He was selected to represent India in the 1936 Berlin Olympics before circumstances compelled him to go to Calcutta to attend on his ailing sister. There he met his family friend Prithviraj Kapoor, who introduced him to director Debaki Bose, who offered him a debut role in his film Sunehra Sansar (1936).

K.N. Singh enjoyed limited success until the release of Baghban (1938), in which he played the antagonist. Baghban was a golden jubilee hit, establishing Singh as one of the leading villains of the era.
Through the 1940s and 1950s, Singh appeared in several iconic movies of the era, including Sikandar (1941), Jwar Bhata (1944) (Dilip Kumar's film debut), Humayun (1945), Awara (1951), Jaal (1952), CID (1956), Howrah Bridge (1958), Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi (1958), Amrapali (1966) and An Evening in Paris (1967).
As opposed to playing angry mobsters, K.N. Singh mostly played a white collared gentleman villain, dressed in a fine suit and smoking a pipe, with a calm cold delivery. His suave style, baritone voice and menacing eyes became legendary. As an actor, Singh's thirst for learning was legendary. For example, he studied the style and mannerisms of carriage riders to prepare for the role of a horse carriage driver in Inspector (1956).
Singh played prominent roles in movies like Jhoota Kahin Ka (1970), Haathi Mere Saathi (1971) and Mere Jeevan Saathi (1972). His last prominent role was in the 1973 film Loafer. With advancing years, he became less active, particularly from the mid 1970s onwards. Many of his roles from the late 1970s onwards were mere cameo appearances, arranged with the sole purpose of ensuring that actors turned up on time- such was his stature that actors would never turn up late when he was in the sets. His last appearance was in Woh Din Aayega (1986).