Suraiya - Legendary yesteryear actress actor, singer - Pencil drawing

Suraiya Jamaal Sheikh (15 June 1929 – 31 January 2004) was an Indian Hindi/Hindustani film actress and playback singer inBollywood in the 1940s to early 1960s. She was the most popular singing star of the Indian sub-continent of her generation. Till 1943, as a child singer, Suraiya gave play-back for one actress, namely, Mehtab in three films and also in some of her own films for her roles as a child artiste. After which, she only sang for her films as an actress, and as a heroine after 1946 till 1963. From 1948 to 1950, she became the singing superstar of Bollywood, earning the highest amount for her performances, over all the performing actors of the times, male or female, including Dev Anand, Raj Kapoor, Dileep Kumar, Nargis and Madubala .^[1] She was the only child of her parents. She had a natural talent for singing, acting and dancing from childhood. She got basic music training in childhood, when her mother used to take her to Hindustani music trainer or 'masterji' for training. She first sang for a children's program for All India Radio in 1937. Later on Naushad gave her on the job 'training', while recording. She went on to become a most successful singing film star. She first sang for a children's program for All India Radio in 1937. She had received training in dancing from Mumtaz Ali, dancer-actor and father of famous comedian, Mehmood.^[2] She was also known for her North Indian Muslim feudal style acting or 'Adakari' in many of her films (Mirza Ghalib, Phool, Afsar, Shayar, Jeet, Anmol Ghadi, Dastan).^[3] This style 'endowed modernity with an aura of tradition' and brought nostalgic feudal tinge to the scenes. Her performance 'expertly integrated gestures, music and speech'.^[3] Suraiya in her hey days was known as Malika-e-Husn (queen of beauty), Malika-e-Tarannum (queen of melody) and Malika-e-Adakaari (queen of acting), all rolled into one.


She last appeared in Rustom Sohrab and played opposite Prithviraj Kapur

Guru Dutt - Tribute - Pencil sketch.

My pencil sketch to pay tribute to Guru Dutt (Vasanth Kumar Shivashankar Padukone, better known as Guru Dutt), an Indian film director, producer and actor. He made 1950s and 1960s classics such as Pyaasa, Kaagaz Ke Phool, Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam and Chaudhvin Ka Chand. Pyaasa and Kaagaz Ke Phool are now included among the greatest films of all time, both by Time magazine's "All-TIME" 100 best movies. He is sometimes referred to as "India's Orson Welles". Today is the death anniversary of this great film personality of India.

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)