SONGS I LOVE:
As a young person in the 50s, blogger used to go to the Queen's Cinema (Geylang Road) or Garrick Cinema (Geylang Serai) in the eastern part of Singapore to watch Indian movies. Awaara is one of them and the theme song remains...
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Awaara means Tramp (shades of Charles Chaplin) and is a 1951 Indian film acted, directed and produced by Raj Kapoor (one of the greatest movie stars in the 50s and 60s).
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*The song Awara Hoon (I am a Tramp) sung by Mukesh with lyrics by Shailendra, became hugely popular across the Indian subcontinent, as well as in Russia, Romania, Turkey and China. The film was nominated for the Grand Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 1953.
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*In 2005, Indiatimes Movies ranked the movie amongst the "Top 25 Must See Bollywood Films". Time Magazine listed it at number one on its list of "10 Indian Films to Treasure". It grossed over Rs. 12 million. This record was beaten the next year by Aan (another great movie that blogger has seen).
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Music from the great Indian country was a strong influence on Singapore 60s too as many Malay pop songs from Singapore and Malaya were inspired by these melodies.
Reviews on You Tube:
Awaara Hoon Ya Gardish Mein Hoon Aasmaan Ka Tara Mukesh Awara 1951 Shankar Jaikishan Shailendra
1. "Absolutely brilliant. Shankar-Jaikishan at their best. Pity modern music is western influenced and doesn't sound at all Indian."
2. "No words for this awesome film. Old is gold."
3. "When I hear this song I cry so much. It was my mom's favorite song. She use to sing it to us in bed 30 years ago! I was 6 years old. God bless your soul mom I miss you so much."
(In posting this movie, I am also wondering how popular Tamil movies and songs are in the US and other parts of the world because the fan base for Tamil songs in Singapore is quite large since about a quarter of the population speak the language.)
*Information: Wikipedia
Image: http://soumyadipc.blogspot.com/
You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrnwhYKm_WA
4 comments:
I love this film! Apparently, it was one of Mao Tse Tung's favorites too.
Singapore must have had a very diverse movie culture, with all the Chinese (Amoy, Cantonese, Mandarin), Hollywood, Indian, and Malay films. There must have been a lot of British films too, right?
Yes durian dave. Diverse is the word. Singapore is a mix where everyone respects and appreciates each other for a more tolerant society.
There have been many British films too. And music...
Vanakam. Being something of a tramp myself, the movie might have appeal for me. LOL
Yes, you can watch the movie if you go to the website below. Fantastic story. If you need subtitles then look for another website.
http://www.bharatmovies.com/hindi/video/Awara.htm
Are you really a tramp?
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