Six Degrees of Separation with Madhubala

Six Degrees of Separation: from Madhubala to …

Madhubala, posing for a photo-shoot for LIFE magazine, in 1951

… Vivien Leigh  
Madhubala starred in Kalapani (1958) alongside Dev Anand (1), who acted as a ‘Musicologist’  in Man Pasand (1980), which was credited as being inspired by George Bernard Shaw’s (2) play Pygmalion (the movie was dedicated to Shaw), but was, according to Dev Anand, based more on the Hollywood musical My Fair Lady (1964), which was based on the Broadway stage musical from 1956, based on Shaw’s play, rather than the play itself; and in the 1964 Hollywood movie, the eloquently well spoken Brit, Rex Harrison (3) starred as Professor Higgins, a ‘Professor of Phonetics’; who also appeared in the bio-pic Cleopatra (1963), where Elizabeth Taylor (4) played the historical feminist of a bygone era, known for her beauty as much as for her strength to rule the kingdom of the Nile, the last Pharaoh of Ancient Egypt, Cleopatra (5), who was previously portrayed by Vivien Leigh (6) in Caesar and Cleopatra (1945).

… Kumar Gaurav
Madhubala acted in one of the best Bollywood comedies ever, Chalti ka Naam Gaadi (1958), released on New Years Day (1st January 1958), which co-starred her real life husband Kishore Kumar (1), along with Kumar’s real life brothers, Anoop Kumar (2) and Ashok Kumar (3), and Ashok Kumar appeared in Shaukeen (1982), a story about three aging men, in their 60’s (one still married, one divorced and one a widower), who travel to Goa to have some fun, where the trio find themselves in awkward situation whilst trying to impress a naïve friendly young girl, who innocently adores these old men as if they were her Grandfathers, the young girl was played by Rati Agnihotri (4), who came in Star (1982), based on the life of a fictional disco star, alongside Raj Kiran (5) and Kumar Gaurav (6).

… Sridevi
Madhubala played a woman on the run from a bunch of killers in Gateway of India (1957); a movie set in one long night in the streets of Bombay (now known as ‘Mumbai’), where she runs into various shady characters, and she arranges a rendezvous with each person she comes across to meet her early next morning at the ‘Gateway of India’, a historic arch located on marine drive, Bombay; and amongst the strangers she comes across we see the legendary Om Prakash (1) playing a streetwise cool dude, and Prakash appeared in the comedy Chupke Chupke (1975), where Sharmila Tagore (2) played his sister-in-law, and Tagore’s daughter Soha Ali Khan (3) acted in Midnight’s Children (2012), which also starred Seema Biswas (4), who came in Bandit Queen (1994), which was directed by Shekhar Kapur (5), who also directed the children’s superhero film, about an invisible man who saves day, Mr. India (1987) which starred Bollywood sensation of the 80’s, Sridevi (6).

… Tahar Rahim
Madhubala was married to yodelling genius, Kishore Kumar (1), who acted with Nutan (2) in Dilli Ka Thug (1958), and Nutan played a very chic and fashionable mother to actress Rekha (3) in Saajan Ki Saheli (1980), and Rekha played a distressed mother in Koi Mil Gaya (2003), which was a Bollywood copy of Steven Spielberg’s (4) B-movie cult classic, E.T. (1982), and more recently Spielberg directed War Horse (2011), in which French actor Niels Arestrup (5) had a small role, who starred in À Perdre la Raison (2011), where he played an adoptive father to French actor of Algerian roots, Tahar Rahim (6), in this movie inspired by actual events.

… Tony Curtis
Madhubala’s debut lead role, in her pre-teens, in the movie Neel Kamal (1945) was alongside a young Raj Kapoor (1), who starred alongside Zeenat Aman (2) in Gopichand Jasoos (1982) and Aman appeared in Shalimar (1978), which also starred Rex Harrison (3), who appeared in the original Dr. Doolittle (1967), and Eddie Murphy (4) reprised Harrison’s role in the re-make from 1998, and Murphy acted in the hilarious comedy Trading Places (1983), which co-starred Jamie Lee Curtis (5), who happens to be the daughter of Hollywood bad boy of the 50’s & 60’s, Tony Curtis (6).

… Roger Moore
Madhubala was photographed by renowned photographer James Burke (1), for one of the most prestigious photojournalism magazines in the United Sates, LIFE magazine (pictured above), in 1951, and the following year, in the ‘August 1952’ edition of the American magazine, Theatre Arts, Madhubala was featured with a full page picture accompanied by an article, under the title, ‘‘The Biggest Star in the World – and she’s not in Beverly Hills.’’; and at the time, the Italian born, all American, film director Frank Capra (2), had a desire to showcase Madhubala on Hollywood’s silver screen, and went to Bombay to discuss her Hollywood career, but her father intervened and this Hollywood venture never saw the light of day (mainly due to the fact that Madhubala’s life was short lived, as from an early stage in her life, she had discovered that she was suffering from a ‘Ventricular Septal’ defect (i.e. ‘a hole in the heart’), and she died in 1969, just days after she turned 36), Capra previously had directed Cary Grant (3) in one of best comedies to come out towards the end of the second world war, Arsenic and Old Lace (1944), a dark comedy, where two old ladies help depressed people by poisoning them, thus putting an end to their misery; and Cary Grant worked with Alfred Hitchcock (4), in North by Northwest (1959), and Hitchcock later directed Sean Connery (5) in the psychological thriller, Marnie (1964), and Connery was the first actor to star in the Bond franchise in the 60’s, playing the famed 007 spy, starting with Dr. No (1962), and the suave and sophisticated Roger Moore (6) took over the reins as the face of Bond, in the suave and sophisticated 70’s; though Connery still did a few Bond ventures in the 70’s & early 80’s, Moore, the best looking ‘James Bond’ till date, starred in majority of the Bond flicks of the 70’s, and continued to do so in the early 80’s.

Nuwan Sen’s Film Sense (6°)

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Six Degrees of Separation with Priyanka Chopra

Six Degrees of Separation: From Priyanka Chopra to …

… Gregory Peck
Chopra starred in one of the best Bollywood commercial films to come out in recent years, 7 Khoon Maaf (2011), which was based on the short story Susanna’s Seven Husbands, written by Ruskin Bond (1), who also wrote the novella, A Flight of Pigeons, which was the basis for the Indian Art house film, Junoon (1979), which was produced, and starred, 70’s superstar, Shashi Kapoor (2), who starred with Claire Bloom (3) in the comedy, Sammy and Rosie Get Laid (1987), and Bloom played the titular character in the television movie Anna Karenina (1961) and Jacqueline Bisset (4) reprised the role in another television adaptation, Anna Karenina (1985), who played a friend to Audrey Hepburn (5) in Two For the Road (1967), and Hepburn appeared in Roman Holiday (1951) which co-starred Gregory Peck (6).

… Uttam Kumar
Chopra appeared as a guest in the television show, Rendezvous with Simi Garewal (1998- 2010), anchored by ‘the lady in white’; so called for her famed unique trade mark elegant white trouser-suits; Simi Garewal (1), who acted alongside the legendary Dev Anand (2) in Teen Devian (1965), who appeared with Bollywood star Hema Malini (3); the only Bollywood actress to hold the reins on the top spot as no.1 heroine for two decades (70’s & 80’s); in Johny Mera Naam (1970), and Hema Malini is married to actor Dharmendra (4), who appeared with Sharmila Tagore in Yakeen (1969), who played a feminist journalist in the Bengali art house movie Nayak (1966), which also starred Uttam Kumar (6).

… Cary Grant
Chopra appeared in Bluffmaster! (2005) opposite Abhishek Bachchan (1), who happens to be the son of the Bollywood legend that refuses to retire and is still no.1 and in top of his game as ever, Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan (2), who has a cameo in the new Hollywood glam sham, The Great Gatsby (2013), starring Leonardo Di Caprio (3), who appeared in The Aviator (2004), where Cate Blanchett (4) played Katharine Hepburn (5), and Hepburn starred alongside Cary Grant (6) in The Philadelphia Story (1940).

… Dominic Cooper
Chopra played twelve characters, each portraying personalities attributed to the twelve varied star signs, in What’s Your Raashee? (2009), similarly, three decades before, actor Sanjeev Kumar (1) played nine roles, representing nine different qualities of man, burrowed from Hindu Mythology of ‘Navras’, in Sanskrit referring to the nine aesthetics of man, in Naya Din Nai Raat (1974), and Kumar acted in Aandhi (1975), which also starred West-Bengal actress Suchitra Sen (2), who appeared in the Bengali Art-Film Saptapadi (1961), where she played a charcter that played the role of ‘Desdemona’ in a staging of William Shakespeare’s (3) famed play Othello in the movie itself, and in the 1965 British Film adaptation, Sir Laurence Olivier (4) played the character of ‘Othello’, and Kenneth Branagh (5), played Olivier in My week with Marilyn (2011), which also co-starred young British actor, Dominic Cooper (6).

… Théo Frilet
Chopra starred in Dostana (2008), where Abhishek Bachchan (1) played a straight man pretending to be gay, and contrasting to this, he played a hit man in Yuva (2004), which also starred Esha Deol (2), whose mother Hema Malini (3) starred in the Bollywood adapatation of the well known Arabian tale of ‘Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves’ titled, Alibaba aur 40 chor (1980), and the more recent French television version, titled, Ali Baba et les 40 Voleurs (2007), starred Leïla Bekhti (4), who appeared in Paris, Je t’aime (2007), which also starred Hippolyte Girardot (5), who came in the television movie Des Gens qui Passent (2009), alongside young French actor Théo Frilet (6).

… Amol Palekar
Chopra played an autistic girl who goes missing in Darjeeling in the 1970’s, in Barfi! (2012), where Ranbir Kapoor (1) plays a deaf-mute; who along with the character of Chopra learns to survive in the streets of Calcutta of the 70’s, on their own; and Kapoor happens to be the grandson of the renowned artiste Raj Kapoor (2), who starred alongside Nutan (3) in Anari (1959), and Nutan co-starred opposite Dev Anand (4) in Tere Ghar Ke Samne (1963), who came in Man Pasand (1980), which also starred Tina Munim (5), who came in Baton Baton Mein (1979), which co-starred Amol Palekar (6).

Nuwan Sen’s Film Sense (6°)

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Six Degrees of Separation with Nutan

   Six Degrees of Separation : Nutan to …

Nutan in the 50’s

… Dustin Hoffman
Nutan & Raj Kapoor (1) starred in Anari (1959), Raj Kapoor’s youngest brother happens to be the versatile actor, Shashi Kapoor (2), who played a Nawab that seduces a British collector’s wife, played by Greta Scacchi (3), in Heat & Dust (1983), who appeared in the television mini-series, Daniel Deronda (2002), where the protagonist was played by Hugh Dancy (4), who starred in Evening (2007), which also starred Meryl Streep (5), who won her first Oscar in 1980 for Kramer vs. Kramer (1979), which co-starred Dustin Hoffman (6).

… Richard Burton
Nutan’s younger sister happens to be actress Tanuja (1), who appeared in Masoom (1983) which was directed by Shekhar Kapur (2), who also directed the bio-pic on the life of Queen Elizabeth I (3), namely Elizabeth (1998), who was the daughter of Anne Boleyn (4), and King Henry VIII (5), and Henry VIII was portrayed by Richard Burton (6) in Anne of the Thousand Days (1969).

… Hugh Jackman
Nutan’s son happens to be Mohnish Bahl (1), who starred in Astitva (2000), which also starred actress Tabu (2), who was protagonist of The Namesake (2006), which also starred Zuleikha Robinson (3), who played a terrorist in the television series Homeland (2011), which had Claire Danes (4) playing the main CIA Officer trying to uncover the plot against the United States, and Danes starred along with Kate Beckinsale (5) in Brokedown Palace (1999), who appeared with Hugh Jackman (6) in Van Helsing (2004).

… Ryan Phillippe
Nutan co-starred opposite Dev Anand (1) in Tere Ghar Ke Samne (1963), who copied the hairstyle donned by Hollywood legend Gregory Peck (2), who’s grandson, Ethan Peck (3) appeared in In Time (2011), which also had Matt Bomer (4) in a small role, who played a stripper in Magic Mike (2012), along with former real life stripper, now film actor, Channing Tatum (5), who starred in Stop-loss (2008) which also starred Ryan Phillippe (6).

…Dev Patel
Nuatn’s niece, actress Kajol (1) is married to Ajay Devgan (2), who played a hitman in Thakshak (1999) where the top most villain was played by Rahul Bose (3), who came in I Am (2010), which also starred Sanjay Suri (4), who also played a HIV positive character in My Brother Nikhil (2005), which starred Lillete Dubey (5) as his mother, who played mother to Dev Patel (6) in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2011).

…Errol Flynn
Nutan played an elder sister who sacrifices her whole life for the sake of her younger brother, played by Raj Babbar (1) in Rishta Kagaz Ka (1983), Raj Babbar was married to Smita Patil (2), who starred in Arth (1982) which was based on a true story, which also starred Kulbhushan Kharbanda (3), who came in Delhi in a Day (2010), which starred Lee Williams (4), who came in the television miniseries The Forsythe Saga: To Let (2003), which was based on the novels of John Galsworthy (5), as was That Forsythe Woman (1949) starring Errol Flynn (6).

Nuwan Sen’s Film Sense (6°)

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The 1950’s

The 1950’s

An era of mischief, fun, rock n’ roll, modernist youth culture, post-modern art, epic films, musicals, romance, tragic dramas, the Cold War, and the era of the Baby Boomers (who interestingly would now be in their 50’s & 60’s).

Films of the 50’s, set in their time, were a reflection of their times, and they beautifully captured the easy going, fun loving, youthful lifestyles of that period. 

 

Pix: Left – Jean-Paul Belmondo & Jean Seberg walking around the streets of Paris in, one of the earliest of the French New Wave,  À bout de souffle (1959/60). Top Right – A young Roger Moore in a brief appearance opposite Elizabeth Taylor in, this tragic post ‘Second World War’ romance, The Last Time I Saw Paris (1954). Bottom Right – Audrey Hepburn and Jeremy Brett playing Brother & Sister from a Russian aristocratic family in this epic set during the ‘Napoleonic Wars’ of the early 19th century, in War and Peace (1956).

Chk out my pictorial tribute to the Films of the 50’s, titled  ‘50-50’s‘ on IMDB.

Alain Delon & Nutan in the 50’s

Chk out my previous tributes to films & film stars of the 1950’s,on IMDB. Especially the lists titled ‘The Foxy Fifties‘ and ‘These are a Few of my Favourites‘. And many more.

Nuwan Sen’s Film Sense