Blast from the Past - BOLLYWOOD STYLE!

Forget Throwback Thursdays! Let us go back in time to a totally different place - India. Just picture this: music that is so beautiful it makes you want to fall in love, colors of every shade of the rainbow, poetry that makes your heart not only do somersaults but jump out of your body and run laps. Then add a few cheesy dialogues and a bit of over-acting and you have—Hindi Cinema, which we lovingly call Bollywood!

At the Mercer County Libraries, we have been expanding our movie collection by leaps and bounds, especially when it comes to our much loved Hindi movies. In addition to getting some of the newest releases, we have popular movies from the seventies, eighties and nineties.

Bollywood movies are known for their musical numbers. These songs are actually the highlight of the movie. The better the soundtrack, the better the movie does at the theaters. Unlike songs from more recent times, song lyrics from the seventies and eighties are known even today for their beautiful poetry. Lyrics for the songs from this era were actually written by professional poets. These poets used words like an artist uses a paintbrush to create dazzling images in your mind. Then alluring music was added to enhance the beauty of the already aesthetic imagery. We are not finished yet. The poetry, music, and the best playback singers of the time were combined with colorful scenery and sets that you have to see to believe. It is not unheard of for an Indian movie (with a storyline that is based within India) to have a song that is shot in the tulip fields of Amsterdam or in the beautiful churches of Europe. These songs often bring back memories for those of us who are still young at heart.

Movies like Aradhana (1969), Silsila (1981), Kabhi Kabhi (1976) and Laawaris (1981) have exquisite music along with storylines that are still relevant and a bit scandalous even by today’s standards. And we simply cannot forget the actors and actresses. Some went on to become the best in the industry and to represent Bollywood to the rest of the world. So for all you movie lovers out there, try something….OLD! You might just like it and start humming tunes to a golden oldie and fall in love with Bollywood like millions of others out there!

Kaneeze Husain