Bell Bottoms – A comeback of a fashion statement

 

Bell Bottoms – A comeback of a fashion statement

The fashion timeline remains busy no matter what. Various styles of trousers have made their expression on this soil.But one of that style keep evolving through out the ages and comes back again and again. We are talking about the trousers called Bell -Bottoms.

As the name itself describes, bell-bottoms are a form of pants that are fit from the waist through the thighs but as we look down it widens especially from the knee position. The flare gives them the look of a bell, hence was named , bell-bottom.
Even though no one knows who invented the bell-bottom, the earliest adoption of the trend was during the seventeenth century in the US Navy. The reason is perhaps they wanted to keep it easy to fold it over whenever they required to wade through muddy waters. So keeping the loose fitting at the bottom helped them.

 

Now we shall come to women adopting this fashion. Designer Coco Chanel was popular for making the women of the era come out of their corsets and dresses, and wearing loose trousers and pants. It is being speculated that they got inspired from the loose pants of the sailors and introduced the brand that came to be known as, ’Yachting pants’ and ‘Beach Pajamas’.
Later, the bell bottom trend got popular again during the 1960s. The pants became a craze among both men and women especially in the 70’s. During these times in Hollywood and even in our own Bollywood and mainstream fashion bell-bottoms became quite famous.

For women Bell-bottom jeans have now become trendy. The style goes well with tight blouses or tops and platform heels. Yes waisted bell bottoms jeans - light wash pair would be perfect for spring and summer or more casual looks. They feel fancier than plain old skinny jeans and at times they can feel you really flattered. One can get them tailored to work with your preferred shoes. As accessories one can add a great belt to polish off the look. A pretty bag or clutch, and voila, that’s going to be a complete outfit. And match them with a graphic tee or a blousy tank. Finally adding a third piece like a blazer or jacket of some sort completes the great look.

Happy to pen this blog on the film Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro (hence forth we shall refer it to JBDY). This blogpiece is unlike any film review in the sense that we give a very small space to the actual film plot but we shall talk a lot about the making of this cult comedy. Part of the reference work done for this article includes the Harper Collins book Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro,Seriously Funny Since 1983-written by film journalist Jai Arjun Singh.

Kundan Shah took the lead in directing this low budget film (made at a cost of a little less than7 Lakhs!) at the behest of NFDC. NFDC those days stepped up as a patron to young filmmakers, it started off as a film finance corporation to infuse fresh breath into Indian cinematic visionaries and eventually it got renamed as NFDC (National Film Development Corporation) and  had delivered great low budget quality movies later on played on Doordarshan, the only home entertainment channel that we had then in the 80’s.

Many of the contributors to this classic piece of art are now ‘big names’ in the film fraternity, and some of them  left their earthly sojourn!. Kundan Shah himself passed away in 2007, Om Puri and Ravi Baswani also left us recently.

The other big names that I am talking about, Naseer (Naseeruddin Shah) was just awaiting to throw away his “serious actor” image, Vidhu Vinod Chopra now famous for the Munna Bhai series, PK and 3-Idiots was a production controller for JBDY, Neena Gupta (of Bhadaai Ho fame) plays a comic part, Satish Kaushik who is now a famous producer and director played one of his first comedy roles in this movie. Besides we have the versatile  Pankaj Kapur.

The film plot involves a satirical comedy to unearth a nexus between administrators and corporate bigwigs. Here is the plot in brief , it is a story of two upcoming photographers Vinod and Sudhir (played by Naseer and Ravi Baswan) who get a job (or a contract) of a 

News-magazine , to work on a scandalous story or rather dig some dirt exposing the dealings between an unscrupulous builder, Tarneja and the corrupt Muncipal commissioner D’Mello.They accidentally see Tarneja shooting someone. In their job of covering the story of Tarneja, they find a coffin containing dead body of Muncipal Commissioner D’Mello who according to common knowledge had died of a terminal illness. Now it is a suspicion that the person whom Tarneja shot was in reality the Muncipal Comissioner. They take several photographs of the dead person and confirm that it is indeed Mr D’Mello , and then they push the coffin into a hidden place. But later they find the coffin is missing from that place. Vinod and Sudhir find out that the body is with Tarneja's rival, Ahuja who had, in an inebriated condition, carried the coffin to his farmhouse. They somehow get the coffin but meanwhile Tarneja, Ahuja, the new Municipal Commissioner and several others also get involved resulting in a series of comic mix-ups.

This movie also is remembered for the musical rendition of the cult poem ‘Hum Honge Kaamyaab’...written by Girijakumar Mathur who translated from the English original - ‘We shall overcome’.

Reminiscing on the good old days of  its shooting most of the crew members of JBDY say that it was utterly chaotic many were left confused all the while as to what kind of a film it would turnout to be. The film had only Naseeruddin Shah as a known face although Ravi Baswani had one big release namely Chashme Buddoor. Ravi Baswani in fact won the Filmfare’s best comedian award for JBDY, while  Kundan Shah won the Indira Gandhi National award for the best debut as director. Most of the actors were Kundan’s friends from FTII with the  exception of Pankaj Kapur who was from NSD. Another trivia is that the names of the lead characters Vinod and Sudhir were those of the Production controlloer Vinod Chopra and the writer Sudhir Mishra. The movie did not see big success at the time of its first release but in subsequent releases it attained a cult status according to film critics.

Remembering 1942

The title already sets the tone for a great story... and 1942 A LOVE STORY - has to its credits many special features. It is known for its fine narrative, famously known for being the first Bollywood movie that incorporated DOLBY STEREO into its soundtrack, and it is one of the best known musical hits of PANCHAM DA. One remembers even today the beautifully rendered songs "Ek Ladki Ko", "Kyon naye lag rahe..", of course every track of this album was a chartbuster.


Set in the era when British Raj's  is faltering  and Indian revolutionary zeal is at

it's peak. Naren Singh is the charecter played by the male lead Anil Kapoor who falls in love with Rajjo-played by Manisha Koirala. Under the backdrop of political unrest there is this drama happening: Naren belongs to a family that is loyal to the Raj, while Rajjo's father Raghuvir (played by Anupam Kher) is a revolutionary freedom fighter. With such a plot the filmmaker manages to weave a great narrative with the help of supporting cast that includes  Jackie Shroff and Danny Denzongpa. The film ends with the success of the love story between Naren and Razzo.
The film has received several accolades. Filmfare best lyricist award for Javed Akhtar, Best Art Director (Nitin Desai), Best Cinematography (Binod Pradhan), Best Music Direction (R D Burman) Best supporting actor (Jackie Shroff), Best Editing (Renu) and Best Sound Design (Namita and Jeetendra).

Playing Chor Police

Chor Police (Thief and Police) is a game played by kids ..Disclaimer-This is a work of fiction.
Can we imagine a large scale violence in public that has gone unnoticed and unrecorded in these"whatsapp" days. Around 7 months back a case of violence happened in a rustic village with the men in uniform opening fire and smashing business houses. Videos surface on social media with recorded versions of the incident  driving home the point that the mob was handled carelessly leading to losses of property. Now another video surfaces which resembles an uncanny resemblance to the 7 month old video. The same background noises, the same background buildings but here it showcases rioters creating havoc and smashing cars that belong to the security and putting shops to fire. If Video 1 is taken to be true than the men in uniform are the thugs while if the second video is taken to be true then some miscreants among the  public should be declared thugs. Isnt  it the game of Chor-police. Scientifically Forensic evidence is the key to actually get hold of the truth....

Saawan ka Mahina

It was many many years ago that we used to hear great music during the onset of monsoon. We shall get into some amazing reminisces... The film story we shall discuss now is Kashmir Ki Kali....
There was a time when romantic Hindi films couldn't be made without the beautiful background of Kashmir, and obviously, this film was no exception, especially as it was about “Kashmir ki Kali” (A hindi phrase for- beautiful -Kashmiri -lady). A quintessential masala formula film of boy meets girl; it's a love story interrupted at intervals by an archaic villain whenever they aren't singing, leading to a happy ending after customary rituals of fight and chase.
This is a Shakti Samanta film and so Romance and scenic beauty are the USPs . Here the effervescent story by Ranjan Bose may seem wacky, but note that it is not so easy to script, especially since it adheres to commercial rigours of Hindi cinema. Though Manmohan Desai is much commended for trademark “formula films”, not many appreciate that despite sticking to constricting boundaries of “conventional cinema”, Samanta delivered immensely successful entertainers like “Howrah Bridge”, “Kashmir ki Kali”, “Evening in Paris”, “Aradhna”, “Kati Patang” and “Amar Prem” with subtle messages of secularism and integration in equal measure.
While his basic story would always revolve round a man-woman romance, Samanta's treatment would tackle several layers of engaging issues, like pre-marital relations, widow re-marriage or self respect for women.Samanta's cinematic expositions subtly communicate the Nehruvian socialist ideals of universal brotherhood and equality, without deviating from the main story. Like most of his lavish productions, “Kasmir ki Kali” too is an refreshing and a watchable film with all your near and dear family members i.e a clean wholesome family entertainer without a single lewd gesture or dialogue, serving the pristine Kashmir landscape as a magnificent bonus.
The film serves a  feast of foot tapping melody music that seem like odes to the “paradise on earth” by rhythm king O.P. Nayyar. All the seven songs of S.H. Bihari are extremely pleasing to the ear due to the harmonious blending of sparkling shairi and frolicking sangeet that have been extremely well choreographed by Surya Kumar. As you watch the three duets, one is spellbound by the manner in which Shammi is made to move daintily in tune with Sharmila, as well as the demands of silky soft verses.
As one watches the magnificent landscape through VN Reddy's adroit camera, one is left praying for Kashmir's return to golden peace and sunshine, a land of perennial delight and ecstasy.  To get more details on this evergreen romantic story WATCH IT TODAY!!