Cinema: The Magic Lantern!!

  Suman Kalyanpur, a shy girl, has fragile and thin voice as sweet as the honey. She carved herself a secure niche as a singer with her sonorous voice and accurate use of vocal octaves. Her soft warbling voice suited to the romantic ditties. Her singing of melodies like ‘Dil Gham Se Jal Raha’ (Shama), ‘Mere Mehboob Na Ja’ (Noormahal) and ‘Haal-e-Dil Unko Sunana Tha’ (Fariyad) reminds us of an era when songs were sublime and filled with purity. She has a mild tremolo in her voice which made her singing huskier and more enchanting. Her skills and tastes were both towards soft, melody-based numbers. She never sang Cabarets, Mujras or any songs with lyrics or situations wherein the visuals would have offended one’s sensibilities. She has a special knack for folk based songs. Even with a relatively limited repertoire, she has given some evergreen nuggets: The zingy ‘Aaj Kal Tere Mere Pyaar Ke Charche’ (Brahmachari), the dreamy ‘Theheriye Hosh Mein Aa Loon’ (Mohabbat Isko Kehte Hain), The

  Tributes on his 42nd Death Anniversary The angel of music, Mohammed Rafi with unique tonal voice, with versatility and crystal clear intonations rendered thousands of heart-warming songs. These varied from fast peppy numbers to classical songs, lamenting melodies to highly romantic songs, qawwalis to ghazals and bhajans to patriotic songs. He poignantly brought out emotions with his exquisite melodious and mellifluous voice for over seven decades. Goddess Saraswati’s abode was in his sublime divine voice. In Baiju Bawra, he demonstrated his virtuosity while in ‘Pyasa’ he gave the evocative power to the lyrics. Though he did make a partial transition to a more playful style as in Junglee, he was too closely wedded to the classical tradition to wander too far from it. Celebrities have fans but Mohammed Rafi had worshippers, who have built “Temples” in his sweet remembrance. Mohammed Rafi was born as Pheeku to Hajji Ali Mohammed and Allah Rakhi on 24 December, 1924, in the village K

Six decades ago, an unknown tubewell mechanic from Sahnewal (Ludhiana) set out on a journey to the ‘City of Dreams’ to realise his ambition of becoming a hero in the Bollywood. He is none other than “Punjab da Sher Puttar” Dharmendra. He is a born entertainer, acting is not a profession for him but it’s his beloved. A director's actor, he could don a dhoti with the same ease with which he could sport a Roman Toga, he could be smoldering in a tuxedo and set a million hearts ablaze. The way his face emotes expressions is unparalleled and his sensitive eyes create an intriguing romance wooing his heroines. Simply dashing Dharmendra with indelible romantic aura, remains true to his image of the lovable prince charming. He blasted the silver screen and the movie halls were drowned in a thousand whistles merely on his entry. He took rapid strides to become the poster boy for the tendon. He is known as the most handsome actor to have ever walked the soil of Indian showbiz. A top draw at

‘Nation First, Always First’ will be the theme of India’s 75th Independence Day celebrations at the Red Fort. The year-long celebrations as ‘Azadi Ka Amrut Mahotsav’ at national and international level will showcase India's achievements of these 75 years. The five pillars for the platinum jubilee celebrations include: Freedom Struggle, Ideas at 75, Achievements at 75, Actions at 75 and Resolve at 75, representing the aspirations of the 130crore Indians. The freedom we are enjoying today has been bricked over the years by the great patriots. This is an occasion to remember the sacrifices made by millions of Indians to liberate the country from the yoke of British rule. There were leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru, Sardar Patel and Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, who led the freedom struggle from the front. There were young freedom fighters like Chandrashekhar Azad, Sardar Bhagat Singh, Shivram Rajguru, Sukhdev Thapar, Batukeshwar Dutt and hundreds of unsung heroes