Put it down in black and white…..

One of the perils of modern technology becoming so easily accessible and also relatively less expensive is that one can’t then stop it being overused. At the proverbial drop of a hat, Ad nauseam…..

So you have morphing , and deep fake technology that’s already so good it will be difficult in the future to distinguish the real from the unreal. Sometimes though the distinction is easy and the original still looks and feels a lot better. Look at this song from a 50s Navketan movie Kala Pani. Dev Anand, the voracious reader that he was, adapted plenty of great works of literature to some wonderful movies that he made. A J Cronin was a physician turned novelist who both of us like. Cronin wrote Beyond This Place which was made into an English movie by the same name (for its UK release, the movie was released in US as Web of Evidence). This movie was made in Bangla as Sabar Uparey. It was made by Dev Anand (who got Raj Khosla to direct it, as Khosla was kind of master of the thriller/mystery genre) as Kala Pani. The Hindi movie was a huge success and won Dev Anand the Best Actor Filmfare and got Nalini Jaywant the Filmfare for Best Supporting Actress. Madhubala as the fearless reporter who falls hook, line and sinker for Dev Anand, was nominated for Best Actress but didn’t win. Look at this amazing song composed by Burmanda with lyrics by Majrooh. https://youtu.be/eMBopSZNGKw

Madhubala looks absolutely bewitching. The song so beautifully picturized and shot in monochrome, feels the same nearly 65 years after its release. Madhubala is trying to apologize to a miffed Dev Anand who plays (quite inexplicably) hard to get, collecting an amused audience of the usual Navketan sidekicks who can’t believe the role reversal and the fact that Dev Anand holds up his reticence and petulance right till the end. A wonderful duet : Asha Bhosle and Rafi saab absolutely on the top of their game.

Recently after the tech guys went ballistic with their ability to alter old movies (not necessarily for the better), this movie ( & song) were rendered in colour. https://youtu.be/ZN_XrB_St-8

I didn’t quite like the uniform and unreal peach colour these guys gave to the lady. I feel her beauty looks much more stunning in the original monochrome shooting.

Stay safe, you guys, stay healthy and happy. Enjoy this divine movie and the lovely score, if you’ve not seen it yet.

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