Who am I?

I am an Indian guy in 20s who’s totally film crazy. I simply love movies (English and Indian ones) and their music. I start this blog to share my filmy travels. As the blog progresses perhaps you’ll know more of me. My online nick is Hildebrand and all can call me that. I watch movies of all kinds and all genres but am biased towards 40s and 50s.

My purpose on this blog is to write about films, artists and songs which I love. Some of them maybe rare forgotten ones and others popular ones. I don’t claim to have a complete knowledge or understanding of everything and a lack of bias. I have my favourites which tend to change with time! So feel free to comment and enlighten me. Everything including knowledge and taste improves by discussion and I hope to have lots of it here.

I particularly love romances, comedies and mysteries among film genres but will often watch anything depending on my mood.

I mostly watch English and Hindi movies but also watch regional movies now and then even if I don’t follow the language!

My favourite movies are many. A few of them are: Gone With The Wind, Thoda Sa Roomani Ho Jaayen, Baazi(1951), Pather Panchali(Bengali), Pyaasa, Some Like It Hot and Most Hitchcock movies. I also love watching Tom and Jerry cartoons!

My favourite actors are James Stewart, Marlon Brando, Dev Anand, Shashi Kapoor and Sanjeev Kumar. I tend to go for actors who look good, can act and have a style of their own.

My favourite actresses are Geeta Bali, Kajol, Grace Kelly, Ingrid Bergmann, Sridevi and Sushmita Sen. In general, I go for the beautiful ladies with an extra dose of spunk who add something extra to their performances.

My favourite male singers are G.M. Durrani, Hemant Kumar, Talat Mehmood and Mohammed Rafi. I love their soulful voices.

My favourite female singers are Geeta Dutt nee Roy, Shamshad Begum and Noor Jehan. I tend to favour slightly heavier voices which can cover a wide range of emotions effortlessly. Warmth in their voices and character only add to my affection towards them.

I frequently contribute at The Geeta Dutt Website in different ways too.

I also post some songs to my youtubee channel here.

My other passion in life is computers especially exploring the GNU/Linux system where I am a big Debian fan.

Hope everyone enjoys reading my blog. Do introduce yourself and do Keep the discussions going here.g

Geeta Dutt: The Famous Yesteryear Nightingale and her new Website

Geeta Dutt is one of my most favourite singers. Even though she had passed away long before I was born, her music continues to live long after. Her voice has a beauty which shall linger on long after one has heard it. Her repertoire is huge. She has sung bhajans, love songs, patriotic songs, club songs, sad songs, kirtans and what not. Name a genre in which hindi film music is sung and she has sung in it. She has sung for almost all major music directors of her age. She has produced hits with almost all singers of her era as well. She has the most beautiful, youthful and energy filled voice. She has sung the full gamut of songs. As one person has said, she could sing for the doll one minute and for the moll the other! That was the kind of variety she had. Not many people know that she has sung over 1200 songs in hindi films. She has also sung songs in other languages including her mother tongue Bengali, Gujrati, Bhojpuri, Nepali and Marathi.
Her voice hits you like a thunderclap. One famous critic had said once, “Singer XYZ gale se gaati hai par Geeta Dil Se Gaati Hai.” When one hears the big variety of her songs one realises this very well. Be it the cabaret style Mera Naam Chin Chin Choo, the sadly lilting Waqt Ne Kiya Kya Haseen Sitam or the wonderful Ched Chaad songs like Reham Kabhi to Farmao from Society, She does them wonderfully and lending the “Geeta touch” to all of them. It is a pity that due to her bad personal life She could not reach the even greater heights she could have reached. Her voice was thandi hawa and kaali ghata rolled into one.
It would be foolish of me to even think of listing which are my favourite songs of hers. There are simply too many. Most people are familiar with a few popular ones but her range is much more than that. The more I listen to her the more enamoured I am by her voice. Maybe I’ll discuss some songs in later posts if it generates interest.
Recently, few fans of www.hamaraforums.com have got together and made the first website dedicated to her. Yours truly has also contributed to it in some small ways. The website chronicles her life, her times and music in a way not seen till now. Her fans would love surfing through it and perhaps discover more about our beloved singer. The URL for the website is www.geetadutt.com . Request all to enjoy the site. Do send in your comments to the Geeta Dutt Fan team by mailing to geetaduttfans@gmail.com . Hope you all enjoy reading it as much as we enjoyed making it.