Madhubala and Mughal-E-Azam
PariD
Okay, I'm obsessed with Madhubala. I'm not a lesbian or bi and she was
dead long before I was born but there is something about her that I can't
get over. Her beauty is totally ethereal and God I wish we were identical
twins. Anyway, I had read an article on the making of Mughal E Azam that
said that someone substituted for Madhubala in the first song (the one
where she pretends to be Radha - I'm not really sure about the words in
the song) during the kathak scences because she wasn't a classical dancer.
In that song there isn't a lot of kathak and I'm pretty sure that
Madhubala did all the dancing. However, before Pyar kiya to darna kya
starts there is a few minutes of purely amazing classical dancing. The
hardest parts of the dance is seen in the long shots where you don't see
her face. Only the close-ups do you see it's Madhubala. Did some
classical dancer substitute for her? Thanx in advance.
Ikram Ahmed Khan
PariD (pa...@aol.com) wrote:
: Okay, I'm obsessed with Madhubala. I'm not a lesbian or bi and she was
It is an odd tribute to the nude pics thread that one has to qualify one's
liking of a particular person with such a statement! :((((
: dead long before I was born but there is something about her that I can't
: get over. Her beauty is totally ethereal and God I wish we were identical
: twins.
And if you were, I would humbly ask you to drop the D in your id and just
leave it at "Pari" and nobody could have objected. :)
: Anyway, I had read an article on the making of Mughal E Azam that
: said that someone substituted for Madhubala in the first song (the one
: where she pretends to be Radha - I'm not really sure about the words in
: the song) during the kathak scences because she wasn't a classical dancer.
: In that song there isn't a lot of kathak and I'm pretty sure that
: Madhubala did all the dancing. However, before Pyar kiya to darna kya
: starts there is a few minutes of purely amazing classical dancing. The
: hardest parts of the dance is seen in the long shots where you don't see
: her face. Only the close-ups do you see it's Madhubala. Did some
: classical dancer substitute for her? Thanx in advance.
This is pretty much a done thing. eg. Chitralekha (the one in which
Meenakumaari is the courtesan... qualifier needed as I get confused with
these movies) had an introductory dance sequence with MeenaK performing
highly mobile steps wearing a mask. This facilitated replacing her by
another extra who could more easily execute the steps.
Also, with Madhubala, there was the additional problem of her being quite
sick, especially toward the end of her career. Quite a few of her films have
extras and long shots. eg Boyfriend has quite a few sequences where
Madhubala is shown with darkness shrouding her face or her face not seen at
all. As if this was not enough, she also was being managed by her father
Ataullah Khan, who by all the accounts was an extremely disagreeable
character. She would not be allowed to go on outdoor "location" shoots as he
was reportedly afraid that she might fall in love with her heroes and then
the hen who laid the golden eggs would be gone. eg. Even though Naya Daur
was signed by Madhubala, the matter went to the courts, as her father
refused the location shoots reqd for the film. {DilipK confesses in court to
loving Madhubala and further mentions that he will always love her!}.
However, the song that you mention, which probably is Mohe panghat pe, was
shot quite early on during this film's looooong history of being made and so
the first reason might not apply. Also as the sets were really costly and
shooting in them for a longer duration would involve more money, it is quite
possible that it was done to save money. An extra would be able to give the
shot in less takes and so on....
And I agree with you that those mirror palace sequences in Pyaar kiya toh
probably did not feature Madhubala doing the whirling. But thought that the
opening sequence of the song and most of it did feature Madhubala.
More info is most welcome.
Later,
Ikram.
Jacob Levich
iak...@eesun2.tamu.edu (Ikram Ahmed Khan) wrote:
>
>This is pretty much a done thing. eg. Chitralekha (the one in which
>Meenakumaari is the courtesan... qualifier needed as I get confused with
>these movies) had an introductory dance sequence with MeenaK performing
>highly mobile steps wearing a mask. This facilitated replacing her by
>another extra who could more easily execute the steps.
>
Something very similar happens in her last film, PAKEEZAH, where she's
obviously replaced by a veiled double for the dance sequence at the
wedding. This was one of the last sequences shot (in a film that was
shot on and off over a period of several years) and presumably she was
far too sick to do the dance herself by this time.
BTW, dance doubling is not uncommon in Hollywood cinema--most of the
more athletic steps in FLASHDANCE are done by a stand-in for Jennifer
Beals.
Jake Levich
jle...@newscorp.com
umesh garg
>Something very similar happens in her last film, PAKEEZAH, where she's
>obviously replaced by a veiled double for the dance sequence at the
>wedding. This was one of the last sequences shot (in a film that was
>shot on and off over a period of several years) and presumably she was
>far too sick to do the dance herself by this time.
>
>BTW, dance doubling is not uncommon in Hollywood cinema--most of the
>more athletic steps in FLASHDANCE are done by a stand-in for Jennifer
>Beals.
>
>
>Jake Levich
>jle...@newscorp.com
In the dance sequence that you mention, the actual dance was performed by
Padma Khanna who appeared in quite a few side-roles in the late 60's and
70's. She was a protege of Gopikrishna and faurly good at dancing. In the
movies, however, she was best known for her "erotic" dances like the one in
Johnny Mera Naam (...kaun saa ang dekhoge...), the closest thing to a
strip tease in Indian movies at that time.
To continue the original thread of Madhubala in Mughal-e-Azam, indeed all
dance sequences were performed by an extra (except the close-ups, of course!).
The use of "body doubles" is quite common in films all over the world, the
latest example in Indian movies being the nude scene(s) in "The Bandit Queen"
where an extra was used in place of Seema Biswas.
-Umesh