8

Dec

Without moon

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Today’s Edition

New Delhi, 8 December 2023

Arti Sharam

Comes Eid, Karwa Chouth and Janmasthmi the whole country goes for moon sightings in a frenzy. Each and every pair of eyes scanning the sky anxiously over the growling stomach whose only remedy is sighting of the moon. I guess, this is the only functional purpose the moon still serves in our lives. For the rest, it barely have any importance as it goes about its business and we go on about ours. The moon has totally flushed out from the lives of whose who live in large cities. The moon no longer preside over the night, it’s simply tucked away behind tall buildings. So we get a clean, spotless black coloured curtain as a gift.

This wasn’t the case in earlier era and still isn’t if one steps out from the city. I for myself met the moon after a very long time while I was visiting my mother’s hometown. It was as beautiful as it always was. The moon was dominating the whole night as its king while the scattered tiny pretty stars (which are invisible to the city sky) act as its kingdom. Lying in the open roj in a well moon lit night, it was impossible not to be mesmerized. The moon looked huge and round and a blaze of luminosity hanging around it.

Moonlight has its own charms. Things sems to sparkle on its own as soon as its light touches them. That’s what make the moon so attractive to poets and song writers even now. But the moon is not that useful anymore. Its light carries little meaning to us as our city is ablaze with its own artificial ones.

Long gone are the days when the mother made the moon available to its crybaty by casting its reflection in a bowl of water. Landing on the moon might have been a human fantasy but not anymore. Flags have been planted on the moon as a sign of mastery and its sample have been brought back to the tested in our laboratories. With time it seems our sources of wonder are diminishing. It is being replaced by the technology and internet. Technology produces wonder just as easily as it destroys it. We seek wonders in new gadgets, frequent updates, and social networking sites.

We know and remember the 1960s Hindi films for being romantic and fun filled.

With neatly dressed young men who seemed to have no business other than wooing girls with style. The sand and dance, persuade criminals in fancy cars. The 1960s were a unique and transitional moment of Hindi cinema.

It was an era of versatility which remains overwhelmed by the immediate post-Independence era of 1950s films of Raj Kapoor or Gurudutt. They were showing unashamed upper-middle class. Showed the luxury of living room with grand pianos, upholstered sofas and carpets, fancy telephones, clubs and parties, dancing, picnics and hill stations.

It was the time when Indian films were stated being shot abroad, in exotic foreign locales like ‘Sangam’ with its love sequences shot in Vencie, Paris and Switzerland ‘Love in Tokyo’ and ‘An Evening in Paris’. The biggest stars of the era were Rajesh Khanna and Shammi Kapoor but not considered as actors but much of as entertainers.

In no other period Hindi films and stars were inspired by Hollywood films. There were obvious parallels with Elvis Presley for Shammi Kapoor, Audrey Hepbum for Sadhana fringe or the script written around the James Bond films. Helen, the vamp of the era did it best by carrying off latest international fashion trends and hair do. It was no doubt, liberating.

Alas, it was all short lived. Before one know it, the brooding, angry young man with his very serious business of revenge had arrived on scene. The playful, romantic heroes of the 1960s were on their way out. It was a signal of times. Simple fun and frolic was almost passed and a teeny genes spawned by ‘Bobby’.

Yet, whole 1960s stars lasted, they were the agent of creativity. They embodied the original modernism of Cinema. Even Dara Singh who was not exactly a romantic hero, embodied this spirit of cinema. As we celebrate the forthcoming hundredth year of Indian Cinema, we have lost some of the biggest stars Rajesh Khanna, Dara Singh, Dev Anand and Shammi Kapoor.

The 1960s generation of stars are fading away fast, taking with them a legacy which to this day remains underrated

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