Magic of the 60s....

60s was a period in Hindi movies when the movie making had made a lot of progress from when it started, but there was still innocence in the movies. Movies had gone colour, even though many movies were still being made in black & white. This was a decade when many good, serious movies were made but this was also the decade when movies truly became fun. The movies of 60s distinctly had more energy and zest than the earlier period; and they had lot of innocence and simplicity compared to later movies. The heroines were spunkier; the villains had not yet become big dons or smugglers and heroes had started dancing!!

There are some distinct features of the 60s fun movies which make them special and oh, so lovable. Here is an effort to list out those wonderful things….

Locations:



Picturesque locations.... - Kashmir ki Kali





A lot of these light hearted movies were made in Kashmir and the Himalayan foothills. And boy, do these locations look wonderful on the screen!! All those snow clad mountains, pine trees, those narrow roads, on which the heroes drove, and heroines cycled and oh they sang melodious songs…

Even movies that were based in the other locations give you glimpses of those places from a different time – those cities and towns seem to move at a different pace all together. Somehow, life in that time and that place seems perfect.

 Fancy cars & Jeeps:

Heroes were either poor and rode bicycles or they were rich and drove fancy cars or many times jeeps. They went all the way from Delhi to Kashmir, sometimes even from Mumbai to Kashmir in the fancy car or the jeep. When the hero was poor, there was a very good chance that the heroine was rich and she had a fancy car. And these cars came in some remarkable colours! Heroes didn’t mind driving around in Pink Cadillac… :-)



 

Hero in the Jeep singing to the Heroine on bicycle - Mere Sanam



Bicycles:Many times Heroines and sometimes even heroes moved around on cycles. Heroines went on picnics with their girlfriends on bicycles. And they sang songs riding the bicycles or the hero in a car or a jeep sang to the heroine who was on a cycle….

Trains:

 

Hero & Heroine in The first class compartment - Teesri Manzil

Heroes and Heroines travelled in trains – most of times in the first class. Those first class compartments also were really classy, an attached bathroom and all… And then there was a lot of “ched-chaad” between the hero and the heroine in the train…

 

Picnics:

 

Hero crashes the heroine & friends' picninc - Pyar Ka Mausam



Oh those picnics!! Picnics were so much a part of those fun movies. They seemed so appropriate for the times and the mood of these movies. Many times it was Heroine’s friends who went on a picnic and Hero ended up there by himself or he pretended to be friend or “mangetar” of one of her friend. Then of course, there were songs while going on a picnic or returning from it or at the picnic… It was so idyllic!

Clubs and Bands & Parties and pianos:Movies in urban setting were complete with a club which was frequented by hero or the heroine or the villain…. And the club had to have a band. Many times the hero was part of the band.

There were these huge houses which were really convenient to have big parties – Heroine’s birthday party where the hero, who was really poor, would effortlessly play the piano and sing an appropriate song was quite the usual. Or the hero could as easily play the piano in a hotel…

Fashion:While some of the stuff about the fashion of the 60s seems really odd, other things still seem really cool… Things that I find quite fascinating are the colours heroines wore – a lot of pastels, a lot of interesting colour combinations; the sarees they wore – the texture of those sarees, the embroidery work on them and the jewellery that they used. As for the men, the hats & scarfs, pull overs and blazers of this period were really cool – well mostly. You did also see some of them wear a yellow blazer and a red scarf… :-)

Disguises:

The disguise was an important part of the “fun”. So many times the hero pretended to be an old man with a big beard; sometimes he dressed up as a woman (most times a really big and ugly woman :-)).Sometimes the hero, sometimes the heroine while the comedian on a regular basis wore kafani and pretended to be a “Saddhu” or “Sanyasi”. The rich hero pretended to be poor to win over the heroine. The poor hero pretended to be rich, again to win the heroine over. 

Heroine in the disguise - Hero is fooled - Junglee





Dances:

 

Heroine's dance performance while pretending to be a gypsy - Prince



In 60s only the people who could dance were really made to dance ( And a lot of the actresses could really dance…); the dances were directed (in those days, there were dance directors not choreographers) keeping the wording in mind – which meant that expressions and actions seemed relevant to what the singer was singing.  There was a lot of energy but also a lot of fun in the dances.  There were dances based on Indian classical dances, there were dances based on folk dances, there were also dances based on rock & roll and of course there were “cabarets”.

Songs:There were songs on bicycles and fancy cars and on trains… There were songs in the fancy locations – in the mountains and on those quiet side roads… There were funny songs in disguise.  And of course there were songs in the parties with the pianos.  Moreover, everything about the songs of this period is just awesome.

Lyrics – The lyrics from this period are so soulful – the lyricist from this period wrote meaningful songs; they had very good command over the language and they knew wonderful ways to get their points across. 

The music directors were definitely making “music” – what wonderful tunes… They were making music based on classical as well as folk tunes but they were also using a lot of pop and rock sounds.

And whatever music these directors thought about, the capable singers could sing to make it even better!

Songs from this period are very fresh even now – its such a pleasure to hear them even now and they are great to watch even today.

The world of these movies seems like such a wonderful and troublefree place. No major crisis, no worries, no hassles... Many fun movies and wonderful people…Just look at the people who were making their presence felt –

Dev Anand, Raj Kapoor, Dilip Kumar, Guru Dutt, Balraj Sahani, Shammi Kapoor, Dharmendra, Sunil Dutt, Sanjeev Kumar, Shashi Kapoor, Rajesh Khanna…

Nutan, Meena Kumari, Wahida Rehman, Vaijayanti Mala, Asha Parekh, Sadhana, Saira Banoo, Sharmila Tagore, Tanuja…

Mehmood, Dhumal, Om Prakash, Rajendra Nath, Premnath, Pran, Prem Chopra,

Nirupaa Roy, Sulochana, Lalita Pawar, Shashikala, Helen, Parveen Chaudhari, Bela Bose, Laxmi Chaya….

While, all these people made this decade the fun decade, I think, the one hero that defines the mood of the movies of the 60s is Shammi Kapoor; the one heroine is Asha Parekh; the one villain is Pran; the one comedian Rajendra Nath, the one “Maa” (good or bad) is Lalita Pawar and the one awesome cabaret dancer Helen…

60s - Faces that define 60s