blind women songs

My ten favourite blind women songs

I got the idea for this post when I read Yves’ review of the Sparsh [1980]. Blind people abound in Hindi cinema mostly as some blind chachas (uncles) in slums or are poor sisters or mothers, for whose eye-operation the hero commits some crime. Then there are the female leads, who are blind, where the story follows one way or the other the plot of Charlie Chaplin’s City Lights. Of course there are stories, where the story follows a different path altogether. All the stories have one thing in common that mostly the curing of the blindness plays a central role in the story. Exceptions as usual confirm the rule.

In my post Mala Sinha song list, while commenting the song from Patanga. I wrote that the species of blind heroines became rare in the 80s. I didn’t know that they had become so abundant in the last decade. My favourites though, as you would guess, are not from the last decade but earlier. Well, here they are! Enjoy!

 

Men, who are not afraid to be a woman

My ten favourite men-in-drag songs

Men in drag has me always in splits. It is one thing, which guarantees a laughter from my side. I know it doesn’t show much of a depth for my character. Yeah, how to put it much better than: I am like that only!

Men wearing women’s clothes is nothing new. In the early films of the Indian film industry boys would often take up female roles. Men in drag is all the same a more ancient phenomenon. The reasons behind it can be different ranging from transvestism to transgenderism. I can imagine that during times or in societies when and where homosexuality was looked down upon, it was one of the ways for men to approach men. For heterosexual men, I can think, it is a means to make fun of women and in this way digest the rejection by them. At the same time it can also be seen as a rebellion against the society and attempt to break away from the roles imposed by the society based on gender. All the same, it is not these deeper thoughts that go through my mind, why I love these songs.

Here are my favourite 10 songs from Hindi films with men in drag. Since it all is supposed to be fun, no rules this time, except for the quite obvious ones like one song pro actor. 😉