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Poonam Saxena

Poonam Saxena is the national weekend editor of the Hindustan Times. She writes on cinema, television, culture and books

Articles by Poonam Saxena

An original city of letters: The Way We Were by Poonam Saxena

Long before litfests went viral, lovers of Hindi literature made their way to Allahabad, where words were celebrated all year.

At a pavilion in the fort of Allahabad. Coloured aquatint by Thomas Daniell, 1795. (Wikimedia Commons)
Updated on Dec 25, 2021 01:43 PM IST

We were lucky to have skinned knees and pakdan-pakdai, says Poonam Saxena

Between pollution, the pandemic and the lure of too many screens, children are no longer playing the kinds of unstructured outdoor games where the aim was just to get together and have fun. What a pity.

Games like pithu and stapoo were fun despite (or perhaps because of) all the squabbles, scabs and muddied clothes. Cricket and football are all very well, but they’re not the same thing. (Shutterstock)
Updated on Nov 26, 2021 06:56 PM IST

All-you-can-stream buffets: The food in K-dramas is a cultural coup

Bowls of steaming soup, sizzling barbecued meats, crisp fish cakes — Korean shows are taking their cuisine to the world. Why haven’t we done the same with our dazzling array?

Scenes from Crash Landing on You, a romance series, and Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Joo, about a group of college athletes. Food is an integral part of all South Korean shows, regardless of genre. It’s always beautifully staged too, and shown in delectable close-up.
Updated on Oct 29, 2021 09:13 PM IST

The rather frightening fade of reality TV: The Way We Were by Poonam Saxena

It started out simple, with set-ups designed for drama. Then came the vitriol and online fan clubs lashing out at each other. Today, sadly, even this isn’t the worst of what hits our screens.

Dolly Bindra fainting in Shweta Tiwari’s arms: Bigg Boss’s early years, while startling then, seem positively innocent today.
Updated on Oct 02, 2021 04:07 PM IST

Laying on the gilt: What’s next for Sanjay Leela Bhansali?

In an industry with less and less room for opulent productions, he seems determined to stay the path. His upcoming movies and a Netflix show about courtesans hold out the same promise of glitter. Could that very steadfastness stream him onward?

 (HT Archives)
Updated on Sep 17, 2021 07:31 PM IST

Smoke, sip, swerve: Poonam Saxena on status symbols in Hindi films

What makes something the most coveted in its class is rarely clear, but for the stars of ’50s and ’60s Hindi cinema, there was no debate: the Chevy Impala, Vat 69 and 555 cigarettes were it.

Tanuja, dressed to match her character’s Chevrolet Impala, in Haathi Mere Saathi (1971).
Updated on Sep 04, 2021 03:19 PM IST

India in flashbacks: The early years of celluloid magic

From the ’40s to the ’60s, Hindi cinema championed hope, change and humanism, in original and entertaining films.

Films such as Do Bigha Zamin (above), Mughal-e-Azam and Mother India reflected the pain of the oppressed, young India’s pride in its past, and its aspirations for the future.
Updated on Aug 13, 2021 05:53 PM IST

Remembering Bhikhari Thakur, the bard of Bihar

The Bhojpuri barber turned playwright died 50 years ago. His lyrical, once-hugely-popular plays still resonate.

A statue of Bhikhari Thakur in Chhapra, Bihar. He was a migrant, lived among migrants and wrote of their lives, in plays that told evocative tales of the poor, women, and the oppressed.
Updated on Aug 07, 2021 04:58 PM IST

When the unforgettable Dilip Kumar met Bronte

From his brother, the legendary actor acquired a love of the classics — Dickens, Shakespeare, Charlotte and Emily Bronte. Heathcliff of Wuthering Heights made a particular impression.

Dilip Kumar and Kamini Kaushal in Arzoo (1950), an adaptation of Wuthering Heights. Kumar died this week, aged 98.
Updated on Jul 10, 2021 02:28 PM IST

A storyteller true to her words: Poonam Saxena on rebel writer Mannu Bhandari

The Hindi author lived an unconventional life, and gave a voice to women of the 1950s and ’60s who were trying to do the same.

Vidya Sinha and Amol Palekar in Rajnigandha (1974). The tale of a young woman trying to choose between two men, unusual for its time, was based on a short story by Bhandari.
Updated on Jun 12, 2021 05:35 PM IST

A century on, the same current flows along the banks: Poonam Saxena

Stark echoes of today ring out in the writings of poet Suryakant Tripathi Nirala, who lost so many loved ones to the influenza pandemic.

On the banks of the Ganga at Varanasi, April 2021. Nirala speaks of sitting on a mound near the river at Dalmau, and watching in despair as corpses floated by. (PTI)
Updated on May 21, 2021 08:12 PM IST

A brief history of popular names for children: The Way We Were by Poonam Saxena

Shankar and Ishaan are both names for Shiva. So why was one so preferred in the past and the other so popular now?

Elon Musk’s child is named X Æ A-XII. It’s possible that wouldn’t even be legal under Russia’s new laws for parents. (Twitter / @elonmusk)
Updated on Apr 11, 2021 06:19 AM IST

Mahadevi Varma: The poet who broke free, and inspired others to

In Women’s History Month, Poonam Saxena looks back on the extraordinary life of a revolutionary feminist and writer.

Guest artist Sonali Zohra painted this Google Doodle honouring Varma in April 2018.
Updated on Mar 14, 2021 06:25 AM IST

Shining through the Seventies. Then mysteriously: It’s a wrap!

An ode to the lungi-kurta, always in silk, always as resplendent loungewear, which vanished without a trace

Lungi-kurtas are the ’70s trend that time forgot. Zeenat Aman danced in hers in Hare Rama Hare Krishna.
Updated on Feb 28, 2021 07:15 AM IST

How trains have kept movies on track: The Way We Were by Poonam Saxena

From falling in love in a coupé to finding closure on a platform, the railways have steered cinema in memorable directions.

In Hindi cinema, the railways have been both the setting and the metaphor. In the 1987 film Ijaazat, a divorced couple spends a night at a railway station, laying their ghosts to rest.
Updated on Feb 14, 2021 06:41 AM IST

If Bollywood films could, then sew could we: The Way We Were by Poonam Saxena

On screen and off, the sewing machine transformed lives for decades, and it’s still appearing in the role of agent of change.

In Rohena Gera’s delicately crafted Sir, Tillotama Shome plays a maid who dreams of starting her own tailoring business. Here, her employer has just given her a sewing machine as a gift.
Updated on Jan 31, 2021 06:28 AM IST

Remembering Gulshan Nanda, forgotten author of affairs to remember

The best-selling novelist was Bollywood’s go-to storyteller in the 1960s. He wrote family dramas shot through with suspense. The films live on, but what a pity so few even know his name.

Rajesh Khanna and Asha Parekh in a still from the runaway 1971 hit Kati Patang. The story, of a young woman pretending to be someone she isn’t, was written by Gulshan Nanda.
Updated on Jan 16, 2021 10:13 AM IST

Poonam Saxena writes on the true heart of the Indian home, the aangan

It now lives on largely in books and film, but the courtyard was where we cooked, celebrated, slept under the stars on summer nights.

An aangan in an old home in Mehrauli, New Delhi. A fixture since the time of the Indus Valley Civilisation, the courtyard faded away with the coming of Western-style architecture during colonial rule.(Mayank Austen Soofi)
Updated on Jan 01, 2021 07:04 PM IST
Hindustan Times | By

Lifting the veil on life as an Indian woman, unattached

Hindi novelist Usha Priyamvada turns 90 this year, and the quiet lives of unusual women remain at the core of her work.

The cover of Priyamvada’s Pachpan Khambe Laal Deewarein, in which a young lecturer must choose between a life with the man she loves and her obligations to the parents and siblings she supports. The title, incidentally, is a nod to Delhi’s Lady Shriram College.
Published on Dec 18, 2020 03:51 PM IST
Hindustan Times | By

An ode to the beloved picnic: The Way We Were by Poonam Saxena

If we go on one now, it’s likely for want of other options in the pandemic. But these were once times of fun, family, courtship.

In Tere Ghar Ke Samne (1963), the Qutub Minar was the venue of a picnic. The outing concluded with a dashing Dev Anand singing Dil Ka Bhanwar to a svelte Nutan as they walked down the spiral staircase.
Updated on Dec 04, 2020 06:41 PM IST
Hindustan Times | By

The Way We Were: In wedding season, does anyone remember the shaadi ka ghar?

Music all day, sleeping on the floor, a tailor, dhobi and halwai on hand at all times — before the planners took over, everything was done in-house. It was chaotic, messy and so much fun.

Kangana Ranaut (centre) plays a bride-to-be, surrounded by the chaos of a shaadi ka ghar, in Queen (2013). A wedding used to be seen as too significant an event to outsource. The families made all the arrangements themselves with help from relatives and friends.
Updated on Nov 20, 2020 07:32 PM IST
Hindustan Times | By

Newsmaker: As YRF turns 50, Aditya Chopra looks to further a unique legacy

Yash Raj Films has acted as an informal school for filmmakers, set templates for the Hindi blockbuster, been among the first to take Bollywood corporate, and of course created DDLJ.

Aditya Chopra with his father Yash Chopra, founder of YRF. It was Yash Chopra who, in 1970, turned the chiffon sari and Swiss Alps into cinematic staples, injecting flair and aspiration into Hindi cinema’s visual language.(Photo courtesy Yash Raj Films)
Updated on Nov 14, 2020 08:34 PM IST
Hindustan Times | By

The Way We Were: Cafes, art shows, a hug and movie dates from the ’70s

Asking her out in the age of bouffants and drainpipe trousers was no simple affair. But films from the period paint an innocent age in the backdrop of the big city.

In Basu Chatterjee’s 1976 film Chhoti Si Baat, Arun (Amol Palekar) and Prabha (Vidya Sinha) go on demure coffee and tea dates. He dreams of being able to take her to the movies and a fancy café.(Courtesy BR Films)
Updated on Nov 06, 2020 08:32 PM IST
Hindustan Times | By

The Way We Were: The brief, bright, bygone era of the dressing gown

It was the at-home attire of most well-off Bollywood dads in the ’50s and ’60s. Dressing downs haven’t been the same since.

Prithviraj Kapoor, his plush-looking dressing gown, and Nargis, in a scene from Awara (1951).
Updated on Oct 11, 2020 04:44 PM IST
Hindustan Times | By

Essay: The triumph and tragedy of Bang Mahila

The story of Rajbala Ghosh, the first woman to write short stories in Hindi

After the deeply disturbing events in her life, Banga Mahila retreated into the austere life of a sanyasini and went to bathe in the Ganga at five in the morning every day, regardless of the weather. (Representative picture)(Soltan Frederic/Sygma via Getty Images)
Updated on Oct 02, 2020 05:47 PM IST
Hindustan Times | By

When movie scenes struck a different kind of chord: The Way We Were by Poonam Saxena

A performance, a piano, a crowd standing still. Why was the party song such a fixture of Hindi cinema in decades past?

Sangam’s classic love triangle, with Rajendra Kumar, Vyjayanthimala and Raj Kapoor (his accordion ever-present), plays out at a posh party, to Har Dil Jo Pyar Karega. Note that the guests are merely spectators — props for the show within the show.
Updated on Sep 27, 2020 11:07 AM IST
Hindustan Times | By

The Way We Were: A long-gone author’s timely tips for life on the road

Mohan Rakesh didn’t book tickets in advance and make hotel reservations. He went where the road led, and kept going.

Travelling light takes on new meaning in these times. Don’t aim for an overload of any kind, Rakesh’s travel writings advise. Savour the moment(Shutterstock)
Updated on Sep 12, 2020 10:21 AM IST
Hindustan Times | By

The Way We Were: A tribute to desi film’s Gothic phase

Despite how heavily they borrowed from the West, the early spooky movies remain some of our best in the genre.

Think of strong Gothic influences and you think also of Kamal Amrohi’s Mahal (1949), Biren Nag’s Bees Saal Baad (1962, loosely based on The Hound of the Baskervilles), and to an extent Bimal Roy’s Madhumati (1958).(Shemaroo/YouTube)
Updated on Aug 30, 2020 10:39 AM IST
Hindustan Times | By

The Way We Were: Lata and the dawn of the playback era

The first Hindi film playback song was recorded 85 years ago. Take a look at how it acquired the shape it has today.

Crediting playback singers started with Lata Mangeshkar in 1949. Fans clamoured to know who sang Aayega Aanewala from Mahal.(HTArchive)
Updated on Aug 16, 2020 05:54 PM IST
Hindustan Times | By

The Way We Were: Premchand’s lost months in Bombay

To mark his 140th birth anniversary, a look at the writer’s move to the city, and why he left it in less than a year.

This very simple man who lived for his sahitya and came from the highly literary milieu of Banaras, found no happiness in either the commercial world of Hindi films, or the big impersonal metropolis.
Updated on Aug 02, 2020 03:18 PM IST
Hindustan Times | By
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