Dinesh Kamath's another article on Hema Malini

Hema Malini is the one about whom I'll continue writing today. Hema has excelled as an actress and as a dancer. Now she is showing how good a politician she is. Hema has it in her to play the role of the BJP national vice-president to perfection. Hema can indeed deal with politicians. She has the power to deal with everything in a proper manner. Just recently she was clad in a green saree and was addressing delegates at the concluding session of the BJP state conclave in Jalgaon. She had been campaigning for the party during elections for past few years. At Jalgaon, she was addressing for the first time as the party vice-president. It was clear from her behaviour that she was aware of her responsibilities and she was also confident of doing well. But, once a 'Dream Girl', always a dream girl. Many BJP delegates at the conclave could not take their eyes off her. One was seen fighting with press photographers because they came in the way of him watching her from close range. A local worker ran to the stage when it was his turn to be felicitated by Hema. The audience burst out laughing. He ran because he was afraid that if he kept Hema waiting she might decide not to felicitate him herself, and pass it on to someone else. A party official from Dhule presented Hema with a poem he had penned for her. Hema was pleasantly surprised to see that the poem was in Hindi. She read it, smiled, folded the sheet, and kept it in her purse. The following was the content of the poem: Aap ke ane se khil gaye hai dil hamare/ Na poochiye ki dil sab ke kyun uchhal rahe hai/ Aap ke barey mein kya kahoon…/ Samudra ki shai aur aakash ka kagaz bhi adhura hai/ Meri maa aap jaisi hoti to na jane hum bhi kitney khoobsurat hotey.
Hema Malini, the timeless beauty, is very happy with the fact that the ‘Dream Girl’ title is still with her. The actress who has received love and appreciation from her fans for more than three decades wonders why no other actress has received that title after her. The title was given to her by her fans when she entered the industry in the late 60s. After that she became one of the reigning divas of Bollywood. When asked which actress is most deserving for this title, she mentioned names like Katrina, Kareena and Aishwarya.
This 62 year old beautiful actress has maintained herself and is as charming as ever. She feels proud that the 'Dream Girl' title is and will be hers forever. The title was given to her. She did not ask for it. So now she is living with it. And it will be with her for as long as she exists
Hema and Dharmendra, who have scorched the screen in popular films like Sholay, Seeta Aur Geeta, Dream Girl and The Burning Train are coming together for a film after 21 years. Both will be doing a guest appearance in daughter Esha Deol's forthcoming film Tell Me Oh Khuda. The role was earlier offered to Amitabh Bachchan who refused it and later, producer Hema decided to cast husband Dharmendra and herself for it. Hema and Dharmendra were one of the reel-life couples that later turned into a real-life couple. The duo was seen together in several films in the past, which were super hits. However, such roles eluded them after a point of time and both were content starring in different projects. Now after two decades, this sensational pair will be seen together on screen. They will be playing guest roles for the film. The film has Esha playing the lead role. Hema will decide whether to do a full-fledged film with Dharmendra after gauging the audiences' reaction.
Recently, Hema proudly took her daughter's arm and walked the ramp as showstopper for a fashion show. Hema is in the mood to promote her daughter and is going out of her way to do that. And this stance is a new one for mama Hema as she was vehemently opposed to doing any such thing, a few years ago. Esha's career has not soared like that of her famed parents. But now she has shed all her excess weight and has toned her body under Bollywood's most famous trainer to get the tag of one of the best figures in the business. After inconspicuous films and even more inconspicuous roles, Esha is now doing a film under her mother's supervision. Esha is hugely talented, but she has not got the best of films to project what she can do on screen. So her mother Hema feels it is her duty to ensure that she gets that opportunity and that is why she is producing a film for her. However, Hema's stance, a few years ago was a wee bit different. A couple of years ago, mother and daughter had posed together for a magazine cover and Hema had then said that Esha didn't deserve to be on the cover since she had done nothing to be recognized. Hema had then said that one should only be featured if there is a volume of work behind you to be in such a position. She further added that Esha has to work much harder for her to be on the cover. What warms the cockles of almost all hearts is to see the mother today battling for her daughter to ensure her place under the sun, just like she and her husband enjoyed for so many years and still continue to do so.
Now, if there is ever a phenomenally successful actress in Bollywood, then it has got to be Hema Malini. She had been the reigning queen of Bollywood through out the eighties, and had been distinctively termed as the 'Dream Girl' by her ever loving fans. There are certain things in life which are destined to happen, and perhaps, the title was made only for this astounding beauty of Bollywood. Hema has been a source of inspiration for thousands of girls in India, for her multi-faceted personality, her grit, determination and her stance to brave all adversities in life with a smiling face.
Thus, it is not only beauty that makes a 'Dream Girl', other factors are also to be taken into account and Hema has everything that makes her deserve this title.

Dinesh Kamath likes this picture of Hema Malini

Dinesh Kamath's article on Hema Malini

Hema Malini
Hema Malini, the veteran actress, was the cynosure of all eyes at the closing show on the third day of Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week (WIFW). Bollywood actress Esha Deol, looking beautiful in designer Rocky S' bridal lehenga-choli, also walked down the aisle. The young actress matched steps with her evergreen mother. While Esha sported a splendid maroon and green, heavily embroidered lehenga-choli, Hema stole the limelight with the grace in a similar coloured sari teamed with the embroidered burnt orange coloured blouse. Hema was later heard saying that she felt very nice walking with Esha. Esha did not look even a wee bit nervous while walking the ramp with Bollywood's 'dreamgirl'. This wasn't the first time that the mother-and-daughter duo was on the runway together. Esha was a little nervous walking in the heavy ghagra, but fortunately she had her mother to hold onto. Rocky, who is among Bollywood's favourite designers, didn't have to think twice before judging who among the mother-daughter duo looked best. He found Hema looking best. Although Esha was his friend he took Hema's side. When Esha made a sad face Rocky quickly corrected his statement and said that both of them looked gorgeous. The bridal collection worn by Hema and Esha had many admirers. The collection was astounding and as the mother, daughter strutted on the ramp, there was quite a few deep breath taken, both of them looked stunning and Esha was blushing, as she walked a tad bit carefully. Her mother was holding her arm, cleverly giving her support. Since the bridal suit that Esha wore was very heavy, her mother had to literally hold her, so that she would be able to carry herself and the outfit steadily. All in all, the show went well and at the end of the day, the show stoppers were indeed Hema and Esha.
Hema returned to the studios after almost three years with Sadiyaan. For Hema, acting is still a thrill. Hema is not doing too many films not because politics takes up a lot of her time. In fact, Politics is not a 24 X 7 job. Just because Hema is BJP vice-president now that doesn't mean she'll be at the party headquarter from dawn to midnight. She will continue with her dance and movies, since there's enough time. She is always open to good role that suits her age. But those films have to come to her since she doesn't believe in approaching producers and begging for roles.
Shatrughan Sinha was keen that Hema do Sadiyaan with his son, Luv. It was not a big role but by playing a lady from Pakistan, she got to propogate the message of peace. A recent film Lahore that also came with the same message had been banned in Pakistan. Hema feels that some people don't want peace. But, according to her, the common people in Pakistan love Indian movies and Indian movie stars. Hema is not surprised that Kareena has become the 'face' of Pakistan since she believes that Kareena is a beautiful girl. Hema herself has a lot of fans there too. Hema doesn't give herself credit for becoming the source of inspiration for many people. She humbly says the she just lived the life the way she wanted and that just happened to inspire people. Hema believes that The Women's Reservation Bill is a positive step and that more women should come into politics so that they can raise issues related to women and children.
Hema can vouch for the transformation that Dharmendra has brought about in Bikaner and other places in Rajasthan over the last five years. Hema felt pity for him because he didn't get much credit in spite of the fact that he got roads and bridges built for the people of his constituency. Hema had taken the decision to join politics in consultation with Dharmendra. The two share a lot together which is understandable since Dharmendra is Hema's husband. Dharmendra has no objection to Hema continuing in politics if it gives her pleasure and doesn't stress her out. Hema would like to take her daughters, Esha and Ahana, to meetings and wherever she is campaigning in order to attract more youngsters to politics. According to Hema, since Nana Patekar considers increasing population as our biggest problem, he should get into politics, since he is an eligible candidate, and control the population.
Hema used to find Atal Bihari Vajpayee as a dynamic leader but he at present is old and ailing. She feels that there are many young leaders like Arun Jaitley, Venkaiyah Naidu, Ravi Shanker Prasad, Rajeev Pratap Reddy, Shahnawaz Hussain and Muktar Abbas Naqvi who can take Bharatiya Janata Party forward. According to her, BJP is on the right track with Gadkari as president.
Hema considers Shatrughan Sinha as her brother and a part of her family. She admires him. Even if he says anything against her, she doesn't feel offended. Hema can't stop thanking Shatru for giving her a chance to work with her best friend Rekha in the film Sadiyaan. The two divas had last come together for Dev Anand's Censor in 2001. These two beautiful actresses ruled Bollywood in early 80s and now after a long time both came together in Luv Sinha's debut film. Shatru and Rekha are very good friends of Hema. They had always been there for each other during the good and bad phases of their lives. Hema is very fond of Rekha. Although media and fans of both Hema and Rekha consider the two as arch rivals, both the beauties share a great rapport off screen as both are from South India. They have never competed with each other. Just like Hema's mother, Rekha's mother was very keen to bring her daughter in cinema. She came to Hema first when they landed in Mumbai. Rekha's mother and Hema's mother share same birth date. Even today Rekha calls up Hema to chat. The two have very sweet bonding.
In Sadiyaan, Hema plays a role of a Pakistani woman who comes to India in search of her son whom she lost during partition. Rekha plays a Hindu, who mothers Luv like her own child. Not just Luv, but also director Raj Kanwar is happy to have the two beauties in his film and admits that Luv is very fortunate that these two actresses are working with him right in his debut film. Both Hema and Rekha take immense pride in Luv's debut. Luv was born in front of Hema. She has fond memories of rushing to the hospital to see him and his brother Kush when they were born. Thereafter too, Luv was a regular part of her life as he would come to play with her daughters, Esha and Ahana. So it was easy for Hema to play the role of mother of Luv as she considers Luv as her own son.
I've not finished with Hema. There is still a lot more I want to let you know about her. So I'll continue with Hema even tomorrow. Until then, good bye!

From the heart of Dinesh Kamath

The first movie I remember having seen is a film which had Sanjay Khan and Meena Kumari playing the lead roles. I remember having loved one song of that particular film. It was a romantic duet picturized on Sanjay Khan and Meena Kumari. The song was 'Pyar hua hai jab se, mujhko nahi chain aata' (something like that). I remember I kept humming that song for many days after I watched the film. That song would literally haunt me. Another movie I remember having seen when I was very small is 'Milan' which had Sunil Dutt and Nutan playing the lead roles. The film was about reincarnation. Almost all the songs of that film were hit. I saw, for the first time Pran, the actor who played villain's role frequently those days. He terrified me to a great extent. I feel Pran was a villain who knew best how to make himself most hated and dreaded by the audience. No other actor who followed him could play the villain's role as convincingly as Pran could do. I personally feel that Pran is the best Screen villain of all times. Even after he stopped playing villain's role and decided to play character roles instead, he proved to be the best charactor actor. I liked Pran in 'Zanjeer'. What a way he danced to the tune of the song 'Yaari hai imaan mera yaar meri zindagi'! Sunil Dutt was my most favourite hero when I was a child. I liked his role in Mother India. I admired those days the way he acted to the tune of the song 'Na main Bhagwan hoon, na main saitaan hoon, Duniya joh chahe samjhe, main toh insaan hoon'. Sunil Dutt and Nutan were my favourite male and female actors until Rajesh Khanna and Sharmila Tagore came into the scene. I saw the two for the first time in the film 'Aaradhana'. I remember having got completely stunned by Sharmila's beauty. I was just staring at her throughout the time while I was watching the film. She became my dream girl. I also fell in love with Rajesh Khanna's style of romancing. I've never seen a more loveable romantic hero than him. After watching 'Aaradhana' I would try not to miss any film which had Rajesh Khanna or Sharmila Tagore or both starring. I loved Rajesh Khanna while he danced to a tune of the song of Prem Nagar. The song was 'Bye bye miss good night, kal phir milenge'. Those were the days when any song picturized on Rajesh Khanna would become a super hit. Rajesh Khanna reigned as a super star for a long long time. He could be replaced only by a star of the stature of Amitabh Bachchan who with his angry young man's image diverted the attention of audiences' towards him. I love one song that was piturized on Amitabh. The song is 'Main pal do pal ka shayar hoon, pal do pal meri kahani hai, pal do pal meri hasti hai, pal do pal meri jawani hai'. Another song that was picturised on Amitabh and which I liked was 'Dilbar mere kab tak mujhe aise hi tadpaonge, main aag dil mein laga doonga woh pal mein pigal jaoge, ek din aayega, pyaar ho jayega.....' Before I stop writing I'll tell you which is my favourite modern song. It is 'Do baatein ho sakti hai, sanam tere inkaar ki, ya duniya se tu darti hai ya kadar nahi mere pyar ki'. I'll talk more about films and subjects I like as and when I feel inspired. Until then, bye!

Dinesh Kamath's views about God and religion

What is my idea of God? I believe that God is not any particular idol. God is goodness. A man doesn't become religious just by uttering mantras and performing rites and rituals. A man who carries out all the religious practices but chooses to be bad cannot be called religious. A man can be called religious only if he is good. He need not utter any mantra. He need not perform any rite or ritual. But he has to be good. Only then he can be called religious. Being good is being religious.
Nature has created both good and bad things in this world. It is man who accumulated all the good things and gave it a name. He called all these good things God. All the bad things put together was referred to as Devil. Nature has made Rose. Nature has made Cactus even. Man loves Rose. Man hates Cactus. What I mean to say is that world has both good and bad elements in it. All the good elements are constantly in war with all the bad elements. There is good and bad things even among our own selves and we find the conflict between good and bad taking place even within our own selves. History has proved that Good always triumphs over Bad ultimately. I'll talk more about this some other time. Bye!

Dinesh Kamath about himself

I belong to the caste which is called GSB or Gowd Saraswat Brahmins. My father is a GSB belonging to Mangalore and my mother is a GSB belonging to Karwar. Both Mangalorean and Karwari GSBs speak Konkani. But there is a great difference in the Konkanis the two speak. Mangalorean GSB knows Kannada in addition to Konkani. While Karwari GSBs know Marathi in addition to Konkani. There are GSBs in Maharashtra too. Sunil Gavaskar, the great test cricketer, is a GSB. GSBs are supposed to be very good in mathematics. That's why you'll find most of the GSBs working in Banks. If you want to know more about GSBs you can get those information from the Googles site.

My family came to Mumbai for the first time four generations back. My great grandfather came to Mumbai and settled over here. His son, who is my grandfather, did wonders. When he was in his teens he had hardly any money. But before he had reached the age of thirty he possessed chains of hotels. They were quite decent hotels ( not ordinary types). I was told that he possessed more than eight hotels and he was so generous that he gifted (free of cost) a couple of hotels to his sisters. But the poor chap died at a very young age of thirty four. He died of Tuberculosis which those days was like cancer (incurable ailment). After his death, his hotels were all grabbed by God-knows-who and his wife and three small children were left with not even a single hotel. I was told that he possessed all these hotels in a region called Phanaswadi which I think is somewhere near Girgaon. Had my grandfather lived for two decades more my family would have been owners of chains of five-star hotels today. But what has happened has happened. There is no point in brooding over the past.
Now I'll tell you something about my dad. My dad was a customs officer when I was born. I still remember the white uniforms he would wear and proudly go all the way to his office at Ballard Estate from his residence at Bandra. Today we find custom officers feeling shy to come in uniforms in front of the public. God knows why! My dad was transferred to Goa Customs somewhere in the year 1964. He was many a times the part of the squads who did seizures of contraband goods. I know about this because I would constantly read my dad's name in the Goan newspapers. My father impressed all his superiors with his intelligence, honesty and devotion towards his duty. When he returned to Mumbai in 1970 he was straightaway appointed as superintendent in Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI). This is the department where only special officers of Customs and Excise are deputed. No ordinary officer gets entry in this powerful department. It was while working for DRI that my dad got the opportunity ot handle Haji Mastan's case. Haji Mastan, for your information, was the most dreaded smuggler of those days. He was the man who two decades later was going to be succeeded by Dawood Ibrahim. Even in DRI my dad cracked many cases, made many seizures and even detentions. He expired in 1982. But just before he expired he had received the news that he was the recipient of President of India Award for the year 1982 for the meritorious service he rendered to the department of Customs for 33 years. That was the proudest moment for him. But unfortunately he could not survive to receive personally the prestigious award. The award was received by my mother whom I accompanied to Delhi. My mom received the award at the grand function held at Vigyan Bhavan and the award was given by the hands of then Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee. It was at that time that all the winners of the award were presented with the souvenir which described in details the terrific exploits of all the award winners. It was while going through this souvenir that I became aware of the fact that my father, during his entire career. was the part of seizures of contraband goods worth Rs 4.2 crores and 76 detentions. My father was so humble a man that not once had he mentioned to any of his close ones about the magnificent feat he had performed.

I would like to pass on to you another interesting information. My father and mother met in Customs where both were working. They fell in love and got married. The result was my late brother and I.

I will pass on to you more infos later on. Till then, bye! 

Dinesh Kamath's view of movie Kalyug (1981)

Before I start telling you something about the film Kalyug (1981), let me tell you that I'm not referring to the latest film Kalyug which had Emraan Hashmi in the lead role. I'm talking about Shyam Benegal's Kalyug which was made in 1981 and which had Shashi Kapoor, Victor Banerjee, Rekha, Anant Nag, Supriya Pathak and some others playing important roles. Now I'll tell you why I had loved the film so much. The thing is our epic Mahabharat has many interesting characters. It is a very well written epic. The characterizations in the epic are simply marvelous. Whoever wrote it was a genius. There are two characters in Mahabharat who impress me particularly. Those two characters are Karna and Abhimanyu. I am their fan. Both the characters are powerful personalities. It is said that Karna alone was much mightier than all the five Pandavas put together. If there was anybody who could wipe of Pandavas it was Karna and nobody else Karna lost his life in the Kurukshetra battle by sheer fluke. Had he not died, the epic Mahabharat would have a different tale to tell. Had he remained alive, Mahabharat would have an entirely different climax. You must be wondering why I'm talking about Mahabharat when I had begun by writing about Kalyug. That's because Kalyug is inspired by Mahabharat. Kalyug is supposed to be the modern day Mahabharat. I loved Shashi Kapoor's role in Kalyug particularly because he was supposed to be the modern day Karna in the film. The film has Victor Banerjee playing the character Dhanraj and his character is inspired by Duryodhan. The film depicts Shashi Kapoor as loyal to Victor Banerjee. He is so much indebted to Victor that he is prepared to do anything for him, even give up his life. The movie depicts Shashi Kapoor as supporting Victor in his bloody battle against three brothers whose roles are played by Raj Babbar, Kulbhushan Karbanda and Anant Nag. Actually Shashi Kapoor too is the blood brother of these three characters but he is unaware of the fact until the mother of three whose role is played by Sushma Seth approaches Shashi and tells him that he too is her own son. Now the character of Sushma Seth is inspired by Kunti of Mahabharat. When Shashi becomes aware of who he actually is there is a conflict that takes place in his mind. He is unable to decide whether to continue supporting Victor or whether he should join his three actual brothers. He makes an attempt to make peace between the two but he loses his own life and Victor too is shown as committing suicide. So this is the story of Kalyug in short. Actually Mahabharat is the only Indian work I admire most. Otherwise I'm the fan of quite many Western writers like Mario Puzo, James Hadley Chase, Erle Stanley Gardner, Ayn Rand and so on. I had begun reading Western writers at a very young age. The first Western writer I began reading was Enid Blyton. I read countless novels written by her. After that I began to get attracted towards the books written by other Western writers. I really don't know why this epic Mahabharat appealed to me to such a great extent. I still don't know how this marvelous epic touched my heart Maybe I could personally identify with some of the characters in the epic. I fell deeply in love with the epic Mahabharat after I saw all the episodes based on the epic that was shown on Television. The TV serial was brilliantly made by B R Chopra and his son Ravi Chopra. Now I know why foreigners, particularly Americans, are the fans of Lord Krishna. Now I realize why these foreigners are attracted to the organization called ISKCON (International Society of Krishna Consciousness). These foreigners simply love the Hindu's holy book Bhagwad Gita which is the most important and vital part of Mahabharat. Krishna is my favourite God too. Before I stop writing I would like to tell all of you to just watch the film Kalyug (1981) in case you get your hand at its DVD. Then you'll know why I found the film so appealing. That's all for now! Bye!

Dinesh Kamath's views about his birth place - Bandra

Today I'll tell you something about my birth place which is Bandra. Bandra has been rightly called as Queen of Suburbs since a long time. I was born and raised in Bandra (West) which is undoubtedly much more developed than Bandra (East). The special aspect of Bandra at the time I was born was that it was full of English convent schools and there were hardly any vernacular schools. Owing to this fact all the parents, whether anglicized or vernacular, were forced to admit their children in convent schools. That made my generation who grew in Bandra West almost entirely anglicized. At the place I was residing, I and people of my generation were all the time communicating in English. That's the reason I couldn't speak any language other than English fluently till I grew up to be twenty three and till I was compelled to take up a job at Indian Customs. It is in Customs that I got the opportunity to learn Hindi and Marathi. My mother tongue is Konkani but I feel ashamed to say that I can't speak this language as fluently as I can speak English. If I'm become a prolific English writer today I owe it to the place I was born and raised in and that place is Bandra (West). At present I reside in Andheri (East) but I still remember Bandra (West) which I badly miss. That place had its own charm and beauty. There are, in fact, very few places like Bandra (West) in India. To be brought up in Bandra (West) is like growing up in America or Great Britain. That advanced was Bandra (West) during my time. Today it surely is much more advanced. I thank God for letting me get born in such a beautiful place like Bandra (West). I pray to him to let me get born in Bandra (West) every life. That's all for today. I'll pass on to you more and more information as and when I get inspiration. Bye!