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Published: 26 November 2021

Last Updated: 26 November 2021

Many people came forward to give more information. About Fatty Prasad. Shishir Krishna Sharma wrote,

"...he was born in mhow on 4 april 1907 in a christian family...his real name was george bunyan...he was a law graduate from mumbai university and was introduced in the films by mohan bhavnani, who also gave him this screen name..."

Others posted information about Durga (Prasad) Mota. There is a misconception that he died during riots in Lahore, perhaps due to a book by Isak Mujawar. I had read differently in Filmindia of April 1948. Many people, Sanjeev Tanwar (by email, he also sent another item) and Vivek Kumar who also pointed to a photo by Rashid Ashraf from a book, Mera Shehr Lahore by Yonus Adeeb. 

The urdu page just says that people made fun of him and he did not mind.

Everybody, thanks you very much.

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Published: 01 November 2021

Last Updated: 01 November 2021

A H Shor played the role in the Saigal Devdas. Motilal in Dilip Kumar Devdas. Natural question is who played Chunilal in the P C Barua (Bengali) Devdas? For question about movies, cast, songs etc of the films made in Bengal, my go-to person is Dr J P Guha. I asked him and he sent me this picture with P C Barua and Amar Mullick.

Thank you Dr Guha!

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Published: 13 December 2021

Last Updated: 13 December 2021

The sequence of events.

1. I am writing my first book on Hindi films, biography of Background dancer Edwina Violette and I need a photo of Azurie.

2. I know I have it somewhere but don't have the time, I ask around, Kaustubh Pingle (who has literally thousands of cuttings from film magazines/books/newspapers and remembers where he has kept them) sends me an article on her from Screen, written its editor Ali Peter John.

3. I use the photo, thank him, and later, put the article on my website.

4. One day, Surinder Dhall calls and says Kanhaiya Lal's daughter wants to talk to me about a book.

5. She mentions that Ali Peter John wants to talk to me about his books.

6. I happen to mention to him his article on Azurie in Screen, Feb 29, 1980 and send him a copy!

7. He gets all nostalgic and writes about how he happened to meet Azurie in 1980.

The article in question

Ali Peter John on Azurie

I am just lucky to have been a part of it!

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Yes, 40 years is a very long time!!

By Ali Peter John

Now I know why I am called a veteran journalist, why people much older than me or much younger than me address me as 'sir'' or "sahab" or john sahab or ali peter john sahab to avoid any confusion.  

The sepia tone of the article above will give anyone an idea about how old or how ancient the article I wrote is . Forty years, yes, forty of the best years of my life .

I was sitting in my office  after lunch when the iconic photograph of the Indian Express, Saby Fernandes came to me and asked me if I would like to meet the well-known dancer of the forties and fifties, Azurie. I was game for any kind of adventure those days and followed Saby who was joined by his brother in law Surya Kumar (Robert) who was best known for the dances he had choreographed for Bhagwan Dada in  "Albela" and many other films. Azurie had come from Pakistan and was living in Mahim with Surya Kumar and his sister,  Teresa [SS: Not the background dancer Teresa, who married Oscar Unger.] who was the "wife" of Saby .

What followed was a long chat between a thirty year old young or not so young man (me) and an over-seventy Azurie who was full of life and memories of a glorious  past. She told me stories about the heroes and heroines of her times and especially about the vamps and dancers. She was all praise for "that girl from rangoon who I knew would make it very big one day".  She was talking about Helen.

But as the sun was setting outside Saby's window, Azurie kept looking at the "sad sun and talked about her unsadden  future and the miserable lives some had heard contemporary male  and female artist and dancers were living and how no one, neither the government, nor the stars or the film industry was doing anything about them.

And forty years later, Azurie's very sad voice still bring us in my ears as I realise that I have grown one year older than Azurie and my time to look out of my window to look at the "sad sun" draws closer .

(I must thank Prof. Surjit singh , my friend and publisher from Michigan for sending me this precious treasure from his box full of priceless treasures.)

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