Kinara (Hindi, 1977) is on YouTube! Hema Malini! Classical Dance!

Saturday, December 4, 2010
For the past few days I've been working on a post about my "Holy Grail" classical dance films that seem to be commercially unavailable or obscure and hard to find.  Unfortunately, I hit control + Z to cut and paste an image and it deleted everything in my post.  Then, Blogger's insane autosave feature kicked in and saved the blank post.  And yes folks, it is impossible to revert to a previous version of a saved draft blogger post.  I checked.  So note to all my blogging friends out there using Blogger: Always back up your work! Do not press Control + Z EVER!!! *Minai ends fuming rant of fury*

While I go back and recreate my post, I thought I would post the most exciting news that some kind soul has uploaded the entire film Kinara with English subtitles!  I almost fell off my couch when I found it because word on the street for the longest time has been that this film is simply not commercially available.  I had figured that the few dance clips YouTube user tripmonk0 graciously posted would be the only bits I would be able to see of this film, ever.  Imagine my surprise when a quick search for Kinara images pulled up a result of the whole film!

The uploader pulled it off of an old VHS tape, so unfortunately the quality is not the greatest, and the subtitles are sort of in and out at times but allow you to get the gist of what's happening.

Kinara was directed by Gulzar with songs composed by R.D. Burman; the film tells the story of Inder Kumar (Jeetendra) who falls in love with Arti (Hema Malini), a former Kathak dancer that stopped dancing after tragedy befell her former fiance Chandan (Dharmendra) and then herself when she lost her eyesight.  Things get complicated when Inder realizes he was the person responsible for one of the tragedies in Arti's life.

Below, I've timestamped all of the dances and songs for your viewing pleasure.  Enjoy! 

Update - The videos I had previously posted were removed, so I have updated all of the listings below with the new videos uploaded by the copyright holder (which are much better quality!).

At the beginning of the film, Hema performs a Kathak-inspired dance that transitions into the credit sequence filmed over a single ghungroo bell. 



The sweet, slow song "Ek Hi Khwab Kai Baar Dekha" picturised on Hema Malini and Dharmendra.



"Naam Goom Jayega" - Hema and Jeetendra



"Jane Kya Sochkar" - Jeetendra's solo number.



"Ab Ke Na Sawan Barse" - Hema's solo number.



A blind Hema ties her ghungroo bells and practices classical dance.  Jeetendra gives her some vocal accompaniment, and the haunting, gorgeous song "Meethe Bol Bole" starts with Hema giving a Kathak-inspired dance performance. 



Hema gives a dance performance on stage despite being blind; her dance seems to be an interesting mishmash of various classical inspirations.
No longer available online.

Jeetendra comes to save the day at a difficult point during Hema's dance performance and sings the song "Koi Nahin Hai Kahin," inspiring Hema to resume her lovely dance.

9 comments:

  1. Congrats on locating this! (and thanks for the blogger editing warning.) I watched the last clips of the final performance--what is supposed to happen with the brass plate?

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  2. Dustdevil

    She was supposed to dance on the plate(a kuchipudi trope.) But she missed it, because she couldn't see it. While she was feeling all upset about it, jeetendra sang the Gaza, that allowed her to get back in the performance.

    Minai,

    Awesome find. It's a film. That starts very well but ends somewhat blah..awesome songs tho. Gulzaar and Rd Burman's best. I thought the slow song was the awesomest ever.


    Rameshram

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  3. dustdevil - Glad I could at least help one soul avoid my blogger snafu! :) And glad to see that Ramesh answered your question.

    Ramesh - Thanks for the confirmation about the plate- that's what I was thinking, but I was surprised because she was dancing such a plethora of styles that it seemed weird to suddenly switch into Kuchipudi. I agree, the songs are gorgeous.

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  4. I think this one is meant to be a sort of remake/adaptation of a Rock Hudson film - The Magnificent Obsession - and both the original and the remake are rather unsatisfactory. This one at least has a lot of nice songs, though I wish Dharmendra was not the one to die! :D

    For your blog editor snafus - why don't you use a blog writing software? I've been using Windows Live writer (its free!) for the last couple of years and it makes post editing (particularly if you want to put in pictures) a whole lot easier. And it works like any windows software, so any mistakes can be undone without fear of auto saving the wrong version.

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  5. if you mean the Douglas sirk film with Jane Wyman, this one is a bare outline or less in common with that.. although Gulzar, its possible that he was"inspired" by the magnificient obsession( the way parichay was inspired by the sound of music)

    kiara was a good enough film to begin, it just ended poorly. the dharmendra bits are a particular favorite.

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  6. bollyviewer - Interesting comparison. Haven't heard of that film before, but in looking at its plot summary, the similarities seem to be the inadvertent causing of the death of a woman's husband and then her losing her eyesight. The film then seems to differ in focusing mostly on the man and his transition from rich playboy to philanthropist, whereas Kinara focuses more on Hema Malini's character and how the man helps her realize her passion for dance again.

    I'm also reminded of that Gwyneth Paltrow-Ben Affleck film Bounce, which had a similar "oops I killed your love one" storyline.

    Agreed - Dharmendra and Jeetendra should have switched roles! :)

    rameshram - What about the ending did you not like? I haven't watched it all the way through yet, but I'm curious what to expect. :)

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  7. spoilers





    she keeps pushing him away until she falls victim to loneliness and depression and accepts him back in her life. what a cop out!

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  8. Natraj Gopi Krishna is visible in that dance of HemaMalini ji, rendering bols

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  9. Fantastic! Looks like you're right, I've never noticed that before, but it looks like him. Thank you for pointing that out!

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