Hair raising tribute

An earnest appeal to y’all students of Bollywood — please consider making a documentary on the career of baldness/telmalish/boot polish/madhouses and jail birds in Hindi movies. I would have done it myself except that I feel horribly unqualified to undertake it. But here is one to whet your taste. I am notoriously unmusical but I suspect the above hair raising rendition by Manna Dey from Boot Polish is a tribute to Mia Tansen — if after watching this you do not begin to love jail birds, shining pates and appreciate the fact that miracles do occur –you must be heartless.

But the same Manna Dey sang in Huzur a more serious version of the song. I cannot find the video of it, but here is a Gohil rendition of it

Ustad Amir Khan and D V Paluskar’s offer a more sober tribute in Baiju Bawra (below) which is good I suppose but where is the social commentary in it ?

But let me not digress. Remember Johny Walker in Pyaasa ? Even if you forget the words of the song — naukar ho ya maalik… apne aage sabhi jhukein hain kya raaja kya sainik, you cannot forget what happens at the end of the song — the tel maalish wala hailing the poet who wrote the song for him Vijay Babu.. jab se gaane lagaa hun, apna business double ho gaya hai..