Blast from the Past: Stardust 1972

More dope from my mom's old Stardusts...

To answer a few questions from the earlier post's comments, Miss S. Rajadhyaksha (Editor), Ingrid Albuquerque and gang did have the chatty, Hindi-laced Bambaiyya English as their lingua franca - diverting to the Queen's language only for a 'serious' article (Is the Mangeshkar Monopoly ruining the industry?) or an iconic interview (Dilip Kumar).

The still-going-strong column of Neeta's Natter always set the tone for the rest of the magazine and the 'Oh-dahlings-you-gotta-believe-me' style of film journalism still runs through the entree snippets of most film mags even today.

Excerpts from Neeta's Natter

* Another 'cheez' (a hit or miss case) whose publicity pictures I failed to recognize was the Zaroorat-wali - Reena Roy. Looks like her Zaroorat for showing us thise undelectable views of her stripped down to her clumsy underthings, are over (thank God)! Gone are those adoloscent pimples and and the 'starlet' hair style (untidy bangs of hair framing the face). Now she has that smug I-know-I've-made-it (so what if its only in C-grade films) look, a new wig, a new complexion and I hope a better bra and panties wardrobe.

* Says a furniture-wallah friend who's doing Jaya's flat up, "Arre, everytime I go to her house, I find that Bachchan chap lying stretched out on the carpet in her bedroom!" Do you knock before you enter, friend?

When you read through a bunch of it in one go, you realise what an amazing list of gossips they strung up in a span of just a few issues. Following is my gleanings from Sept 1972 to July 1973. Purely indicative, far from exhaustive!

Sept 72: Asha Bhonsle- OP Nayyar split official.

Oct 72: Rekha finally turned nineteen!

Nov 72: Hema Malini turned down Sanjeev Kumar's proposal because something was cooking between her and cricketer Venkatraghavan.

Dec 72: Anju-Dimple incident at Rajesh Khanna's birthday party, when Anju knocked out Dimple's name from the guest list but Rajesh went out and personally invited Dimple and her entire khandaan.
PS: Dimple was too involved with Chintoo Kapoor to give Rajesh any serious thought!

Jan 73: Shobha Sippy quit her job as an air-hostess in the hope of getting married to Jeetendra (which eventually happened many months later).

Feb 73: Rumours of a romance between Kiran Kumar and Yogita Bali surfaced at Ramanand Sagar's son's wedding.
Admittedly, a dull month - as only aficionados would appreciate.

Mar 73: Rajesh-Anju quarrel at party. Rajesh engaged to Dimple the very next day and married her three days later.

April 73: Three whiffs of romance - Mumtaz and Mayur Madhvani, Kiran Kumar and Radha Saluja, Hema Malini and Rajendra Kumar!

May 73: Shatrughan Sinha proposed to Zeenat Aman, while an indifferent Dev Anand carried on with her.
Zanjeer released.

June 73: Amitabh-Jaya married. Tanuja married Shomu Mukherjee. Rishi Kapoor hooks up with Neetu Singh.
Rekha's marriage with Vinod Mehra on the rocks, apparently due to Moushumi Chatterjee.

July 73: Rekha's suicide attempt. Pointed out that if she had made the attempt a day later, she (and Vinod Mehra) wouldn't have missed the most fun party of the year - Jalal Agha's birthday party.

Whoa!

Coming up is an 'investigative' piece on what grounds the Censor Board cited to block certain films.