There are many reasons to watch Chetan Anand’s 1966 film Aakhri Khat, especially if you’re a Bombay nostalgist. The film uses a hand-held camera to follow at 15-month-old toddler lost in the city, dozing where he will and eating what he can.
For reasons that aren’t clear to me, large parts of the film are shot in Mahim, with sweeping vistas of the beach when it was still a vibrant fishing village. There are also shots of the old St Michael’s Church – which was built in 1534. The present structure came up in 1973, six years after the Aakhri Khat was shot.
From the jazz buff’s point of view, the film is noteworthy because the tune Rut Jawan Jawan, performed by Bhupinder, features the trumpet player Chic Chocolate squeezing off bluesy blasts onstage. He died shortly after this film was completed.
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Last Friday, Taj Mahal Foxtrot was launched in Bangalore by Maria Saldanha Vinda, sister of the maverick pianist Edward “Dizzy Sal” Saldanha. That’s a photo of the Saldanha family band …
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Amchem Noxib, released in 1963, was only the second Konkani film ever made. It was produced by the formidable trumpet player Frank Fernand, who features prominently in Taj Mahal Foxtrot, …
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When the long-time Bombay band leader Ken Mac made this recording in 1942, his singer was Poona-born Beryl Templeman. She spent her early life in England, before returning to India …
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Radhika Bordia’s lovely piece about Taj Mahal Foxtrot on NDTV. Click here to watch.
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Last month, I wrote a note on this site about Mena Silas, the now-forgotten Baghdadi Jewish composer who wrote Taj Mahal, the foxtrot after which my book is named. A …
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This week’s archival track: the excellent saxophonist Braz Gonsalves and his group playing an original, noirish composition called Impulse. It was recorded in 1972. The generous Kingshuk Niyogi found it …
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Taj Mahal Foxtrot was released at the Goa Literary Festival last week and will in the stores in a couple of days. The audio guide section of this website is …
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Taj Mahal Foxtrot, which will be launched at the Goa Literary Festival tomorrow evening, takes its name from the tune above recorded in April 1936 by Crickett Smith and his …
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Not so long ago, I bought an album by the trumpet player Bill Coleman, who had performed in Bombay during the 1936-’37 season as part of violinist Leon Abbey’s band. …