Dance dance revolution
It used to be that all a beautiful actress had to do was look pretty and step carefully from side to side. Here’s Zeenat in ‘Kisne Dekha Hai Kal’ from Heeralal Pannalal (via PMH):
Her moves remind me of Michelle Pfeiffer’s stunning routine in Scarface:
But Madhuri came along, and Aish, and Hrithik too if you want the truth, and the era of the stolid Soviet beauty with anchor feet went all pear-shaped:
Even as langorous an actress as Tabu eventually had to choreographer up:
And that’s how we ended up with Rakhi Sawant. Was it worth it? 
on Thursday, October 11th, 2007, 10:53 pm in Dance, Film, Video clips › 
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Hoarding
wow, that’s a wonderful composition by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. All the songs in that movie “Aur pyaar ho gaya” were great. Thanks for bringing back the memories.
Manish, I totally disagree.
Hindi movie heroines did have to know dance (and not the white girl movies so aptly portrayed by Michelle Pfeiffer and Zeenat). In days of yore, heroines maximized screen time mostly in the songs, when they were dancing around trees, in waterfalls, snow-capped hills, or around their potbellied heroes… Many of them were trained classically:
Vyjayantimala, (trained Bharat Natyam dancer)
Waheeda Rehman (trained Bharata Natyam dancer)
Hema Malani (trained Bharat Natyam, Kuchipudi & Odissi dancer)
Sridev (trained Bharat Natyam)
Madhuri Dixit (trained Kathak dancer)
Aishwariya Rai (trained for 7 years in Bharat Natyam)
But even the ones who were not trained classically could hold a beat, such as Mumtaz. Reserving opinions on acting abilities aside, many commercial heroines possessed grace regardless of what genre they danced, even if it was the classic bollywood moves.
Bollywood just didn’t make movies where a younger woman’s character had substance beyond the dance sequences. It is changing slowly. But that’s why I never get the likes of a Zeenat? Did she start the era of heroines which neither could act, dance, or speak hindi but ‘they still look hot’ (as hubby chimes). If Bollywood indiscriminately starts poaching actresses from the Miss India/World/Universe circuit one ends up with the likes of Celina Jaitley?!
And the likes of Rakhi Sawant is the product of remix-video industry which confuses regular dancing with stripper/lap/exotic dancing on jankhar’ized oldies– a genre of its own.
i wanna see some indian heroins doing the Aunt Jackie or at least the CNS. Jackie Kaki sounds kinda fresh.
But the aesthetic back then was slower. They’ve got to be faster and more athletic now.
I want to see Krump Dadi.