the first in an occasional series: knitting in Bollywood
There are several knitting, Bollywood-loving bloggers out there - Deewaani for Bollywood, Memsaab, Totally Filmi, who publishes Bollywood-inspired patterns; and Antarra, who has posted a few times on the most important and memorable theme of knitwear in Hindi cinema, the sweaters of Rishi Kapoor. There's even a Bollywood group on Ravelry, the knitting social networking (knitworking?) site. I generally find my two favorite hobbies to be almost mutually exclusive because relying on subtitles means I can't do any complicated knitting while watching Hindi films. So I take my filmi fiber joy where I can find it, most commonly in scattered scenes of people knitting (Maine Pyaar Kiya, for example) and in sweaters and scarves courtesy of the wardrobe department. In addition to Rishi's Cosby years, 60s love songs set in Kashmir are excellent sources, and Black remains my absolute favorite use of knitwear in a Hindi film.
In the spirit of chronicling this generally irrelevant detail - the same spirit that has brought us Bollybob's thermoses, Bollywood Food Club's balloons, and Apni East India Company's chandeliers - I thought it was high time to collect some of filmidom's finest knitted specimens using the tag knitting in fillums for my relevant posts. This particular item is not the most auspicious beginning possible, but since Manisha asks us for feedback, I couldn't resist.
(Yalgaar, 1992)
Frankly, it's hideous.
In the spirit of chronicling this generally irrelevant detail - the same spirit that has brought us Bollybob's thermoses, Bollywood Food Club's balloons, and Apni East India Company's chandeliers - I thought it was high time to collect some of filmidom's finest knitted specimens using the tag knitting in fillums for my relevant posts. This particular item is not the most auspicious beginning possible, but since Manisha asks us for feedback, I couldn't resist.
(Yalgaar, 1992)
Frankly, it's hideous.
Comments
*steeples fingers together in thought*
Also, there is a LOT of knitting going on in Hindi films, especially in the 50s/60s. Who knew that Indian women needed to knit so much? I guess someone needed to provide the fashions for Kashmir.
Other than that, we all know Rishi+knitwear = retina burn.
Are you going to knit some trendy sweaters for Rishi now that he is too big to fit into his 80s ones?
memsaab - knitting was a very normal, everyday thing, in the colder parts of India during winters. A lot of women used to knit (even in the 80s), probably because ready-made sweaters were expensive and not really available in a large variety, back then. In fact, most of my childhood sweaters were Mom-knitted!
All the best!
Sita-ji
www.mibollywoodmania.blogspot.com
That was one of the main reasons I wanted to learn Hindi - so I could knit while watching Bollywood movies. I think I'm getting better at knitting without looking than I am at watching the movies without reading subtitles, though.
Now I have to go check out that Ravelry Bollywood knitting group. I see there's a Bollywood group AND a knitting-while-reading subtitles group!