Update: Here is the Shanta Hublikar song. The blouse seems a little fancy with bow ties on the sleeves. In fact a number of blouses that Ms Hublikar wears in this movie are like 1920s/1930s dresses with the bottom part swan off. And the sari positioned to stay on the head , so common at the time.
And there are more Shanghai girls on the walls:)
And the caps. That’s Maina (Shanta Hublikar) singing in the style of/wearing a cap that reflects the different regions that her customers come from. The song itself is a parody of the kind of studio movies prevalent at the time and Ms Hublikar pretty much rocks, I have a deep girl crush on her. I love the way she is completely at ease while performing, that the performance itself is both casual and enticing and in fact has a sense of joy. And that its completely unlike the “kotha” scenes Hindi movies often subject us to.
The pic is from Neepa Majumdar’s “Wanted Cultured Ladies Only Female Stardom and Cinema in India, 1930s-1950s” which discusses the many ways Manoos/Aadmi was an intelligent, ground breaking film (there is the unhappy end but perhaps that is an outcome of the time). And it also has the cutest song where Shanta Hublikar and Shahu Modak perform a romantic song in a studio lot. Its very funny and for some reason something in it seemed to suggest French New Wave to me (because even though – or perhaps because – the characters are policewoman/prostitute, it has the spirit of fun that often attends young love).
C
Vintage Indian Clothing 