Bollywood's love affair with LETTERS!
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Need to get in touch urgently, missing someone or sharing your well-being to the ones you love, letter writing is one of the oldest means of communication.
With astonishing advancement in technology, a simple message is just a phone, lately SMS, away.
But there was a time when folks relied on telegrams and snail mail to convey their desperation, despair or delight. Come July and the once significant telegram service of India will be officially discontinued as it is deemed far too expensive and outdated to maintain.
The phrase 'Taar aaya hai' and 'Taar bhej dena' is so prevalent in our Hindi movies, especially the black and white ones, it's hard to pinpoint a particular instance. So is the writing and sending of mails to create a situation of sudden tragedy or sweet surprise.
Take a look.
Sangam
Romance is the primary objective of most letter-writing in Hindi films. And so the announcement 'Yeh mera prem patra padh karke tum naaraz na hona,' from Rajendra Kumar's gushing note leaves his overwhelmed ladylove, Vyjayanthimala, flushed and wistful.
Image: Vyjayanthimala in Sangam
Blackmail
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Dharmendra writes and Raakhee reads -- an entire stash of mush-filled heartfelt letters in Kishore Kumar's beautiful rendition of Pal pal dil ke paas in the 1973 Vijay Anand drama.
Image: Rakhee in Blackmail
Dushman
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Image: Ashutosh Rana in Dushman
Parichay
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Image: Jeetendra and Vinod Khanna in Parichay
Sirf Tum
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In this desi You've Got Mail, also a remake of Tamil hit Kadhal Kottai, Sanjay Kapoor and Priya Gill correspond over hand-written love letters without meeting each other till the end.
Sirf Tum, produced by big brother Boney Kapoor, boasted of some catchy Nadeem-Shravan melodies and fared decently at the box office.
Image: Priya Gill in Sirf Tum
Rajnigandha
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Sometime in 1974, when not everybody had a landline installed in their apartments, people wrote letters.
And one of the most significant scenes of Basu Chatterjee's Rajnigandha involves Vidya Sinha receiving mail from Dinesh Thakur, who signs off the letter with a distant 'Shesh phir' leaving our briefly infatuated heroine feeling all high and dry.
Image: Vidya Sinha in Rajnigandha
Devdas
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Image: Suchitra Sen in Devdas
Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge
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Little does Kajol realise the 'chitthi' she's so obediently reading out to her folks seals her fate with an 'undekha, anjaana chehra' in a way she hadn't imagined.
It's from a family friend (Satish Shah) suggesting a match between his son (Parmeet Sethi) and her.
Image: Amrish Puri, Kajol and Farida Jalal in Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge
Parakh
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Bimal Roy's clever fable starring Motilal Sadhana is set around a postmaster who mysteriously received a big sum of money and the events it leads to.
Parakh won the filmmaker a Best Director Filmfare trophy.
Image: Motilal Sadhana in Parakh
Ram Teri Ganga Maili
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Image: Mandakini (left) in Ram Teri Ganga Maili
Border
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Image: Akshaye Khanna in Border
Masoom
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What happens when a letter meant for somebody falls in wrong hands? In Masoom, Jugal Hansraj learns the painful truth about his father's identity when he reads a confidential letter meant for his uncle, in truth his dad, Naseeruddin Shah.
One of big screen's most heartbreaking moments, this.
Image: Jugal Hansraj in Masoom
Palkon Ki Chhaon Mein
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Image: Rajesh Khanna in Palkon Ki Chhaon Mein
Welcome to Sajjanpur
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Image: Shreyas Talpade in Welcome to Sajjanpur
Abhimaan
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Image: Amitabh Bachchan and Asrani in Abhimaan
Swades
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After Shah Rukh Khan arrives in Charanpur village, he's helped out by Rajesh Vivek, the local postmaster cum wrestler, who is dazzled by the advancement in technology and aims to transform his humble post-office into an internet-friendly space.
Image: Rajesh Vivek in Swades
Mausam
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One of the greatest criticisms Mausam received is how farfetched and forced the miscommunication between Shahid and Sonam Kapoor appears to be.
Here, Sonam pens a note about her whereabouts to her far-away beau in the hope he'll find her and live happily ever after. Only jealous delivery girl never does the needful delaying their union by another 40 minutes.
Image: Sonam Kapoor in Mausam
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