Helen Week - Happy Birthday Helen!

Welcome to Helen Week - Day 7

First of all, I want to wish on behalf of all the readers of this blog and fans all over the world a very, very happy birthday to Helen - the original Dancing Queen! We Love you!!!

Since this is the last day of Helen Week, I'm going to end it with two special posts rolled into one. First, I'm making the Helen Of Bollywood (Volume 2) DVD available at Mediafire for the very first time. So, if you don't already have it you can grab it by clicking on the link provided below. If you're patient and persistent you should be able to get the DVD in a day or 2. :)

Helen Of Bollywood (Volume 2) is now available for the first time Here at Mediafire.

Helen vs Vyjayanthimala - Dance Competitons
 
Coming up next are exciting videos of  Helen's two victorious dance competitions against the mighty Vyjayanthimala. Both videos were remastered by Tom Daniel.

First up is "Aaye Haaye Dilruba" from Dr. Vidya (1962). It now has subtitles and much improved video quality. This is followed by "Muqabla Humse Na Karo" from Prince (1969.)

So, enjoy the dance competitions as the underdog (our Helen) defies the odds and twice defeats the heroine (Vyjayanthimala). Long live Helen! And may she have many more birthdays to come! :)

Hope everyone enjoyed Helen Week. ;)








The End

Helen Week - Hong Kong (Special Edition) CD

Welcome to Helen Week - Day 6

We may never see a VCD or DVD release of Helen's tour de force performance in Hong Kong, but at least we now have a CD. This is a special edition CD of O.P. Nayyar's brilliant soundtrack for Hong Kong. The first 8 songs are not my rip and are shortened versions of the originals. The next 8 are the longer movie verions taken from the Youtube videos. The original vinyl soundtrack released in 1962 has yet to surface. O.P. Nayyar's soundtrack for Hong Kong can almost be thought of as an Asha Bhosle solo album. She sings on all 9 songs including the 2 duets with Mohd. Rafi and has never sounded better. Get the CD Here.

Helen Week - Videos from Hong Kong (1962)

Welcome to Helen Week - Day 5

Hong Kong is probably my most favorite Helen movie that I've never seen. I've only been able to watch the 8 videos taken from a VHS tape that were posted on Youtube. The videos are all excellent and Helen performs in 5 of them! The soundtrack was composed by O.P. Nayyar (The Rhythm King) and its magnificent. Hong Kong has never been released on VCD or DVD and its not even listed on IMDB.

So, what follows are all the Youtube videos plus the audio of one lovely song (Honolulu) whose video wasn't uploaded. First up is a swingin' Nayyar song called "Hong Kong China Meena." And its a superb showcase for showing Helen's dancing and comedic abilities. Enjoy!






Another favorite of mine is the snappy "Kenya Uganda Tanganyika." Helen shows her Latin roots and plays a little bit on the conga drum at the beginning of the song. Look for a very young Sanjeev Kumar among the dancers.









And here's the audio of the song that wasn't among the 8 videos that were uploaded to Youtube. Its a beautiful song called "Honolulu" and it features a flawless vocal by Asha Bhosle.

Helen Week - Helen in Indonesia

Welcome to Helen Week - Day 4

Helen didn't perform only in Bollywood films. She danced in a couple of songs for an Indonesian Aladdin film in 1982. Enjoy!





And here's a bonus video. This time, Helen dances in a Tamil Aladdin film.

Helen Week - 2 rare And groovy videos

Welcome to Helen Week - Day 3

In this video, Helen and Jeetendra dance the Frug (a popular dance of the 60's) while a version of one of the biggest surf music songs of all-time "Walk Don't Run" by the Ventures plays! Can anyone guess the name of the movie?





The second video is a rare Helen song edited out of the VCD for Maharaja (1970) - Kitni Haseen Hai Mere Pyar Ki Nazar. Its an ultra cool song that borrows the intro from one of the top surf music classics of the 60's - "Pipeline" by the Chantays!...and then around 1:20 into the song we hear Pipeline's famous guitar riff! Nice! Many thanks to shafims72 for uploading this to Youtube. :). Btw, the high quality picture at the top of this post is a movie photo still from the song.

Helen Week - Movie Mahal: Helen

Welcome to Helen Week - Day 2

Movie Mahal:Helen was telecast in the UK on Channel 4 in 1989. A very, very special thanks goes to our friend Asli Jat for making it available after all these years for this blog.

During the course of the show, Helen looks back fondly at her life and career and shares many interesting stories:
How did she break into the business?
Who was her favorite dancer?
What movie revived her career?
Watch Movie Mahal:Helen and find out. :)

Helen Week - Night is Lovely (Slideshow)

Welcome to Helen Week - Day 1CHEERS!
"Night is Lovely" is a Helen song (vocal by Asha Bhosle) from Pyar Ka Sapna (1969) that has been edited out of the the VCD and DVD releases. So, I decided to create a slideshow using a mp3 of the song with screenshots (color enhanced and denoised) of Helen's scenes from the movie. Lets hope that one day the missing video surfaces. Until then, this is the next best thing. Those who have been lucky enough to have seen the excised video say it's one of Helen's best. Update: The long lost video has been found on an old VHS tape and is available for all to see Here

For her role in Pyar Ka Sapna, Helen has long blond hair and light blue eyes and looks beautiful. See screenshot below.


Night is lovely and so is Helen

So, without further ado, here is the Night is Lovely slideshow. Hope you enjoy. :)

Helen Week - October 15-21

In anticipation of Helen's upcoming birthday on October 21, I will celebrate it everyday for a week with special posts that I'm sure everyone will enjoy. Why a week? Because, for Helen, one day simply isn't enough :D