February 6, 2010

Nisar Ahmad Ansari

I have recently fallen deeply in love and appreciation with Nisar Ahmad Ansari, a Bollywood veteran, who made movies from the 1940s to the 90s. He specialized in fim noir, and my first review on one of his movies shall follow shortly, but here is his website Ansari Villa- which I know you will enjoy. It is a beautiful documentation of photos from his life and times by his grandchildren, and the industry photos are super.

From his website, here are some pix, that show his striking resemblance to Bela Lugosi, who definitely looks like a long-lost Romanian/Hungarian uncle to him :)

Here is Nisar:











































And here is Bela:
























Doppelgangers!

Go on, check out the website :)

UPDATE: Feb 7, 2010.

I was very lucky to have gotten an email from Hina Ansari, Nisar's grand daughter, who is based out of Canada. She very kindly shares the link of an article that she has written about him at her website http://www.hinapansari.com. Fun!






8 comments:

memsaab said...

Hooray!!!!!

Filmi family ZINDABAD. Srsly. Great link, thank you :)

Shweta Mehrotra Gahlawat said...

Memsaab: I really enjoyed Tower House, with Ansari in it recently- he is fabulous!

ajnabi said...

Oh goodness, they really are each others' doubles, aren't they? Thanks for the link!

bollyviewer said...

I first noticed him in Black Cat. Its such a fabulous film that I knew I had to see more of his films! Any recos?

That website is a treasure trove. Thanks so much for linking to it.

Shweta Mehrotra Gahlawat said...

Bollyviewer, I'd definietly recommend Tower House to you: Nisar lifts it above the average. I am working on tracking down "wahan ke Log,"- apparently india's 1st sci-fi movie. V exciting.

Hina said...

Hello all! Thank you so much for sharing your deep appreciation for our grandfather's films. We are deeply touched! Shweta..great post! hina

Anonymous said...

Very difficult to find all these films. Have been trying for Black Cat for months. Interestingly, all his films had terrific music

Shweta Mehrotra Gahlawat said...

Try moserbaer Anonymous- Black Cat is on there.