Helen Richardson Khan (born October 21 1939) is a Bollywood dancer and actress of Anglo-Burmese extraction, best known for playing vamps and vixens in Bollywood movies of the 1960s and 70s. She was famous for her performances in flamboyant dance sequences and cabaret numbers. The Bollywood playback singer Asha Bhosle frequently sang for Helen.
Helen was born on October 21, 1939 in Burma to an Anglo-Burmese/Anglo-Indian father and Burmese mother. A family friend, an actress known as Cukoo, helped her find jobs as a chorus dancer in the films Shabistan and Awaara (1951). Helen was soon working regularly, and was featured as a solo dancer in films like Alif Laila (1952) and Hoor-e-Arab (1953).
In 1958, she had her first major hit with her performance in the song "Mera Naam Chin Chin Chu" in O.P. Nayyar's hit film, Howrah Bridge. She was in great demand after this, performing as a cabaret dancer and vamp in film after film. She was known as the Cabaret Queen. She was never a great...
Created by dipity on Feb 7, 2008
Last updated: 03/10/10 at 09:33 PM
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Dil Ne Jise Apna Kahaa (Hindi: दिल ने जिसे अपना कहा, Urdu: دل نے جسے اپنا کہا) is a 2004 Bollywood film directed by Atul Agnihotri. The film was Agnihotri's first film as a director. The film stars Salman Khan, Preity Zinta, Bhoomika Chawla, Delnaaz Paul, Riya Sen and Helen.
Rishabh (Salman Khan) and Parineeta (Preity Zinta) are both deeply in love with each other. He is a wealthy young man, working in an advertising agency while she is a hardworking, dedicated doctor. Both marry and soon Pari is pregnant. Pari has a dream to create a hospital for children. Tragically, Pari is suddenly involved in an accident, and both the baby and she die in hospital. Pari's last wish was to donate her heart to a patient of hers called Dhani (Bhoomika Chawla). Rishabh is devastated, and opposes the plan to donate the heart but goes ahead with Pari's last request.
Dhani is cured much to the joy of her family and her grandmother (Helen). Rishabh has gone into depression but soon comes across Pari's...
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0396563
Mohabbatein (Devanagari: मोहब्बतें, Nastaliq: موہبتیں , translation:"Love Stories"), is a 2000 Bollywood movie directed by Aditya Chopra. The movie stars Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan. This movie might have taken some hints from Dead Poets Society. The movie was filmed at Oxford and Longleat (Gurukul in the movie).Three young men arrive at a famous private school in India, Gurukul.Gurukul is run by a stern headmaster named Narayan Shankar, played by Amitabh Bachchan. The headmaster has instituted a strict anti-romance policy. Students are there to learn, he says, not to party and flirt. Students who become romantically involved will be expelled.The three of them all have their hearts set on different girls. Sameer (Jugal Hansraj) works in a cafe and is in love with his long time friend Sanjana (Kim Sharma). Unfortunately for Sameer, she has a boyfriend. Vikram (Uday Chopra) accidentally bumps into Ishika (Shamita Shetty) when he catches her stealing apples from the Gurukul...
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0213890
Khamoshi: The Musical (English: Silence) is a critically acclaimed Bollywood film which was released in 1996. The film starred Nana Patekar, Salman Khan, Manisha Koirala, Seema Biswas and Helen. It was Sanjay Leela Bhansali's directorial debut. The film tagline was When music shatters the barriers of silence.Joseph (Nana Patekar) and Flavy (Seema Biswas) are devout Catholics living in Goa. They are both deaf and mute. They are overjoyed when their daughter Annie (Manisha Koirala) is born as she can speak. There family is complete with the birth of a son, Sam. However when Sam dies in an accident Joseph loses his faith. To bury his grief he starts to sell toys and the family do much better with Joseph selling toys rather than selling soap door-to-door.
Annie grows up to have a love for music but when Raj (Salman Khan) enters her life, Joseph begins to feel jealous and hostile towards him. Raj is a Hindu and can also speak. Joseph feels that if he loses Annie he will lose his...
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116763
Don is an Indian Hindi film released in 1978.
The movie was produced by Nariman Irani and directed by Chandra Barot. The music was by Kalyanji Anandji and lyrics by Anjaan. The film stars Amitabh Bachchan, Zeenat Aman, Pran, Iftekhar , Helen and Om Shivpuri, Satyan Kapoo and Pinchoo Kapoor.
Don (Amitabh Bachchan) is the leader of an underworld gang until Police Officer D'Silva (Iftekhar) tracks him down and in an attempt to catch him ends up killing him.But Don's death is only known to D'Silva.So Officer D'Silva tracks down a lookalike of Don named Vijay. Vijay impersonates Don to take down the rest of Don's gang while the DSP promises him that he will give a proper education to his wards who are actually the children of Jasjit (Pran).
In the meantime Jasjit comes out of prison after serving his term, only to find Officer D'Silva having a red diary that would show Vijay's true identity. Officer D'Silva is killed by Malik who is introduced as the interpol officer, but in actual fact...
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077451
Sholay (Hindi: शोले, Urdu: شعلے) (advertised in English as Embers or Flames) is the biggest blockbuster in the history of Bollywood, India's Hindi film industry. It was released in 1975 and starred Dharmendra, Amitabh Bachchan, Hema Malini, Sanjeev Kumar, Jaya Bhaduri and Amjad Khan as the timeless villain, Gabbar Singh.
It is the highest grossing film of all time in India. It has earned Rs. 2,36,45,00,000 equivalent to US$ 60 million, after adjusting for inflation. In 1999, BBC India declared it the "Film of the Millennium"; in 2005, the judges of the 50th annual Filmfare awards called it the best film of the last 50 years. [1]Indiatimes Movies ranks the movie amongst the Top 25 Must See Bollywood Films.[2]When first released the film was declared a commercial disaster. Word of mouth convinced movie-goers to give the film a chance and soon it became a box-office phenomenon. It ran for 286 weeks straight in one Mumbai theatre, the Minerva. Sholay racked up a still record 60 golden...
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073707
Anamika (1973) is a Hindi movie made in India and directed by Raghunath Jalani. It is a romantic, suspense film with memorable songs by composer R.D. Burman and lyricist Majrooh Sultanpuri, such as " Meri Bheegi Bheegi Si" sung by Kishore Kumar and "Bahon Mein Chale Aao" sung by Lata Mangeshkar.It is the story of a woman-hating writer (Sanjeev Kumar) who finds a young woman (Jaya Bhaduri) thrown from a speeding car with her hands tied and her mouth gagged. He, his uncle, and his secretary (Asrani) take the unconscious girl home, and when she wakes up the next morning, she doesn't remember anything about her life and insists that she is the writer's wife! The uncle convinces the writer to humor the girl until she regains her memory. In the mean time, she shows him the crazy, fun part of life, and he calls her Anamika, which means "Girl without a Name." Just as he is falling in love, he also sees clues about her past that raises more questions than answers: Is she a married woman named...
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069711
Teesri Manzil ("Third Floor") is a 1966 Hindi film by Nasir Hussain films. It starred his regular stars Shammi Kapoor and Asha Parekh. Nazima, Premnath, Prem Chopra, Iftekhar , Helen, K. N. Singh and Salim were part of the supporting cast. The film became a hit at the box office at the time of its release.Indiatimes Movies ranks the movie amongst the Top 25 Must See Bollywood Films.[1]Anil Kumar "Sona" (Shammi Kapoor) finds a young woman named Roopa jumping from the third floor of the hotel at night where he regularly performs as a musician named "Rocky." Roopa's younger sister (Asha Parekh) believes that her sister committed suicide because of a supposedly ruined affair with Rocky, so she comes to seek vengeance. She and Anil fall in love, but he doesn't know how to tell her that he and Rocky are the same person. A rich older man (Premnath) pretends to be Anil's uncle to impress Sunita and her father. A police detective reveals that Roopa didn't commit suicide but was actually...
Gumnaam (Urdu for "unknown" or "anonymous") is a 1965 Bollywood film directed by Raja Nawathe and starring Manoj Kumar, Nanda, Helen and Mehmood. The plot is an uncredited adaptation of Agatha Christie's novel And Then There Were None, and the title song Gumnaam hai borrows (again uncredited) from Henry Mancini's theme tune from the Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn movie Charade.
Seven people win a free vacation in a dancing competition. They all board a small plane together with the pilot and a steward. On the way to their destination the plane has engine trouble and they are left abandoned (together with the steward) in a remote seaside location. They find shelter in a large mansion inhabited by a comical butler. One by one, they are murdered.
The film came to wider attention when its opening dance item number Jaan Pehechan Ho (a Hindi phrase roughly translatable as "We should get to know each other") was featured in the film Ghost World. The dance features singing by Bollywood...
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0247394
Awaara (Hindi: अवारा, Urdu: آوارہ, Translation: "The Rogue" ) is a 1951 film directed and produced by Raj Kapoor who also has the leading role. His real-life father Prithviraj Kapoor also stars as his on-screen father Judge Raghunath. Raj's youngest real-life brother Shashi Kapoor plays the younger version of his character. Prithiviraj's father Dewan Bashwanath Kapoor also played a cameo role in his only film appearance.
The film centers on the intertwining lives of poor Raj (Raj Kapoor) and privileged Rita (Nargis). In the film, Kapoor's poor, innocent "little tramp" character references Charlie Chaplin and was further developed in other Kapoor films such as Jagte Raho and Shri 420.The film is a collaboration of the famous team of director/producer Kapoor and writer Khwaja Ahmad Abbas, with music composed by the team of Shankar Jaikishan. The song "Awara Hoon (I am a Tramp)," sung by Mukesh with lyrics by Shailendra, became hugely popular across the Indian Subcontinent, as well as in...
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043306
Helen was born
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