Peculiarly Patterned Jumpers

Sanjay Dutt in Saajan, a movie whose costume designer needed his head examined.

Peculiarly Patterned Jumpers

He is supposed to be evil and intimidating

Kaun Sachcha, Kaun Jhoota

Kaun Sachcha Kaun Jhoota starring Rishi Kapoor and Sridevi is a rather nice movie. It starts with a madman, Karan, entering a lady's, Sapna, house on a rainy night (madmen never seem to escape in decent weather). He threatens her, but she is a psychiatrist and manages to knock him out with the help of sleeping tablets. Karan's father then persuades her to try and treat him, but after he recover it turns out that Karan is a CBI officer, which does not go well with a dark secret she harbours. The rest of the movie is dedicated to trying to sort out the complications arising from that secret. At first glance it seems very much like a paint-by-numbers mystery story, but things are not what they seem and the director seems to enjoy playing with the viewer's expectations. Saying much more about the plot would actually spoil the fun, so I won't

Rishi Kapoor is convincing as confused and mentally imbalanced Karan, maybe not quite so convincing as all-action hero, but still doing a fair job, and while the fashion isn't always great there is a marked absence of peculiarly patterned jumpers. I am not sure I am buying Sridevi as Sapna the psychiatrist; but that doesn't matter too much after Karan's recovery, as her profession becomes unimportant for the plot. She gets to show of her dancing ability, including one number which involves pink nooses.



I have my problems with Sridevi; but I liked her in this one. The supporting cast is solid, including Suresh Oberoi Gulshan Grover, and Mohnish Behl. I wouldn't recommend this to anybody who hasn't seen any 1990s Bollywood before, it would loose some of its appeal, but it is a fun movie to watch.

It sports stylish opening credits:


Vintage lightening:


real sublte murder attempts:


cheesy churches:


Bollywood-style interior decoration:


I don't think that is a bird:


This is not the Madman:


Karan:


Sapna:

Peculiarly Patterned Jumpers

Let me just say that I genuinely like Rishi Kapoor, but some of the jumpers he wears are just too good not to be mentioned:

Though this monstrosity comes a close second:

Maidan-e-Jung (1995)

Maidan-e-Jung is a set in a village ruled over by an evile landlord (Amrish Puri). We know he is evil as he shoots an assortement of his rivals right after the opening credits. His family consists of his elderly widowed sister, his young widowed daughter-in-law (played by Jaya Prada; it isn't clear what happened to her husband, but there is a strong suggestion that he was killed by his father) and two sons, one played by Gulshan Grover and one by Akshay Kumar (guess who is the evil one).

There is also an upright villager, who has so far deflected some of the landlords wrath from the villagers, named Shankar and played by Dharmendra, who has a sister (Karisma Kapoor) who falls in love with the younger of the landlord's sons, Karan. Unfortunate events happen surrounding the schoolmaster, who is contending in the elections, and his sister, which lead to several confrontations between Shankar and the landlord, especially when Shankar tries to get the villagers to stand up for their rights, much fighting and further problems when Karan comes home from college and finds Shankar and his father fighting each other.

Two things stand out in the movie: It has a very strong theme of approving of widow re-marriage, stating repeatedly that it is no sin to be a widow and that it is better for a young widow to re-marry (not exactly subtle, but there you go). The other, less pleasant, is a comedy sub-plot involving Shakti Kapoor in drag wooing Kader Khan. This all culminates in a song which is really one of the songs the world doesn't need, however, I am still going to share it: