While I am working on a longer post a quick round up of three Shashi-movies I saw recently:
Aamne Saamne (1967): This one had me on the edge of my seat for the last 45 Minutes. It is a kind of thriller, and just and simply brilliant (well, at least in my opinion). Shashi plays a young man who is acquitted from having murdered his very rich wife due to lack of evidence. He then changes his name to Gopal, moves to another city and starts flirting with the girl across the road, Sapna (Sharmila Tagore). She falls in love with him after a live-threatening incident with a merry-go-round, but soon her life is in more danger as somebody tries to kill her. There are plenty of suspects, as she had a fiance prior to Gopal and has a rather possessive brother. Apart from one seriously weird dance number in a hotel the music is nice, though the two of them running around close to cliff edges makes you rather nervous. The only downside, apart from the bizzare dance number is the comic relief couple, but luckily they have only a limited amount of screen-time though they get their own song.
Amar Shakti (1978): It is swash-bucling period masala: Amar (Shashi Kapoor) and Shakti (Shatrughan Sinha) are brothers and princes of the kingdom, separated when their parents are killed by the now ruling king. Amar grew up to be an accomplished swordsman and is serving in the king's army, while Shakti grew up with a group of tribal people and has started to rebel against the unlawful king after his adopted father died. Shakti actually knows who he is and who killed his family; but it takes some sorting out before his younger brother realises the akwardness of his current employment situation. There is a cute song with Amar impersonating the princess's music teacher in order to be able to flirt with her (it was love at first sight), right under the nose of her irritating fiance. This is a fun movie, and the climax features a giant Trojan elephant, which spouts fire from his trunk. What more could one possible want?
Benazir (1964): This is really quite lovely, even if it doesn't end particularily well. Anwar (Shashi Kapoor) is the younger brother of a Nawab (Ashok Kumar). He is very devoted to his sister in law (Nirupa Roy) and much upset when he learns that his brother is spending rather a lot of time with a dancer and actress called Benazir (Meena Kumari). Anwar himself has fallen for Shahida (Tanuja) who is his sister in laws younger sister. However, Shauket (Tarun Bose), a distant relative also wants to marry Shahida, and he comes up with a convoluted plot using Benazir's involvement with the Nawab to create a major misunderstanding between the brothers, give the Nawab a heart-attack and make Shahida's father forbid her to get married to Anwar, and make Anwar leave his home and start to sell beauty products door to door. Things are further complicated by the fact that Benazir has fallen in love with Anwar (I am not blaming her). I liked this; I got very distracted by Shashi's extreme cuteness, especially when he holds his baby nephew, the sets and costumes are gorgeous, the music was nice, and the female characters extremely self-sacrificial. But at least the Nawab's wife gets an apology.
Monday, 29 September 2008
Bargain Bin Beauties IV: Satta Bazaar (1959)
Satta Bazaar is a rather interesting movie, as it focuses less on the trials and tribulations of young star-crossed lovers, and more on the trials and tribulations of a married couple when the husband falls prey to the lure of share-trading and gambling.
It starts by introducing us to a moderately happy family consisting of the parents, Jamuna and Ramesh, one grown up daughter, Kala, and one younger son, as well as a random relative, Jagat, played by Johnny Walker, and of course Tiger, his dog. The only blot on the families happiness is that the daughter, Kala (Vijaya Choudhury), doesn't get on with her mother, Jamuna (Meena Kumari), as she is actually her step-mother and she was told by a servant that all step-mothers are evil. Jamuna, however, works very hard to prove this prejudice wrong.
Kala is in love with Shyam (Suresh), who works in her father's factory and is the son of a good friend and colleague of her father. Nevertheless, she is worried about talking to their parents about a possible marriage as they are from different castes and areas. Shyam's answer to this can be seen below.
Jamuna finds out about her step-daughter's involvement with Shyam but instead of being morally outraged she persuades her husband, Ramesh (Balraj Sahni) to allow the two youngsters to marry. As Shyam's father is also happy with the match, all seems to be well and we get an engagement party which features a song with Johnny walker as a fake tiger.
Jamuna being sneaky:
And working on convincing her husband:
However, the silly son, Pritam, of a very rich businessman, Badriprasad (Ramayan Tiwari) has also fallen in love with Kala. Badriprasad enlists the help of a corrupt priest, whom Ramesh trusts for some inexplicable reason, to get Ramesh to trade in shares in a cunning ploy to get him to break off Kala's engagement with Shyam. Nobody in the family likes or trusts the Pundit, not even Tiger, but Ramesh is not to be shaken.
These people are not good news:
Why would you trust him (apart from: it's in the script):
See, Tiger doesn't like them either:
Jamuna is very upset when Ramesh comes home with a substantial amount of money he earned at the share market; especially since he missed a Pooja in order to do some more trading. She is even less impressed when he starts sleeping badly and she makes him swear on her son's head that he will never go to the share market again. What could possibly go wrong with this?
Isn't it usually love which robs people of their sleep?
This is really not a good idea:
Meanwhile, to set up the scene for future akwardness, Pritam, Badriprasad's son, had an accident while trying to take a picture and ended up in the sea wherefrom he is promptly rescued by Shyam. Pritam himself has no idea what his father is up to, and is genuinely fond of Kala.
The sign of akwardness to come:
The family settles back into a happy routine, until one day Ramesh meets Badriprasad at the air-port by chance and gets dragged back to the share market; this time he even starts going to watch dancing girls and drinking alcohol. He ends up loosing a lot of money, and Badriprasad promises to pay his debts under the completely surprising conditions that Kala gets married to his son Pritam. In oder to make sure that she doesn't get a chance to elope he has had Shyam already kidnapped by his trusty associate. Tiger tries to help but the humans are to stupid to look under the carpet which hides the trap-door. Oh well.
Oh, no:
How could you:
Despair:
Stupid humans:
At least one person is happy about the wedding:
Kala has some trouble settling into married life, so her father in law suggests that Pritam should take her to their guesthouse for some quality time. I am not sure why he thinks that is a good idea since the guesthouse is located rather close to the place where Shyam is still held, but there you go.
Jagat is still suspicious about the place where they couldn't locate Shyam the first time round, so he goes back with his girl-friend and Tiger. After a rousing song performed to distract the people guarding Shyam and with the help of Tiger's sharp teeth, Shyam manages to escape but he is hurt during the fight.
Let me tell you, at this point, I really needed some light relief:
And guess what? Who should come across Shyam and take him home, but Pritam who is overjoyed to get a chance to pay back the favour Shaym did him when he pulled him out of the ocean. This is of course rather akward for Kala, especially since Pritam doesn't know about her engagement to Shyam; but it gives Kala and Shyam a chance to sing melancholy songs at each other.
Oh dear:
Hmm, this might not be the best idea ever, Pritam:
Meanwhile, back in the city, Ramesh comes to know that Bradiprasad has not in fact payed his debts for him, as he had promised, and Jamuna and her sick son get thrown out of their house. When he finds them, his son is seriously ill and urgently requires some milk for his medicines. Jamuna sends Ramesh to buy the milk but he meets the Pundit on the way, who has fallen on hard times, too, and is enticed into gambling away his last money; while his son dies in his mother's arms.
Don't listen to him Ramesh. Haven't you learned anything?
Meanwhile Badriprasad has learned that Shyam is staying with is son in the guesthouse, and he sets out to get rid of Shyam once and for all with the help of a poisoned cup of coffee. Alas, the coffee is drunk by Pritam, who promptly expires.
Harumpf, he really didn't deserve that:
Shyam on the other hand is found by his father just in time as he prepares to jump of a cliff, and taken back to the city where he soon finds himself accused of Pritam's murder. When Ramesh hears that his daughter is now widowed he collapses and becomes paralysed and unable to speak.
Last minute rescue:
Poor Jamuna:
Will Shyam be able to prove his innocence? Will Badriprasad ever be found out? What will happen to Kala and Shyam, now that Pritam is no longer? Will Ramesh ever recover? Will Jagat's girlfriend ever agree to marry him?
It is not a bad movie; rather heavy on the melodrama, and Shyam, or rather Suresh didn't really impress me that much, but I liked all the other actors and the story was interesting. The only thing that really annoyed me was the fact that two sons have to pay the price for their fathers' misdeeds, Ramesh's son and Pritam, who, while very silly, isn't portrayed as a bad person and doesn't know what his father is up to. I felt rather sorry for the two of them. I am not sure whether my being underwhelmed with Suresh as Shyam is because I felt sorry for Pritam (I don't know the name of the actor, as IMDB is being unhelpful) or whether I would have felt less sorry for Pritam if I had been more blown away by Shyam.
It starts by introducing us to a moderately happy family consisting of the parents, Jamuna and Ramesh, one grown up daughter, Kala, and one younger son, as well as a random relative, Jagat, played by Johnny Walker, and of course Tiger, his dog. The only blot on the families happiness is that the daughter, Kala (Vijaya Choudhury), doesn't get on with her mother, Jamuna (Meena Kumari), as she is actually her step-mother and she was told by a servant that all step-mothers are evil. Jamuna, however, works very hard to prove this prejudice wrong.
Kala is in love with Shyam (Suresh), who works in her father's factory and is the son of a good friend and colleague of her father. Nevertheless, she is worried about talking to their parents about a possible marriage as they are from different castes and areas. Shyam's answer to this can be seen below.
Jamuna finds out about her step-daughter's involvement with Shyam but instead of being morally outraged she persuades her husband, Ramesh (Balraj Sahni) to allow the two youngsters to marry. As Shyam's father is also happy with the match, all seems to be well and we get an engagement party which features a song with Johnny walker as a fake tiger.
Jamuna being sneaky:
And working on convincing her husband:
However, the silly son, Pritam, of a very rich businessman, Badriprasad (Ramayan Tiwari) has also fallen in love with Kala. Badriprasad enlists the help of a corrupt priest, whom Ramesh trusts for some inexplicable reason, to get Ramesh to trade in shares in a cunning ploy to get him to break off Kala's engagement with Shyam. Nobody in the family likes or trusts the Pundit, not even Tiger, but Ramesh is not to be shaken.
These people are not good news:
Why would you trust him (apart from: it's in the script):
See, Tiger doesn't like them either:
Jamuna is very upset when Ramesh comes home with a substantial amount of money he earned at the share market; especially since he missed a Pooja in order to do some more trading. She is even less impressed when he starts sleeping badly and she makes him swear on her son's head that he will never go to the share market again. What could possibly go wrong with this?
Isn't it usually love which robs people of their sleep?
This is really not a good idea:
Meanwhile, to set up the scene for future akwardness, Pritam, Badriprasad's son, had an accident while trying to take a picture and ended up in the sea wherefrom he is promptly rescued by Shyam. Pritam himself has no idea what his father is up to, and is genuinely fond of Kala.
The sign of akwardness to come:
The family settles back into a happy routine, until one day Ramesh meets Badriprasad at the air-port by chance and gets dragged back to the share market; this time he even starts going to watch dancing girls and drinking alcohol. He ends up loosing a lot of money, and Badriprasad promises to pay his debts under the completely surprising conditions that Kala gets married to his son Pritam. In oder to make sure that she doesn't get a chance to elope he has had Shyam already kidnapped by his trusty associate. Tiger tries to help but the humans are to stupid to look under the carpet which hides the trap-door. Oh well.
Oh, no:
How could you:
Despair:
Stupid humans:
At least one person is happy about the wedding:
Kala has some trouble settling into married life, so her father in law suggests that Pritam should take her to their guesthouse for some quality time. I am not sure why he thinks that is a good idea since the guesthouse is located rather close to the place where Shyam is still held, but there you go.
Jagat is still suspicious about the place where they couldn't locate Shyam the first time round, so he goes back with his girl-friend and Tiger. After a rousing song performed to distract the people guarding Shyam and with the help of Tiger's sharp teeth, Shyam manages to escape but he is hurt during the fight.
Let me tell you, at this point, I really needed some light relief:
And guess what? Who should come across Shyam and take him home, but Pritam who is overjoyed to get a chance to pay back the favour Shaym did him when he pulled him out of the ocean. This is of course rather akward for Kala, especially since Pritam doesn't know about her engagement to Shyam; but it gives Kala and Shyam a chance to sing melancholy songs at each other.
Oh dear:
Hmm, this might not be the best idea ever, Pritam:
Meanwhile, back in the city, Ramesh comes to know that Bradiprasad has not in fact payed his debts for him, as he had promised, and Jamuna and her sick son get thrown out of their house. When he finds them, his son is seriously ill and urgently requires some milk for his medicines. Jamuna sends Ramesh to buy the milk but he meets the Pundit on the way, who has fallen on hard times, too, and is enticed into gambling away his last money; while his son dies in his mother's arms.
Don't listen to him Ramesh. Haven't you learned anything?
Meanwhile Badriprasad has learned that Shyam is staying with is son in the guesthouse, and he sets out to get rid of Shyam once and for all with the help of a poisoned cup of coffee. Alas, the coffee is drunk by Pritam, who promptly expires.
Harumpf, he really didn't deserve that:
Shyam on the other hand is found by his father just in time as he prepares to jump of a cliff, and taken back to the city where he soon finds himself accused of Pritam's murder. When Ramesh hears that his daughter is now widowed he collapses and becomes paralysed and unable to speak.
Last minute rescue:
Poor Jamuna:
Will Shyam be able to prove his innocence? Will Badriprasad ever be found out? What will happen to Kala and Shyam, now that Pritam is no longer? Will Ramesh ever recover? Will Jagat's girlfriend ever agree to marry him?
It is not a bad movie; rather heavy on the melodrama, and Shyam, or rather Suresh didn't really impress me that much, but I liked all the other actors and the story was interesting. The only thing that really annoyed me was the fact that two sons have to pay the price for their fathers' misdeeds, Ramesh's son and Pritam, who, while very silly, isn't portrayed as a bad person and doesn't know what his father is up to. I felt rather sorry for the two of them. I am not sure whether my being underwhelmed with Suresh as Shyam is because I felt sorry for Pritam (I don't know the name of the actor, as IMDB is being unhelpful) or whether I would have felt less sorry for Pritam if I had been more blown away by Shyam.
Monday, 1 September 2008
Aan (1952)
Aan: Every time I try to sit down and collect my thoughts about this movie, I realise that I only have the vaguest memories of the plot but very vivid recollections of giant fish, small castles, a most impressive dungeon door, and Nadira's eyes. So, I decided to give up, and just write my vague memories of the plot; and show some of what distracted me so much.
The film is set somewhere in India at some not very clearly defined time in the past. There is a kindly king (Murad) who has to go abroad for some medical treatment, and wants to bequeath his kingdom to his subjects before he leaves. Unfortunately, he has used up all the royal families kindliness quota, so his brother (Prem Nath) is a rather unpleasant person and his sister (Nadira) very arrogant. The younger brother has the king killed (or has he) and makes himself ruler. Meanwhile, a strapping young farmer, Jai (Dilip Kumar), has fallen for the king's younger sister, though I really can't see why unless he either enjoys being beaten up, and whipped, and shot at, and being stabbed in the back, and burned; or he likes a serious challenge, or both. This is rather unfortunate for Mangala (Nimmi) who loved him since they were children. Even more unfortunate for her is that the evil prince has fallen in lust with her. The poor woman ends up poisoning herself and throwing herself from a tower.
This leads to a fight in which Jai seems to kill the evil prince which in turn leads to him and his entire village fleeing from the King's army. Somehow, Jai manages to kidnap the princes, too, and expects her to do his housework. To be fair, he is actually prepared to eat what she cooks, which does require some courage. After a dream sequence/vision which finally sorts out the relation between Jai and the princess; everybody is taken captive and the movie culminates in a big fight involving the princess in danger of being burned at the stake, and everybody else in danger of being blown up in the dungeon.
So much for the plot, now some illustrations of what really stuck in my memory:
Distraction No.1: The handsome hero and his amazing wardrobe
Distraction No.2: The sets:
Now, that is what I call a dungeon door:
This makes my bathroom look even more poky:
And I would hate to loose a contact lense here:
This castle seems rather petite:
Hmm, I wonder whether the budget for special effects had run out:
Distraction No.3 : The constant worry that her eyes might fall out of her head:
Of course, Aan has an important message about people being good, and rulers being evil, unless they are willing to abdicate in favour of the people, and it hits you over the head with it so hard, even I was unable to miss it. And I did really enjoy watching this and have made other people watch it. It was so much fun, if not necessarily for the reasons it makers intended.
The film is set somewhere in India at some not very clearly defined time in the past. There is a kindly king (Murad) who has to go abroad for some medical treatment, and wants to bequeath his kingdom to his subjects before he leaves. Unfortunately, he has used up all the royal families kindliness quota, so his brother (Prem Nath) is a rather unpleasant person and his sister (Nadira) very arrogant. The younger brother has the king killed (or has he) and makes himself ruler. Meanwhile, a strapping young farmer, Jai (Dilip Kumar), has fallen for the king's younger sister, though I really can't see why unless he either enjoys being beaten up, and whipped, and shot at, and being stabbed in the back, and burned; or he likes a serious challenge, or both. This is rather unfortunate for Mangala (Nimmi) who loved him since they were children. Even more unfortunate for her is that the evil prince has fallen in lust with her. The poor woman ends up poisoning herself and throwing herself from a tower.
This leads to a fight in which Jai seems to kill the evil prince which in turn leads to him and his entire village fleeing from the King's army. Somehow, Jai manages to kidnap the princes, too, and expects her to do his housework. To be fair, he is actually prepared to eat what she cooks, which does require some courage. After a dream sequence/vision which finally sorts out the relation between Jai and the princess; everybody is taken captive and the movie culminates in a big fight involving the princess in danger of being burned at the stake, and everybody else in danger of being blown up in the dungeon.
So much for the plot, now some illustrations of what really stuck in my memory:
Distraction No.1: The handsome hero and his amazing wardrobe
Distraction No.2: The sets:
Now, that is what I call a dungeon door:
This makes my bathroom look even more poky:
And I would hate to loose a contact lense here:
This castle seems rather petite:
Hmm, I wonder whether the budget for special effects had run out:
Distraction No.3 : The constant worry that her eyes might fall out of her head:
Of course, Aan has an important message about people being good, and rulers being evil, unless they are willing to abdicate in favour of the people, and it hits you over the head with it so hard, even I was unable to miss it. And I did really enjoy watching this and have made other people watch it. It was so much fun, if not necessarily for the reasons it makers intended.
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