Shashi-week 2010: Hum to chale pardes (1988)

Hum to chale pardes (1988) resembles nothing so much as a condensed version of the plot line of a day-time soap opera. Personally, I am very fond of this sort of thing. We start off at a maternity ward where a baby girl has just been born. Alas, all is not well, and her mother is about to expire. Before she leaves this world, she encourages her husband, Kumar (Shashi Kapoor) to live for their daughter's sake and also makes him promise that he won't marry again (this may become important later on). We are then treated to our first song, showing us the little girl growing up surrounded by lots of toys and a doting father. The relationship is ever so slightly creepy, but it is obvious that they are very close.

Tonight, we will have a generous helping of Red Leicester:



Very cute:


She looks very peaceful, possibly because she knows that her presence in this movie will now be limited to garlanded pictures:


He isn't taking the news well:


It's a nice set, but a bit unexpected for a father-daughter bonding song:


While we have been enjoying the song, years have passed. We return to the present with Kumar as a successful businessman with very strict rules as to when work finishes and his time with his daughter, Priya (Mandkini), starts. Alas, this particular evening when he comes home, his daughter is nowhere to be seen. Instead he finds a diary where she complains about his love stifling her and that therefore she is running away from home. After several hours of frantically searching for her, her father returns home, only to find her there, the entry in her diary was a scene from her college drama, and she had just been at the back where the cat had kittens. Her father is very happy to have her back, but a family friend, Gul, whom he had met earlier during his search, and who comes now to check how his friend is doing, points out, once Priya has retired to bed, that a daughter will leave her father's house one day, and that maybe he should tone down his love for his daughter a bit (well, if he took the advice we would have a much shorter movie)

He seems inordinately happy to be able to finish work:


It's not good news:


Did I do something wrong?


A manly heart to heart:


However, trouble is brewing across the seven oceans in a far away city. Ajay (Rajeev Kapoor), Gul's nephew and Priya's childhood friend, has fallen in love with Priya's photograph and decided to get married to her only. Before this can develop any further, we are back with Priya and Dad. It's dad's birthday and they don't celebrate it, because they don't celebrate Priya's birthday either, as that was the day her mother died. They do, however, go out for a meal at a hotel, and in the lobby they meet a lady called Krishna (Sharmila Tagore), who, much to Priya's surprise, knows that it is her father's birthday. She is also unmarried and as she studied at the same college as as Priya's parents, it is obvious (at least according the the logic of this movie's version of reality) that she was (and still is) in love with Priya's father. Priya, in a departure from standard movie spoilt daughter behaviour, actually goes to see Krishna and more or less directly asks her to marry her father. Alas, in the interest of the prolongation of the movie's plot, her father feels still bound by the promise he made to her mother and refuses to get married again.

I wonder where we are meant to be:


He has a really close relationship with her picture:


Does remaining single mean that horrible things happen to your hair?


If that is what happens if you stay single, maybe marriage isn't that bad:


It's okay Dad; you don't have to marry all that hair:


Meanwhile, other marital plans are afoot. Ajay and his mother have returned to India. He first (re) introduces himself to Kumar and then begins to stalk Priya in a manner which is meant to be romantic. Before she can set her friend's dog on him, he tells her that he is her childhood friend. They soon spend a lot of time together, swimming (in a scene which involves the sole and mercifully brief appearance of the comic relief), dancing and visiting her father's guesthouse somewhere in the middle of nowhere (apparently alone). The latter gives us our first romantic song and shortly afterwards Ajay's mother comes to Kumar to ask for Priya. After he is assured that they won't take Priya to London but will settle in India he reluctantly agrees to the marriage.

He might be less welcoming if he knew this young man's plans:


Don't worry, he just wants to play:


Both seem to prefer easily inflammable clothing:




He doesn't look particularly thrilled:


Priya is less than overjoyed when she hears the news. Yes, Ajay is a nice guy but she really doesn't want to leave her Dad and marry anyone. Some emotional-blackmail later, she agrees to the marriage, but as she says good-bye to her parental home during the next song, it becomes rather obvious that neither father nor daughter are terribly happy with this. Later that night her father phones (possibly not the brightest idea ever) to check whether she has calmed down and in the conversation with Ajay says that Ajay should give Priya so much love that she forgets her father. Priya is so horrified when she hears that she promptly runs to her father's house to be reassured that he still loves her, while back at Ajay's house, he finds himself blamed for mistreating his bride because why else would she have run away. Gul works out where she has most likely gone, but before he can go to fetch her, her father brings her back. Harmony is restored temporarily, though it is very clear the mother-in-law is less than impressed with her new daughter-in-law's behaviour.

Giving the bride away (first attempt)


Don't worry, she will be back sooner than you think:


Giving the bride away (second attempt)


Before Priya's concern/obsession/love/dependency (please delete as appropriate) for her father causes more problems the newly weds go on honeymoon in Kashmir. This involves one romantic song, one unnecessary but apparently required fight scene with a gang of wandering rapists, lots of snow and some silly knitwear. All is well, until Ajay suggests settling down in Kashmir, which Priya won't agree to because she would be so far away from her Dad. Ajay is starting to get a bit irritated by her close bond with her father.

Being married means wearing your hair in a bun:


Howerver, it doesn't save you from bad-hat syndrome:




After they return from honeymoon, they first go to see Priya's father and Ajay is quite insistant that she spend some time with him. However, when his mother is unhappy about Priya's absence (as she rather wanted to show off her daughter-in-law to her lady friends) he says that Priya insisted that she stay with her father. Of course, this doesn't really endear Priya to her mother in law. The latter now decides that maybe it is time to go back to London, at leat until Priya has sorted out her priorities. Gul is not impressed by this idea (and I am coming slowly to the conclusion that he may well be the only completely sane person in the movie, and he isn't married) and points out that she promised Kumar that she wouldn't take his daughter abroad. Ajay's mother still goes and makes the suggestion to Kumar, but he doesn't take it very well and claims that he would die if didn't live close to his daughter. To make things even worse, Priya actually overhears the conversation. (Of course, the one solution which might make everybody happy, Kumar marrying Ajay's mother, so Priya can have father and husband around all the time, is a possibility which only exists in my mind).

He is very fond of his dressing-gowns:


The first meeting of the daughter-in-law appraisal committee:


She is not impressed:


Seriously not impressed:


Before a decision is made on the relocation plans, there is good news: Priya is pregnant. Her husband is naturally very happy, and so is his mother, as the birth of a son in this family will finally lift a curse which has meant that there was first none and then only one surviving offspring in each of the past six generations. Of course, Priya's father is also very happy, but his joy also gives his son-in-law an opening to point out that a too close relation to one's grown-up offspring may not be good. Kumar is clearly surprised by this but also sees Ajay's point.

Honest, dear, anything you hear down there at the moment is just my digestion:


Happy!


Not any longer:


Some days later, Priya's father phones on a day when she is meant to take her mother-in-law to the hospital for a check up and as he has a headache, she goes to see him and forgets all about her mother-in-law. When she comes back, her husband is more than upset, his mother's appointmant can't be rescheduled for another month (quite why she couldn't go by herself is beyond me, she isn't an invalid) and why does Priya spend so much time with her father? Priya is so upset she runs away to her father's house. He goes over to Ajay's to apologise on his daughter's behalf, as she is too young to understand what she is doing by constantly putting her father first. Ajay is unwilling to forgive her until she has understood what it means to be a wife. Her father then proceeds to throw her out of the house, as married daughters are only guests and shouldn't outstay their welcome (I am not sure how this will teach her what it means to be a wife, or how it will help her to overcome her being overly close to her Dad). Priya, in her usual level-minded and moderate way, decides to break off all relations with her Dad.

Life is hard, when


you are outcharmed by your middle-aged uncle:


dramatic staircase standing:


Of course, Ajay's mother uses her golden chance and the whole family relocates to London. Kumar also sticks to his resolve to now be a strict father and doesn't say good-bye to Priya at the airport though he is there and mopes behind a column. What will happen next? Will Kumar cope well with his daughter's absence and maybe have a life?

Hmmm:


Will his health cope? Will Priya have the first uncomplicated pregnancy in movie-land? And will somebody actually talk to her about father-daughter/husband-wife relations, rather than shout to her about it? What about the family curse? Will Krishna turn up again?

And how come a married woman is wearing a short-sleeved dress?????


As I said at the start, I like this sort of thing and I enjoyed the particular portion of cheese. I should probably record that my fellow watcher, Bollyviewer, turned round at the end and asked me: "You watch this sort of thing for fun?" Yes, I do. The story moves along fairly swiftly, the songs aren't too unbearable, and people didn't live in impossible mansions. If you like cheese and/or Shashi even in his middle-aged form, it's well worth a watch, and Rajeev is less of a clown here than in Zabardast, for which I was sincerely grateful.

Farz ki Jung (1989)

As promised (or threatened): Farz ki Jung. It starts as of with a suitably garish title-sequence



before introducing us to an extremely happy and devout family, consisting of Jaikishen (Amrish Puri), his Lakshmi (Gita Siddarth) and their son Vishal (Govinda). Jaikishen is known as a generous man who lives to serve others and both his wife and his son are devoted to him.



Now, early familiar happiness is always dangerous in the movies, and the viewer's worries are further enhanced by the fact that Amrish Puri is either cast completely against character or his wife and son are in for a few surprises.

You aren't exactly alleviating my suspicions here:


We are then taken to a college and introduced to a new student, Kavita (Neelam). All the girls tell her about Vishal and how great he is and how she will fall in love with him when she meets him. However, before that happens she attracts the attention of some unsavoury types. Unexpectedly, Vishal does not come to the rescue but she is well able to defend herself.



She has every reason to look smug:


Vishal seems to be friends with some of the unsavoury types (but somehow not much is ever made of this in the movie) who in turn now sing Kavita's praises. When the two finally meet we are treated to our first song.

The two on either side used up the movie's fluffy hair allowance, so nothing was left for the third:






A bit laters, Kavita meets Vishal in the library to treat him to some sweets, as her (considerably older) brother, Inspector Vikram (Shashi Kapoor) has been creating panic in the underworld>

I like the fact that this looks like a real library; on the other hand, surely they shouldn't have food in there:




We then see one of the underworld king pin's henchmen (MacMohan) talk to a lawyer about the difficulties of trying to get rid of Inspector Vikram. Apparently, the gangster's at his last post held a huge celebration when he was finally transferred, well, at least those who weren't in prison. This is followed by a chase scene in which Inspector Vikram chases a truck transporting smuggled goods. He manages to stop it but the truck driver is shot before he can interrogate him. At least he managed to confiscate the drugs and we get a small lecture on the evils of drug abuse:


While he is asking himself who could be behind this large scale drug trafficking, the viewer is given this information. And to our complete surprise the head of the drug smuggling gang (who is in league with foreign powers to rob the Indian youth of its manhood and vigour) is none other than Jaikishen, who goes by JK when he does illegal business.

I am so surprised by this development:


He has a colour-coordinated private army, too:


We then meet Inspector Vikram's family, including his wife (Anjana Mumtaz) and his mother as well as his younger sister. They are a very happy family, which does not bode well for them at all:






We follow Inspector Vikram to work where he deals roughly with some people who have come to bribe him, and then sets of to provide security at a political rally held by Jaikishen. The meeting is disturbed by an elderly gentleman who accuses Jaikishen of being an evil person. He is taken away but Inspector Vikram has become curious and goes to meet him later that day.

Oh dear, so he is a corrupt politician, too:


Please, somebody help me get rid of this awful beard:


Hmm, I suspect something:


Inspector Vikram learns that Jaikishen was a government officer in a smaller town, and was very corrupt, but when the elderly gentleman wanted to testify against him, he got himself transferred and had the elderly gentleman's family killed. After some persuasion, he is again willing to testify against Jaikishen and is going to meet the inspector in the evening, but when he arrives at the appointed place (a dimly lit warehouse with giant cobwebs, what else) he has been hanged.

Really, the beard wasn't that bad:


This seems rather strange, but things become somewhat clearer, when Subinspector Gill goes to meet Jaikishen in his evil guise and turns out to be in his pocket:


He is also married with an upright wife and a son, whom the mother suspects of taking drugs, but who the father still provides with money (I wonder where this could possibly lead)

Mum isn't happy:


Before things can get to serious, we get our next song for which the camera-man seems to have made good use of his wife's cookie cutters:




However, we are soon back with the evil people plotting how to get rid of the overly efficient Inspector Vikram. They decide that the best way forward would be to frame him for the possession of drugs and they promptly proceed to do so. Inspector Vikram is arrested and taken to prison, a course of events which leads to his mother expiring from a heart attack. Vikram's younger brother, Amar, is transferred so he can look after the family. He is also a police officer (and yes, we have never heard of him before):

Oh dear:


Not the reunion they would have wanted, one suspects:


Vikram tells Amar that he suspects that Jaikishen framed him, and Amar goes to talk to his superior , Mr. Walia, (Iftekhar, he really is in every movie), where he meets Jaikishen briefly. After a brief comic relief interlude and some moment of commiseration between Vishal and Kavita, we are taken back to the evil people and a dance number involving a lady in pink ruffles and not much else as well as Mr. Paker (Bob Christo), the foreign agent who apart form poisoning India's youth is also after some defence files:



My poor eyes:


It turns out, that some of the drugs supplied where more poisonous than planned and the hospitals are overrun with dying young people, leaving behind young widows and helpless mothers. Inspector Amar tries to find the main supplier and manages to arrest one of Jaikishen's henchmen as well as finding the defence paper, in a rather unlikely place:



Meanwhile, Vikram has been released from Jail and is reunited with his family. However, his arrest and time in jail have taken their toll, and he seems to be unhealthily focused on revenge even day dreaming of killing Jaikishen and embarking on a career of hooliganism late in life by beating up vegetable vendors. He even goes to Jaikishen's house to threaten him, and when Vishal asks his father who their visitor was, he answers him that it was Inspector Vikram who has rather lost his mind in jail, and I can't entirely disagree with him:





I am not sure this is such a good idea:


Puzzled:


Despite their private problems, Vishal and Kavita perform at their school, a number named “We are a new generation”. When Jaikishen is trying to give Kavita an award she refuses it on the grounds that he is an evil and corrupt person. This, naturally, leads to a rift between Vishal and Kavita, but when Vishal learns the truth about his father, indicated by this handy symbol:



he leaves his parent's house. His mother, however, refuses to believe ill of her husband and stays. This is in contrast to Inspector Gill's wife, who returns her mangelsutra to her husband when she learns that he has been taking bribes, leaving him confused and angry.

Meanwhile, a cunningly disguised Vikram overhears a conversation that an exchange of the secret documents is meant to take place between two agents named Cobra and Fishermen.

Behold, Vikram, Master of Disguises:


Also, the artwork on the suitcases is really something else:

Cobra:


and Fisherman:


Vikram manages to intercept the papers and leaves them in a secret place marked with a big white X . After beating up an innocent phone-booth user he tells his brother where the paper's are hidden, only to be abducted by Jaikishen's men. Amar finds the papers, even though there seem to be two rocks marked with an X





and then searches Jaikishen's home where he finds a picture of his younger sister which leads to a very awkward conversation at home. Unsurprisingly, Kavita's family isn't best pleased with her choice of boyfriend, but they do mellow somewhat at the end of the conversation.



Meanwhile, Vikram, now sporting a cap, seems to have joined hands with Mr. Paker:


What is going on there? Will the defence papers remain safe? Will Subinspector Gill ever see the error of his ways? And will we ever see more than one facial expression from Inspector Amar? What happens if someone disregards the sign?


This is fairly standard and enjoyable 80s fare, with plenty of dishoom, familial convolutions, and strange fashion choices. There is really only one major problem, which is the guy playing Inspector Amar (Dalwinder Sohal). When I first watched it I wondered who he was related to, but in fact, he is the producer of the movie. His acting, or lack thereof, is really quite painful to watch. Fans of Govinda might find that there is to little of him, as he really is mainly there to provide some romance and to dance, but the plot revolves around his father and Inspector Vikram.