Bargain Bin Beauties I : Dhongee (1979)

First of all, apologies for the silent treatment. It is not as if I haven't watched any movies recently, but between watching them, and being rather busy in the times I didn't watch movies, I haven't managed to post here. I will try to be better and deal with some of the backlog I have accumulated.

Part of why I have been so busy movie watching is that during the last sale at Eros I went slightly mad and bought everything they had on sale for under a pound. That is a lot of movies, and I was subsequently banned from buying any more movies before I had watched them all and I have mainly stuck to this, but it is also a great incentive to watch these cinematographic gems.

Dhongee looked interesting as it had Farida Jalal in it, in what I presumed was a non-maternal role. I was wrong:


But, at least she isn't an adult's mother.

She plays Geeta, a young woman living with her brother Anand (Randhir Kapoor) and in love with Rajit. Rajit's father demands dowry, but Anand doesn't have the money. He has, however, his own love interes, Neelima (Neetu Singh). On his way back from his failed visit to the last resort for getting money he has an accident and a body is identified as his. Anand isn't dead (I think I would have been more surprised if he actually had died) and he is nursed back to health by a Nepalese gardener (or something along those lines). When he is recovered enough to go back home, he is just in time to watch his sister getting married to Rajit. This was made possible with the money from his life insurance, so he decides that it is his duty as a responsible older brother to stay disappeared. Charming, considering he left behind a grieving girl-friend. Up until this point the movie seemed entirely normal, not terribly exciting, maybe even a bit dull, though there was the occassional odd choice in tie:



Anand decides to retire to Nepal, so the authorities won't find him. And this is when things start to go slightly weird. First, if I wanted to leave the country quietly and not draw attention to myself, clearly, this is my perfect choice of clothing:





Secondly, Anand is greeted at the airport as Mr. John and treated with great respect. Apparently, these people mistake him for a great Don. The viewer learns fairly soon that this is a ploy by the real Mr. John to have Anand arrested, so he can continue to be evil in peace, and make more forged currency. Mr. John has a rather impressive lair with a fairly awsome door:



and also some wallpaper which isn't good for the eyes:



There is much fighting and intrigue (Anand's family winds up in Nepal, too), and a long lost father turns up about three quarters into the movie, much to my puzzlement, but the main fun was watching Anand's impressive collection of Nepalese headgear:





It is colour-coordination:


The songs are okay, but not amazing, though one suggests that there may have been a sale of streetlamps going on close by:



and there is a long song in which Anand confronts the real Mr. John, who somehow fails to be threatening in this get-up:





And this happens in the middle of the final fight (having a lunch break, advertising cabbage, your guess is as good as mine)



Was this fun to watch? Yes.

Would I recommend it? Only if you have nothing better to watch. Especially the first half is not very exciting. There is no need to avoid it, and the second half is at least funny, if mainly unintentionally.

Dil hai betaab (1993)

Dil hai betaab stars a very young Ajay Devgan, He plays one (Ajay) of three men interested in the same girl, Meena. He was the first, and though her parents were not opposed to the match, her father's greed led him to agree to a marriage proposal with the son of a richer family, Raja (Vivke Mushram), with whom she falls in love. However, when an even richer, and very unpleasant young man, Vikram, played by Monesh Bhel shows interest in her, her father breaks the engagement so she can mary into an even richer family. To everybody's great surprise the young lovers aren't all that happy about this development and much fighting and pleading follows. The parents include all my favourites (Reema Lagoo, Anjana Mumtaz, Alok Nath and Kader Khan). Kader Khan plays the greedy father, and he does a very good job as you never lose sympathy for him completely although he makes some pretty disastrous decisions.

It is really not that bad a movie, just very predictable, and some things make even less sense than you would expect, like the very rich boys father dying sometime around the middle of the movie, but we are never told this, you have to deduce it from the garland now draped over his picture (and the fact that he is never seen again). It does not help that the guy playing Raja, the one which does all the running around trees and parasols, doesn't seem all that charismatic to me. There is one happy love song with Ajay and one drunk song featuring him (as it is de rigeur for a man unhappily in love to become completely plastered) and one of the strangest weddings I have seen so far, involving, as it does, a shooting halfway through the ceremony. Oh, and one of the minor characters gets a gratuitous speedo scene.

Very stylish opening credits:



I never thought I would call Ajay Devgan cute, but cute he is:


My advise, try and do something about the interior decoration:
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I am sorry, but no amount of soft focus will enable me to generate any interest in you:


Ooooh, symbolic handshakes:




More symbolism:



I think he might be unhappily in love:




The speedo scene (why, there really was no need):


and vintage lightning:

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: