May 17, 2008
The title screens are pretty cheerful, with hearts and rainbows and whatnot. The opening scene is not. But before I get started on that, this is another Bhappi Sonie produced-and-directed film, and one of the last of the Shammi-starrers (as hero). He is *sigh* aging and bloated—but I still adore him!
There’s plenty else to love, too. The songs by Shankar Jaikishan are marvellous, including what I think is one of Helen’s finest numbers EVER. And that’s saying something! There’s a very young Vinod Khanna, Mehmood in a Cleopatra wig, sparkling and gorgeous Leena Chandavarkar, and some good subtitle mischief to boot.
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Posted in Excellent Use of Helen, Hindi movies, Yahoo! Shammi! |
10 Comments »
May 9, 2008
Bhappi Sonie is one of my favorite directors (Ek Phool Char Kante, Janwar, Brahmchari, Tum Haseen Main Jawan…wah!) and this film stars Dharmendra with Vyjayanthimala, Helen, Pran and Mehmood! It also contains one of my all-time favorite songs “Dekha Hai Teri Aankhon Mein” by Shankar Jaikishan. I searched high and low for it for several years and finally got my grubby little hands on copy that worked. Happy happy joy joy! Unless you hate fabulous songs, a great cast and a riveting story with lots of twists, you will love this movie.
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Posted in Excellent Use of Helen, Hindi movies |
19 Comments »
March 12, 2008
Today I am going to stray from my usual format for discussing movies. I can’t offer a synopsis of the story, since it was nonsensical and bewildering and I lost the thread about halfway through. The closest I could come would be to say that it’s “The Love Boat” meets every cheesy spy movie/tv show ever made.
But I present this argument: a coherent plot is not always necessary. Despite the lack of one, this film had entertaining goodies a-plenty.
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Posted in Excellent Use of Helen, Hindi movies |
30 Comments »
February 1, 2008
Set in a jungle estate, this is a fun movie mystery with bountiful clues and plenty of suspects to go around. What really makes it work though is the stellar cast: Dharmendra and Asha Parekh star along with Sanjeev Kumar—he won the Filmfare Best Supporting Actor award for it. They are also supported by Johnny Walker, Manmohan and Rehman—and my favorite girl Helen who gets two dances and a substantial role in the film! The songs by Shankar-Jaikishan are wonderful, and the dancing superb.
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Posted in Excellent Use of Helen, Hindi movies |
7 Comments »
November 10, 2007
Despite the DVD cover showing Deb Mukherjee and Alka looking young and beautiful, their romance is only half of the plot. The other half revolves around Ashok Kumar’s character, the principal of a college named Vidyanand. This is not a bad thing! it’s a nice drama about keeping one’s integrity and lofty ideals intact even in the face of injustice. There’s also a rich-vs-poor subtext which starts out strong but doesn’t really go anywhere. The very very best things about the film are the marvelous songs by Laxmikant-Pyarelal, including two Helen numbers, and—Deb Mukherjee! I did not see that coming, I confess.
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Posted in Excellent Use of Helen, Hindi movies |
15 Comments »
September 24, 2007
This film’s positives are the great songs by Shankar-Jaikishan, the choreography, the filmi noir set decoration, and the Helen-Pran chemistry. Gumnaam is familiar to western audiences because the film Ghost World used its first song (“Jaan Pehchaan Ho”) in a scene. This song kicks off the journey into a crazy world where bouffant hair meets men in dresses; giant Easter Island statues with glowing red eyes compete with Helen for your attention; and a killer on the loose stalks his terrified victims. The drawbacks include a patchy and nonsensical plot, and Nanda and Manoj Kumar as the lead pair (Shammi and Asha Parekh would have been so much better!), but this is nitpicking when compared to the pluses.
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Posted in Excellent Use of Helen, Hindi movies |
48 Comments »
September 9, 2007
She doesn’t need any other name. Every Hindi film fan knows her simply as Helen. She shook her groove thing onscreen through 3 decades of cinema, before bowing out as gracefully as she shimmied in.
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Posted in Excellent Use of Helen, Hindi film history, Hindi movies |
18 Comments »
MemsaabStory 