May 28, 2011
There is no power on earth that could stop me from watching a movie which begins like this. Raakhee as a vengeful dacoit?! Removing her bangles?! It just has to be awesome. I have a severe weakness for daku-dramas as it is, but toss in a girl gone bad (especially if it is Raakhee!) and I am even happier. Plus there are subtitles, although they are unreadable about fifty percent of the time. Female kickassery, a strong moral center and plenty of plot twists enable me to say that this film basically delivers on its promise.
read more »
Posted in Hindi movies |
49 Comments »
May 23, 2011
My mother came to stay with me for a few days last week and we watched some Hindi fillums together. She did not fall asleep during this, and it’s no mean feat for a movie to keep Mom awake through its entirety I can tell you. (She also stayed mostly awake through Chashme Buddoor and Hum Tum, although she didn’t care for Teesri Manzil, forcing me to wonder briefly if I might have been switched at birth with her real baby.)
In any case there is plenty in Hulchul to keep anybody’s eyes wide open, starting with the credits and fabulous title music (RD Burman).
read more »
Posted in Excellent Use of Helen, Hindi movies |
87 Comments »
May 16, 2011
After getting emails and comments for a while now asking about a Facebook presence, I have created a MemsaabStory page there. When I figure out how, I will link the blog and the Facebook page so that you can get updates in your feed if you “Like” the page. If you don’t want updates bombarding your wall, then ignore this. I plan to try and post some of the awesome things I stumble across occasionally or (more often) people send to me too.
I know I have been quieter than usual, there is just a lot going on right now. Hopefully I will soon get back to having no life so that I can watch movies again. Until then—see you on Facebook!
Posted in Everything else, Hindi movies |
21 Comments »
May 7, 2011
This is one of those films I watched early on and I will admit that it confused me hopelessly at the time. I did not understand the wigs, or Dharmendra’s facial tics and popping veins, or why Tariq was so manic. I was so ignorant and naive.
Now of course, although I still have questions, I know they can never be adequately answered.
read more »
Posted in Hindi movies |
113 Comments »
April 28, 2011
Rajesh Khanna makes a fabulous Tarzan Dara Singh hero in this tale of palace treachery which extols the moral superiority of animals over man, a message I wholeheartedly endorse. Zeenat Aman plays a wild jungle girl (yes, it is as hilarious as it sounds), the rightful heiress to her murdered father’s throne, who has been raised from infancy by a very maternal gorilla—by which I mean a guy in an ape suit.
Plus, Pran as Dr. Doolittle! Oh, how I love B-movies. I was fortunate to get this one from my dear friend and Rajesh devotee Suhan, who also watched it with me and filled me in on all the unsubtitled goings-on—and there is a lot going on.
read more »
Posted in Hindi movies |
52 Comments »
April 21, 2011
So, although I feel a *little* bit like a widow who has gotten remarried about a week later, I have found myself another dog. I am also pretty sure for several reasons that I’ll keep to myself (you’re welcome) that my Dad and Gemma picked her out for me. She is an 8-year-old Cavalier—the same breed and coloring as Gemma was—who has had a very difficult life at the hands of so-called “human beings.”
read more »
Posted in Hindi movies, The Memdogs |
84 Comments »
April 2, 2011
Now available with subtitles thanks to Tom and Raja!
Sometimes (well, quite often really, due to my suspect tastes) I see a film which wasn’t a hit and I say WHY, UNIVERSE, WHY? Despite the magical combination of Shammi Kapoor in his prime with Shakti Samanta directing, backup from Helen and Asha Parekh, lovely songs (Shankar Jaikishan) and an emotionally compelling and unusual plot, this movie apparently bombed at the box office and has not—until now!—even been put on a dvd with subtitles. (If you would rather just get to the download and not have to read my drivel, scroll all the way down to the end.)
It is not perfect but I found it deeply engaging and sensitive: it is largely about loss, and I think it is one of Shammi’s best performances.
read more »
Posted in Excellent Use of Helen, Hindi movies, Yahoo! Shammi! |
88 Comments »
March 31, 2011
Beauty product endorsements and actresses go back a long way…Do you think Lux can be credited with keeping Leela Chitnis beautiful into old age?
read more »
Posted in Hindi film history, Hindi movies |
44 Comments »
March 28, 2011
Nasihat double-Daras you not to like it and wins!
Sorry. My brain is addled with grief and self-pity these days and half the time I don’t know what I’m saying. Unsubtitled Dara Singh films are proving most appropriate for my powers (or lack thereof) of concentration, and a loony band of smugglers calling themselves the Golden Gang—based out of the Hotel Mogambo—being infiltrated by CID officers cannot possibly be bad, right? Right. It is, in fact, deliciously campy and entertaining even though several of the plot points escaped me (most notably the CSP which I didn’t care about anyway). What did not escape me is that there are two Daras, one Randhawa, a Helen, a Madan Puri, a faux Chinese henchman, a midget, a plethora of corpulent bald wrestlers, and a Boss with a somewhat pitiful little Desk Lair from which he issues his commands.
read more »
Posted in Hindi movies |
47 Comments »
March 25, 2011
I have no idea why it took me so long to see this; you all know how much I love a daku-drama! Dacoits are so romantic when you’re not the one they are raping and pillaging, especially when they are Dharmendra. And I loved this one too: it combines a Message with a family saga so spectacularly effed up that it’s worthy of Jerry Springer. At one point I was reduced to scribbling helplessly on my notepad: “Things could not possibly Go More Wrong than this.”
And then they did!
read more »
Posted in Hindi movies |
62 Comments »
MemsaabStory 