Archive for ‘Hindi movies’

November 22, 2008

Shikari (1963) Part 1

shikari

Blinding Eastman Color! To my everlasting regret, this film has not made it to DVD with subtitles yet (*now it has!*). But my friend Suhan found it on VCD with no subs and sent it to me; having seen it, I now believe that subtitles are unnecessary, although I would still like to see it nicely digitized and put on DVD (but not by Shemaroo, please). I saw (and understood) enough to tell you that it was cracktastic! And also, chock-full of plot holes and abandoned plot threads, which didn’t matter one bit.

Mostly, the visuals were so entertaining (despite the poor video quality) that I thought I’d put together another comic strip synopsis. The completely loony amalgamation of cultural references more than makes up for any lack of narrative. Plus, the songs by GS Kohli are lovely and include two dances for Helen!

All you really need to know is this: there’s an ice-skating chimp, two crazy scientists, exotic tropical jungles, spear-throwing natives, a volcano, Godzilla, King Kong, a snake pit and more; and a cast which includes Helen, Madan Puri, KN Singh, Tun Tun, Ajit and Ragini.

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November 21, 2008

Trivia time #32

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Can anyone tell me who this actress is? Her last appearance in a film was in this 1952 Prabhat production, which was made in both Marathi and Hindi—Prithviraj Kapoor starred in the Hindi version.

Hint: Even though her last stint as an actress was in 1952, she is still a household name.

Bonus points if you know the name of the film!

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November 20, 2008

Munna Bhai MBBS (2003)

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Here’s another favorite! I remember waiting for this to come out on DVD. I’d read how well it was doing in Indian theaters, I loved the story concept, and it paired Sanjay Dutt with his father Sunil Dutt, who hadn’t acted in sixteen years. I got it as soon as it was available, and I was not disappointed. In fact, I was bowled over.

This is the first Hindi film I ever saw where I actually laughed out loud and was laughing with it (I’d seen Disco Dancer and laughed too, but at it). Keep in mind that it was 2003 and I’d been watching Hindi films for less than a year; the ubiquitous Comic Side Plot still mystified me and I often felt that culturally I must be missing something that prevented me from understanding the humor. I was beginning to despair.

But this—this was a laugh-out-loud cross cultural fiesta with a squishy dilâ„¢!

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November 17, 2008

Sadhna (1958)

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I learned about two important things when I first saw this BR Chopra classic a while ago: Sahir Ludhianvi’s sublime lyrics, and Sunil Dutt’s penchant for making progressive women-centric films. He stars alongside Vyjayanthimala, who has many opportunities to show off her considerable dancing skills. She plays a nautch-girl whom Sunil’s character hires to pose as his fiancee to make his dying mother happy. She won the Filmfare (Best Actress) award for it as well, as did the story writer Mukhram Sharma.

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November 16, 2008

What do you think?

My social calendar for the past few days has been too busy for film watching, sadly. Although probably it’s good for me to get out and about occasionally so I don’t lose all my social skills.

Instead I’ve indulged in a little Photoshop-fun, greatly helped along by my friend Per-Christian’s fab cover art scans of his ginormous equally fab collection of Hindi film music albums. Thanks, PC!

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November 13, 2008

Slumdog Millionaire (2008)

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I rarely venture into movie theaters any more, being antisocial and all. Danny Boyle’s never been a favorite either: as most of you know, I like happy! not his brand of in-your-face hellishness! But when a friend offered a ticket for this one, I couldn’t resist.

It’s been winning awards at film festivals for several months now, but that’s not what drew me. I just couldn’t wait to see Anil Kapoor in a “Hollywood” movie. Of all the actors in Hindi cinema these days, he’d be one of the last I would expect to see cast in one. For one thing, he doesn’t seem interested in an international career—his son had to explain who Danny Boyle was when he was offered the film; and for another, he has not been making a lot of movies for some time now.

So did he deliver?

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November 12, 2008

Kuchhe Dhaage (1973)

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Feeling thwarted by my truncated Phaansi experience, I embarked on another dacoit saga. These films have the added bonus (for me) of engaging Gemma’s attention too (the horses); she goes absolutely nuts which is entertaining by itself. It also makes her very pleased with herself, and how can that be bad? She’s defending me against those big bad animals!

Plus, this movie is directed by Raj Khosla—one of my favorite directors—and it stars Vinod Khanna and Kabir Bedi as deadly adversaries who find redemption through their love for the same girl (the absolutely stunning Moushumi Chatterjee). One more thing about the horses: Vinod’s is a white one named Dara, and Kabir’s is a black one named Toofan. Heh.

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November 10, 2008

My ten favorite Dharmendra songs

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Everyone knows that Dharmendra is a he-man, good at fighting and drinking and other manly stuff. Luckily for us ladies, he is also good at romance. And as Jaya Bachchan has famously pointed out: he is as handsome as a Greek god. Almost all the playback singers of his time could sing realistically for him, too; he didn’t fit just one type of voice. Here are my ten favorite (so far! I still have lots more of his films to watch) Dharmendra musical moments.

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November 9, 2008

Phaansi (1978)

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Although I could not finish watching this DVD myself [begin rant: thanks to Shemaroo’s incredibly poor quality control—about half the DVDs that I get which are manufactured by Shemaroo don’t play all the way through, and I am so done with them! end rant] it had so much going for it that I’m going to write about it anyway. Shashi at his most delicious! Pran at his coolest! Heartbreak and romance and thrills!

Maybe one of my all-knowing readers can enlighten me as to the ending (although I can probably guess).

It inspired in me a name for this type of film: dacoit-drama. Get it? Daku-drama? Okay, sorry. But up until it dissolved into random pixels it was a highly entertaining movie.

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November 8, 2008

Rustom-E-Hind (1965)

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I have to admit that I didn’t expect much from this movie, although I wanted to see it for Helen, Laxmi Chhaya and Madhumati dancing, and Mumtaz as the heroine opposite Dara Singh. Also: KN Singh! and lots of men in tights (as per usual for a Dara Singh starrer). However, it turned out to be an excellent fairy tale of a film, with a coherent plot, a truly detestable villain, and even a semi-bearable comic side plot thanks to Mohan Choti and Tun Tun. The dances did not disappoint either; the music by Hansraj Behl is lovely and Laxmi Chhaya’s number in particular is now one of my all-time favorites.

Oodles of fun!

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