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.”
Some of you noticed that I disappeared for a while (it was only a week!). I have been in Panama, visiting one of my dearest and oldest friends, Greg. He moved there four years ago with his partner (who is from Ecuador and Panama) and it was way past time to see his not-that-new-anymore home. Being a textile junkie I knew about the exquisitely embroidered molas made by the Kuna Indian women, but I confess that I didn’t know what else to expect from Panama except that it would likely be hot and there is a big canal there.
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.
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?
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.
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!
Except for the fact that we are supposed to get two inches of snow today, spring is in the air and I decided it was time for a new look.
Hope it works for you!
The supernatural and horror genres don’t attract me much, although the Indian versions are more interesting than mainstream Hollywood’s—usually because they are pretty low-budget and not at all scary, and chock-full of WTF-ery. I do love a good (or bad) snake movie, however, so when I saw this one directed by someone I am curious about—BR Ishara—I decided to give it a whirl. The few early 1970s film magazines that I have refer to Ishara’s work as “bold” with undertones of “sleazy” implicated in every other line. I know that he made a film considered quite radical for its time called Chetna, which is sadly not available anywhere that I can find, and that he eventually married the beautiful heroine of that film, Rehana Sultan, whose promising career was seemingly hampered by her willingness to push the envelope in films of a certain reputation, undeserved or not.
I was pleasantly surprised by this no-holds-barred launch vehicle for producer-director Kishore Sahu’s daughter Naina, although possibly not for the reasons he intended. It is a colorful and melodramatic soap opera of the first order, and the actors are given full scope for expressing every emotion from despair to…well, utter despair. Rarely have I enjoyed other people’s anguish so much. It is also surprisingly progressive, especially for a star daughter’s debut: she gets pregnant while unmarried, and is eventually accepted by the townspeople as a single mother! There’s even a little plug in favor of sex education.
Plus the music is superb: in addition to some pretty love songs are two Helen numbers (and she has a sizable role) and a picnic with everyone doing the twist! Happy, happy.
I had to let my beloved little dog go yesterday. She was my baby, my friend, my devoted companion, the other heartbeat in our home. She was always up for anything I wanted her to do, and she brought more love and friendship and joy to my life in our eleven years together than I ever imagined possible. I miss her sweet face and gallant nature unbearably right now, but I am so fortunate to have had every single minute I spent with her.
Rest in peace, my beautiful girl.
MemsaabStory 