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! |
8 Comments »
May 11, 2008
Anita might be a good film. The only thing is: the SUBTITLES! SUCKED!! They came on five-ten seconds after the dialogue or scene had ended; sometimes flashed so briefly that there was no way to read them; and very often there were large gaps where single words would just show up occasionally. Because the story was fairly complex (a murder/suicide/reincarnation/multiple personality/ghost story) I had a headache in no time.
And I became distracted by mostly irrelevant details (as you will see). Luckily there were plenty of irrelevant details to entertain, but still. As I said—I think properly understood, this might be a good film. I wish I knew for sure. The music is certainly delightful!
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Posted in Hindi movies |
47 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 »
October 13, 2007
Okay!
I managed recently to fill in a few gaps in my Shammi collection, including this film, which is quite enjoyable and even takes a stab at women’s rights issues (although there is no happy ending for a woman who breaks the rules, as usual).
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Posted in Hindi movies, Yahoo! Shammi! |
6 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 |
47 Comments »
MemsaabStory 