Posts tagged ‘good Hindi movie’

  |   Newer Entries »
September 16, 2008

Sachaa Jhutha (1970)

Manmohan Desai directing, Rajesh Khanna in a double role (for which he won the Filmfare Best Actor award) with beautiful Mumtaz opposite, plus Kumari Naaz (one of my favorite actresses), a co-starring dog, and Vinod Khanna! Believe me when I say I jumped through hoops to get my hands on a working DVD of this movie. Shame on you, Shemaroo! *shakes fist in their general direction* [Begin rant: Why do they not check master DVDs before duping them a million times, why? How hard can it be? End rant.] Thank goodness for BEI.

In any case, I DID jump through hoops because…well, read the first sentence again. Was it worth it? Read on!

read more »

Posted in Hindi movies | 42 Comments »

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
July 27, 2008

Chori Mera Kaam (1975)

I was positively filled with glee when I saw this DVD. Shashi! Pran! Zeenat! Dadamoni! Thievery! Mid-70s! I was not disappointed. Truly fabulous funky music from Kalyanji Anandji adds to the fun. And in one of those “only in Hindi movies” coincidences, Anwar Hussein from Aaya Toofan was in this too. I can’t even count the times when I’ve noticed an actor in a film, and then he or she shows up in the next ten films I watch.

read more »

Posted in Hindi movies | 35 Comments »

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
June 6, 2008

Kati Patang (1970)

I do so love to drag out Hindi films that I watched early on in my obsession with them. Just this week over at The Post-Punk Cinema Club, I learned from Bollyviewer that:

“[Sharmilee] was actually based on a novel by Gulshan Nanda who was a sort of Hindi equivalent of Danielle Steele and Harlequin romances in 60’s and 70’s.”

When I looked up Gulshan Nanda on imdb, I discovered that he was responsible for the stories and screenplays of some of my favorite films, including Jugnu, Jheel Ke Us Paar, Ajanabee, Joshila and Kati Patang. I always was a sucker for Harlequins (how embarrassing). Anyway, it seemed like a good reason to revisit this, so here we go!

read more »

Posted in Hindi movies | 54 Comments »

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
May 25, 2008

Humayun (1945)

This bloodthirsty Mughal historical directed by Mehboob Khan is replete with bristling mustaches, glaring eyes and more talk of swords, vengeance and honor than you can shake a stick at. The sets and costumes are sumptuous, and the histrionics entertaining, if somewhat theatrical and drawn out at times.

Cecil B DeMille apparently wrote in a letter to Mehboob Khan that this film was “a masterpiece of lighting composition.” It is, it is! And Nargis was only sixteen when she starred in it; it was her third film as an adult.

read more »

Posted in Hindi movies | 20 Comments »

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
May 17, 2008

Preetam (1971)

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.

read more »

Posted in Excellent Use of Helen, Hindi movies, Yahoo! Shammi! | 10 Comments »

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
March 17, 2008

Qurbani (1980)

qurbani_mouche.jpg

Ah, testosterone. It pours out like a river from the screen during Qurbani. One fistfight leads to another, and another, and another. Punctuating the fisticuffs are doses of male bonding and declarations of undying friendship. Also many many (not necessarily testosterone-related) Poor Decisions are made.

read more »

Posted in Hindi movies | 31 Comments »

Tags: , , , , , , , ,
March 8, 2008

Nastik (1954)

nastik_dekhtere.jpg

Let me begin by saying that I loved this film, although it did lose some momentum and direction towards the end. It is essentially a movie about faith (or the lack thereof: nastik = atheist), and unusually for a Hindi movie (at least in my limited experience), contains a fairly strong condemnation of the hypocrisy in organized religion. Comedian IS Johar both wrote and directed the film, and has a supporting role. A strikingly young and handsome Ajit stars alongside the beautiful Nalini Jaywant—who looks a lot like Nargis, and is absolutely wonderful as Rama, the moral center of the story. The real star of the show, though, is the sublime music by Chitalkar Ramchandra (a severely underrated music director in my opinion) with lyrics by the great lyricist and poet Kavi Pradeep.

read more »

Posted in Hindi movies | 29 Comments »

Tags: , , , , ,
February 1, 2008

Shikar (1968)

shikar_yum.jpg

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.

read more »

Posted in Excellent Use of Helen, Hindi movies | 7 Comments »

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
August 7, 2007

Parichay (1972)

I’ve recently had myself a little Gulzar festival. I started with Koshish two weeks ago, and continued with Palkon Ki Chhaon Mein (directed by Gulzar’s assistant Mr. Meraj) and Parichay this weekend. All three movies are sweet, simple, wholesome entertainment. I have a few more of his movies in my stack to watch (and he’s still working!) but it’s time for another post for the two or three people who read this blog.

Parichay is The Sound of Music meets Hindi cinema, with Pran as Captain Von Trapp and Jeetendra as Maria Ravi the tutor hired to tame five wayward children. Pran is actually the children’s grandfather in this Indianized version, who was alienated from his son (Sanjeev Kumar) but took in the children when his son died. He gives a very good performance as a man whose rigid pride and code of ethics has caused a lot of suffering, to himself most of all.

He doesn’t exactly bond with the children:

parichay_zoo.jpg

read more »

Posted in Hindi movies | 27 Comments »

Tags: , , , , , , , ,
June 28, 2007

Rajnigandha (1974)

First off —- aaaaaarrrrrrgggghhhhhh! Hindi movie subtitles make me crazy sometimes, the way they randomly appear and disappear just when you need them most. In this case, the *most important line* of the film was lost to me. I have no clue what happened at the end (or more accurately, WHY what happened at the end happened). All I know is that Deepa was happy and there were subtitles:

deepa happy

Then she became sad and disturbed, and the subtitles were gone:

sad deepa

I do know that on the way there I enjoyed sumptuous 1970’s era fashions and general grooviness*…

navin_glasses.jpg

and nostalgic views of Bombay and Delhi. Amol Palekar was sweet, Vidya Sinha and Ranjita Thakur very beautiful (in spite of it being the 70s, and who among us can say that)…and the story slow as molasses. I don’t know why, but I just need more action in my films. But it was a trip back in time for sure.

And if anyone reading this can explain the end to me, I will be most grateful.

*Sunglasses so huge they would completely engulf poor little Nicole Ritchie’s head

website statistics

Posted in Hindi movies | 31 Comments »

Tags: , , , , , , ,
  |   Newer Entries »