Roopesh Kumar | MemsaabStory

March 23, 2016

Lalkar (1972)

lalkar

The film’s title is actually Lalkar (The Challenge) but I never did figure out what the Challenge was, other than getting through the Comic Side Plot interruptions and tepid romantic interludes which kept intruding on the otherwise fun espionage plot. Rajendra Kumar and Mala Sinha get top billing, so I was hoping to collect some Nahiiin Face additions for the Gallery but they were fairly restrained. They are supported by a stellar cast of character actors led by the inestimable Shyam Kumar as the eye-patch wearing Japanese villain, Dharmendra at his peak, saucy Kum Kum, some really special special effects, and a host of small details that made it eminently watchable.

Posted in Hindi movies | 29 Comments »

September 23, 2011

Loafer (1973)

How much do I adore this film? Let me count the ways! 1) Dharmendra; 2) Mumtaz; 3) everybody else in it—wah! what a cast; 4) the gorgeous songs; 5) the fine ultra-masala plot; 6) Dharmendra’s chaddies; 7) the props and sets, including my new obsession the Egyptian Room; 8) the best use of Indian Movie Balloons and (possibly) Padma Khanna EVER; 9) Mumtaz’s outfits and Spare Hair; 10) no Comic Side Plot to speak of; 11) wooden gora extras; and 12) everything else I haven’t mentioned. Everything.

Posted in Hindi movies | 76 Comments »

Tags: A Bhimsingh, Anand Bakshi, Anil Dhawan, Dharmendra, Farida Jalal, Faryal, Keshto Mukherjee, KN Singh, Laxmikant Pyarelal, Memsaab's favorites, Mumtaz, Om Prakash, Padma Khanna, Premnath, Raj Mehra, Raju Kumar, Rani, Roopesh Kumar, the Egyptian Room

November 9, 2010

Chacha Bhatija (1977)

Regular readers here know that by and large I adore Manmohan Desai and his films and can mostly forgive him for anything except Ganga Jamuna Saraswati. It has long been my great sorrow that two of his movies, Shararat and this one, are not available with subtitles. Manmohan Desai’s complicated plotting has always seemed daunting without them and though I have had both films for a long time I never quite had the courage to watch them. So imagine my great joy when I finally sat down with this one and (despite no doubt missing many nuances) could actually follow what was going on. There is a lot going on!

As is usual for him, he sets up the many characters and plot threads masterfully. Creating a web of relationships torn apart by misunderstandings and loss, he carries us along breathlessly rooting for our protagonists to *just stop already* missing each other by mere inches and find their way back to the lives they should be leading. As is also usual for him, the last 45 minutes or so go completely and a tad disappointingly off the rails into Crazy-land, taking the focus away from the pure emotional joy of the reunion(s), but never mind.

I still love this film.

Posted in Hindi movies | 51 Comments »

Tags: Dev Kumar, Dharmendra, Durga Khote, Hema Malini, Hercules, Indrani Mukherjee, Jeevan, Keshto Mukherjee, Laxmikant Pyarelal, Manmohan Desai, masala goodness, Randhir Kapoor, Rehman, Roopesh Kumar, Sonia Sahni, Tun Tun, Yogeeta Bali

September 14, 2010

Andaz (1971)

It’s time to return to beloved Shammi: my eyes have been roving of late (Chandramohan, Shyam, the Shash)—but they will always come back to my favorite! One of my goals for this blog is to write about all his movies that I can find and comprehend (i.e. with subtitles). This is one I haven’t watched in a very long time despite remembering it as a wonderfully romantic story which I enjoyed very much. And I love Shammi in this film; he shows a subdued maturity that is really appealing without losing the Melt Factor that I so adore in him. And although Hema is obviously much younger (she is so gorgeous in this), her character has a gravity that makes it work. The kids are not as annoying as they might be either, especially Master Alankar as Hema’s really cute son Deepu. Baby Gauri—Shammi’s daughter Munni—is a hilarious little monkey, if a little *too* spoiled rotten at times.

Posted in Hindi movies, Yahoo! Shammi! | 112 Comments »

Tags: Abhi Bhattacharya, Achala Sachdev, Ajit, Aruna Irani, Baby Gauri, David, Hema Malini, Master Alankar, Raj Kishore, Rajesh Khanna, Ramesh Sippy, Randhawa, Roopesh Kumar, Shammi Kapoor, Shankar Jaikishan, Simi Garewal, Sonia Sahni

August 9, 2010

Hum Paanch (1980)

(Which shall henceforth be known to me as Hum PUNCH.)

I guess I should begin by talking about the really interesting cast of this film: Shabana Azmi, Naseeruddin Shah, Raj Babbar, Amrish Puri, Mithun Chakraborty, Deepti Naval, Sanjeev Kumar, AK Hangal and Kanhaiyalal. Crazy!! My eyes got wider and wider as the credits rolled by. Halfway into the film I scribbled on my notepad: I love this movie! And I did! It was thought-provoking, interesting, sensitively handled, well-acted and gorgeously photographed on location in Karnataka.

But then it went off the rails, combining revenge masala with religion-mythology in a recipe which I am certain my father would tell my mother to go ahead and throw away. Thoughtful became jingoistic, interesting turned to predictable and cliched, sensitive handling and good acting were tossed out the window in favor of bulging eyeballs and sequinned jumpsuits. What a shame!

Posted in Hindi movies | 50 Comments »

Tags: AK Hangal, Amrish Puri, Aruna Irani, Bapu, Curse of the Second Half, Deepti Naval, Dulari, Gita Siddharth, Gulshan Grover, Kanhaiyalal, Laxmikant Pyarelal, Mithun Chakraborty, Naseeruddin Shah, Raj Babbar, Roopesh Kumar, Sanjeev Kumar, Shabana Azmi, SP Balasubramaniam, Uday Chandra

March 21, 2010

Zinda Dil (1975)

About the only thing this dreadful movie has going for it is the Bizarro World subtitles—subtitles so strange but enthusiastic that I pictured a crowd of manic little elves shouting and arguing about the best word or phrase to use, none of which probably made any sense, let alone the one they finally settled upon. But I thank Bhagwan above for the weird subs, because there was not much else to like.

I confess that I have never shared the fervent Rishi love that so many of my fellow Hindi film lovers do, although I do pretty much adore Noughties Rishi who has stolen the show in films like Hum Tum, Luck By Chance and Chintuji. He stars here with his real-life lady love Neetu Singh (whom I DO totally share the appreciation for usually) and my recent acquaintance Zahira, with Pran as his military father figure Major Sharma. The story is an exercise in dysfunctional parenting with lots of overacting (Roopesh Kumar I am looking at YOU) and that sacrificial-lamb theme that I so despise, although at least this time it’s mostly the men who wallow in stupid pointless suffering: equal opportunity martyrdom is the order of the day.

Posted in Hindi movies | 52 Comments »

Tags: Avoid yaar!, execrable Hindi movie, I watch crappy movies so you don't have to, IS Johar, Laxmikant Pyarelal, Neetu Singh, Pinchoo Kapoor, Pran, Raj Mehra, Rishi Kapoor, Roopesh Kumar, Sarla Yeolekar, Seriously don't watch this, Sikandar Khanna, Zahira

November 22, 2009

Main Wohi Hoon (1966)

A filmi noir murder mystery starring the lovely Kumkum and the even lovelier (to my eyes) Feroz Khan, with fantastic music by Usha Khanna: how could it possibly go wrong? Well, here’s one way: our hero and heroine are squeezed into the plot around IS Johar, who uses the story as an excuse to don various silly (and occasionally racist) costumes and play the fool. Don’t get me wrong, I love the man—but it is kind of a waste of Feroz and Kum Kum. Also, the script is a total mess.

Posted in Hindi movies | 33 Comments »

Tags: A Shamshir, Bela Bose, Feroz Khan, filmi noir, IS Johar, Kum Kum, Madan Puri, Murad, Roopesh Kumar, Usha Khanna

July 22, 2009

Choron Ka Chor (1970)

Although made in 1970, this film was clearly shot on a shoestring 1950’s budget by one of my favorite B-movie directors, Mohammed Hussain. It features a very carelessly put-together plot in the hands of a very beefy (some more uncharitable than I might call him paunchy) Dara Singh and his pals Bhagwan and Agha, who are actually very funny—yes, the Comic Side Plot entertains! Opposite Dara is the very lovely Shabnam, and they are supported by the goodness that is Madan Puri and Shetty as bad people. The songs by Dattaram are very lovely too. It shares a lot of quirky Hussain characteristics with the fab CID 909, although it’s a bit more muddled and not quite as much fun. It does make an adequate alternative for a rainy day’s watching if you’re in the mood for wacky nicknames and silly disguises and don’t need much of a story.

Posted in Hindi movies | 26 Comments »

Tags: Agha, Bhagwan, Dara Singh, Dattaram, Indira Bansal, Jayshree T, Madan Puri, Master Ripple, Meena T, Mohd Hussain, okay Hindi movie, Roopesh Kumar, Shabnam, Shetty

May 31, 2009

Red Rose (1980)

A genre that I haven’t explored much (and by “much” I mean “at all”) in Hindi cinema is that of the horror film. This is not surprising since I dislike being scared, and even the cheesiest of devices employed by the worst directors can cause me several sleepless nights. Examples of movies that have terrified the bejesus out of me include Frankenstein: The True Story (1973) and The Hills Have Eyes (1977), and I don’t even want to discuss the ramifications of Jaws on my hygiene in 1975.

But if I’m going to call myself a true connoisseur of Hindi film (and I really really want to!) then I clearly need to suck it up; and since Suhan offered to hold my hand (via an online watchalong) I decided that Rajesh Khanna’s foray into the genre would be a good place for me to start.

Posted in Hindi movies | 87 Comments »

Tags: Aruna Irani, Hindi horror film, Om Shivpuri, Padmini Kapila, Poonam Dhillon, Rajesh Khanna, Roopesh Kumar, Satyendra Kapoor

May 21, 2009

Sharafat (1970)

When a movie opens with yet another poor woman forced to give up her husband for the sake of his family’s honor and material wealth, leaving her and their baby nothing to fall back on but prostitution, I usually think: Oh No No No No.

But I love this film. It’s one I can watch over and over just for the beauty of Dharmendra alone. He is at his best around this time in my opinion, and it is one of his first films with a very young and pretty Hema Malini. But beyond that, it has a good, nicely-paced script (punctuated though it is with a completely superfluous and tiresome CSP) which culminates in a satisfyingly emotional way (in other words, I cried); although I must confess to some ambivalence about the overall message (more on that towards the end). Plus: absolutely lovely songs by Laxmikant Pyarelal and lots of dancing from Hema!

Posted in Hindi movies | 27 Comments »

Tags: Ashok Kumar, Dharmendra, Hema Malini, Indrani Mukherjee, Jagdeep, Laxmikant Pyarelal, Roopesh Kumar, Sonia Sahni, Sunder, Tun Tun

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