Much before I knew Raj Khosla or Sachin Dev Burman or ‘Kala Pani’ (Raj Khosla, 1958), as a child, I knew the songs ‘Hum bekhudi mein tum ko pukaare chale gaye’ (Mohammad Rafi) and ‘Accha jee main haari, chalo maan jaao na’ (Asha Bhosale, Mohammad Rafi), probably from Chhaya Geet on Doordarshan. A J Cronin’s novel ‘Beyond This Place’ has had many film and television … Continue reading Kala Pani (Raj Khosla, 1958) – justice not done
I really liked the first half of ‘Manzil’ (Mandi Burman, 1960); the romance between Raju (Dev Anand) and Pooja (Nutan) had all the innocence of first love with the physicality of young hormones at play. There are stolen kisses and romping around on the floor, and holding hands quite naturally, and lots of cuddling. The family drama with the strict, uncompromising father Mehta-Ji (K.N.Singh) doing … Continue reading Manzil (Mandi Burman, 1960) – the moon, and you and me
I wrote about ‘Shareef Badmaash’ today, then remembered that I had written about it before. It was almost exactly 3 years ago. I had pretty much the same things to say about the movie that I had back then. Two scientists spend 10 years designing a fighter plane like no other in the world. Their important research culminates in some school kid kind of drawings. … Continue reading shareef badmaash (1973) – a film that inspires 2 posts
Carmen and Seema dance at the Happy Hearts Club. (I think!) Carmen does a mean strip tease and comes down to a bikini dress. Her pelvic thrusts, her beautiful face, her bare limbs, are all inviting. Seema removes a scarf from somewhere around her waist, and one from the side of her dress. A glimpse of her thigh is all you get. She sways gently, … Continue reading shareef badmaash (1973) – icecream sizzler
‘Chhupa Rustam‘ (1973) is not one of Vijay Anand‘s best films. It seems to be a rehash of ‘Johny Mera Naam‘ (1970), a bit like the leftovers Mummy used to mash together into one gooey, brown, yucky porridge and try to convince us that it was quite tasty. Well, not really as bad as that. Because after all it does have a gorgeous young Hema … Continue reading chhupa rustam and laat saheb (1973) – 2 not so cool cats
In one of those strange coincidences that make you blabber incoherently about the nature of the universe and things like that, I was watching ‘Prem Pujari‘ one evening, and later at night I read Sue Townsend in ‘The True Confessions of Adrian Albert Mole, Margaret Hilda Roberts and Susan Lilian Townsend’, “When I told my second son that I was going to Russia he narrowed … Continue reading prem pujari (1970) – peace, love and spies
In ‘Asli Naqli‘ (Hrishikesh Mukherjee, 1962) Anand (Dev Anand), a rich businessman’s (Nasir Hussain)grandson lives a wastrel’s life, blowing up money with both hands. After a fight with his grandfather who thinks all he is good for is to marry off to another rich businessman’s daughter and consolidate a business partnership, Anand walks out of his comfortable home. In ‘Wake Up, Sid‘ (Ayan Mukerjee, 2009) … Continue reading changing times
