Maha Chor - 1976

I never did figure out if this was an intentional parody of filmi cliches, or if it was just bad. Maybe it was a badly done parody. In any case—it was bad. The story was ridiculous with gaping plot holes, too many suspension-of-disbelief requirements, and loose ends left hanging all over the place. These things alone are not a dealbreaker; but together *shakes head*…I’m not even going to try and do a synopsis.

However, there were some good things about it. This is one reason why I love Hindi movies. You can almost always find something to appreciate!

Thing #1: Manorama, and she was a hot mess. Cleopatra eyeliner! Bright red lipstick! She played Prem Chopra’s “mummy.” He had issues, and no wonder.





Thing #2: The fashion. Prem Chopra’s black and white houndstooth-checked suit, for instance. My school uniform was bottle green and white houndstooth-checked, and hideous. But at least I didn’t have huge horn-rimmed glasses. Oh, wait…yes I did. But at least I didn’t have sideburns. I didn’t!



Sartorially speaking, there were no winners. There was a lot of Victorian tiger-claw jewelry, which I always find kind of…sad. Poor tigers need their claws.



And Neetu did rock these orange bellbottoms, to be completely fair.



Thing #3: The worst wig I have EVER seen. And of course I have seen a lot of bad ones.





I mean, there wasn’t even the tiniest effort to make it look real. But everyone was apparently fooled. This is what made me think: “Parody?”

Thing #4: A child lost at a fair, who was never mentioned again, probably because losing your kids at fairs is so commonplace (again, parody?).

Plus, Protima Devi!



Thing #5: The set decoration. Disco seventies! Mirrored walls! Mirrored ceilings!



If it wasn’t the seventies, it was Arabian Nights or Renaissance Italy.





Thing #6: Some of the dialogue/subtitling was very very silly.





Things #7 and #8: Rajesh and Neetu. The Rajesh Khanna love fest continues. Although their jodi was not as fab as his with Mumtaz and hers with…well, everybody, I will never be sad to have Neetu Singh in a film and Rajesh is my new best friend. He donated blood with sunglasses and a fur hat on*:



He had a dual role as a thief and a mentally challenged thumb-sucking Prince.



Sigh. So much goodness squandered.

*An anonymous reader fills me in on this:

Rajesh Khanna donating blood with a fur cap and sun glasses on is actually a spoof on the late MGR - famous south indian actor in tamil movies and later on the Chief Minister of that state.

MGR used to sport a fur cap and dark glasses and was prone to all the usual social stunts of gathering votes from the poor like donating blood, arranging for feeding the poor etc etc

I’m beginning to think: badly done parody with good intentions

Indirani Mukherjee

Bawarchi - 1971

This Page is dedicated Hrishikesh Mukharji's Greatest Movie of all time Bawarchi.
Bawarchi ... the name did not sound that intresting till the day I saw the movie....
Well once I saw the movie ... my entire prior best movie list got re-shuffled, the movie became my all-time favorite.
It’s a typical masterpiece with Hrishi da's unique signature in it. Every scene every character has made a place in my heart forever.
The entire movie is as short as 2hrs but has it all - needed to be a must family watch able.
Movie stars stars of that era Rajesh Khanna, Jaya Badhuri, Asrani..... so on,
Every character is being acted from the actors so well that they all come out of the movie and live with you as one of you,
Whenever there is a small problem at home / at office , I am disturbed ..... I watch Bawarchi..... I laugh at myself and come to normal,
If are feeling depressed, have any problem with your family member, any problem at office with colleagues / boss,......... watch Bawarchi..... get rid of all your tensions.
Here is a brief about the story line ....
The story is centered around the squabbling Sharma family which has a dubious reputation the inability to retain a cook for more than a few months due to their ill treatment of their servants. The family's disrepute spreads to such an extent that no person wants to be employed as a cook in their home, ironically named Shanti Nivas (peaceful place).
Then one day a young man named Raghu (Rajesh Khanna) offers to work as a cook, and he is hired. Raghu quickly understands the family members' preferences and works to restore peace to Shanti Nivas, and soon the squabbles and arguments come to an end.
And then, one day, the Sharmas find the family jewels and Raghu missing.
The cast is as below,
• Rajesh Khanna ... Raghu
• Jaya Badhuri ... Krishna Khanna
• Usha Kiran ... Chotti Ma
• Harindranath Chattopadhyay ... Daduji
• A.K. Hangal ... Munna
• Durga Khote ... Badi Maa
• Asrani ... Babbu

Here goes the movie story....





BAWARCHI
1972, Hindi, approx. 2 hours

Directed by Hrishikesh Mukherjee
Produced by N. C. Sippy
Story: Tapan Sinha; Screenplay: Hrishikesh Mukherjee; Dialogues: Gulzar; Songs: Kaifi Azmi; Music: Madan Mohan; Cinematography: Jaywant Pathare; Art: Ajit Banerjee

To the often-heard middle-class Indian lament that “You can’t get good servants anymore!,” this comedy—by India’s master of the so-called “middle class” film (see notes on ALAAP)—has the answer: a talented cook and all-around handyman who appears out of the blue, gladly takes on extra and even demeaning tasks, manifests unfailing good cheer, and actually requests a salary lower than he is offered, because of “inflation” (afflicting his employers, that is!). Incidentally, he is also a soulful poet, gifted musician, enchanting storyteller, master psychologist, and—in a word—Mahatma, who takes charge of dysfunctional families and turns the petty animosities and irritations of everyday life in extended households into a succession of opportunities for the manifestation of selfless love and service. More surprisingly still, he transforms (with the help of Hrishkesh Mukherjee and his talented team) this potentially saccharine scenario into a highly original, witty, and entertaining film that truly deserves the adjective “heartwarming.”
An opening shot of a velvet curtain appears ready to serve as a backdrop for the film’s credits (as was the case in Mukherjee’s early hit ANARI), but instead, the voice of Amitabh Bachchan offers an unusual oral credit sequence, followed by a prologue introducing all the characters, of the sort spoken by the sutradhara or “director” in classical Sanskrit drama. Retired postmaster and widower Shivnath Sharma shares his comfortable but unostentatious home (ironically named “Shanti Niwas” or “Abode of Peace”) with three quarrelsome sons and their families. Ramnath (A. K. Hangal) is a deferential head clerk who nightly drowns his sorrows in cheap country liquor; his nagging wife Sita Devi (Durga Khote) suffers from gout and a martyr complex. Their daughter Meeta is an aspiring but self-centered kathak dancer. A second son Kashinath is a schoolteacher and self-important intellectual, whose wife, Shobha Devi, doesn’t get along with her sister-in-law. The youngest son Vishvanath, a.k.a. “Babloo” (Asrani) is a would-be film “music director” (i.e., composer), presently working as assistant to the composer team “Rajnikant-Nyarelal”; he affects the self-absorbed persona of the Artist—which naturally precludes helping out around the family home. The burden of housekeeping amidst the din of constant petty squabbles among all these denizens of the “Abode of Peace” falls heaviest on Krishnaa (Jaya Bhaduri), the orphaned daughter of another Sharma son who died with his wife in a car accident—especially when servants quit abruptly because they cannot bear the stormy domestic atmosphere.






This happens regularly, until one day when an amiable young man named Raghu (Rajesh Khanna) turns up, announcing that he is their new bawarchi or cook—though, as soon becomes clear, making excellent cuisine is only one of his many talents. A smooth talker who claims to have worked for a whole galaxy of eminent personalities, acquiring knowledge and skills from each, Raghu is initially distrusted by the Sharma sons, who fear that he might be a conman (one is rumored to be working the area), but they are soon won over by his effusive attentions to their needs, his magical skills in the kitchen, and his overall take-charge attitude—represented by his habit of exuberantly concluding pronouncements with a mock trumpet-fanfare: “Taa-ta-raah!” (a Khanna-ism that quickly entered popular speech).

With peace, happiness, and timely meals restored to the household, it is only a matter of time until the hapless Ramnath gets a promotion at work, the feuding wives become as close as sisters, and shy daughter Krishnaa wins a dance competition (beating out the arrogant Meeta by performing a piece taught her, of course, by cook Raghu). Then, just when the household seems to be living up to its name, Tragedy Strikes: the sleeping family is robbed of a wooden chest, which the eccentric patriarch had insisted on keeping under his bed, that contains their major assets in the form of old wedding jewelry. Worse still, the chief suspect is none other than the saintly—but now apparently absconded—bawarchi.





The “surprise” ending that Mukherjee abruptly tacks onto this dramatic climax may not surprise attentive viewers; moreover, it leaves a number of plot details unexplained. No matter: the great charm of this film lies in its saucy and rapid-fire dialogue, its unpretentious mise-en-scene, and its parade of memorably-acted characters who evoke all-too-familiar types in the middle-class milieu of smaller Indian cities. Like the inhabitants of R. K. Narayan’s beloved “Malgudi” stories and novels, the denizens of Mukherjee’s world live constrained lives and have dreams to scale, yet they are viewed through a lens that manages to be at once satirical and affectionate. Shanti Niwas feels familiar and homey—from the faded bazaar “framing pictures” on its walls, to the slippery drain area in the courtyard that nobody wants to clean—and so do its inhabitants, who interact incessantly in its privacy-proof living space. Even the outspoken interventions of the bawarchi suggest the casual intrusiveness that servants often assume in Indian households, and Rajesh Khanna’s diction, gestures, and body language effectively evoke a simultaneously deferential and spirited subaltern.




As in some of his other films (e.g., GUDDI) Mukherjee pokes fun at Bombay cinematic conventions even while largely adhering to them—perhaps permitting his middle class viewers to feel intellectually superior to the “masses” who (supposedly) unreflectively accept such fare. When Babloo is stumped over a song he is composing for a DEVDAS-like sequence in which a hero sees his beloved being driven off in a bullock cart to marry another man (adding the “new twist” of having the cart driver rather than the spurned lover sing it), Raghu comes to the rescue with the lovely song Tum bin jivan (“What sort of life is it without you?”); simultaneously, the dreamy and impressionable Krishnaa “picturizes” the song in her mind, with herself as bride-to-be and her boyfriend Arun as the suffering lover—Raghu, wearing a rakish pink turban, is of course the singing cartman.






Later, during the morning raga sung by Raghu, Bhor aayee gaya andhiyara (“Dawn has come and darkness fled”)—a light classical tour-de-force which gets the entire family singing—would-be music director Babloo (who, we have been told, has “stolen countless foreign melodies,” though he has never yet crafted a hit) breaks into a guitar riff that parodies the Western-pop-influenced style of the then-prominent R. D. Burman.

Do not waste time any more .... watch Bawarchi today.

A rose by any name : Red Rose - 1980

The serial killer is the most infrequently used bogeyman in Indian films. It is a far cry from the West which has a fair share of cinematic
tributes to the lunatic fringe of murderers — Psycho, the Hannibal Lecter films, Se7en, and the Saw series.

To say nothing of some of the infamous giallo thrillers from Italy by Dario Argento and Lucio Fulci. Which is probably why Bharathi Rajaa’s Sigappu Rojakkal (Red Roses) was such a sleeper hit in 1978. It had a highly original premise and was taut and unsentimental, both rare qualities in Tamil cinema.

Besides, no one expected a slick urban thriller from Bharathi Rajaa who was known for village-themed films. For the Hindi remake, Red Rose (1980), the director (also credited with screenplay and story), roped in Rajesh Khanna and Poonam Dhillon as replacements for Kamal Hassan and Sridevi.

The plot remains unchanged. Anand (Rajesh Khanna) is a misogynistic playboy, constantly on the lookout for unattached, generally flirtatious women. He murders them after a one night stand and has them buried in a rose garden in his backyard. He unwittingly falls in love with one of his potential victims, Sharda (Poonam Dhillon playing the only ‘chaste’ woman in the film), and marries her.

But it is just a matter of time before she stumbles into his Bluebeard’s room like den, full of grisly accounts of his crimes and flees, with Anand in hot pursuit.

Red Rose/Sigappu Rojakkal was exceptionally daring. It’s suffused with an all too rare quality that only the best horror films possess — an oppressive claustrophobic intensity. It works as a grotesque parody of the mawkish conceit so common in Indian films about servants being part of the family.

A young Anand is first given employment and then adopted by Satyen Kappoo. Both Kappoo and the family gardener Shera (Om Shivpuri) are more than a little south of sanity and participate vicariously in Anand’s crimes, watching home videos taped by a hidden camera in his bedroom.

What made Red Rose better than the original was a stellar performance from Khanna. With his glory days as a romantic lead behind him, he seemed ready for total reinvention. He brought a level of lecherous malice to the role that was unprecedented — something a young and dapper Kamal Hassan could never have hoped to accomplish. The scenes where Anand flirts with Sharda are laden with a predatory creepiness that belies Khanna’s history as a melodramatic lover from films in the early 1970s.

Red Rose is layered with irony and black humour — there’s a ‘blink and you will miss it’ joke about the death of Sheela aka Chocolate (Aruna Irani); Khanna is named Anand, a sly dig at one of the star’s most affable roles — Kamal Hassan was called Dileep.

The sequences where Sharda discovers the true psychotic nature of her husband are interspersed with Anand staking out a witness at a night club with Donna Summer’s disco classic I Feel Love blaring in the background. The last half hour is particularly nightmarish. Bharathi Rajaa pulls out all the stops and throws in bizarre Argento-inspired lighting and a truly unsettling score by Bappi Lahiri.

And yet Red Rose was nowhere near as successful as Sigappu Rojakkal — perhaps Khanna’s transformation into a lady killer of a more literal variety was more than his dwindling fanbase could take. There was no redemptive arc to the story, no happily ever after ending. Yet as a psycho-thriller, Red Rose has few equals. One suspects it would retain its pre-eminence even if serial killers were a more popular subject with Indian directors.

Reviewed by:

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/2547342.cms

Films like Wafaa cannot be made. They just happen. : Wafaa - 2008 (Review - 1)

WAFAA - 2008 : Films like Wafaa cannot be made. They just happen.

For those who haven’t heard of the movie, this link (Not Safe For Work, but depends on where you work) might give you idea of what you are dealing with.

The story is about Amrit (Rajesh Khanna) and his rather young wife, Beena. The theme is similar to an Amol Palekar sleaze-fest Anaahat, which for strange reasons was hailed by the intellectual critics as a sensitive and brilliant movie, the same people who are now trashing Wafaa. Hypocrisy anyone ?

I don’t think most people got this movie. The movie is complex and multilayered and it takes more than an intelligent person to appreciate its greatness. Now for some of the points that I could comprehend given my very limited abilities compared to what this movie demands.

Firstly the lead actress, her physique is just the director’s way of promoting good health among women (and not sleaze as the pseudo-intellectuals would remark) in this age of size zero and dieting.

The film really kicks off during the first intimate scene Amrit shares with his wife when he starts exhibiting some rather strange behaviour. Initially, you assume that he suffers from a medical condition that the Indian railways and airways are immune from : early arrivals. But then you discover that it is a case of acute asthama. His repeated mention to his doctor that things were going great till recently, but have slowed down now is a hint at the world economy, not some cheap physical act.

Now you would expect Dr. Mahendra Watsa to enter as the saviour with some advice like “If you start like Sehwag, you are bound to get run out !” or “Look at your age ! You should be making love to a 60 year old woman or three 20 year olds, not one !”, but unpredictability is what makes Wafaaa great (althought not in the same league like masterpieces Gunda and Loha, but close to Jimmy).

What follows is a tale of deceit and moral grey areas, an attempt to murder Amrit by his poor wife and his return to avenge his death, which technically might not make sense to a few as he never really died, in fact he doesn’t even carry Band-Aid or Hansaplast wounds. The fact that Rajesh Khanna escapes the fall of a few thousand feet with unnoticeable injuries seemed illogical at first, but metaphorical on retrospection. For someone who has survived the fall from Anand to Wafaa, what is a few thousand feet ?

The success of a thriller is measured by how many repeat viewings it takes to understand the movie. Even by that standards, Wafaa succeeds in the hands of its director Rakesh Sawant, who by his mastery over the craft makes sure that in the first viewing, you only concentrate on one thing .. er .. make that two.

Lastly, it deals with some complex social and moral issues that can best be described to be in a grey area : What does a woman do in her situation ? What is right and what is wrong ? It is a larger question posed to comtemporary society and forces you to introspect. In this age of moral watchdogs and forceful cultural impositions, this movie assumes special significance.

The acting is top notch. Worth mentioning are Rajesh Khanna’s potrayal and some parts of the anatomy of actress Laila Khan. The music is of course brilliant, but unfortunately overshadowed in the acting department as mentioned in the previous sentence.

I can only hope that when Rajesh Khanna’s grandson Arnav grows up and tells his friends about his great grandfather (not great-grandfather), we are in a time where Wafaa would be mentioned proudly. But for now I have to conclude by saying this with a heavy heart :

Some things are best left untouched, unopened and unknown. Wafaa, Himesh Reshammiya and Mamta Banerjee are fine examples.

Reviewed by:

http://iyerdeepak.wordpress.com/2009/02/04/wafaa-movie-review/#comment-1082

Bandhan - 1969 (Review - 1)

Rajesh Khanna -- the name is like a thunderclap in Bollywood cinema. He rose to superstardom in 1969, but had all but faded by 1972 -- a blink of an eye compared to the decades long reign of many other Bollywood stars. But Rajesh razed the ground behind him, sweeping poor Shammi Kapoor, among others, out of the limelight, and sowed the seeds for the rise of Amitabh Bachchan and others in a more "action" vein. So how come I've never seen any of his movies? Honestly, it's because none of them look very interesting. Poised between the goofy charm of Shammi and the angry young Amitabh, a good looking face can only get you so far.


BANDHAN - 1969

BANDHAN is a film about the salt-of-the-earth villagers, people in desperate poverty, who have only their land and their crops for wealth. Naturally the moneylender is a feature villain, yet compared to other moneylenders, the one here is positively angelic, allowing himself to be swayed against best business practices towards compassion to the poor women of the village. But, he has a daughter, Gauri, a wild tom-boy who always gets into fights with the always righteous Dharma (Rajesh Khanna), who as a child even turned in his theiving, no-good father (Jeevan) for stealing. And when Dharma and Gauri fall in love and wish to get married, he goes through the roof. Not helping matters, Dharma's father continues to be the scum of the village, visiting the local brothel and even giving the necklace meant to be dowry for his daughter's wedding to a nautch girl (Aruna Irani, who gets a nice dance number for her troubles). By the end, it seems the two fathers will utterly destroy the two lovers rather than let them be together.

The teasing and sparring turned to love of the two main characters is both entertaining and endearing. The fathers are not played as complete villains, both are given chances for redemption. Dharma's mother (Achla Sachdev) is about the only character I have no use for, she plays the stereotypical Indian mother, without fault, defending her husband's honor because he is a God to her, even when evidence to the contrary daily appears. At last, she drives Dharma out for daring to get angry about his father's indolent ways, precipitating the climactic scenes of the film, which take place in a courtroom, filled with dramatic speeches and desperate looks. The great Sanjeev Kumar makes an appearance here as a helpful barrister, but his performance is unexceptional.

What I remember most from watching BANDHAN is not golden boy Rajesh Khanna, but rather the delightful and playful Mumtaz, wearing beautiful costumes and frolicing and dancing her way barefoot through river and field.

Reviewed by :

http://www.illuminatedlantern.com/cinema/review/archives/bandhan.php

WAFAA - 2008

‘Wafaa’ the new movie which stars Bollywood Super Star Rajesh Khanna and Pakistani actress Saana. It’s a low budget movie with a steamy story line to keep the viewers interested. The movie promo shows all different types of shades steamy beach scene, bed room scenes, Romantic songs and finally suggestive dialogues.

The movie will sure have sexual tone in the dialogues which can be seen from the videos, Super Star Rajesh khanna's decision to choose this movie to make a comeback.

The Pakistani actress in the movie is dressed too much, too shoddy in certain scenes and too less and too provocative in many scenes. The movie is directed by Rajesh Sawant. Rakesh Sawant, has in the past made skin flicks like ‘Hot Money’. Even the Censor board has cleared ‘Wafaa’ with an 'A' certificate.

Sudesh Berry as Harry: A senior Officer in Thailand. He is a dynamic and honest man. He is respected by police force and most trusted man in CBI agent - Mike.

He Love’s Guns and Women’s. He is given the task to solve a murder involving Mrs. Beena Chopra. A murder so unusual and mysterious, Will he be truthful , Do you know the one who love WAFAA.

Tinu Anand as Mike: A CBI agent at Thailand. He is an honest and righteous Man. He is a man of principals. He is always been true to his to his duty. He loves challenges. Challenges of solving mysterious of murder.

Together with his most trusted senior officer – Harry – he is about to face a usual murder and mystery of his career and do you know the one who love WAFAA.

Introducing pakistani actress Saara Khan as Beena: A 25 year old young women. She is an airhostess, beautiful, sensual and sexy. Her dreams are big. She always wanted name – fame – wealth – and status.

She is a dreamer, an achiever. An achiever to achieve she can go to any extent. Even extent to marry a man twice her age – Amit Chopra .. but … do you know the one who love WAFAA.

Plot summery : Alcoholic womanizer Shyam meets with Shanti and gets married to her.

On their wedding night, a friend of Shyam's lures Shanti away on the pretext that Shyam is hospitalized due to an accident, and takes her to a brothel, and attempts to force himself upon her.

The police raid the place, and Shanti is arrested for prostitution. Shyam comes to the jail, tells her that he is ashamed of her, disowns her and leaves.

Shanti is released from jail, as there is no evidence to hold her, and starts her search for Shyam. She soon finds out that Shyam has married again, and is living with his mom and dad.

She goes to see a lawyer, Saraswati, who agrees to represent her, and get Shyam to admit that he is married to her. When confronted with a legal notice, Shyam denies ever knowing, leave alone marrying a woman named Shanti.

Saraswati gets herself involved in obtaining proof of this marriage, and the matter is taken to court. It is there that Shanti finds out who Shyam's second wife is.

Super Star Rajesh Khanna gets cozy with young Saara: He will be seen doing lovemaking scenes with a young actress in this movie.

In this movie the sexagenarian actor playing a role of a millionaire who gets married to a sex-starved airhostess.

The girl, however, marries him not for love but for his money. Soon she is sleeping around with another man of her age. The role is played by Pakistani siren Saara Khan.

Though other senior actors might squirm at the thought of romancing a girl that’s just 20 years old, Super Star Rajesh Khanna had no such compunction.

According to him, the lovemaking scenes with the young actress are justified because they are demanded by the film’s script. Super Star Rajesh Khanna says ‘Wafaa’ is not a sex flick but a “mature love story with strange twists”.

Meanwhile, Super Star Rajesh Khanna is taking more and more acting assignments. He is learnt to have signed as many as eight movies. Super Star Rajesh Khanna as usual his acting very very superb.

Movie Title: WAFAA - 2008
Banner: True Life Production.
Language: Hindi..
Shooting: China.
Producer: Rajesh Agarwal, K K Agarwal.
Director: Rakesh Sawant.
Star Cast: Super Star Rajesh Khanna, Sudesh Berry.
Story: Salim Raza.
Audio on: Red & Yellow music.
Singers: Kalpana, Sanu, Pronali Chaliha, Mika Singh, Akruti Kakkar, Udit, Kailash, Aftab Hashmi Sabri, Hashim Sabri, Sunidhi, Rahul Vaidya, Cinematography: Yusuf Khan.


Ratings: 7/10