Take Two: Movies We Love

Starting this month, Desicritics begins a new series about the movies we love the most - the old and the fabulous. Silent-era mythologies, Mills and Boon remakes, ghost stories with men in shredded gorilla suits, masala entertainers and those crazy, disco-happy years of the 1980s: this is Take Two.

Aditi Nadkarni :Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron (1983)
I have always felt that humor, when well done and garnished with a tempering dash of realism, is quite a rare delicacy in Hindi cinema. I chose Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron as my pick of the pre-1990 Hindi film era, because, I believe, it is the only film that successfully exercised black comedy, a sub-genre of films deemed very difficult to actualize, considering the severity and high sensitivity associated with social issues in India.

Released in 1983, 'Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron' explores the shadiness that plagued and continues to plague, bureaucracy in India. Naseeruddin Shah and Ravi Baswani play two journalists caught in the thick fog of corruption when they attempt to make some quick bucks by taking pictures around Bombay and working for a daily newspaper.

No matter how many times I watch this film, the concluding scene still appeals to my sense of humor, to say the least. This one scene went on to become the inspiration for the plot of the Hollywood comedy, A Weekend At Bernie's.

The very original storyline by Ranjit Kapoor, Satish Kaushik, Sudhir Mishra and direction by Kundan Shah, keeps the audience on their toes and engineers raw suspense into the whimsical drama. The cast, made of supremely talented theatre artists such as Naseeruddin Shah, Ravi Baswani, Bhakti Barve, Om Puri, Satish Shah, Neena Gupta and Pankaj Kapoor, brought to Indian film history well-executed comic timing, never before witnessed in the history of Hindi film satire.

A poignant social issue wrapped in the lighter folds of well-devised humor characterized Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron not only with a solid core of sensibility but also with the transparent wings of sublimity giving flight to this timeless cult classic.

Beth Watkins: Parvarish (1977)
Preface: this piece contains a lot of hyphens. This movie is so great that I had to piece together new words to describe it properly.

Really, the question to ask is what don't I love about Parvarish? Nothing. It's got everything a person could want from a 1977 Bollywood film - especially if said person also has a fondness for James Bond movies, because Parvarish even has a super-duper drive-up dancing girl-filled villain

It more than exceeds its Recommended Masala Allowance of comedy, romance, family drama, action, mistaken identities, and even a dash of patriotism too. It has feisty heroines (Neetu Singh and Shabana Azmi), smugglers (Vinod Khanna, Amjad Khan, Kader Khan, and Tom Alter) who use a school for the blind as their front, police officers (Amitabh Bachchan and Shammi Kapoor), a promise to a dying mother, thefts, lies, a tongue-in-cheek love song, drug-filled toys, disguises, a cuckoo-clock watch, diamonds, a qawwali with guns as the stage set, a vintage white Mustang, and the silliest-looking submarines you will ever see on film.

I've really been enjoying 60 and 70s films lately, so it was hard for me to choose just one to write about here. Jewel Thief, Chupke Chupke, and especially Shaan were all in the running.

The edge Parvarish has over Shaan is flawless, all-in performances from everyone involved. While I dearly love Shashi Kapoor, his performance there has nothing on Vinod Khanna's, who smirks and struts his way through this movie in a way that seduces you into loving his bad-boy brother just as much as Amitabh's dutiful policeman's son.

Maybe even more noteworthy are the female lead characters, who actually do more than simper and look pretty. They have their own needs and their own mission against the bad guy, and they work independently to fill them. They have plenty of personality on their own, which makes their relationships with our hero brothers even more satisfying, much more like real partnerships than romances. They may need saving from encroaching spike-lined walls in the lair, but so do Amitabh and Vinod.

Viewers who want mushy romance will not find it here, but I think having women who make decisions and take action is worth the trade-off.

The story, while nothing new, is engaging and fun, galloping along among its elements at just the right pace. It has its silly moments, but it never topples over into a ridiculous mess. Unlike director Manmohan Desai's Amar Akbar Anthony, released in the same year, Parvarish never even hints at taking itself seriously; that said, it does touch on questions of nature vs. nurture, personal choice, revenge, responsibility, relationships, and metaphorical blindness.

Amrita Rajan: Bandini (1963)
Nearly fifty years have passed since Bimal Roy made Bandini, the story of a woman crossed in love who ultimately finds herself in prison, convicted of murdering her lover's wife. And I have yet to see a movie to surpass it. Here are the top ten reasons why Bandini is my all time favorite:

1. Nutan as a prison inmate whose imprisonment within the high walls of the jail is secondary to the barriers she has erected between herself and her feelings.


2. The story by Jarasandha (Charuchandra Chakraborty) and its brilliant adaptation to screen by M. Ghosh with dialogues by Pandit Satyadev Dubey.


3. The cinematography by Kamal Bose with camera work by Chinu Shah and edited by Madhu Prabhavalkar. The startling luminosity and clarity of plot in this film is pure genius.


4. Nutan as the carefree, naïve young village maiden tumbling head over heels in love with the fascinating stranger in their midst.


5. The father-daughter dynamic which never slips into the usual trap of weepy sentimentality espoused by Bollywood even when she breaks her father's heart.


6. The music of SD Burman. This is one of those rare soundtracks in which every song is pure magic. They're a visual treat too - the open skies of Mora Gora Ang, the cage-like bars of O Panchhi Pyare, the quiet desolation of the prison yard in Ab Ke Baras...


7. Lyrics by Shailendra and Gulzar. This was Gulzar's debut album and he wrote just one song for it: Mora Gora Ang Lai Le. Everybody should be so lucky with their first effort!


8. Ashok Kumar as the worldly-wise freedom fighter who turns Kalyani's world upside down. Never in a million years would I have thought of Dadamuni as sexy but he made my little heart go pitter-patter as he flirts outrageously with Nutan.


9. Dharmendra as the dishy young doctor. He oozed dependability and quiet strength in this movie.


10. The man behind it all: Bimal Roy.

DesiGirl: Mouna Ragam (1986)
'Mr.Chandramouli! Mr.Chandramouli!'
To me, and possibly many others, this is the first thing that comes to mind, when we think of the movie Mouna Ragam. That name and Karthik's actions are embedded in my mind and are totally unforgettable.

Arguably one of Mani Ratnam's best efforts, Mouna Ragam is a classic example of Mani's work, a simple tale well told.

Revathy is a regular, young middle-class woman who's quite content to maintain the status quo of her life. But when her parents decide to get her married off to someone they deem as a 'good boy', she rebels by staying out all evening on the day the 'boy' is visiting her house to 'see' her. After a spot of singing and dancing in the rain, she finally saunters in quite late, full of glee of having outwitted her parents. She gets the shock of her life when she finds the 'boy', Mohan, still sitting there, patiently awaiting her arrival.

Furious with herself, she decides to go for broke and confesses to Mohan her aversion to the whole arranged set-up, even passing some disparaging comments about herself to help him along. When he hears the same words he was rehearsing, Mohan changes his mind and his feelings about arranged marriage and agrees to marry her.

Off they go to Delhi, a stone-faced Revathy determined to get away from her marriage as soon as possible. She shuns Mohan and his attempts to get to know her. To celebrate their first month together, he buys her some beautiful anklets. But she prefers an annulment and off they go to a lawyer to start the proceedings. The shocked lawyer tells them that they have to give their marriage a shot at least for a year before the courts can call it off.

Thus starts Revathy's sentence - or so she thinks. When asked why she hates him so, she tells Mohan of the boy she loved. The happy-go-lucky, rowdy Karthik with a zest for life and a hair trigger temper, which frequently results in local fights and altercations with the police. But slowly and surely, the love of a good woman decides his fate for him and he makes his mind to turn over a new leaf. Knowing her parents would not allow their union, Revathy and Karthik decide to get married in secret. As she's waiting in front of the Registrar's office, Karthik runs up the steps later than he promised - but is shot dead by mistake, by the police.

When it becomes clear to Mohan that it is the ghost of a past boyfriend that is standing in between them, he decides to step back and lets his wife have her head. They lead separate lives within the four walls of their house, counting the days till the year runs out and they can be legally separated. But slowly, Revathy starts to understand her husband and unbeknown to her, falls in love with him, little by little. How they sort their feelings for each other and end up together is a story beautifully woven by the director.

The music for the movie is by none other than the Maestro himself, Ilaiyaraja. It has been so long since I actually listened to the songs but I still remember the tunes of every single one of them. My favourite of all of them is the slow Manram Vandha, where the haunting quality of the music seems somehow echoed in the movement of the car, as Mohan and Revathy drive on. The melodious Nilave Vaa is another good number, sung beautifully by SPB. All the songs in the movie are hummable and even after more than a decade; I can still remember the words and the tunes of the songs. You cannot ask for more, can you?

This is Karthik's best performance ever, I think. Under Mani's skilful guidance, he curbs his tendency to overact and turns out a beautiful rendition of a rowdy young man, who changes his life willy-nilly after falling in love.

Revathy, as always, plays her role to perfection. She is such a fantastic artiste, with the most expressive eyes and one immediately empathizes with her, first with her aversion to the arranged marriage, then her feelings for the boy she loved and lost, her initial anti feelings towards the husband foisted on her, her impish nature as she teaches her Punjabi neighbor naughty Tamil words under the guise of 'helping' him and finally, the growing love in her for the man she married. A superb portrayal by a consummate actress.

Mohan has never been a favourite of mine - I never felt this was a man who could act but this once, he proved me wrong by playing the role of a patient husband beautifully.

The movie tackles a subject that, funnily enough, still holds our culture and society in sway - that of arranged vs. love marriages. In a deeper level, the movie also deals with the difficulties involved in sustaining any relationship and the gentle strands of love that slowly bind people together; even without them realizing it. It is an utterly romantic story and Mani has told it superbly. A must-see movie for any good movie buff.

Sakshi Juneja: Chaalbaaz (1989)
Thursday night I had the opportunity to watch one of my favorite old Bollywood flicks on Zee Premiere.

My all time favorite actress, the South Indian siren Sridevi, who is undoubtedly one of the finest actresses to hit the big screen. I can watch any of her movies time and again and as a kid had most of her dialogues on the tip of my tongue. This once again tempted me to go through Chaalbaaz all over again.

Chaalbaaz was a hit film directed by Pankaj Parashar, starring Sunny Deol, Rajnikanth, Anupam Kher, Rohini Hattangadi, Shakti Kapoor and Sridevi doing the double role of Anju and Manju. The original plot was adapted from the old Hema Malini flick Seeta Aur Geeta but the remake was way better than the original version. Maybe Farhan Akhtar should have taken note.

The story line of Chaalbaaz was no different than many other Hindi movies, with the double role concept but it still exerted the hatke factor. Anju and Manju (Sridevi) were separated at birth thanks to their mentally unstable nanny. An evil uncle Tribhuvan (Anupam Kher) gets their parents killed in a car accident. He brings up Anju as a shy, frightened girl and Manju who was taken away by the nanny, grows up in a basti as a carefree bar dancer cum tapoori gal.

Anju, growing up with Tribhuvan and Amba (Rohini Hattangadi) is constantly faced with physical and emotional abuse. The uncle and aunt are solely interested in her inherited wealth and hence make sure she is drugged and dependant on them all the time. This part of the movie does get quite tense at times due to the gut-wrenching horror cast upon poor Anju, specially the scenes where she is injected and beaten up black and blue.

But then again it's nothing compared to the violence in current movies

Amongst all the agony Anju is tasked with the housework and prevented from pursuing her dancing hobby, the movie introduces her look-alike, the bindaas Manju. It's funny to see her fighting scenes with hideous looking men, having her way with them no matter what and making sure she is fed free beer at all times. Manju's friend here is the quiet, soft-spoken Jaggu (Rajnikanth), which of course as the movie unfolds is the lead pair with Anju who eventually runs away from home after a rape attempt by Balma (Shakti Kapoor), Amba's nephew.

Suraj (Sunny Deol) a rich brat and son of Tribhuvan's friend Vishwannath (Saeed Jaffrey) meets Manju in a bar and even pays for her drink as she is forever kangaal. Love at first sight and here comes the chartbuster song Naa Jaane Kahan Se Aayi Hai.

Sridevi looks great in the song and dances amazingly well to Saroj Khan's choreographed hip-swirling jhatkas. Her facial expressions, drunken gait and comic timing are perfect with a capital P.

The real drama starts when Suraj saves Anju from some robbers and by the time Anju is once again on the run, Manju arrives. Manju flags down a car for Suraj as he is badly hurt; the man in the car is Tribhuvan and he thinks Manju as Anju. He nicely takes her back home and she teaches both Balma and her uncle a good lesson. It's hilarious to see the sudden shock and torture that the family goes through due to Manju.

The added entertainment was the role of 'Balma' played by Shakti Kapoor. He was hilarious in most parts with his paan habit, his oiled chapat hair and specially the way he pronounced "Balmaaaa" and the ever-popular dialogue "Mein chota sa, nanha sa, pyara sa, Balma hoon" ("I'm the small, baby, adorable Balma").

On the other hand, we had Rohini Hattangadi; her vampish hair-dos and loud colored costumes render an extra spice to the movie. The nonsensical comedy in the song "Socha Tha Kya" has me in splits every bloody time!

A guest appearance by comedy king Kader Khan is one of the main highlights of the film. His comic scene with apna Balma is in all probability one of the best scenes in the history of Hindi cinema.

Chaalbaaz being an 80s film does have technical flaws which are quite tolerable. It portrays both sides of the female nature. One being the subtle, hardworking, disciplined woman and the opposite which is the bold, no-nonsense, strong willed one. One of the very few films where an actress plays the central lead and enjoys maximum footage whereas her male co-stars are served just as side-dishes.

On the whole it's a complete entertainer and a must have DVD for all Bollywood enthusiasts.

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Tell us which films you liked growing up and why they rocked.