Tere Ghar Ke Samne - Light and Enjoyable - time and again!!

Tere Ghar Ke Samne is a black & white movie from 1962 or 63. It is one of my all time favorite movies.

Dev Anand & Nutan make an AMAZING leading pair in this movie! Both of them look very good individually and they look great together. Dev Anand was 40 years old when he made this movie, but he looks much younger. I wish there were more men looking that good at 40!! Nutan looks really nice and plays her role skillfully. She was anyway one of the best (if not THE best) actresses to ever act in Hindi movies.  She is so natural in serious as well as light roles, like Tere Ghar Ke Samne.

Apart from the leading pair, there is Om Prakash, playing Dev Anand's father. Again a really good actor - especially in comic roles. And this is a comic role where the actor does not have to behave like a joker, like many other Hindi movies. And there is Harindranath Chattopadhyay, another wonderful actor playing Nutan's father.  Om Prakash and Harindranath Chattopadhyay have considerable footage in the movie and they make their roles so enjoyable to watch. Rajendranath is also there; and for a change he has a good role; he does not have to be a total loser or a joker or an idiot, like many of his other roles.

The story is very simple. Rakesh (Dev Anand)'s father and Sulekha (Nutan)'s father are rival businessmen. Both of them buy plots of land opposite to each other in a government auction. Each of them wants to build a house on the new plot. Rakesh is an architect who is recommended to Sulekha's family as the best architect. So he takes on that assignment  wihtout being aware of the rivalry. And obviously, his father too wants him to be the architect for his house.  For both the houses he has same instructions from the 2 fathers - "Our house has to be bigger and better than the one being build on the neighbouring plot". He can't give up his father's assignment. And by the time he finds out about the rivalry, he is in love with Sulekha and does not want to give up that assignment either. So he is hiding the information that he is the architect for both the houses. Also, both the houses are being made to the same design since both like exactly the same design from many he makes.
Rakesh finally tells Sulekha who he is, and though she gets angry first, he manages to convince her of his love. They want to get married but now they need to convince their parents and get them to forget their rivalry. This is the basic plot.

The music is very good and though all the songs are good, I especially like Dil Ka bhanwar Kare Pukar, Yeh Tanhaai hai re hai, Tere Ghar Ke samne and Tu Kahan - Sung by Mohd. Rafi & Lata Manageshkar!! Great songs to listen to again and again. They have been directed and picturized amazingly well. And Dev Anand & Nutan make these songs worth watching again and again and again.... Each of these songs has a very unique feel and mood. In Tu Kahan, you can almost feel the night, the cold weather....  In Yeh Tanhaai hai re hai, Nutan is so playful and lovely. The picturization of Tere Ghar Ke Samne is so creative - Dev Anand is in a bar, drinking, and he starts seeing Nutan in the liquid in the glass. Lovely song, with amazing expressions from both of them. And my most favourite song of the movie - Dil Ka Bhanwar. This is one of the best ever picturized songs in Hindi movies, sung by one and only Mohd. Rafi. No one BUT no one else could have sung this song so beautifully. Even the scene leading to this song is just wonderful. Dev Anand & Nutan are climbing the Kutub, flirting with each other. The dialogs are really good and delivered wonderfully. Followed by this most amazingly romantic song! I think this is the best part of the movie...

 The movie keeps its comic tone till amost the end. The dialogs are good and apt. The cast is perfect!! The director is Vijay Anand and direction is not just good but brilliant in places.  Everytime I watch this movie, I realize how much I like it.
I only get annoyed with it towards the end. I think it gets too dragged out towards the end. I find it especially irriating when Dev Anand starts singing standing between the two newly constructed houses.
But the movie is mostly over by then. And its anyway only last 10 mins or so. The rest of the movie is just too good to be discouraged because of the last 10 mins...

So watch this movie. And specifically for -

• Dev Anand - Looking very handsome and is perfect for this romantic role in a musical comedy.
• Nutan - Her expressions!! And change of expressions. Her timing. Everything about her acting. Looks really good opposite DEv Anand.
• Om Prakas & Harindranath Chattopadhyay - they both are outstanding!!
• The music - simply wonderful
• Picturization of songs - Wonderful!
• Romantic scenes between the lead pair
• Comic scenes
• The tone of the movie

Sikandar - A movie that many tended to use as the benchmark

Sikandar was made in 1941. That is 70 years ago. In fact it released the same year Orson Welles’s “Citizen Kane” was released in America. “Citizen Kane” is often considered the greatest movie of all time by many. It is always on the list of top 100 that different portals and magazines and channels in America keep coming up with. I watched that a few years back and just didn’t understand why it is considered to be such a great movie. Maybe it has something to do with not having the right cultural information or background.

Sikander, was another movie praised by many of my father’s generation. My father himself is a big fan of this movie. Anytime I said some actor looked good or handsome, he would tell me how handsome Prithviraj Kapoor looked in  Sikandar. Having been disappointed with “Citizen Kane”, I expected to be disappointed by Sikandar; at least to some extent.  And I had seen Prithviraj Kapoor only an old person – in “Mughal-E-Azam”, in “Kal Aaj Aur Kal” etc.  I did like him in “Kal, Aaaj Aur Kal”, but not in “Mughal-E-Azam”. In fact I didn’t like “Mughal-E-Azam” at all. But that’s a different topics altogether.

So I was watching Siakndar, expecting to be disappointed. But I wanted to see it so that next time when my father told me about it, I could say, “I have seen it and I don’t think its good at all”. And now you know what is coming, right? I was completely surprised by this movie. The print was not very good, and still I could see and feel the magic.

 I can just imagine the kind of storm it must have created in 1941! Pritviraj Kapoor does look very handsome. He also looks very well built and muscular. And he looks so young and charming; he has a wonderful smile. Yes, I could understand why he would be considered the benchmark to measure all other actors who came after him in terms of physic and handsomeness.

Vanmala who plays Rukhsana, Alexander’s Iranian lover and is the heroine of the movie was another surprise. I had seen her earlier in a Marathi movie (“Shamchi Aaai”) as the ever-suffering, non-complaining, too good to be true mother of Sham (Sane Guruji). It was so difficult to believe that this girl, who was so playful and young and lively, was actually her.

The movie is a great epic, with some wonderful scenes of the army; the cavalry charging out. It has really powerful dialogs. And in 1941, they must have had such an impact! I even liked the songs. Especially “Jindagi Hai Pyar Se” and “Sawan Ke Din Aaye Re”.

I think people who like to explore, people who like to see different kind of movies, will definitely like it. If you pick this movie to watch, watch it for the following things –

·        Prithviraj Kapoor – looks really good as Alexander! (I don’t know if Alexander was this handsome and well built)

·        Vanmala – big surprise as Rukhsana J

·        Sohrab Modi – as the King Puru

·        The scenes of big army, the cavalry riding out

·        The costumes & art direction

·        The powerful dialogs – and their patriotic appeal. Imagine people hearing these in 1941.

·        The songs – the feel they give

·        Overall the direction and the flow of the movie