Tumsa Nahin Dekha! – Shammi Kapoor all the way....

This was Shammi Kapoor’s first hit movie and the first movie that was really his style. It seemed like the role was written with him in mind, but originally Dev Anand was supposed to play the lead. Shammi Kapoor only got the movie because Dev Anand walked out. Lets all thank Dev Anand for walking out of this movie, shall we??  This movie brought the energetic, exuberant, fun style to Hindi movies, which then led to swinging sixties. Sixties were dominated by Shammi Kapoor and his style, and this movie is where it all started… Thus historically this movie is very important – it changed the face of the Hindi movies forever… And Shammi made this movie so completely his, that it is difficult to imagine anyone else playing the lead.

This is a must watch for all Shammi Kapoor fans. This is also a must watch for all the people who loved 60s and then 70s movies – this movie, I think is the one that set the ball rolling…

(For the plot of the movie, please refer to the earlier post – “Plot of the movie and other things”)

The movie is high on coincidences and low on logic – more than an average Hindi movie. Sardar Rajpal (erstwhile  Gopal) goes “far away” to Assam after he ends up killing a man, leaving his wife and a small son behind. When he gives an advertisement for his wife using her pet name some twenty plus years later, in a city which is just an overnight journey away from his place, in name of Rajpal (a name not known to anyone from his earlier life), not just his wife but his enemy sees the advertisement and knows his identity right away!! So now, basically not just his wife but his enemy too has moved and is in a city which is just an overnight journey away from him. What a coincident!! Whats more, even police read this ad and decide that there is something fishy about the whole thing!! Oh come on!! Really??!!!  Police reading an advertisement and deciding to go after that person to find out more? Don’t they have any real cases to solve???

Then when a thief steals Shankar’s (hero’s) clothes and the letter his mother gave him to give to Sardar Rajpal, falls out and guess who finds it? The bad guy, of course! That letter makes it easy for him to go to Sardar Rajpal and pretend to be his son.

The movie also has “tribal people” – the Hindi movie, zinga lala variety tribals…

And this movie was released in 1957 – and maybe it was made a year or two earlier – but in the movie, Shankar keeps referring to a war and he being in Burma in the war. Which war was that? Wasn’t the Second World War over in 1945? At least 10 years prior to when this movie was made?

And yet, this is such a wonderful movie!  Its said that this movie was made for Ameeta, and she is quite cute in the movie. But it was a perfect launch pad (or re-launch pad) for Shammi Kapoor and he made this movie a lot of fun.  He looks very young and very handsome.  The comic timing is very good throughout the movie. The supporting star cast too is good and Pran as the bad guy is very cool & smart.


Music is simply superb; there are six songs, all of them have a very strong Shammi Kapoor stamp; and each one is a real treat.


Jawaniya yeh mast mast bin piye – this is sung in such a soft voice by Mohd. Rafi. And this is one song, that even though it’s a Shammi Kapoor song, I find that it’s a much better song, just to listen to, rather than seeing the video… I somehow get bored looking at so many of the girls just frolicking around. :-)

Yuh to hamne lakh haseen dekhe hai – It’s a fun song in the tonga –the way Shammi can make it so energetic in that confined space of a tonga, is just amazing; the way he starts signing to the coachman instead of Ameeta at one point; or the thing he does with his eyes when Ameeta flicks him on his head is just so lovable.

Aye hai door se – this is a song where Shammi is pretending to be an old man, a shayar… If I have to pick my least favorite song of the movie, this is it.

Chhup ne wale samane aa – This is a beautiful dance number. I love the gentle rhythm of the whole song and how everything seems to move to that rhythm. Even the way the song ends – with all the tribal girls in a line behind Shammi, he as well as all the girls moving so gently to the rhythm. Just superb!

Dekh Kasam se – Oh, this is another lovely song. And both of them are really wonderful in this. And the chemistry is….

Sar par topi laal – this is another dance song. Its obvious in this song that Ameeta was not much of a dancer, and that Shammi definitely could dance. He knew how to move to the rhythm, how to act in the songs that was to the rhythm…

What should one watch the movie for? Shammi Kapoor and the songs….

Plot of the movie - and other things…

Hero’s parents separate in his childhood, the hero lives with the “poor” parent (or  the parent could be middleclass but basically has lot less money than the other parent) not having met the rich parent in all the years since his parents parted ways in his childhood/infancy.  The rich parent is close to the heroine, who has grown up to be a very smart, firebrand of a girl. Then the bad guy comes along and meets the rich parent “by chance”, pretending to be the son that the rich parent has hoped to meet some day. Now the rich parent wants the heroine to marry the “bad guy” thinking he is his/her son, but in the meantime the heroine has gone and fallen in love with the hero – the real son and heir to all the “jaidaad” of the rich parent. The rich parent believes the hero to be the “fraud” till proven otherwise at the end. Then the “bad guy” either tries to kidnap the heroine (or some such), once its become obvious that he is not the real son but the bad guy; the hero then has to fight the bad guy and save the heroine. And of course the hero’s parents then get together and give their blessings to hero-heroine – who then sing away in the sunset….

From this plot, can you guess the movie? If you thought of “Tumsa Nahin Dekha ” (starring Shammi Kapoor & Ameeta - 1957) , you are absolutely right!! But if you thought of “Dil Deke Dekho” (starring Shammi Kapoor & Asha Parekh - 1959) you are right too!! Oh and of course, you are also right if you guessed it to be “Phir Wohi Dil laya hoon” (starring Joy Mukherjee & Asha Parekh - 1963) … And maybe there are some others that would come to your mind, and you would still be correct.  The basic plot of all the three movies I mentioned is the same.(All three are Nasir Hussain movies) And yet, each movie managed to be seen as “different” and managed to be a hit.

Of course there are some variations in the basic plots itself –

In “Tumsa nahin dekha” Hero’s father ends up killing someone and so runs away, leaving his wife and small son. The father then goes and lives in Assam under a different name, buys land there and makes a lot of money; he adopts a girl, who grows up to be the heroine.

In “Dil Deke Dekho” Hero’s father suspecting his wife of being unfaithful to him, leaves her, taking their small son with him. In this movie, it’s the hero’s mother who is very rich – she has many estates. The heroine is a family friend’s daughter, whom the hero’s mother sends to London to study.

In “Phir Wahi Dil Laya Hoon”, hero’s father throws his wife suspecting her to be of “bad character”. She then arranges for her son to be kidnapped from her husband.  The heroine is the family doctor’s daughter and her father dies in an accident leaving her all alone and so hero’s father brings her up.

But the movies seem different from each other because of many other factors too – the locations, the buildup, personality of the actors in those specific movies, the chemistry between the lead pair, the other characters in the movie (though 2 of these have Pran playing the “bad guy” – the pretend son, two of these movies also have Rajender nath playing the heroine’s would be husband, before the pretend son makes an appearance), the music and song situations – the overall feel becomes quite different with these variations. The music is good in each of these movies and must have been one of the reasons for these becoming such big hits.

But I think a big reason for these movies to do well was that the audiences loved the fun factor that was a big part of these movies – in fact good part of the movie was really hero trying various things to win the heroine over. People loved to see the hero- heroine sing and dance with abundance. They loved to see them having fun while falling in love with each other. So one does wonder, how important is the basic plot to the overall feel of the movie and the enjoyment one can get out of it… These movies and their music is as enjoyable today. You don’t watch the movie just for the plot – you anyway know the plot when you are watching it the second time. But you can watch these movies again and again and listen to the music time and again.

With these movies, the idea was not to tell a very profound story or give an important and serious message. And while there are some wonderful movies from this period that did those things too, the serious and meaningful message of a particular time, many times is relevant only in that time period and many years later, those issues and messages do not seem as meaningful. And however good a very serious and profound movie is, you can’t watch it again and again like the fun movies. And these fun movies are the ones that remain timeless and are as watchable today as they were then.

Basant – Shammi Kapoor & Nutan!! This could have been so magical…

So I watched this movie from 1960, only because Nutan is my all-time favorite actress and Shammi Kappor is my all-time favorite actor. I didn’t expect much from the film. The movie is not very cohesive, but some of the scenes are well done. Overall, the movie is not great, but the lead pair is wonderful, especially in the first part of the movie. And they are very good together. In parts, you feel that they are having a lot of fun working together. There are scenes that I felt maybe they just made up – like the scene where two of them are walking down the road and she tells him that she has got something stuck in her teeth. Hard to believe that was part of the script. It felt like the two of them just decided to have some fun…

The basic story of the movie is same as that of Chori-Chori (or “Dil hai ke manta nahin”). Meenakshi (Nutan) is the only daughter of a rich father. Her father is against her marrying Rajesh (Pran) who she is in love with. Her father is taking her away from Bombay (where Rajesh is) to Calcutta by train. In the night, she runs away to go to Rajesh. While she is making her way from somewhere on the Bombay-Calcutta rail line, to Bombay, she meets Aseem (Shammi Kapoor), and falls in love with him. In the meantime, her father, out of desperation meets Rajesh and agrees to let Meenakshi marry him. But when she comes back, she no longer wants to marry Rajesh because she is in love with Aseem. To test their love for each other, Aseem and Meenakshi part deciding to meet after a month.

Beyond this point, the story is different – and seems to go completely haywire…. Aseem meets a rich man who asks him to go to Kamroop in Assam where he has to deliver a very expensive necklace. Rajesh sends his man to kill Aseem, who attacks Aseem, leaves him unconscious (though not dead) but manages to bring “proof” that he is dead to Rajesh, who presents it to Meenakshi. Things go all wrong for Meenakshi, her father dies, she becomes paralyzed and on Rajesh’s insistence (who she has come to trust thanks to the way he has made things look), agrees to marry him. And many other complicated things later, everything works out for the best in the end…

Oh, did I mention that Johny Walker is also there throughout the movie? And of course he is a great comedian and some of his scenes are also really good, he also has 3 songs… but overall his role is too patchy and contrived in parts.

But like I said, Nutan and Shammi Kapoor are wonderful together. First half of the movie, though not cohesive is a collection of some enjoyable and fun scenes. There are 4 lovely songs picturized on the two of them –

1. Raasate me ik haseen
2. Mere lehenge me ghungaroo
3. Naino me suraj ki kirane
4. Chori chori ik ishaara ho gaya hai

Now, Nutan is no dancer, but she is such a wonderful actress, that she carries the dances off really well. And like in the scenes, in the songs you get the feeling that two of them are really having fun.

Oh and, you discover that this is the origin of some of the ideas and scenes in “Dil Hai ke Manta Nahin”. Like how Nutan dresses up as a fisher woman and sings and dances when she runs away from her father and the police are looking for her. Or how Shammi runs after the thief who runs away with Nutan’s bag and she has no idea. Or like the fight they have as “husband” and “wife” to mislead the police…

If you are a Nutan fan or a Shammi Kapoor fan, do watch this movie – they both are really good in this – they look great, act well and have a lot of fun together… If you like both of them, the in spite of its second half, it’s a must watch for the first half… Watch if for the two of them – for the scenes that these two do so well – and some very good melodies and see how well songs can be done – both of them were real “song” experts too.

But I could not help feeling disappointed with the movie. Feeling that this could have been such a magical movie...

Sujata – A beautiful movie that talked about a societal problem; A lovely love story too….

Sujata was made in 1959 and has a strong storyline – about an untouchable girl, who is adopted by a Brahmin family, though very reluctantly. 

All the characters are very real and sketched very lovingly. There are really no bad people or villains in the movie. The villain is the custom of treating people as untouchables – the custom which had become such a strong belief that even good people find it extremely difficult to move away from it.

Sujata comes to the Brahmin couple, Upendra & Charu on the first birthday of their daughter Rama, as an orphan, when both her parents die in an epidemic. Upendra & Charu keep her reluctantly and decide to find someone from her cast as soon as possible to hand her over to. When a person of her cast is found, they refuse to hand Sujata over to him because he is a drunkard and a useless slob. So Sujata stays with the family. They take her along with them, when XYZ gets transferred. The maid in the house is the one taking care of Sujata, not Charu. But slowly, both Upendra and Charu get more and more attached to Sujata. Once again, when she is a child of about 6-7, they try to send her to an orphanage. But both of them find it difficult to send her, and in the end she grows up at their place.

Sujata and Rama are close. They are like sisters, with Sujata treating Rama as her younger sister. But there are differences – Rama goes to college to study, Sujata does not. Rama plays badminton and piano while Sujata is busy in housework and gardening. Sujata is aware that she is not Upendra & Charu’s daughter because she has heard them say “She is like our daughter” many times, but she does not know that she is an untouchable.

For Charu the biggest blow is delivered by Adhir, the person she hopes would like Rama and marry her. He instead falls in love with Sujata, and wants to marry her, even after he finds out that she is actually an untouchable. His grandmother too finds it almost impossible that her grandson is willing to leave her to marry an untouchable. In the end, she accepts her defeat and quite gracefully.

The movie is directed so well – but then it’s a Bimal Roy movie. Even when you don’t agree with the character’s point of view, like Adhir’s grandmother when she is trying to stop him from marrying Sujata, you can actually feel her pain too. All her beliefs that she lived by all her life are being turned upside down by the one person she loves the most.

The movie has a good pace throughout. It does get rather melodramatic in the end, but its for a short while only.

Music is melodious. Two most famous songs from this movie are – “Ore Manjhi” sung by S.D. Burman himself and “Jalte Hai jis ke liye” sung by Talat Mehmood. In the movie Adhir sings this to Sujata on phone.

Everyone has acted  well – Tarun Bose & Sulochana as Sujata’s adoptive parents are very good. Their growing attachment for the untouchable girl and their turmoil is well presented. Lalita Pawar as Adhir’s grandmother is wonderful! Shashikala as Rama is really lovely and charming. Rama’s character itself is lovely – she is not jealous about the fact that Adhir is interested in Sujata instead of her. Sunil Dutt as Adhir is just right for the role! He looks very handsome and sensitive. His role too is very good - a strong character - someone who knows what he wants to do and is willing to go against the customs and traditions of the society.

But the movie belongs to Nutan. She is tremendous as Sujata. Sujata, who is playful with Rama, respectful with her parents and very shy with Adhir, is portrayed skillfully by Nutan. You can feem her happiness when she realizes that Adhir likes her as well as her pain when she finds out that she is untouchable. No one else could have done this role, but Nutan.

So watch this movie for –

• A beautiful presentation of a societal problem, and yet a lovely love story that it is
• Wonderful acting by everyone, but most specifically Nutan
• Great direction
• Melodious music

Sacchai – Completely avoidable – that’s the Sacchai…

Sacchai is a movie from 1968-69, starring Shammi Kapoor, Sanjeev Kumar and Sadhana. I like Sanjeev Kumar a lot, I like Sadhana too. And Shammi Kapoor is my all-time favorite actor!! The movie also stars Pran and Helen, two other people I always liked. But Sacchai is a REAL bad movie.

Long back, before all these Star & Z and Sony channels changed India, when we had only Door Darshan, Sacchai was shown on a Sunday in the weekly slot reserved for Hindi movies. But I didn’t remember anything except for 2 songs – “E dost mere maine Duniya dekhi Hai” and “Sau Baras Ki Jindagi se acche hai”. I remembered the tunes and words, but not the visuals – well I had an impression that in “Sau baras ki Jindagi” Sadhana and Shammi Kapoor are on an elephant!! But I wasn’t sure if I was remembering it quite right.
Being a Shammi Kapoor fan, I have been looking for whichever of his movies are available – in stores and on the net. I got this one after a lot of search on the web. With Shammi Kapoor and Sanjeev Kumar, I guess I expected the movie to be interesting. And then last weekend I watched this movie.

Sanjeev Kumar was a good actor, but not in Sacchai – in Sacchai he over acts!! I wouldn’t have believed it possible, if I had not seen this movie. Sadhana has very little scope to be good. She is drowned in the melodrama of the film. And Shammi Kapoor has no way to be Shammi Kapoor – he has couple of scenes where he has to be “fun” but these scenes seem forced, they do not go with the whole movie and these scenes by themselves are not good enough to make the movie anything more than what it is – a REALLY bad movie!!

As for the story, Shammi Kapoor and Sanjeev Kumar are two friends who start their lives in opposite directions – Sanjeev Kumar being an honest person and Shammi Kapoor being a crook. They part ways after college with different ideologies and decide to meet in three years and find out what has become of each other. As the story progresses, Shammi Kapoor falls in love with a girl (Sadhana, who happens to be Sanjeev Kumar’s sister but he does not this, she does not know that Shammi Kapoor is her brother’s friend and Sanjeev Kumar does not know that Shammi Kapoor and his sister are in love – this is because Sanjeev Kumar has left home and gone away because his father was a dishonest person) and then Shammi Kapoor becomes an honest person after seeing Sadhana’s mother suffer. Then he becomes a police inspector. Just like that. On the other hand, Sanjeev Kumar gets into bad company and becomes a don.
In three years when the two friends go to meet each other, Sanjeev Kumar is the biggest criminal and Shammi Kapoor is the inspector who is after the don. Both of them have vouched to kill each other. Oh did I not mention, that each of them don’t know who the other is? The name of the don is different from Sanjeev Kumar’s real name. And though he hears about an inspector “Ashok” he does not think it’s his friend with same name since his person was not honest, see? Anyway, so in true Hindi movie style, each of them goes to meet the friend singing the same song they had sung last time, when they parted ways.
And though you think the story has been happening in Mumbai all this while, suddenly they are singing in the Himalayas and running miles and miles to meet each other.  They meet and find out what the other person has become and after a real convoluted climax in which first Helen and then Pran die, Sanjeev Kumar manages to get Shammi Kapoor to kill him – and of course he dies in arms of his friend!!

There is a lot of melodrama in the film that just does not touch you. And there is no logic!! Even Hindi film logic is missing!! Songs are nothing to talk about either.

I have seen many bad movies, but this one was very painful to sit through – maybe because its really terrible to watch your favorite actor in a bad role in a bad movie.

So DON’T watch this movie. Even if you are a diehard Shammi Kapoor fan, like me, do not watch this movie. Actually, I would say especially if you are a Shammi Kapoor fan, do not watch this movie!

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