Asli Naqli - The faceoff with life

Hrishida - the creator of happy movies

To say that Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s movies are both entertaining and charming, is an understatement. He can combine the quintessence of home, feel of a city, values of family, romance of two individuals and a quiet suspense all thrown in a wonderful plot. He has the masterly talent of showing  thought, charm and joie de vivre to help us think and live through his movies. Like a companion for life, Hrishida’s movies stay with us always.

Asli Naqli 

Asli Naqli made in 1962 was a memorable movie starring Dev Anand and Sadhna. In the movie, Anand played by Dev Anand is a rich man’s grandson. Unlike a rich, pompous baron he is a man who thinks and contemplates on his existence, questioning his everyday life and of the golden cage he lives in. Lying on a velvety chaise with a shining glass of whisky from a ludicrous bar of his drawing room which has his photo on a silver frame, Anand is dazzled but is aware of his hollow life.

 This cognizant and discerning nature of Anand provokes a series of arguments with his grandpa in the following days with regard to a marriage deal for better business and managing the vast property. Anand runs away from home. 

Mansion vs Mohalla

He ends up meeting Mohan who takes him to his home which is in an impoverished locality. Mohan’s sister and friends welcome him with open arms and in their limited means they share their home. The stark difference of not just the status in living and conditions of Anand's past and his new residence is apparent but also the independent, carefree spirit of Mohan’s family and neighbors is juxtaposed with Anand’s overbearing, withdrawn Grandpa, dry with money and rank only. 

The romance

Anand soon meets Renu and the innocence of the two good humans bring them closer to each other. Renu’s mother is unaware of her husband’s death and is made to believe so because Renu believes she doesn't have the mental capacity to bear it. When Anand’s grandfather learns of this, he uses it to blackmail Renu into breaking off their relationship. Sinister scheme but still innocent because it's a Hrishida movie after all!

No muscle men or cabaret dances to fool the villains here. Hrishida uses intrinsic human values to show good over hollowness. Renu’s mother displays courage and tolerance on hearing the reality of her husband and conquers Anand’s father’s evil plan. 

Happily Anands after!

Leaving on a musical note

The song ‘tujhe jeevan ki dor se’ is an everlasting song and always memorable. Every movie of Hrishida has atleast two songs which are beautifully rendered. The music, setting, homely scenes and unpretentious acting speak of his simplistic vision of life and cinema. That's why Asli Naqli remains a treasure to watch and rewatch.

Choti Si Baat 1975

My favourite movie. My best friend. My rainy day companion. How do you 'review' your best friend? What do you say to quantify the aspects of such an exceptional movie. The thought of writing about Choti Si Baat makes me dig out all the magniloquent and baronial-type words (you get it right?) just to express how much I love this film.

So those of you who haven't watched it-

- Do you exist?

- Whats wrong with you?

I'm not sorry to be rude but cinema lovers and whether or  not you love the flashy Bollywood,Choti Si Baat is a must watch. Not your formula movie, not a historical epic, no morals or message. Just a simple girl boy romance.


Duh!

So you thought the story must be a script worth winning the National award. A parallel flick with some tears,nudity or barren land. Well I respect all kinds of cinema. I appreciate the art and the creativity which comes after a lot of work, ideas and brainstorming. But every art expressed has to be kept simple. Even summarising history of the Bronze Age should be narrated in a simple ,holistic way which the recipient can enclose in the palm of his senses.

Cinema about the everyday life of people like you and me, about the feelings expressed in ordinary sense and tales of relationships are quite tough to make because of the lack of bling in them. There's a lot of thought process and careful scripting which goes in the making of such films.

In laws' torture, revenge, brothers separating, property usurped, crime etc are aspects which have an attraction value equal to the first pizza you see after a long day. Great! But not wholesome are they? I love OhDears and the tears occasionally,but its quite difficult to come across simple homely films,just as difficult it is to make homely food compared to restaurant food.

Choti Si Baat is about the awkwardness of a young man who is secretly in love with a girl. The love is reciprocated but in mutual feelings of hesitance. This is not cowardice but pure sweet confusion. A very different type of comical take on urban lifestyle,the pickle it leaves a single,unsure man in who dreams but doesn't know how to go ahead. So well played by Palekar.

I love how Basu Chatterjee carefully brings out the urban middle-class man's feelings without making fun of him for not being a defiant Angry Young Man or an outright Romantic Hero. No roses, no flashy cars and no villains ...except Asrani who is so endearing as the mock villain that right now I want to stop this blog and watch it for the 3006th time.

Also, watch it for Amol Palekar, Ashok Kumar, Khandala and old Bombay.

Half Ticket 1962

'Tumhe pyaar ki acting karni hogi.

- Acting tum karo, pyaar main karoonga'

Not a Sajid Khan movie or Rohit Shetty car crashing comedy. This is a 1962 Bollywood classic comic saga.
From never having seen a Kishore Kumar movie to Half Ticket is like being struck by a cool breeze on a hot,dry summery day. Pure,unadulterated performance. Especially when it's my first Madhubala movie.

I always assumed (Gen Y problem) that he is a singer who did acting as time pass. Watch Half Ticket and KK will make you fall of your chair/bed/floor with his antics,expressions and that never-serious face throughout the movie. Inspired (oh!) by You're Never Too Young, it's a goner one,beats every formula that Bollywood has,yet not a bird brain kinda movie.

'After all I'm the mental doctor of your whole family' is just one of the lines in this classic roller-coaster which is basically a cat and mouse game where Pran is the villian but completely overshadowed by KK's part childishness-part prankster character. There are no overt emotions and behind-the-trees romance so you can safely sit back and enjoy with your post lunch dessert which you probably wont need ! :)

Takeaway  / non-formulaic scenes

 KK prevents the vamp from checking his pocket. And this happens with the music on and them dancing. You can't decide whether to dance or laugh! So much cha-cha and ja-ja! (go go) :D

Helen in a non cabaret dance.

Pran and KK singing O sawariya, O gujariya to each other.

 

Classics are classics because they take you to a beautiful mellow time when everything was unhurried or untainted. There are glimpses of Murphy Radio, old Coca Cola,jalopies occasionally on empty Bombay streets and ofcourse the ubiquitous Parsi uncles strutting by.

Need I mention Madhubala's bone china look and splitting performance inspite KK's brilliance? We all know her and love her,dont we?

Directed by - Kalidas

Awaara

Can Awara be called  a cult movie? In many ways yes.

The movie was at a time when India was waking up to values shown in black and white,love in many shades and relationships in transparency. Its an amalgamation of every known emotion to human or rather Indians. Also depicted by actors who were stars because they could enact those emotions so brilliantly.

Its a simple formulaic film about a fatherless son who becomes a tramp and a thief but has a loyal childhood sweetheart. But sometimes formulaic films becomes popular or  a ult movie when the actors know how to emote and how to make the audience feel with them or become empathetic when the actors fall ,cry or die.

Awara was a hit in Russia and and MiddleEast. It was nominated for GrandPrize in Cannes 1953. It was so popular in Turkey that it was remade as Avare in 1964.

And thats how its with Awara. You dont just dissect a cult movie.

Kirayadar 1986

Kirayadar and Sanmanassullavarkku Samadhanam came out in 1986. The latter is a Malayalam movie on the travails of a landlord whose house is being siezed by his tenants. Kirayadar is similar but with some changes in the storyline. No, I am not here to tell you who copied from whom coz I dont care. When it comes to movies anytime before the era of Rohit Shetty,100 crore club and Sunny Leone I can bear all sequels and alarming fashions. Especially the eighties.

I dig the poster and the font for movie title. Doesnt it tell you the story in one look?

Oh comeon, go watch it. It may not have your fav stars or a Kapoor or a 'Vijay' but watch it for :

Old Bombay - travel the still uncongested Bombay streets with Raj Babbar when he tries to find his workplace. 

Eighties fashion - Watch Padmini flaunt the (Garden?) saris and churidaars of that era in her perfect figure. Speaking of who,I consider this amongst her best performances. Really,who is Babbar or rather where was he?

Utpal Dutt - perfect. old world charm

Vidya sinha - breezy as ever. No wonder the breezy Hrishikesh Mukherjee and breezier Basu Chatterjee took her in most of their breeziest movies.

Kissi Se Na Kehna 1983

The title suggests a flick with chori chupe romance ,which it is. Though without much of the mindless laughing and people falling on banana skin and the guy hiding in the to - be father-in-law's bedroom aka Chupke Chupke style. The movie rather shows some unbelievable care between an Indian father-in-law and his daughter-in-law.

I like how Utpal Dutta is almost all his movies with more or less similar role. A khudgarz father,a strict employer etc almost touching the character of a middle class Indian.Kissi Se Na Kehna is no less.

Girl and boy fall in love and want to marry. Dutt unfortuantely happens to view modern girls as victims of Western culture and who feel ashamed to speak their mother tongue. Thus he doesnt want his son to marry of their ilk. And role playing starts. Deepti has to sometimes act like a village belle and one who doesnt know English,isnt educated and is not what she is; doctor.

Its an easygoing movie mildly tempered with Deepthi's and Saaed Jaffery's performances. Shiekh hovers in the background with his gharelu persona. But you can easily call Utpal Dutt the lead of the movie because he dominates it with his personality as a proud Indian  and so called bade buzurg.

Watch it for : understanding old Indian family culture,simple middle class living or for a glimpse of village life.

Saath Saath 1982

It was a pleasant surprise to discover that the mesmerising song 'Tumko dekha to yeh khayal aaya' is from Saath Saath. I thought it was from some famous Yash Chopra flick. (you know how it is...there are certain songs you would have heard a lot but just don't know where it is from)Another undiscovered and unhyped movie from the Eighties.

I have instant love with Deepti Naval. Visit her website and hop onto earlier mag articles written about her. Its true,she isn't the typical commercial Bollywood actress of then and now. You cannot typecast her. She isn't deep as Shabana Azmi nor is she grave as Smitha Patil. Somewhere in between.

And that is why I love her movies. I personally search for her Filmography and look for her movies. Thankfully some lovely people have uploaded here and there and apun ka guzaara ho jaata hai.

The movie is about a couple who are as different as chalk and cheese. Farookh Shiekh is a stubborn,self respecting college boy and Deepti is just daddy's rich girl. She falls in love with him for his ideals and principles. An arya samaj marriage and char din ke chandni ke baad... they start to live their lives. Farookh keeps getting anxious now and then if his wife will ever be tired  of the poverty and turn into a bitch but nothing of the sort happens.

Out pops a baby and things then change. Farookh does a somersault and enters the rat race with a blind motive to earn more money. Deepti starts getting surprised as are we, at his change of behaviour.

The movie is more Deepti than Farookh. With her bubbly girl in love to mature patience as a wife is a transition that is the essence of the movie. Could have named the movie 'Aurat ka dil' or 'My great wife'. Sorry! Saath Saath is just better!

To be watched when you are nostalgic,love old Bollywood,love Deepti Naval,love Farookh Shiekh,want to see old Bombay,want to see college of old times and want to see old Neena Gupta

 

Pic courtesy - flipkart

Piya Ka Ghar 1972

When I went to Mumbai 2 yrs back,I visited my friend's friend. She was staying in a hostel room which was the size of an auto.No, I am not joking. Yes,it was actually that size. And she paid around Rs.6500 for that space! My cupboard is bigger than that....Well I live in Kerala.So you can imagine the space benchmark.

A comparison similar to this was said by Jaya Bachhan's uncle in Piya ka Ghar. He detests city people and thinks Bombay shehar theek nahi hai meri phool jaisi beti ke liye. But love brings her unsure,dainty-as-Jaya-is steps to the shehar anyways. Then it is Bombaiyya chawl life with a huge family,open windows and open hearts.A movie very subtly focusing on living space factor in Mumbai and how it affects the relationship of newly weds.

Anybody who smirks at Mumbai and its congestion,pollution and high rentals etc should see this movie. Not only will you fall in love with the old Bombay but it has a dialogue which will make you think twice about cribbing of living in Mumbai... ' Bambai walon ka ghar chota hota hai beti par dil bahut bada hota hai'

Amar Akbar Antony

Whenever I hear the name, I go Hip Hip Hurray! :D

Amazing star cast,superb jingalala songs and comedy that is 100% fresh and original. The story has provided food to so many brothers-getting-separated thingy that this is the hallmark of all formula movies in Bollywood.

Need I say more? I am so happy just writing about this movie that if there was a club for this movie I would give my hands and legs to join :) For now I think I will search for posters and scenes of this movie and put them up here.

Rating - no prize for guessing !

Below are some famous moments from the movie. The whole movie is so iconic that it is by-heart by Indians. Ain't that why they say India is all about films. Rest come later! :)

Baaton Baaton Mein

What does the name tell you about the film? Serious,funny,strategic,crime focussed? Well no prize for guessing that the movie is just about the lives of some people. Simple lives and a simple story. You don't have to think too much when you watch Baaton Baaton Mein. That doesn't mean the movie is nonsensical. Far from it everytime I watch this movie, I get new themes,understand new aspects to a character and ofcourse discover just another street of old worldly Mumbai.

So whoever loves the old streets of Mumbai, Amol Palekar, Konkani music and ofcourse to just chill with a good movie for lack-of-work-to-do should watch this heart warming movie.

Rating  :) My all time fav!