Saira Banu is bent on spoiling my weekend! This is the second bad movie (the last one was Pocketmaar) I watched this weekend and it again had Saira, this time paired with Joy Mukerji. There were some compensations to watching this movie though. Apart from some lovely songs it had a very young Sanjeev Kumar and a very young MacMohan - the latter was for once playing a nice character with no overtones of shadiness.
Shalini is won over by Rakesh's moneyed charm and persuades Asha to capitulate. While all this is going on, of course, Shalini and Rakesh fall in love. They sing lovely duets (Tum akele to kabhi baag mein jaaya na karo) when the villain of the piece arrives in the form of Raja Rishikesh (Shyam Chatterji). Rishikesh is a rich man with pronounced Hindutva leanings - he wont countenance anything that isn't truly "Bhaartiya Sanskriti" (Indian culture) and objects to singing and dancing in nightclubs. He is also the man who lent Shalini's late father Rs. 20,000, and now means to collect the debt by marrying her. Shalini asks her rich boyfriend for the money to free her from the debt. Rakesh has to confess that he is a poor man pretending to be rich. Shalini isnt convinced by his new poverty and thinks he doesn't love her enough to help her financially. A lot of heartbreak, emotional storms and accidents follow.
Shalini is taken to Europe by her rich cavalier who is willing to forgo Bhaartiya Sabhyata (Indian civilization) for the comforts of the decadent west. She develops a heart condition that requires immediate surgery - talk about hearts wounded by love! Rakesh's friends club together enough money to enable him to follow Shalini to Europe. Cue for emotional drama and sad songs all over Europe. The story eventually culminates in a - guess what - Bull Fight! Yup, Rakesh turns Matador to prove his love - and his love is eventually satisfied.
The movie - in common with Pocketmaar - has all the makings of an interesting story but the dialogues reduce it to a cliche-ridden blot on the cinema horizon. One has to give it an A for trying, though. Joy Mukerji and Saira Banu look beautiful and are completely wooden - in keeping with their cliched dialogues and situations. Sanjeev Kumar looks really smart and slim - hard to believe that within a decade he would look like a patriarchal figure! Funnily enough, he is billed as Sanjay in the cast. It was really fun to watch MacMohan (the cast calls him Brijmohan) do a character role and boy, can the guy dance! I dont recall ever seeing him play anything but dubious, villainous characters. The songs are plentiful and lovely. Usha Khanna's music and Rajinder Krishan's lyrics make for gems like the aforementioned Yeh jhuki jhuki jhuki, Tum akele to kabhi, plus Aao pyaar karen, Meri dastaan mujhe hi, Jahan tu hai, Dilbar dilbar o dilbar and Dil ke aaine mein.
Watch it for the lovely songs and beautiful people but be prepared to be bored to tears!
Saira Banu's presence is to me like kryptonite is to Superman. It takes a great deal of other stuff to get me to watch her (Shammi, for instance :-) I don't know why this is --- sometimes she's not bad; it just...IS.
ReplyDeleteMaybe you dont like Shammi paying court to her? ;-)
ReplyDeleteIf I dont find a nice Saira movie soon, I am going to start disliking her, too! The only two good Saira-starrers I have seen are Junglee (loved her in it) and Bluffmaster and they were more Shammi's movies than hers. Wait, I liked Victoria no 203 as well, but the best part there was Ashok Kumar and Pran. Sigh! Have to give up on her...
Oh my goodness, how fascinating! Young Sanjeev! Young, beardless Mac Mohan (missing even his characteristic white streak of hair)! Mac Mohan turning into a woman! Mac Mohan dancing!
ReplyDeleteI LOVE IT!
His character in Kaala Patthar is decent; he only appears shady, but actually has a heart of gold.
Mac's Kaala Patthar character is decent but still shady - a sort of grey character. Here he is all white, i.e., a totally good guy. Never knew he had played a role like that! And young Sanjeev was really handsome. Have seen some of his B&W movies from those days and loved him. He had to expand horizontally to accomodate his growing stardom, though! :(
ReplyDeleteThe songs were marvellous. Saira I thought was not too bad here - and she looks great. Joy was Joy I guess but had they gotton Pran as Prince Rishikesh, the movie would have been something else. Plus a Helen Cabaret and a longer role for Rajendranath!
ReplyDeletebluelotus, Saira always looked lovely before her shriekiness got out of hand! This film though, was so uninspired that I doubt if even Pran and Helen could have rescued it. Pran was there in another Joy-Saira starrer (Door Ki Awaaz) and his presence there didnt materially improve that film!
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