A Walk Down Memory Lane
Hi Folks,
Another post I did in 2004 for another yahoogroup, thought you might enjoy it here too- Vivek
Ok Folks,
Given that I went through a second generation Indian/Indian American /Indian
Canadian metamorphisis in my life (nothing to do with films growing
up ,to now, where I do columns like this, similar to the story of a
lot of second generation desis, nothing to do with desiness to a
happy coexistence of East & West lifestyle)here are some ” modern classics ”
a follower of films will enjoy (in no particular order):
YAADON KI BARAAT: With Main Hoon Na doing fantastic business it
recreates the “masala” total entertainer, Nasir Hussain genre of
films. Look for a young Amir Khan in this and the “almost made it but
not quite” Vijay Arora (gold medalist from FTII). The songs are amazing.
BLACKMAIL: Sometimes I think, audiences, like Dharmendra for the wrong
reasons, this film made by the late Goldie Anand, showed what Dharam
is capable of, given an opportunity. Rakhee, though was the star of
this movie. SURPRISE- Minimal action and max acting by Dharam.
KALA PATTHAR: So you’ll think Yash Chopra can make only Switzerland
based love stories, well this film was based in the depths of the
coal mines of Bihar. Based on a true story the film had almost the
whose, who of the filmdom but guess who stole the thunder- a certain
Shatrughan Sinha and Neetu Singh (one of the most spontanious actors
I have seen on the screen much like Jaya Bacchan in her heydays)
LAMHE: Did not do well commercially, but a story far ahead of it’s
time, consolidated a career (Sridevi) and destroyed another (model
Deepak Malhotra), the songs and story was mind boggling.
DARR: Tip for hero aspirants, start with a negative role it will take
you places. Aamir Khan walked out of a psychopath role and Shahr Rukh
walked right into “K-K-K-K-K Kiran’s life ” and stardom. A
Switzerland was expected and a switzerland was shown, a beautiful
punjabi woman in chifons was expected and Juhi Chawla became
an “actor” from a “model”
RAAKH: Ironically the same Aamir Khan had played a semi negative role
in Aditya Bhattacharya’s RAAKH, the movie did not do too well
commercially, but gave the first glimpse of a legend in the making.
MAJBOOR: If ever there is a doubt in anyone’s mind whether Bacchan
can act or not, check this movie out and check out that one scene
when he is caught in a dilemna on whether he should do an act that
will destroy his conscious but save his family, the best scene ever
enacted by him till date. The scene being where he has to insert a poisonous needle into the shoulder of the very person he has rescued sometime back.
KARZ: One of my unsolved mysteries on films will always be, why Simi
Grewal never did better for herself in films, this Subhash Ghai
classic was Simi all the way. Awesome music.
SILSILA: Yeh raat hain ya tumharein zulfein, patiyon ki hain
sarsarahat ya tumne chupke se kuch kahan hain (is it the night or
your flowing locks, is it the shifting of the leaves or have you
whispered something) The Bachhan father and son duo (Harivanshrai and
Amitabh) worked magic on the screen, added to that the firepower
added by Rekha (competely overshadowed Jaya) and the Indian screen
came alive like never before. For Delhities like me, going to the
Lodhi Gardens took on a whole different meaning thereafter.
GHULAMI: If ever there was doubt about Mithuin’s acting ability
(should not have been since he won the national award for Mrigaya),
this film dispelled it. If ever there was doubt that Naseer could act
in commercial films, this film dispelled it, if ever there was a
doubt that Rajastahn could be caught better on a screen, this film
dispelled it, if ever there was a doubt that Smita Patil could act in
the commercial films, this film dispelled it, if ever there was a
doubt that folks songs would do well on screen- Zihale Masti Makum
Barnajish, this film dispelled it.
NAAM: What happened to you Mahesh Bhatt!!!. A film made to resurrect
the carrier of Kumar Gaurav instead brought to the forefront his
brother in law who is still going very strong, Sanjay Dutt. Probably
the best work of Bhatt.
SAUDAGAR: Only for the second and last time, two living legends came
together on screen, Raaj “Jaani” Kumar and Dilip Kumar and they were
ably matched by ‘Ilu, Ilu ” Manisha Koirala in her debut film. The
legends gave a performance of a lifetime.Like him or hate him, Ghai
is an entertainer par excellence.
INSAAF: A film way ahead of it’s time. The best mystery film made at
that time and an awesome and underplayed performance by Vinod Khanna
and Amjad Khan. For aspiring editors this film is a classic
study….not a dull moment and always on the edge.
IS RAAT KI SUBAH NAHIN: Sudhir Mishra at his best. Nirmal Pandey and
Ashish Vidharthi’s awesome performance and the screen presence of
Kathak dancer and arguably one of the most beautiful faces to grace
the Indian screen, Smriti Mishra.
TRAIN TO PAKISTAN: Nirmal Pandey again and the story by Khuswant
Singh, will make PINJAR look like a distant cousin in quality.A movie
which highlighted the horrors of a moment that was felt by all of
humanity and certainly by both the countries affected (India and
Pakistan)
That’s it for now. Now if only I can get my SAAFA co-founder Pooja to
start writing about the all time classics……just as an FYI, her
knowledge and depth of films exceeds mine like 100:1 and encompasses
all ages and all genres and all geographies ….and the scary
part …she is younger than me.
Sincerely,
Vivek “films in my veins” Kumar
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Zihale Masti Makum Barnajish….the song is hauntingly beautiful…still so fresh!
illizon: Mithun!!!!!! Koi Shaq
RK,
nahi huzoor…:d
hum bhi hain a mithun fan since an eon….he is a rockstar…remember…aa gaya halwa wala aa gaya!
O! those Suraksha, Bhayanak, Disco Dancer,Dhuan etc etc with Ranjeeta, Yogita Bali etc.
Certainly Mithun was a rock star and then he did put on a moustache in Ghulami to mesmerise the viewers with his punch line “Koi Shaq”.
I never could understand why this original dancer stopped dancing in films after entry of Govinda in Love 86? and entered in to those family social dramas – pyar jhukta nahin, parivaar etc
dude … train to pakistan is overated … the only good things about the film are the sex scenes !!!
Zihale masti is such a good folk song !!! Can’t have enough of it … gotta listen to it again …
And pls pls pls pls oh pls :(( …. can u arrange for a DVD/VCD/Video Casette/ VHS or whatever of Raakh ????? Have been wanting to see the film since a decade !!! (me in mumbai)
Hi Vivek, Amazing post.
It was only yesterday that we were discussing on oz’s radio show some golden classics of the 80’s. We particularly focussed on JP Dutta, Mukul Anand and other significant directors of that era that made gems in an undersupportive technical environment. We might start a thread on it soon, but you can check the show out on a link on desitrain.
On the films you mentioned, I love Nassir Hussain films, Kaal Patthar, Lamhe, Darr, Saudagar, Karz, Blackmail & Is raat…I only wish I could see the remaining ones.
The absolute essentials on my wish list now are Ghulami, Hathyar, Insaaf….n all the 80’s classics by Mukul Anand & JP Dutta.
Seen train to pakistan and its not that good, same goes with YAADON KI BARAAT.
Naam is very good.
Lamhe , Kaala Pathar and Majboor are class apart.
Nassir Hussain was one of the baaps of formula, and I would not classify his films as good or bad. To me they are just NH films.
And YKB was the Bible of masala films. It had everything- family reunion song, mele mein bichhde bhaai, heroine in villain’s shikanjaa, elaborate songs and dances, bewafaa hasina, the hero who goes deep in the dungeons of past when he sees Ajit’s distinctly numbered shoes(!), and the quintessential Dharam Paaji’s Kuttey!!!
:d
Timeless
There are a few things money cant buy
For every thing else there is more money.