Mere Apne
Print
Flashback to 1975, a 12 year old boy and his 8 year old sister waiting patiently at a Ramlila ground in the outskirts of Bhopal for a “sadak chhap” movie to begin. The movie- “MERE-APNE”, starring Meena Kumari, Vinod Khanna, Shotgun Sinha and the regulars during early 70’s. When I say regular, all movies had Asrani, Paintal, Danny Denzongpa, AK Hangal and the likes in almost all movies. OK…so the movie begins at about 7.30pm give or take 15 minutes depending upon the scope of techical difficulties, sound testing etc. 20 to 30 minutes into the movie, we run home…….why? we have a 8.00pm or 8.30pm curfew…strictly enforced by Dad. Repeat the same scene about 10 to 15 times. Yes, ladies and gentelmen me and my dear sister watched the first 15-30 minutes of Mere-Apne umpteen times in the mid 70’s. Fast forward to 2007, I am sitting in the comfort of my family room with Sony surround sound and voila…I watched the whole movie after 30+ years with tears running down my eyes, thinking about my sister. She is in Baroda and did not think too much of it:-)
This movie narrates a story of unemployment,vigilante justice, failure of idealism, moralities and nonviolence, wily politicians, manipulative family members, corruption, Youth frustration, anger and discontent.
Mind you, India was a young democracy then, A young director, Gulzarji, who identifies with what was prevalent, captures the essence of unrest in the nation. he brings out the best in Shatrughan Sinha ( in my opinion, this movie belongs to him), Vinod Khanna and Meena Kumari. Danny, Mehmood and the rest of the crew did their part to perfection. No melodrama, no historinics.
Although the theme appears to be the plight of Meena Kumari as an old timer being manipulated by young relatives to take care of their home and child and enmity and hatred between two rival street gangs, one has to look beyond that to understand how the director is subtly mocking the society and urging the common man to wake up and smell the coffee.
I really urge you to see this movie if you haven’t, it could be a wake up call or gentle refresher. Music is gentle and catchy. Shatru will keep you on the edge, Vinod Khanna will give you your money’s worth and Meena Kumari will steal your heart with her performace, Danny will leave you teary eyed.
Soak in and Enjoy.
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
i have seen the film. it is one of my favorite movie. i have been meaning to compare Mere Apne with Rang De Basanti, but needed to see the former movie again, to just refresh my memory. Rang De Basanti is today’s version of Mere Apne.
loading...
mere apne is a scene-to-scene remake (not inspired or re-intepretated) of “Apon Jon” directed by Tapan Sinha.
loading...
@Omprakash Seresta:
The point being? are you saying it is plagiarised? even if it is, it does not make it a bad movie… does it? if some one makes a copy of MonaLisa, I am not going to say it looks like crap..
I respectfully accept your observation.
loading...
No, I wont say that any copy of Monalisa is a crap (btw where in my last post did I say that Mere Apne is a crap. I said and still maintain that it is a scene to scene copy of the original) but I would certainly add in my article that it is a copy or remake of original Monalisa by Vinci.
It may be true that you may not have been aware of the fact but isnt it would be correct to give due to the original creator. Atleast that bit we can do in PFC.
loading...
I just love the scene before the interval. Vinod Khanna is having a heart-to-heart with Meena Kumari. It is sheer bliss. I can even replay that background music in that scene, with the INTERVAL flashing in pink!
Naani Maa : … chal beta, ek aam ka bagicha hai humara. Bahut hai. Humare akele ke kya kaam aayega. Chal bhaiyya. Is mue sehar se humara gaon kai achha hai re. (silence) Kya hua? Chup kyun ho gaya?
Shyam : Nahin Naani Maa. Ab toh yahin rehna hoga. Aakhri dum tak yahin rehna hoga. Ladna hoga, jeena hoga.
And Danny Denzongpa is unrecognizably young (and thin as a stick) in Mere Apne, you have to see it to believe it! And the music – “Haal chaal theek hai ( :-\” :-\” :-\” ) rocks !! (Aab-o-hawawawawah) Aab-o-hawa desh ki bahut saaf hai, qaayda hai, kanoon hai, insaaf hai. Allah miyan jaane koi jeene yaa mare, aadmi ko khoon-boon sab maaf hai. Aur kya kahun? Chhoti-moti chori, rishvat-khori deti hai apna guzaara yahan. Aapki dua se baaki theek thaak hai (oy hoy! Gulzar, you rock!).
>-
loading...
those three emoticons were supposed to be this -> :-\”
loading...
o well, that whistling emoticon doesn’t work !! :d
loading...
kya kehne! it is one of my favourite movies.
thanks for remembering us the gem! i have to seet it once again..
loading...
And let’s not forget the songs from the movie. Not just the classic “koi hota…”
gol mol roti ka pahiya chala
pichhe pichhe chandi ka rupaiya chalaa
About the remake thing
http://www.bfjaawards.com/sray/prevsray/gz2004.htm
quoting from the source”
loading...
“When I say regular, all movies had Asrani, Paintal, Danny Denzongpa, AK Hangal and the likes in almost all movies.”
Err, I am not sure how Danny Denzongpa figures in the list, because MERE APNE was his first film. Maybe after the film he became a regular.
loading...
@10:
I don’t mean that in a disrespectful way, they were featured in support cast because they were popular. One of my favorites as a kid was “Mukri”- God bless his soul.
@4:
Omji, I totally agree, credit should be given where it us due.
@5:
Pratik- :-)
loading...
I agree with Omji.Tapan Sinha did indeed desrve to be given credit for this amazing movie which was a perfect mirror of the times. Mere Apne is almost a scene to scene copy from Apon Jon. Tapan Sinha’s chenu (Samit Bhanja) came across as a much darker shade. Also, Gulzar’s touch with the slippers -juti pe juti chadna-can’t be ignored as also the amazing lyrics-Haal Chaal theek thaak hai..almost like Sab Theek Hai cry of the sentry in the jail in Bandini which was again an adaptation from a Bengali novel by Jarasandha.
loading...
I do agree with the fact this is one the best movies ever directed.. No matter if its a copy of another movie.. the truth is its just a marvelous work..
loading...
nice
loading...