Muskuraahat (’92) : Priyadarshan at his best in Hindi
This is not Priyadarshan’s loud comedy like Hera Pheri, Hangama etc. Its a sobre comedy film with enough romantic and emotional flavour intermingled in the plot.
Revathi is no Sri Devi or Jaya Prada as far as physical beauty is concerned but her spontainity is not less than Sri Devi’s and if you like to watch an younger Revathi in a comedy role or in a comedy film then Muskurahat can be a great satisfaction for you.
A strict retired Judge (Amrish Puri) is living alone in Ooty after his retirement away from his family members. Judge is as bitter towards life as Neem or karela or karela growing on a Neem tree. He does not like interference of anyone in his life. He has big moustache and self made principles about life. He has a servant – Charausia (Jagdeep- perhaps his last good performance) who is as cynical as his boss is. Servant is bit foolish and dream about making money. He is also always reprimanded by his boss, the strict Judge.
A girl (Revathi) is escaped from mental hospital and she has a mission. She is supposedly an illegitimate daughter of a Judge who lives in Ooty after retirement. She reaches Ooty to search her biological father.
Two tourist guides (Jay Mehta and Annu Kapoor) are there in Ooty. Jay Mehta is good hearted while Annu Kapoor is greedy and his greed makes him bit villaneuous too.
Jay Mehta and Annu Kapoor help Revathi to enter in to the home of Judge by presenting her as domestic servant who would take care of Judge. Though Judge does not like it but he has no choice as he has fired his servant Chaurasia (Jagdeep).
There are enough funny scenes between Jagdeep and Amrish Puri.
In one such scene, AP is sitting on dining table and Jagdeep brings chiken in a plate and keeps at table. AP sees the dish and folds his hands and bows down his head to offer Pranaam to the Chiken. An astonished and puzzled Jagdeep in his trademark voice and style asks,” Ye aap kya kar rahe hain saab”
AP,” Murge miyan ko pranaam kar raha hun, mujhse umra mein bade jo hain, Ullu ke pathe tumhe koi dhang ka murga nahin mila?”.
Jagdeep is tired of such scolding by Judge and one day Jai Mehta traps him and convinces him that he has won the lottery and shows him dreams what he can do with such good amount of money. Jagdeep goes mad in happiness and start jumping and goes to AP and offers him as colourful abuses as he can and says he spits on his service and is leaving .
AP asks him if this is his final decision and says that he should not show his face again.
But his luck! As it can work with character like Jagdeep’s. Soon he knows that he has not got any lottery and he comes back with a pity of whole world’s on his face and AP does his mimicry and recites the dialogues which Jagdeep had said to insult him.
Film has a full journey how Revathi transforms the strict and bitter retired Judge in to a soft hearted patriarch. One can imagine the scene when Judge wakes up in one fine morning and sees his face in mirror and he does not find his trademark moustache. Obviously he goes mad with anger and how Revathi settle this incidence is worth to watch.
Is Judge really the father of Revathi? This question converts an otherwise comedy film in to a masala thriller film for some last 30 minutes.
‘Muskuraahat’ was first film for Jay Mehta and perhaps first Hindi film for Revathi and while Revathi wins the best performer tag in the film, Jay Mehta also give a nice performance. He looks good and befits perfectly in the role given to him. Amrish Puri is excellent. Annu Kapoor performs his role very well. Film runs on the path of comics and Revathi, Jay Mehta, Amrish Puri, Annu Kapoor and Jagdeep helps in maintaing the standard of comedy in the film.
Song picturisation specially the song “Gun Gun karta Aya Bhanwara” is praise worthy and the use of carts in the song is beautiful and how film uses diffused and black and white colours in between is fantastic. Film captures the beauty of Ooty if shooting was done there.
Inspite of one of the nice comedy film made in that year, film remained an under rated movie.
Its a nice movie which will not give you any chance to repent why you watched it or why you bought it? It is only an ill fated film about which many audience could not know at the time of its release. You will watch it again and again.
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
really ?? muskurahat ???
i thought gardish and saza-e-kalapani were his best !!!
gotta see this one now
No i didn’t like this movie. I’ve seen it in dribs and drabs on tv but no way would i class this as his best work!
KK:
Apnee choice apna taste:)few friends vow for Virasat being Priyadarashan’s best work. There was no hoopla with Muskurahat and film came silently. while when Gardish was released there were half or full page advertisements showing huge pic of Mukesh Rishi’s claiming he is the villain of 90s. 70s saw Gabbar, 80s saw Mogambo and 90s will see Billa. No doubt Film had fine moments between Amrish Puri and Jacky Shrof.
Kala Pani- Mohan Lal’s fans will be angry but his physical appearance in that stuntbazi type role was a total miscast. It was so awkward to see his belly while he jumps from top and his shirt is lifted.
Gardish and Kala Pani seemed bit loud and violence ate much of the content of the film.
In totallity Muskuraahat had appealed me more as honest trial by Priyadarshan. It was my first ever encounter with Priyadarshan, Revathi.
Not many will say Kabhi haan kabhi naa was best work of SRK, or best work of Kundan Shah (apart from JBDY which looks accidental work of Kundan). Film has to appear in totallity what it wishes to convey.
Sangeeta:
You may like or dislike any film. Thats a prerogative of an individual.
we read a book in solitude and appreciate it but we watch films with others surrounding us. We may like a film in cinema hall but its complete flavour cant touch us in crowd. Film also enters inside us when we watch it alone or with people with whom we share this passion, then it does not matter if its watched on PC, TV or home theater or cinema hall. A loud movie can pull attraction when we are just passing through the room where TV is on but a light film demands a relaxed sitting. “My hipps dont lie” can fetch our attention when we are standing in crowd of 1000 people
RK, thanks a lot for bringing back the memories from a movie that I enjoyed a lot when I first saw it. Not sure whether I would like it now…but as you say “its a light film that deserves full sitting atleast in first watching”.
@RK: I agree with you about everything regarding ‘Muskurahat’, except about Jay Mehta. He was so wooden, and he destroyed many of the comic scenes. The original of the movie, ‘Kilukkam’ (Jangle of an anklet), is considered one of the classic comedies in Malayalam cinema (such as ‘Golmaal’ and ‘Chupke Chupke’ in hindi cinema). Mohanlal played the lead here. It would have been a huge hit in Hindi too had it starred somebody who could give Annu Kapoor a few cues here and then.
Mohanlal (as well as Prabhu) in ‘Kaala Paani’(which I’m decidedly not a huge fan of), I completely agree with you – they hardly looked liked ill-fed prisoners. This relates to something I asked earler – not many of our actors are willing to change themselves physically for a role, are they?
Bishu: if you liked it in first viewing, certainly you will like it more next time after years when definitely your passion about cinema might have got better understanding of the medium. enjoy once again the Victorian era painting kinda impression in that song “gun gun karta”.:)
Even Song in HAHK, Tumko hum le ke chale hain apne sang apnee nagariya has inspiration from this song picturisation.
Ranjit: thanks for extra footage you imparted about original of Muskurahat in Malyalam. No doubt Jay was not in league of Annu Kapoor’s comedy skill but being his first ever film and his role was not basically comical he did above average work. Annu Kapoor and Jagdeep performed charcaters straight lifted from cartoon comics and they did what was required.
You are right not many film makers and actors think about having required physical appearance before starting the film.
Moreover few directors think they can convert anyone in any form. Who can stop them? Producers give them money for their kind of film making:)
I would say Muskurahat was a good film as such, not that funny but a film which I have seen atleast 5-6 times on television. When it had been released, my neighbour kept telling us about the antics of Revathi when Anu and Jay thinks that she is a Maharani.
Anu Kapoor was pretty good and it being Jay’s first film, it was a pretty decent effort from him. The songs were pretty good and the whole feel of the hill-station was captured pretty well in the movie.
Cheers,
HP
HP: you summarised well, the film, in 6 lines:)
i’ve really missed the presence of amrish puri in the current lot of films… i need to revisit a film of his, so i’ll make it this one.. thanks RK
I love this film, it brings back school days and happy endings. i loved the foggy feel n the cool songs(ramlaxman- another heavily underexploited talent). all the other things have already been mentioned very well by everyone here.
JAGDEEP was kick-ass! still rolling thinking of those scenes feat him with AP.
Loved Annu Kapoor in this one.. Just remembered his ‘Aare ye ladki paagal hai’ scream and fell from my chair laughing. :d
RK…Thanks for writing this. (I know truly beleive that u are a true cinema lover).
I also wanted to tell (read SHOUT) about this movie…but then (who cares for a Revathy movie and Jai Mehta who???).
Annu Kapoor’s career has been wasted…he has shown in this movie what he was capable of (he actually steals the show).
Amrish Puri is as usual (in Priyan’s movies) PERFECT.
Just have so many beautiful memories related to the film.
REALLY GUYS, PLEASE BELEIVE ME, THIS IS NOT A MOVIE TO BE MISSED AT ANY COST.
Interestingly, not many know it’s Priyan film. a sober teatment teamed with revathy’s mischievious eyes, muskuraahat was actually a lovely film.
as for lead actor jai mehta, he is busy producing tv serials with wife kinnari mehta. the ones on air are sindoor tere naam ka on zee and sollah sringarr on sahara one
Striker: Amrish does this kind of role perhaps only once in Muskuraahat, so you wont be disappointed to watch him.
Tushar: Jagdep reminds through out the film that he has come out from Children comics like Motu Patlu series, He was perfect to play Ghasitaram.
Kalia : Annu is really an under rated comedian. He comes in the category of Late intelectual comedian I.S. Johar.
Shitij: Thanks for comments. Seems you deeply loved this film. Annu Kapoor is low profile and perhaps he does not hanker after many many roles. Though not comedy based but he gave amazing performance in Raincoat. His body language was fantastic. Short but meaningful role.
I still can see him saying those wonderful lines in Mein Azaad Hun ” Bhaiya pata nahin lagta ki thand jyada lag rahee hai ya bhukh, meine to dono ko apas mein ladwa diya hai, jab thand lagtee hai to bhukh kee taraf dhyan deta hun aur jab bhookh lagtee hai tab thand kee taraf” and then he throws astone on glasses of a shop to go in to the jail so that he can have atleast a roof and food.
Illuzion:
Jai Mehta is not husband of Juhi Chawla ? I was always under the impression that this is same Jai Mehta who married Juhi:-?
Rmember watching Kilikum in cinema with my Malayalee friends. Didnt understand a singel scene as far as languae was concerned but enjoyed the movie.
Muskurahat was somewhat killed off by lame acting by Jay Mehata & I found it more on slower side than the Malayalee version.
Think Annu Kapoor is a wonderful actor. His best / most famous comedic role is probably in ‘Mr. India’, with Sridevi. He is pretty good at intnse stuff too, as he showed us in Priyadarsan’s own ‘Kaala Paani’, Nihlani’s ‘Drohkaal’ and his episode of ‘Param Veer Chakra’. A highly under-utilized actor, sadly.
@Muzzy: ‘Kilukkam’ is one of those gag-a-minute comedies, where each and every dialogue sparks of wit – like Annu Kapoor’s counterpart gets out of an auto and asks the charge, to which the autowallah says 50 bucks..and the actor retorts that he wasn’t asking the price of the bloody auto. Such one-liners abound in the movie…a lot of these were spontaneous (i.e. not in the dialogues or the screenplay), and hence not in the Hindi version. You rwally should watch a subtitled version.
Btw, did nobody notice the parallels with Sadma? A few scenes are straight from ‘Sadma’, really!
i liked film for its simpliness and music with Amrish puri’s dhansoo performance(my favourite)
missing him lot. Amrish puri is one of the actors who steals or eats opposite actor’s performance. unke saamne koi aaltu faaltu actors nahi chalta.
Regarding Annu kapoor i remember his talent in Tejaab as Guldasta who is fond of singing and irritating people (for last 10 years is doing this in antakshari)
One of the fimely crafted Comedy movies of Pridarshan, better than the craps viz Dhol, Bhool Bhulaiya; he’s curning out these days.
The classics of 80’s:
I would like to recommend 2 movies from the 80’s. Although both of them were classic thrillers, they were dejected by the public. But i tell you both the movies very brilliantlly written and directed.
Shart – released in 1986, and directed by Ketan Anand was a master thriller. I bet Yash Chopra must have borrowed the idea of Darr from this movie. Naseeruddin acting was a class.
Khamosh – 1986, directed by Vidhu Vinod Chopra. many people would not be aware about this movie by Vidhu, but again this movie could be treated as a school of suspense movies. Amol Palekar was in a different avataar. And so were all other talented actors. A very unusual suspense movie.
Go watch the movies.
@Manoj,
Muskurahat was Priyadarshan’s first Hindi films. First entry at relatively younger age, carries fresh energy, devotion and desire to make a place in that branch of cine world.
Now like a good experienced production man, he is busy in producing some products having almost same quality.
—
Shart was good to watch once.
http://passionforcinema.com/shart-1986-psycho-serial-killer/
Khamosh was also one time seeing product. But these kind of thrillers certainly should be made.
Darr may have inspiration from some other sources and not only one. Yash Chopra was far more experienced director than Ketan Anand and VV Chopra and hence thrilling effect was more in Darr especially before Interval than Shart and Khamosh.
Moreover Darr’s thriller impact was reduced by loud Anupam Kher and atleast 2 extra songs.
From any angle Darr was a better film than Shart and Khamosh.
I found, the films of 80s that had some impression and frames stored within me have already been covered on this site by you.. NDT, Shart and Muskurahat are few of them..
Talking of Muskurahat, I believe Producer Pran lal Mehta in an attempt to launch his son Jay Mehta (Not the husband of Juhi) was the biggest villain for the film.. The only problem I had with the film was Jay Mehta (though Revathy, AP saab and Annu Kapoor tried hard to make for it.. still the film failed short of a classic only because of the shortcomings of the “Hero”).. Apart from Gungun karta (quite hummable) another fun song was
“Apni jeb me laakhon honge aaj kal ya parso
hum bhi jag ke taare honge aaj kal ya parso
khana hotel me khana hai,
mera bill bhi chukana hai”
(Haven’t heard it in years but it is on lips while reading this post).. I really enjoyed watching the film, yet I felt it was no match to kilukilam…
Yes Apart from Revathy and AP saab for me another winner was the cinematography..
Later Star TV had a serial called Millie on the same storyline..
Annu Kapoor had another significant appearance in Gardish with some excellent moments…
this movie is the best must see. lovely movie. Great wrk. i wanted the cd of this movie if anyone has please give me. i would be thankful to you
yes even me too wanted the cd of this movie. Can someone tell where its available in bangalore or mumbai.. Pls.. Or any links to download???
I absolutely loved this movie when I watched it on TV long long time back!
Can’t find the songs on youtube :((
it started off the ‘priyan will wonly remake mallu movies into crappy bollywood ones’ phase
can somebody post the movie muskaraht
Muskurahat is the one of the best movies I have ever watched. It is the movie that I would like to watch MANY times. Well I didn’t know that it was made by Priyadarshan. He made more respect for himself in my heart when I knew that the film was made by him.
Muskuraahat is a remake of Malayalam film ‘Killukam’ directed by Priyadarshan(aka Priyan) himself.
This was a dud film, as I have already seen the malayalam version played by Mohanlal and Revathi.
During those golden years of Malayalam movies, Priyan was the weakest film-maker when it comes to creating original stories but wise enough to make his effort a commercial blockbuster, as he used good hindi films of late seventies into malayalam. For instance he was inspired by Sai Paranjape’s Katha into malayalam (Mugannetta sumitra villikkunu).
Now the scene is reversed, as Malayalam films are doing bad, he has switched on to Hindi and is bringing the past best malayalam stuff in his every hindi movie, including the new one (Billoo Barber). He is the one who was/is in Win -Win situation. Smart Chap!
I dont find any of his movies the best, but his association with Mohanlal attacts me to watch his old movies again and again!
Regards,