The Last Of the Film Buffs.
This nostalgia maybe triggered when I saw the trailer of Jhonny Gaddar which starts with
“naam kya hai tumhara… JOHNNYYYYYY”
————-
“gaadi nahi chalenga!!!!!!engine kharab hai”
“to dickey hai na…..hum dickey se chalayenge”
“aapki birthday party ruk sakti hai dad…..marte hue aadmi ka bayan nahi…..happy birthday dad”
“phle laat…phir baat….phir mulakat…..”
“yeh uttar hai……yeh dakshin hai….yeh purab hai…..yeh paschim hai…..yeh taxi hai yeh jaggu hai……”
No one born post 1985 might even know what the gibberish written above is. Just the other day I was talking to a friend about how I have stopped watching tennis after Becker, Edberg, Ivanisevic, Graf, Sanchez and most importantly after Sabatini left the game…..Similarly the more I interact with the present generation one thing I find seriously amiss is the cheap thrills we lived on…..the cinema buffs we were…..the 80s-90s cinema buff’s we were……it was not just Amitabh Bachchan but also the Manek Iranis [am a fan and mourned his death 1998], the Asit Sens, the Hemant Birjes, the Yunis Parvez, the Jayshree Ts, The Tej Saprus, we knew. Everyone who came on screen more than once could be recognized by us if he or she was to walk on the streets…in fact we could shock them by actually calling them by their name or even letting them know that we saw them on this frame of this film.
I still vividly remember my father talk so fondly of the days when he and his friends would go to watch Bees Saal Baad at Badal Bijlee Barkha [Multiplexes of those days]. After they had watched the first day first show…they would scream out the suspense when people would come out during the interval….in those days people were allowed to go out and come back….and this they would continue as a ritual before the cinema hall owners beefed the security at the hall. You ask him about the movies of his days and he will rattle the dialogues with a snap of his fingers……a big Guru Dutt and Dev Anand fan …..he still swears by the films made by Navketan and the Senior Guru D …?
That’s the legacy passed on by my father to me……and I am proud ….I consider it a legacy if anyone feels otherwise…..I am glad to know I can refer to dialogues like….
“tum communist ho”
“nahi main cartoonist hun”
from films made in 1955……am glad I will be able to lipsync “jinhe naaz tha hind per who kahan the….” If it plays anywhere……I know the lyrics to the song Ena Meena Deeka……half the people I have met don’t know that there is a song beyond Ena meena deeka….there is a “dil beechun hai koi lene wala…aise waise to nahi dene wala….”……..Thanks Appa.
And you might say big deal man….so what???…but I am so glad I live among the last of the clan ……the last of the cinema buffs…I see no one in the current generation to revel in the cheap thrills…..which is so clearly evident in the absolute famine in creativity and spoofs…..the only ones the radio spots or for that matter even MTV can come up with are Gabbar and Thakur impersonations and now Munna and Circuit…..sadly I see there is not much of a legacy to pass….
Why I write this…..as PFC completes one year….I find that this clan….the last of cinema buffs have a shelter…..a place to live and breathe and discuss cinema like kids….sometimes like serious critics….sometimes just write about anything to initiate a dialogue on anything related to cinema….it’s ok if I have not watched much of Ray or maybe of Kieslowski…..but am more than welcome to write whatever that comes to my mind and share it my fellow PFCiets which also includes some illustrious names from the film industry….As I read my post again I am not sure I make much sense…or have had a beginning or mid or an end…..just wrote what I wanted to and am grateful it has a space…..every thought on cinema has a space……Blaze away PFC….happy completion of YEAR ONE…… [Pisst…pisst…junta…few exciting videos as an extension to this post coming soon….keep watching for this space…..]
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
Nice Post vasan,looking forward to the videos
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Vasan,
Where are my Ramsey Bros.? DO you remember their genius and brave efforts in horror movies? Don’t you miss those “Veerana”, “Purani Haveli”s and Archana Puran Singh’s blood bath? I was watching the new remake of Halloween(dir: Rob Zombie) a few hours ago and all those memories came back. Long before RGV tried his hands on Horror genre for Hindi movie industry, Ramseys’ kept the light burning, although it was a dimming lamp soon to be extinguished by the evil breath of a skimpily clad”Chudail”.
Someday discuss bout those days too, Sir.
regards,
CBM
@ Vasan “As I read my post again I am not sure I make much sense”
Dude it makes a hell lot of sense to me…i have grown up watching those cheap thrills as well plus DD serials and commercials…i sometimes amaze myself by singing the jingles of a lot of commercials…plus cheap Shakti Kapoor dialogs from movies like ” Khatron ke Khiladi”…” Mere kanne chakkoo hain”….used to watch all that was thrown during those days…and listen to Cibaca geet mala on radio to get the latest hits…and would be sad beyond repair when a song would complete 25 weeks on top…as the song wouls have to leave the program after that period…loved songs like ” Maine kal ek sapna dekha…meri bahon mein thi rekha” from pehla Nasha…hehe…good memories…thanks Vasan sir!!!1
Cubicle Bound Misfit – the song “woh beete din yaad hai” from Purana Mandir was and is still my all time fav….Deepak Parashar, Puneet Issar and Javed Khan ruled the horror scene those days….Nevla and Samri were cult Ramsay creations played by the same 6.5 footer who was last seen in the Aamir Khan film “Mela”…he is dead now I guess…read that somewhere…..2min moun….maybe he is dafan somewhere in some purana khandar do gaaj zameen ke neeche and might just get up to mate pyaasi chudail in the veeran of the andheri raat.:-?:-?
Om-Thanks bro for reminding me of Cibaca and the 25th week deadline :d
vikram-videos soon
Vasan,
Your post almost makes me want to write an Ode to Ramsays. I agree with your view on the intensity of film-watching experience and how it has changed. We had few avenues to entertain ourselves in those days and that helped us channel all our attention on movies.
Having said that, please don’t lament the lack of creativity among the current generation. They will come up with their own idiom and own vocabulary reflecting their times. We just have to keep and open mind and revel in them when they happen.
- S
OM: “mere kanne chakku hain” dialogue was from Veeru Dada….I think
Anil Dhawan also was a regular in the Ramsays’ gore fest. It would be really cool if there was a ‘making of’ of all the Ramsay classics. Wishful thinking I guess
“G.V.G.W.A.W.You”
@Vasan,
Before RGV tried to usurp the market of so called Hindi Horror films, Ramsay Bros were Betaz Badshah of that territory.
you seem to be seen all Ramsay Bro’s films. It shd be a research to find out did they shoot their all films in same building and only masks changed for ghosts.
Incidently Anil Dhawan was the Gold Medallist in acting at FTII, Pune. Perhaps he belongs to the batch of Jaya Bhaduri (Bachchan). Once he was the most innocently looking sobre hero of Hindi cinema. But his Theoretical gold medal did not help in real arena and he had to enter in to films of Ramsay Brothers. You must write a post covering him.
Dil bechun hai koi lene wala…
aise waise to nahi dene wala…
suratiya haseen ho, umariya jawan ho…
jo dekhe woh bole…
yahi hai yahi hai..yahi to hai woh
eena meena deeka..
dai daam dika
brings back old memories buddy…U Rock!!
RK yeh Ramsay films were a great facination those days…i had a VCR at my place…me and a few friends used to pool in Rs.2 each and rent VHS tapes….per day rentals were Rs.10 then…..saw all the ramsay flicks …..but then Ramsay gave way to the Monks and the Kung Fu MASTERS…I think my first Kung Fu flick was the The Secret Rivals Of Lama…no particular starcast but was facinated to see men fly…loved the kung fu shoes..infact had then made…modified my black Power shoes….actually my next post should be Ramsay and the Chambers of Shaolin
Vasan, u do make loads of sense..And generation post 1985 does stand to loose something precious, because it all was part of life without information blitz..And whatever was dished out thrilled us–cheap or not..that is immaterial..a lovely trip down the memory lane!
@RK, i think similar was Vijay Arora’s fate..Gold medallist from FTII in acting..dream role in Yaadon ki Barat..and few other films as a hero and then fizzled out and passed away couple of years ago i think..These examples bring out all that is sordid,practical and ruthless in stardom stakes.
Srini……how the hell did i forget anil dhavan….khooni panja…darwaza..purani haveli…and those films would also have a seriously crappy comedy track with either satish shah or jagdeep….supported by either jayshree t or huma khan….kunika and aarti surendranath….and even preeti sapru used to be the leading ladies….wowowo…..miss the vcr days….miss them so much…those were the best days of my life……
Vasu Bhayiaa, Aap Huma Khan ko Kaise bhool Sakte Hain? Aaj Kal Jabhi Rakhi Sawant Ko TV Pe Dekhta Hoon Toh Mujhe Unki yaad aati Hain. Woh Har film mein vamp hua karti thi.
Main uss samay Sangli (Maharastra) mein rehta tha treatment ke liye aur pura din exercise ke baad Mummy mujhe Video Theatre (ticket 1 rupiya) Mein Leke Jati thi. Uss Waqt Mithunda ka bada bolbala tha, unki sab filme dekhta tha.
Unn dino ek aur Khaas baat thi; Radio Pe Nayi Filmon 15 Minutes ke spots hua karte the (Jaise Aaj kal TV pe promos hote hai), jisme film ki sari kahaani kirdaro ke naam ke saath bol dete the sirf climax chhod ke.
Aur DD pe Sari Shammi Kapoor, Joy Mukherjee aur Sanjeev Kumar ki filme hua karti thi.
Main aapse kuchh 10-12 saal bada hoon, lekin yeh post padhke bada maza aaya. Shukriya.
Gatu Anna…..how can I forget Huma Khan..even the guys who make super sentimental family dramas…and their leading men are asked to watch all the episodes of Ramaanand Sagar’s Ramayana and learn how to smile from Arun Govil…when they could not resist…and cast her in their films…..how can i dare forget her…..[Huma Khan as the Doodhwali in Rajshri's Maine Pyaar Kiya] :d:d:d:d
and her most decent dressed (unforgettable) appearance was in Ghulami.. “Zihale miskin mukan baranjish”…
Koi Shaq?
oh..Mithunda and Anita Raaj on top of the bus…what gaana yaar??
Vasan…nice post. thse days whenever m happy or excitd,i say the same line…naam kya hai tera ? n if m in office..somebdy replies back..johnny, johnny gaddar. its damn fuuny. n just before this…i was repting the line from chak de almost 20 times evryday…har team me ek hi goonda hota hai. aur is team ka goonda main hoon….dharang dharang!! n then the dialgue from blue umbrella….aatma ki shanti me nafa nuskaan nahi dekha jaata. n one from omkara also…hansi badi mehengi ho rakhi hai aajkaL!!
n u know what…tarzan was the first film that i saw on big screen. Oooooohhoooooo…..
And what happened to shriprada…without any parda…she also has done so many thriller-horror-comic-victim bani dacaitain movies….
OM: Maine Kal ek Sapna Dekha was from Sanam and not Pehla Nasha as far as I remember.
Wasan: You made my day. If anyone remembers, please recall sholay spoof in Purana Mandir. IMO it was funniest Sholay spoof even till today. Jagdeep (Gabbar) Lalita Pawar (Basant) and Rajendra Nath (Thakur) rocked the movie. I enjoy it even today.
Guys you missed Leena Das. She ruled disco cabaret dances in early 80s
the song from “pehla nasha” u r talking about was like this
” mr. zero ban gaya hero, ho gaya chamatkar, yaaron mein ban gaya filmstar” starring dipark tijori,pooja bhatt and ravina tandon
BTW: The actor, Anirudh Agarwal who played Saamri in Puraana Mandir is alive and his last film is Bombay to Goa (Sunil Pal, Raju Shrivastav)
Shri Prada appeared in many B Grade films in early 90s but later she put on lot of weight and got replaced by Upaasna Singh. Am I right friends?
BTW the music director of Pehla Nasha were Neeraj-Uttank.. and Neeraj is none other than Neeraj Vora
The only song from the film that stayed with me was the telephone song “Sun o haseena, main hoon deewana, o jaanejaana, ye to batana”
the director of Pehla Nasha was Ashutosh “today’s top listed” Gowarikar