Film: PREM PUJARI

Language: Hindi

Year: 1970

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तुम ऽऽऽ पुकार लो, तुम्हारा इंतज़ार है,
तुम ऽऽऽ पुकार लो।
ख़्वाब चुन रही है रात बेक़रार है,
तुम्हारा ऽऽ इंतज़ार है,
तुम ऽऽऽ पुकार लो।

होंठ पे लिए हुए दिल की बात हम,
जागते रहेंगे और कितनी रात हम। - २
मुक़्तसर सी बात है तुम से प्यार है
तुम्हारा ऽऽ इंतज़ार है,
तुम ऽऽऽ पुकार लो।

दिल बहल तो जाएगा इस ख्याल से,
हाल मिल गया तुम्हारा अपने हाल से। - २
रात ये क़रार की बेक़रार है,
तुम्हारा ऽऽ इंतज़ार है।

गुलज़ार साहब का लिखा हुआ यह गीत बहुत सुंदर है। उनके लिखे गए जो गीत मैंने अभी तक सुने हैं उनमें एक बात देखी है, बोल अधिक नहीं होते हैं और गीत छोटा ही होता है, जिस भी फिल्म के लिए लिखते हैं तो अधिक नहीं लिखते हैं लेकिन गीत सारे एक से बढ़कर एक बढ़िया और सुन्दर होते हैं - गोया मतलब यह है कि वे मात्रा से अधिक गुणवत्ता पर ध्यान देते हैं। :) इस गाने का वीडियो आप यहाँ देख सकते हैं।

खैर, पंगा यह कि गाना यह भी खुशनुमा नहीं, तो इसलिए तलाशते हुए दूसरे गाने पर निगाह और कान गए, यह था सन्‌ 1962 में आई विश्वजीत और वहीदा रहमान की फिल्म बीस साल बाद के गीत "हमको बेक़रार करके यूँ न जाईये" जो कि पुनः हेमन्त कुमार द्वारा गाया एक खूबसूरत गीत है जिसको शकील बदायुनी ने लिखा था।

बेक़रार करके हमें यूँ न जाईये,
आपको हमारी कसम लौट आईये। - २

देखिए वो काली काली बदलियाँ,
ज़ुल्फ़ की घटा चुरा न लें कहीं,
चोरी चोरी आ के शोख बिजलियाँ,
आपकी अदा चुरा न लें कहीं,
यूँ कदम अकेले न आगे बढ़ाईये,
आपको हमारी कसम लौट आईये।

बेक़रार करके हमें यूँ न जाईये,
आपको हमारी कसम लौट आईये।

देखिए गुलाब की वो डालियाँ,
बढ़के चूम लें न आपके कदम। - २
खोए खोए भंवरें भी हैं बाग़ में,
कोई आपको बना न ले सनम,
बहकी बहकी नज़रों से खुद को बचाईये,
आपको हमारी कसम लौट आईये।

बेक़रार करके हमें यूँ न जाईये,
आपको हमारी कसम लौट आईये।

ज़िंदगी के रास्ते अजीब हैं,
इनमें इस तरह चला न कीजिए,
खैर है इसी में आपकी हुज़ूर,
अपना कोई साथी ढूँढ लीजिए,
सुन के दिल की बात न मुस्कुराईये,
आपको हमारी कसम लौट आईये।

बेक़रार करके हमें यूँ न जाईये,
आपको हमारी कसम लौट आईये। - २

कॉलर ट्यून में इस गाने का सैम्पल सुनने के बाद ये इतना पसंद आया कि यूट्यूब पर इसका वीडियो खोजा और पूरा गाना सुना और देखा। ये गाना अपने को बहुत सही लगा, खुशनुमा का खुशनुमा भी है, तो इसको अब अपनी कॉलर ट्यून के रूप में सैट कर लिया। :D आप इस गाने का वीडियो यहाँ देख सकते हैं।

One of the things I love best about Bollywood films are the spiritual and moral messages woven in with the music, dancing, action and melodrama.  Don't you? I also adore all that suffering! Of course as a Catholic I know that suffering leads to purification, hain na? And Ash Wednesday officially kicks off Lent and those 40 days of sacrifice and suffering. So with this special day in mind, let's enjoy a little sorrow and suffering dosto!

Bollywood teaches so many lessons, like this one, from the 1965 movie Guide. Click over to  DocBollywood for some interesting information on Guide. Here Dev Anand tells Waheeda Rehman some very valuable information:

Guide also teaches us about sorrow and suffering:

"Remember that thou art dust and unto dust thou shalt return." -God or Ram

Happy Ash Wednesday!

Sudhir Mishra has created a masterpiece of cinema in the true creative and artistic tradition of film making. And it does what it set out to do; to bring to the audience great actors and directors of the 50’s and 60’s film world in Hindi Cinema.

Shooting in the style of light and shade, akin to Guru Dutt’s cinema, Sudhir Mishra has created his own film language. Here he uses the camera effectively as an observer. Mishra lays out the narrative of Khoya Khoya Chand through an exploration of a classic love story between an actress, Nikhat played by Soha Ali Khan and a writer-director, Zafar, played by Shiney Ahuja. Many have written about the fact that perhaps it was the telling of the story of Guru Dutt and Waheeda Rehman’s  story love affair. Nikhat and Zafar’s coming to the industry are a form of escape and refuge; here Mishra employs great technique and vision of the black and white era where shadows are used colourfully to explore depth and emotions, life experiences and intellect of a character as was the norm within the works of Guru Dutt, Bimal Roy, Mehboob  to name a few.  Mishra uses these when focusing on the characters of Zafar, Nikhat and Prem Kumar, played by Rajat Kapoor.

Each character carries a multitude of shades and as the film progresses, the journeys and transitions forced upon them by the outside world bring to the foreground their darkness. Ultimately the film is about love, loyalty and passion, even within the perceived fickle world of film.

Starring: Anupam Kher, Urmila Matondakar & Parvin Dabas and Special Appearances by Boman Irani & Waheeda Rehman

Director: Jahnu Barua

Language: Hindi

Did I watch this recently? Yes

Synopsis:

Uttam Chowhury (Anupam Kher), eminent author and professor of Hindi literature at the University of Bombay now lives the quiet serene life of a retiree with his daughter Trisha (Urmila Montondkar) and youngest son. Life was good until he gradually began losing his memory. At first what is described as 'old age' soon becomes evident is much more and is diagnosed with Dementia (a form of Alzheimers). When his dementia leads him into believing that he killed Gandhi drastic steps must be taken by his supportive family in an attempt to cure his delusion and keep him out of a hospital asylum.

Review:

Maine Gandhi Ko Nahin Mara came out in 2005 with a whimper and left in silence at the box office but luckily this poignant film was not all forgotten. It still managed to receive critical acclaim with Anupam Kher winning a special jury award at the National Film Awards and Urmila Matondkar won Best Actress award for her performance. But somehow i wish the mainstream audience appreciated this film more, its truly original (especially for bollywood) and a quality movie that people should watch for Anupam alone. But be mindful, its not your every run-of-the-mill bollywood film. It has no music, its thought provoking (rather then just plain 'feel good') and most of the time realistic. But its exactly the kind of experimentation that is good to see once and a while in Bollywood especially considering its distributed by Yash Raj one of the most commercial powerful distributors and producers in Bollywood. This movie was definitely the starting trend of Yash Raj's experimentation with niche cinema.

Anupam Kher plays Uttam, the retired Hindi professor who does not know it yet but has succumbed to dementia (a form of Alzheimers which is a degeneration of the brain). His loving Daughter Trisha, played by Urmila Matondkar, starts to get worried when he begins to forget names, where he is, what happened the day before and even that his wife has died. Things go from bad to worse when Uttam starts to blur reality with fiction and believes that he killed Gandhi.

The true strength of this film is Anupam. You can tell he has put so much love and effort into this film and character and it really comes across on screen. Its extremely rare to find an actor like Kher who has done 200+ films and who can do both comedy and drama with such ease. A truly powerful performance and one of the best i have seen him do. He really showcases his talents in this film from the confusion, to pleas of innocence, the loving father, the scared prisoner he really does them all with such passion its hard to forget his performance. I'm sorry to see he didn't gain the award for best actor in 2005 which of course went to Amitabh Bachchan in a similar role in Black (2005) involving Alzheimers.

Other strengths of this film lay in the cinematography and special mention for the background score. Considering the movie had no music, it was more then made up for by the score of the film. It just perfectly matched the ambiance and emotion of the scenes, so its good to see when they aren't creating songs they are still focusing on the strength of the score to create emotion and add to scenes. Other mention I have to give goes to Urmila Matondakar. I'm not really at all a fan of Urmila but then i watch films like Satya (1998), Pinjar (2003) & Ek Hasina Thi (2004) and i'm reminded exactly why people consider her a good actress. I wish she gets better roles then Bas Ek Pal & RGV Ki Aag cause judging by this movie its a total waste of her talents.

All performances in the film were outstanding with the one exception of the youngest son 'Karan' played by an actor called Addy. I'm not sure if its the character or the actor i dislike but i definitely got quite annoyed at times by the one note whiny acting. It could have been a character with alot of depth but instead was completely wasted. Checking by his filmography he has luckily not done a movie since. Bomani Irani also is over the top but then again he is playing an actor! Waheeda Rehman plays a small role that unfortunately was too small for her to show off her talent.

There is heavy Gandhian symbolism in this film but i think in terms of executing the Gandhi messages it was not all that well done and was weakly integrated. I think if i had to choose a film that really tackled the Gandhian philosophy and trying to teach the audience about Gandhi, i would chose without question Lage Raho Munnabhai (2006). I know that it was a comedy and this is a drama so they are quite different in their premise, but as someone who is not that familiar with Gandhi I felt that Lage Raho Munnabhai taught me so much more about what he stood for and the issues associated with present day Gandhism. Though its a very good idea to show Uttam's gradual erosion of his memory in the present like the erosion of Gandhi's principles in todays society, but beyond that I feel i didn't feel the full power of their intended message.

There was strong emphasis on establishing the connection between Gandhi and Uttam that i feel they lost focus on what was truly good to see in this film. I mostly felt the film when they focused on the children and Uttam's journey into dementia. The complex emotions of sadness, frustration, denial and confusion were for me the things that made this film, not the execution of the Gandhi issues. There is a court scene in the second half where the children and doctor try to stage a court room drama so Uttam can be convinced he did not kill Gandhi. This is where i kind of lost interest. It was too far fetched for me considering this is supposed to be a realistic take on the disease. But it was the strongest scene at least for conveying the Gandhi message but i wouldn't miss it if the whole last half hour was cut and spent more time integrating the Gandhi message better.

Last issue i had with the film was the length. The story was quite thin so i really didn't think it needed to be 2 hours considering there wasn't much to the story. It would have been much better if they kept it to the 1.5 hour mark. Or at least add a bit more to the story so the pacing didn't feel so slow.

Overall Score: 3.5/5 Hairy Anil Kapoors - A very good watch if you want to see something different in Bollywood. Engagingly emotional scenes, Anupam's fantastic portrayal of Uttam and Urmila touching journey to help her father all combine to give many viewers their dosage of realistic, thought provoking and quality cinema. However it experiences issues with slow pacing, i'm unsatisfied with the courtroom drama and not all the Gandhi messages were well executed. However the lack of attention this film received in 2005 means i encourage people to watch it for the growing trend of cinema in Bollywood and of course for Anupam Kher.

The film is about Viren (Anil Kapoor) who travels to Rajasthan with his governess, affectionately called Dai Jaa (Waheeda Rehman). He meets the beautiful Pallavi (Sridevi) and he instantly falls in love with her. However, she also happens to be older then him, though this does not bother Viren. During a property dispute and a court case, Paalavi's father suddenly dies of a heart-attack. She is shattered and goes into isolation. At the wake, Viren goes to console her, when she sees him she runs towards him but runs straight past Viren and goes towards Sidhharth - the man she loves. Viren is heartbroken but to fulfill Pallavi's father's dying wish, he arranges the wedding between Sidhharth and Pallavi. Allowing Pallavi to live her life happily, Viren leaves for London. However one year into the marriage Sidhharth and Pallavi are both killed in an accident. It was also revealed that she was pregnant at the time and gave birth to a daughter. The girl is named Pooja and is kept in the care of Dai Jaa. A few years later Viren returns from London and meets Pooja for the first time. When he meets her he is shocked to see that she looks exactly like her mother. Eventually Viren brings them both to London and it is slowly revealed that Pooja has fallen in love with Viren, but he has not forgotten about Pallavi.... (wikipedia)

This great parody number within Lamhe, was posted by youtube user reflectionsonlife:

This is my fav part of the film. Anil Kapoor has been depressed and heartbroken for a long time, but he likes b&w classic Hindi films, so Sridevi and Anupam Kher enact old classic bollywood songs in order to cheer him up. Waheeda Rehman joins the fun in this second half. Such a natural dancer, even at this age! And she performs her OWN number from one of her movies!

Part I :

Part II:

Okay, nobody even has a guess! The movie is Baazi (1968) starring Dharmendra and Waheeda Rehman (who plays Snow White in this segment). The movie is okay, but this play within the movie is fabulous. It's about 15 minutes long---and ends with a Helen dance, of course! It's worth seeing on its own.

Starring: Amitabh Bachchan, Waheeda Rehman, Om Prakash, Shashi Kapoor, Smita Patil & Parveen Babi.

Director: Prakash Mehra

Language: Hindi

Did I watch this recently? Yes

Synopsis:

Arjun Singh (Amitabh Bachchan) has been raised by his grandfather (Om Prakash). His grandfather gets worried when his Arjun doesn't dream about girls, but about his love for his grandfather! So his grandfather feels Arjun is too simple and naive so he sends him to work in Mumbai to experience life for himself and 'stand on his own two feet'. Arjun soon finds work in a 5 star hotel working for Raja (Shashi Kapoor). Someone is trying to kill Raja and Raja fears its his own mother Savitri (Waheeda Rehman). But the story takes a twist when it becomes apparent (to everyone but the chatacters) that Savitri is also Arjun's mother. Arjun doesn't believe Savitri would kill her own son so he pledges his loyalty to finding the person trying to kill Raja. More plot lines and eccentric bad guys to follow.

Review:

Namak Halaal is your typical masala film - full of action, romance, drama, intrigue, comedy and oh yeah the story rarely makes alot of sense. But just cause the story is everywhere doesn't mean its not totally enjoyable to watch!

If i was to summarise and make a synopsis on all the plot lines and characters in this movie i would be writing for a while! There is so much happening all at once, its hard to seamlessly tie everything nicely together. One could describe Namak Halaal as 'wacky' and utterly nonsensical but despite the fact the viewer might be very confused at times, you can almost guarantee they will be at least entertained.

The movie can get a bit full on at times with all the melodrama and eccentric mad men, but the saving grace is the comedy brought by Amitabh Bachchan as 'Arjun Singh', the faithful and simplistic village boy in the big city. If anyone has seen any of Abhishek Bachchan's comedic roles (Jhoom Barabar Jhoom & Bunty aur Babli in particular) they can see exactly where Abhishek gets his comedy style from. Seeing Amitabh in this hilarious role is such a welcome break from seeing his angry man persona in his classic films. I wish he did more comedy because from the ones i've seen (Chupke Chupke & Namak Halaal) he has such a great comedy style.

There are several classic comedy scenes in the movie. Amitabh's classic long winded 'I know english' speech to his prospective employer, Amitabh loosing his shoe in the hotel's water feature, where Amitabh gets everyone in the boardroom to repeat everything Shashi says and so many more.

As for supporting cast Parveen Babi plays the woman sent to kill Shashi Kapoor's character but ends of falling in love with him (as you do), Smita Patil plays the hotel secretary who cannot resist the good natured Amitabh Bachchan and Om Prakash plays Arjun Singh's lovable yet tough love approach grandfather. As a major Waheeda Rehman fan i always love seeing her in movies, but her character is the same old sacrificing loving mother, but as i said i would never complain about having her in a movie.

Songs are good in this film too. My personal favourites are the rain song with Amitabh and Smita Patil - Aaj Rapat Jaye To. Pagh Ghungroo Bagh a disco qawwali styled song and the fake drunk scene he does for his grandfather that i couldn't find on youtube unfortunately. All the Parveen Babi and Shashi Kapoor songs were disco 'groovy' but i prefer the Amitabh ones.

A little bit of Trivia provided by Darshana of Bollywhat, Waheda Rehman, born in 1936, plays mother of Shashi Kapoor, born in 1938, and Amitabh Bachchn, born in 1942. Funny nah?

Overall Score: 3/5 Hairy Anil Kapoors - Despite the fact the story doesn't really make sense and is the same old stuff you've seen before, you watch this movie for the comedy value and the entertainment value of seeing Amitabh Bachchan in one of his funniest comedic roles.

I went Screencap crazy with Namak Halaal, here are some more:

Birthday: 14th May 1936

Height: 5′2″

Spouse: Kamaljit Singh - Actor

Children: Son - Sohail & Daughter - Kashvi

Ex-Boyfriends: She allegedly was in a love-affair with Guru Dutt before his suicide

Claim to Fame: Pyaasa (1957)

First Movie Success: Pyaasa (1957)

Movies to Transform the Career: C.I.D, Pyaasa, Kaagaz Ke Phool, Kala Bazar, Chaudhvin Ka Chand, Sahib Bibi aur Ghulam, Guide, Teesri Kasam, Khamoshi, Namak Halaal, Lamhe, Water, 15 Park Avenue & Rang De Basanti.

Family Connections: None. Discovered by Guru Dutt.

If not an actor other possible careers include: Doctor or Farmer.

Starring: Shabana Azmi, Konkona Sen Sharma, Rahul Bose & Waheeda Rehman

Directed By: Aparna Sen

Language: Hindi

Did I watch this recently? No

Brief Synopsis:

The movie focuses around two aspects, one is viewing the relationship of sisters Meethi (Konkona Sen Sharma) and Anjali (Shabana Azmi). The other aspect is discovering flashback by flashback Meethi's past and her gradual path to schizophrenia. While Meethi is schizorphrenic and disorderly, Anjali is a professor of physics who is intellectual and practical. The movie spends most of the time outlining Meethi's psychological traits and life story from a young child to her turning point as an adult. What is present? What is past? What is real? What is fake? This slow paced psychologically involving film blurs the line of reality for the viewer.

Good Points

• The movie is thought provoking. Not only about the psychological disorder but makes you constantly ponder about what is real and what is fake. Not knowing what is real and what is fake helps to give the perspective of what Konkona feels with the disease, she never knows if what is happening is in her mind or if its real.
• Konkona & Rahul as always play their characters and their interactions effortlessly against each other. Konkona is so young yet can pull off this kind of psychologically disturbed character. You fall in love with her character and you just want her to get better. I think its hard not to feel for her character. Rahul is more restrained in his performance then usual, but this can be attributed to his character.
• The movie is interwoven with flashback and present which keeps the suspense and interest for the length of the film. So despite being long it is involving. So if your curious and attached to the characters you will care about their back story and future keeping you tuned in.

Bad Points

• Ending is a bit disappointing and ambiguous - which i guess is intended to be so. But there was a definite sense of let down when watching the ending, i expected bigger from the film.
• Shabana hardly ever disappoints, but i feel it wasn't her finest hour - character or performance wise i'm unsure. But its not really a bad point I guess cause she is still very good in the role. But i did feel Konkona & Rahul performed their characters better.
• Running time is not long enough to delve deeper into other story interests with Rahul character's family, Shabana's character and Shabana & Kokona's characters family history more. But i guess it was more time constraints, but considering its a psychology based movie the viewer really does crave psychological answers to alot of things.

Overall Score 3/5 Hairy Anil Kapoors - It's worth the watch but expect a feeling of let down with the potential mixed in.

Movie Name : Mahaan
Year of Release : 1983
Producer : Satyanarayana, Suryanarayana

Director : S. Ramanathan
Cast : Parveen Babi, Aroona Irani, Amitabh Bachchan, Waheeda Rehman, Kader Khan, Shakti Kapoor, Zeenat Aman, Ashok Kumar
Music Director : R. D. Burman

Movie Name : Water
Year of Release : 2007
Release Date : 9 March 2007
Genre : Drama, Romance, Musical

Producer : David Hamilton
Associate Producer : Marek Posival
Executive Producer : David Hamilton

Director : Deepa Mehta
Cast : Lisa Ray, John Abraham, Seema Biswas, Raghuveer Yadav, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Vinay Pathak, Gerson da Cunha, Waheeda Rehman
Special Appearance : Deepa Mehta
Music by : Mychael Danna, A. R. Rahman
Lyricist : Sukhwinder Singh
Cinematographer : Giles Nuttgens
Story Writer : Deepa Mehta
Screenplay Writer : Deepa Mehta
Editor : Colin Monie
Art Director : Pradip Redij
Costume Designer : Dolly Ahluwalia
Hair Designer : Regan Noble
Background Sound : Mychael Danna
Make-up Designer : Liz Gruszka
Line Producer : Regan Noble
Choreographer : Vikramaditya Motwane
Playback Singer : Sukhwinder Singh, Sadhana Sargam, Ajay Chakraborty, Richa Sharma

Synopsis :
From the courageous and provocative filmmaker Deepa Mehta comes WATER, the profoundly moving and compellingly vibrant story of India’s “widow houses,” where women of all ages are taken to live (even today) apart from society following the deaths of their husbands. Sprinkled with humor, rife with universal emotions and alive with visual excitement, the story of WATER follows three widows who dared to stand up for themselves in the liberating times of Mahatma Gandhi. Seven years in the making, WATER was nearly undone by fierce political controversy when the film’s India-based production triggered violent protests by Hindu fundamentalists and was forced to shut down and remount the production – years later, under a shroud of secrecy in the neighboring country of SriLanka. But at the film’s debut, opening the 2005 Toronto Film Festival, Mehta’s unflinching and passionate filmmaking resulted in a rousing standing ovation and critical acclaim. “After making WATER, I feel I could retire. That is how satisfied I am,” Mehta said at the time.

Click here to watch 15 Park Avenue online free

Part 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |

11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18

Movie Name : 15 Park Avenue
Year of Release : 2006
Release Date : 6 January 2006
Runing Time : 122 Minutes
Genre : Drama

Banner : SPS Films
Presenter : SPS Films, Bipin Vohra
Producer : Bipin Vohra

Director : Aparna Sen
Cast : Shabana Azmi, Konkona Sen Sharma, Rahul Bose, Kanwaljeet, Shefali Shah, Waheeda Rehman, Soumitra Chatterji, Dhritiman Chatterjee, Sunil Mukherjee
Cinematographer : Hemant Chaturvedi
Story Writer : Aparna Sen
Screenplay Writer : Aparna Sen

Synopsis :
15 Park Avenue - a world where Meethi (Konkona Sen Sharma) has a perfect life... a place that does not exist in reality... or a metaphor to the elusive world of happiness we all seem to look for. The film essays a journey into the world o mentally and physically challenged Meethi, her elder sister Anjali (Shabana Azmi), a brilliant professor of physics in a University in Calcutta. Though Meethi remains farily functinal till her twenties and is even set to get engaged to Jojo (Rahul Bose), a traumatic experience raises the dormant schizophrenia in her. She now lives in a delusional world, where she, her husband Jojo and five children live a happy life at 15 Park Avenue. A few years later, in another meeting, Meethi fails to even recognize the guilt-ridden Jojo, who is now happily married. And now, she urges Jojo to set out to tlook for her perfect world... for 15 Park Avenue.