narayan_l_k Reviews

Maachis (1996)

Gripping Story; Pleasant Music

[10/10 · 19 September 2005]

This film should be re-released in the light of the Nanavati commission findings (2005). Though I do not justify the action of the characters in this film, directed by one of the well-known lyrist and director Gulzar, this reflects the magnitude of corruption in bringing the perpetrators of the 1984 riots to justice.

Above all, this film is one of Vishal Bharadwaj's earliest hits as a music director (yes, the same man who has made "Makdee", "Maqbool" as a film director) His music score blends very well with the story, screenplay... especially the natural scenic shots of the mountains of Kashmir and Punjab.

All the songs are hummable; one can easily understand the implications of the lyrics and the tenor of the musical beats.

Padosan (1968)

Well, the cake has to be distributed amongst all!

[10/10 · 11 March 2005]

This is a hilarious and fantastic plot and producer Mahmood has truly justified the quote below the film title 'The first ambitious Motion Picture'. It is a splendid performance by one and all concerned with this film.

Rather than the film's heroine Saira Banu, the film focuses on the duel of wits between her two suitors Mehmood and Sunil Dutt, who is helped by his Guruji Kishore Kumar (doing an imitation of Popol, a famous Bengali artiste) with a floppy middle-partitioned hairstyle and paan stained mouth. Mehmood has excelled as the South-Indian music and dance teacher, with mannerisms such as clutching the hems of his dhoti and the oft-repeated 'aiyo'... One of the high points of this film is the 'Ek Chatur Naar...' during which Mehmood's harmonium gets stuck, making him mumble, 'ennaiya idu... (in Tamil) (meaning, 'what is this') Buy this DVD and have a good laugh!!!!!

Chupke Chupke (1975)

Evenly paced fun

[10/10 · 11 March 2005]

This film is evenly paced throughout, though it turns out to be a Dharmendra show! Prominent among the hilarious scenes are, when Dharmendra, as a chauffeur, seeks clarification from Om Prakash as to why 'go', 'so' are pronounced in the same way and why not 'to', and the other is that Amitabh Bachchan (English Professor) is shown memorising some aspects of Botany using a college botany textbook under dim-lit table-lamp, because he has to take 'botany tuitions' for his sweetheart (Jaya Bhaduri)! Gulzar's screenplay and dialogues take the cake in this film! A must-have among the VCD collection! 'Chupke-Chupke Chal Ree Purvaiya' is the pick of songs of this film, which too are melodious.

Shakti (1982)

Engrossing film

[10/10 · 11 March 2005]

This film reflects excellently, how man falls victims of circumstances. The Police Officer (Dilip Kumar), when asked by gangster JK (Amrish Puri) to pay up the ransom (in exchange for release of his young son,) out of bravado, retorts that the gang can kill his kidnapped son Vijay, he will never compromise. The gang records the Police Officer's retort and plays it to the captive child, who is shattered after listening to this. This incident is the turning point of the movie as a whole and though the Police Officer-father is somewhat contrite about this, the 'wayward' son (Amitabh Bachchan) never sees him as a father. Also, there is another incident, in which Vijay fights off some goons who try to molest a woman (Smita Patil), soon after which he is arrested on murder charge. Vijay's father is reluctant to defend him. This definitely and decisively turns DCP Ashwini Kumar into a sworn enemy in his son's eyes. The film ends with the father killing the son as he tries to escape after killing his childhood captor JK (this avenging his mother's murder) and even while dying the son tries to avoid the father as he advances to touch him.