Song: Dost Dost Na Raha

This is a song from the movie 'Sangam' made a long time back (1964). The movie was essentially a love triangle, starring Raj Kapoor, Rajendra Kumar and Vyjantimala, and was directed by Raj Kapoor. The music director was Shankar-Jaikishen.
The movie was about 2 guys in love with the same girl, but she loves Rajendra Kumar. Raj Kapoor does not know that Rajendra loves her also, and goes away for the war. He is presumed dead, but then comes back and marries Vyjanthimala. This song is sung when they are in Switzerland and Rajendra Kumar comes to meet them for a vist. The song was sung by Mukesh, and is an incredible song, very haunting.



Lyrics:

Dost dost na raha, pyaar pyaar naa raha
Zindagi hamein tera, aitbaar na raha, aitbaar na raha

Amaanatein main pyaar ki, gaya tha jisko saunp kar
Woh mere dost tum hi the, tumhi to the
Jo zindagi ki raah me bane the mere hamsafar
Woh mere dost tum hi the, tumhi to the
Saare bhed khul gaye, raazdaar na raha
Zindagi hamein tera, aitbaar na raha, aitbaar na raha
Dost dost na raha...

Safar ke waqt mein palak pe motiyo ko taulti
Woh tum na thi to kaun tha tumhi to thi
Nashe ki raat dhhal gayi ab khumaar na raha
Zindagi hamein tera, aitbaar na raha, aitbaar na raha
Dost dost na raha..

Song: Dil De Diya Hain

Ever since I started writing, I wanted to share some of the songs that I liked, and hence will be listing a song once in a while that I like. The first song is called 'Dil De Diya Hain' from the movie 'Masti' made in 2004. Now 'Masti's is all about 3 guys trying to get some fun outside their marriage, and hence this song was a surprise, given that the movie was average. Movie starred a number of people, Ajay Devgan, Aftab Shivdasani, Vivek Oberoi, Ritesh Deshmukh, Lara Dutta, Amrita Rao. The music director was Anand Raj Anand, and the song was sung by him. The song was written by Sameer.



Lyrics:

Dil de diya hai, jaan tumhein denge
Aa..
(Dil de diya hai, jaan tumhein denge
Daga nahin karenge sanam) -2
Ho...rab di kasam yaara, rab di kasam
(Dil de diya hai, jaan tumhein denge
Daga nahin karenge sanam) -2

(Rukh zindagi ne mod liya kaisa
Hamne socha nahin tha kabhi aisa) -2
Aata nahin yaqeen, kya se kya ho gaya
Kis tarha main tumse, bewafa ho gaya
Insaaf kar do, mujhe maaf kar do
Itna hi kar do karam
Dil de diya hai, jaan tumhein denge
Daga nahin karenge sanam

(Awaargi mein ban gaya diwaana
Maine kyun saadgi ko nahin jaana) -2
Chaahat yahi hai ke, is qadar pyaar doon
Qadmon mein tere main, toh jahaan waar doon
Chain mera le lo, khushi meri le lo
De do mujhe dedo saare gham
Dil de diya hai, jaan tumhein denge
Daga nahin karenge sanam

(Mere ashq keh rahe meri kahaani
Inhein samjho na tum sirf paani) -2
Ro ro ke aansuon ke daag dhool jaayenge
In mein wafa ke rang, aaj ghool jaayenge
Paas tum rahogi, bhool ab na hogi
Karoonga na tumpe sitam
Dil de diya hai, jaan tumhein denge
Daga nahin karenge sanam
Ho...rab di kasam yaara, rab di kasam
(Dil de diya hai, jaan tumhein denge
Daga nahin karenge sanam) -2

Mujhse Shaadi Karogi: A nice watch

The first time I saw this movie, it was a few months after it had appeared. When it released, I was dismissive, thought that it would be a normal movie, what with Akshay Kumar, Salman Khan, and Priyanka Chopra; a normal movie with both of them fighting with each other for her, and so and so forth, you know the standard type. But then I watched it on TV, and it was a totally different experience.



First of all, I found the movie overall to be a great comedy. It's a light movie that moves along at a fair clip, with very few scenes that could be seen to be dragging. Secondly, the character fitting seemed to be fine, with Akshay playing a dashing semi-playboy all about to wreck the romance of Salman and Priyanka, Salman playing a normal guy who is caring about his family and yet had a temper problem, and Priyanka playing her usual beautiful self.
The movie is primarily about these 3 people, with excellent support from Amrish Puri (in probably one of his last movies), Rajpal Yadav, Kadar Khan and Satish Shah. Salman plays Sameer, a hot tempered but otherwise a very good natured guy who has moved to Goa to be the manager of the lifeguards section, in order to get away from the shock when his girlfriend (Amrita Arora) married somebody else. She was shocked when he used a lot of force and anger, ironically when he was saving her. In Goa, his neighbour is the retired Colonel (Amrish Puri) who lives with his wife (Supriya Karnik) and daughter Rani (Priyanka). Priyanka is a budding designer, waiting for her big break. They meet, and Salman falls head over heels for her, but over a series of circumstances Salman keeps on hitting or otherwise injuring the Colonel, ending up in Rani's bad books. He apologizes multiple times, but keeps on doing something or the other.
At this time, Akshay enters and charms his way into the Colonel's house by some smooth talk and repairing the Colonel's injured neck, and moves closer to Rani. A series of incidents, very humorous where he keeps on upstaging Salman, allthough in a very humorous way. Examples are mixing vodka in the orange juice that Rani gets for Salman, setting things in a way that Rani sees a beautiful girl in Salman's bed, gets an impression that hot posters of beautiful girls are Salman's and so on. In the meantime, Satish Shah, who works for Salman bears the brunt of his frustration and has to work night shifts, till it is revealed that he is Rani's uncle, and suddenly he is the favorite of Salman Khan. Rajpal Yadav plays the role of an astrologer who is advising Salman, mostly wrongly. In a double role, he also plays the role of a gang leader who gets beaten up by Salman (when Salman in a haze believes that he is beating up Akshay). There is another incident when Salman anonymously pays for Priyanka's entry into a contest which she wins, and then Akshay takes credit.
There is one slightly strange incident in the latter half of the movie, when a magician brings Salman and Priyanka together, after Priyanka was vehemently against him. Seemed very contrived. The ending is in a cricket match opening where Kapil Dev, Harbhajan Singh and Navjot Sidhu are there, where Salman publicly confesses that he loves Priyanka and Akshay confesses that he is Salman's longtime friend, helping him in trying to control his anger. Overall a good movie.
Some nice songs from the movie: Rab Kare Tujh Ko Bhi Pyar Ho Jaaye, Lal Dupatta, Mujhse Shaadi Karogi

Golmaal: The Ajay Devgun one

This movie was a laugh riot for me, seriously; every time it re-runs on TV and I see it, I atleast manage to catch some scenes at least. These are a group of actors that take modern comedy, with accidents, attempted killings, breaking into a house, and so on, and turn it into a very funny movie. Of course, not everyone shares my opinion, I was speaking to a colleague and he was horrified that I liked it; he could not stand it and somehow his opinion of me must have also fallen. The movie does not star a very large cast, starring primarily Ajay Devgan, Arshad Warsi, Rimi Sen, Sharman Joshi, Tusshar Kapoor, Paresh Rawal, Susmita Mukherjee, Mukesh Tiwari, Sanjay Mishra, Manoj Joshi, Vrajesh Hirjee, etc. The movie was made in 2006, directed by Rohit Shetty and music by Vishaal Shekhar; trendy music but nothing that remained hummable some time after the movie. It was also a big hit.
So, what's the movie all about ? It is about these 4 friends, not classic friends in the manner of persons sacrificing everything for each other, they do live for themselves, but are still great friends. Gopal (Ajay Devgun) is the eldest of the lot. When Sharman Joshi is in college, the other 3 are already out of college, a pain for the principal since they are regular conmen on a small scale and a nuisance for him. At one point, the principal warns Sharman to stay away from these people, but later when he finds that Sharman is involved in their schemes, he kicks him out from the college as well.
They have taken money from a local goonda called Vasuli Bhai, and are running from him as he tries to recover his money. While running, they stumble into a house (big mansion) belonging to Paresh Rawal and Sushmita, both of whom are blind. The couple have a son in the US, and are waiting for their grandson, Sameer to show up sometime. These 4 like the idea of living in the house, and plan to enter. Their plans get speeded up by accident, and they land up in a situation where they introduce themselves as Sameer (body of Sharman and voice of Ajay Devgun). As can be thought, such a person with the body of one and voice by another can be pretty interesting and comical, and it is. Another thing that is great fun is the way that Sharman is the one who keeps on translating whatever Tusshar says through his hand movements.
They start to settle in, and soon realize that Rimi Sen is living in the neighborhood. All of them are attracted to her, and would like her to be his, and not his friends. One day, they seen a pretend rape scene (acting) and jump in. Comedy here as well, since they need something to break the window, and so they throw Sharman through the window. Eventually, they rescue her to realize that it was a pretend. However, this way they get introduced to her, except for Tusshar who is dumb and cannot speak.
Later, Ajay introduces the others as his servants, cheesing them off. After this, there is a series of adventures whereby Arshad and Sharman try to impress Rimi and do so, except for Ajay who keeps on revealing their wrong-doings and moves off with Rimi (on his machine, a 4 seater bike). In both cases, first Arshad and then Sharman get provoked by the others to finish off Ajay for what he has done to them, and they try; but in each case, the attempt is borne by a guy sent by the mob boss (Sanjay Mishra).
In between, a servant Paandu, actually sent by the boss comes in the house. They initially threaten him to keep quiet, and then once he beats them up, they retaliate and kick him out. There is a classic scene that sort of pays tribute to the movie Black, when 2 of these guys talk about the movie and play the blind old man and lady.
In the end, it is revealed that the son and grandson of Paresh both were dead, and Paresh knew about all this, but still let them live there (he had realized that there were 4 of them). The mob boss (named Babli) is after the house because he had put some diamonds in the ashes that Paresh was carrying. Things turn out well in the end, and Rimi also selects Tusshar, since she wanted a guy who would listen to her and not speak too much :-).

Ardh Satya: A very hard hitting movie

It's been 24 years since this movie has been released, but other than the fact that the guns are newer, the money involved is more, and the violence more brazen, this could be a movie of today's time. The movie set a benchmark in the area of showing the interaction of police, politicians and the criminals / mafia class and how this corrupts society, and warps the mind-frame of even people who want to be honest. And yet, given that this was a movie from the past, without any songs, wonder how many people even remember it. I for one don't remember it appearing on a movie channel in the last few years.

Ardh Satya is a very hard-hitting movie, from a Director, Govind Nihalini, who is known for not pulling his punches, and making movies with a message such as Aakrosh, Manthan, etc. Ardh Satya stars a number of intense actors such as Om Puri, Smita Patil, Naseeruddin Shah, Amrish Puri, Sadashiv Amrapurkar, etc. The movie, released in 1983, won the Filmfare Awards for Best Director, Best Film, Best Story and Best Supporting Actor (Sadashiv Amrapurkar).
What is the story all about? This is Mumbai of the 1970's, where there is an easy interaction between the police force and the mafia. Om Puri is a dedicated and fiercely honest cop, Anant Welankar. He comes from a family where his father was also a policeman, a man of strict nature. His growing up was in the midst of his father's beliefs, along with beatings of his father, something that had an impact on him. This having said, he attempts to be honest, even though his superiors are shown to be well-oiled into the system, with both Shafi Inamdar and Achyut Potdar who have made their peace with the criminality of the system, and are now benefiting from it.
Once in the station, he starts to feel the impact of the power of criminals and politicians. He makes an arrest of some criminals for attacking a policeman, and his sense of accomplished is badly shocked when the goons are let off the next day. Why? Because they worked for Rama Shetty (Sadashiv in an award winning role) who is well connected, they are released pronto and Anant is advised to lay off (a sort of practical orientation to the realities of life) from anything to do with Rama Shetty. But what is a hot-headed police officer to do? In another incident, he again arrests more of Rama Shetty's men with the same consequence.
He meets an example of what could happen to a policeman in the same situation, Naseeruddin Shah, who could not compromise, and was evicted from his job and is now a derelict person, in total despair.
In the meantime, he has met a simple teacher, Jyotsna (Smita Patil), and in love with her, she also reciprocates. However, given the state that he is in in terms of his frustrations, he starts to drink more and more to alleviate the pain, and his relationship with her suffers. Things get worse when Rama Shetty gets the ticket for elections and is now on the upward path, with Anant having to provide the security for his rally. His frustration reaches such a level that he takes it out on a suspect who dies. And now Anant is in a mess. He can only go to one person for help, his arch-nemesis, Rama Shetty. What does he do? How does he redeem himself ?
The movie has a fascinating poem, recited by Om Puri. His voice gives it an extra push. In fact, the whole movie revolves around the incredible acting by Om Puri and Sadashiv Amrapurkar.



Chakravyuh mein ghusne se pehle,
kaun tha mein aur kaisa tha,
yeh mujhe yaad hi na rahega.


Chakravyuh mein ghusne ke baad,
mere aur chakravyuh ke beech,
sirf ek jaanleva nikat’ta thi,
iska mujhe pata hi na chalega.

Chakravyuh se nikalne ke baad,
main mukt ho jaoon bhale hi,
phir bhi chakravyuh ki rachna mein
farq hi na padega.

Marun ya maarun,
maara jaoon ya jaan se maardun.
iska faisla kabhi na ho paayega.

Soya hua aadmi jab
neend se uthkar chalna shuru karta hai,
tab sapnon ka sansar use,
dobara dikh hi na paayega.

Us roshni mein jo nirnay ki roshni hai
sab kuchh s’maan hoga kya?

Ek palde mein napunsakta,
ek palde mein paurush,
aur theek taraazu ke kaante par
ardh satya.

Sanjay Dutt's award winning movie: Vaastav

Today is a day when Sanjay Dutt's fans will be very sad and depressed. Their hero has been sentenced to 6 years in prison under the Arms Act. So, forgetting about the circumstances of the case, let us remember some good movies that he has done. One of them was Vaastav. Sanjay Dutt had acted in a variety of movies before and after Vaastav, but it was Vaastav that gave him a super reputation, that of being a good actor. The movie, released in October, 1999 won Sanjay Dutt the following awards:
1. Year 2000 Filmfare Best Actor
2. Year 2000 Screen Weekly Awards for Best Actor

Partner: the comedy is okay

If you like subtle humour or more refined humor, then maybe this movie is not for you. The humor is loud, throughout the movie. In addition, if you looking for a fully cogent storyline, then again, maybe this is not the movie for you. But, I liked sections of the movie incredibly. I did not regret the trip to the movie hall to see the movie, although I would not go again. I would not mind seeing the movie again when it comes on TV in a couple of months / weeks.
First of all, this is not an original movie, but is copied from a Will Smith starring English movie, Hitch. Secondly, the movie does not have too much of a story line, but has lots of skin show, including a large amount from Salman Khan. People who like his bare chested display will enjoy the movie. Then, there are some beautiful locations that are displayed in some of the movies.
The songs of the movie are great, you can catch these songs on Youtube (You're my Love, Soni De Nakhre, Maria Maria, Partner, Dupatta Tera).
Now about the story: There are essentially 4 main characters of the movie, with Salman Khan playing the role of Prem, a person who has lived in a family with 7 sisters, and hence he knows the psychology of girls inside out. He uses this knowledge to help boys get closer to girls whom they love by essaying the role of a 'loveguru', and he does this in a way that he will only support those who are doing this out of love, not lust. Govinda plays the role of a simple buffoon like character named Bhaskar, madly in love with the super-rich and attractive Priya, the heiress to a 1000 crore empire. He comes to the loveguru (Salman) for help, but when Salman gets to know about his quest, he laughs him off. And seems quite right, after all, how will a simple salary earning man get a sexy, rich heiress to even meet him, forget fall in love with him ?
Anyhow, Govinda keeps on pursuing him to give him advice, including following him to Phuket, where Salman has gone for a holiday along with his sister and her kids. He keeps on pestering Salman, and eventually, after an adventure of Salman with a missile, and then an accident of Govinda's bus, Salman agrees to help him.
So, now they are back in India and Salman advices him, while at the same time moaning over how uncouth and backward Govinda actually is. So, it starts with Govinda attending a meeting where Katrina is looking for financial advice. Adviced to make an outstanding entry, Govinda does so in the meeting, criticizing all his seniors, throwing some strong advice to Katrina, and actually getting fired on the spot. However, as predicted by Salman, Katrina appreciates his strong non Yes Ma'am attitude and asks him out to dinner. Govinda, over the next 1-2 days before the dinner, is shown many times quivering like a leaf when Katrina speaks to him, at one time falling off the roof and onto a passing truck.
He takes some advice from Salman, and also uses his own basic instinct and keeps on vowing Katrina. At the same time, there is another story ongoing in terms of Lara Dutta. She is a photographer and journalist for a Mumbai masala newspaper, and trying to take photographs of the Chota Don, Rajpal Yadav. He finds out and chases her, and Salman rescues her by mistake. He does that once again and is smitten by her. Then he discovers that she has a son (Ali Haji), and is a single mom, and yet he stays on (something new for Bollywood where the concept of a single mom and the hero being unfazed by the fact is an interesting twist). She is hesitant about Salman but leaves the decision to her son accepting Salman. The kid plays a nice role, and accepts Salman, in fact saving Salman once when Lara questions Salman's dedication about caring for her and her kid.
Both these stories converge when Katrina's dad rejects Govinda and takes her elsewhere for her marriage to somebody else. All the characters reach to the place, and eventually, in a very shallow and non-believable scheme, persuade the father to marry his super-rich daughter to a guy who does not have more than a few thousands to his name.
But this is not the end, as Lara believes that her friend has been duped by a guy who took advice from the love guru Salman, and when she discovers that Salman is the one, she acts like a lady scorned. She gets the whole thing published, including putting Salman and Govinda on the front page and highlighting about how they used a strategy to get Katrina. So, things are badly broken up for some time, and then Salman manages to convince Katrina (although she apparently did not need much convincing), and then convince Lara. In the end, there is a fairly longish scene where Govinda keeps on interrupting Salman's marriage night to get tips, and that is where the movie ends.
Rajpal Yadav plays a nice bit role, Puneet Issar plays an even more bit role as the guy from Haryana who beats up Rajpal twice. Salman and Govinda are nice role players, and even though the whole movie seems unnatural, individually they impress. Katrina does not have to do much except look good, which she does. Overall a nice movie, although some of the humor is way below classy level, what with urinating on the villain, discussions about a transvestite, and a prolonged interruption of the honeymoon scene.