Category Archives: Bollywood

Chashme Buddoor (1981)

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There is a joyful goodness in Chashme Buddoor that I don’t think would seem commercial enough nowadays when film comedy about female/male relationships seems to be mostly titillating or sleazy. Writer director Sai Paranjape has an eye for facets of speech and behaviour that she layers cleverly to make a slight story into a satisfying film. I can relate to the characters, their dilemmas and their sense of humour. There are filmi jokes, parodies and genuinely funny moments galore, plus a really nice love story.

Two clueless friends, Omi (Rakesh Bedi) and Jai (Ravi Baswani) think that romance happens just like it does in the films, and remain resolutely impractical in their approach to love. Their misadventures and air of genial cluelessness is a foil for the more serious Siddharth (Farooq Shaikh). And the filmi tropes they swear by – stalking, harassment, loitering in parks –  all fail. It is genuine interest and getting to know another person that might just win the girl. Eventually.

The three men share a small apartment, with all the usual trappings of bachelordom – a big empty kitchen, wall ‘art’ and the bare minimum in comforts. There are many enjoyable details in how they share cigarettes, their routine and schedules, their reliance on Siddharth to start the sole motorcycle. The male actors work beautifully in the ensemble scenes and each has a distinct style that suits their characters. It’s such a typical student household and they are each other’s family. Most of their experience with women is derived from ogling the rare female passerby from the balcony. Constantly in debt to Lalan Mian (Saeed Jaffrey) for their smokes, they alternate between bluff and avoidance as they try and get on with the important things. Like girls.

Neha (Deepti Naval) is one of the few real girls the boys meet. Omi and Jai set out to woo her, and despite having brilliantly scripted plans based on current best practice from the movies, both are sent packing.

Omi fancies himself a poet and Jai pretends to be the younger brother of a film producer. Each gets a song showing their version of events, and I am especially fond of this parody medley.

Quiet studious Siddharth meets Neha when she is working in door to door marketing, demonstrating Chamko washing powder. They have a shy stilted conversation in which Neha carefully tells Siddharth where she can be found in the evenings and he just as carefully listens and remembers. Obviously this is a fantasy.

Their relationship grows through conversation and vast amounts of ice cream. Siddharth occasionally tries to act like his friends tell him to, but Neha challenges him and he immediately drops the posturing and admits he has no clue. It’s a nice unremarkable romance that grows unnoticed by friends and family. Until Siddharth gets his money order and decides to splurge on some fancy clothes. Blue velour? I know it was the 80s but still!

He is pleasant, abstracted but not anti-social and seems content to be the butt of his friends’ jokes. Unlike many other filmi heroes he can, and does, change course when he realises he needs to think of Neha as well himself. Farooq Shaikh is perfectly cast as the introverted and essentially good natured Siddharth, and also delivers the broad comedic scenes with playfulness.

Neha isn’t just sitting around waiting for a husband – she wants to study, has notions about her future and raises the subject of Siddharth with her dad to prevent him arranging an unwanted marriage. She is also quite clear on telling Siddharth that being a wife is not her immediate priority. Deepti plays her as a nice girl-next-door with a good amount of common sense, a dash of fun, and a smile that lights up the screen. She has a nice chemistry with Farooq too.

When the couple have the inevitable setback, Neha goes on despite her sadness and confusion. Siddharth is the one who loses his motivation, and unfortunately his friends decide to help him. And you will have to see the film to find out if they succeeded.

All the actors look right for their roles. There is no excess of glamour, or inappropriate wardrobe as far as I can tell. Saeed Jaffrey is lots of fun as Lalan Mian, the local paan stall owner and father figure. He can switch from berating Jai to lending him a bike so he can go chase a girl without pausing for a breath.

I loved his philosophical ruminations on debt and love, and he has such a twinkle in his eye. Leela Mishra as Neha’s grandmother seems to have a filmi streak like the boys, and has some very funny scenes. Vinod Doshi and Ranjan Grewal play Neha’s father and brother, and help show her as a girl with a sense of self worth and a warm and loving home. Even the waiter at Neha and Siddharth’s regular cafe approves with a smile. It’s all so likeable.

I mentioned the sly filmi references and tricks Sai Paranjape includes in her script. Whether she is having a character announce a flashback or using snippets of famous songs, she has a great instinct for comedy. I really enjoyed the special appearance by Amitabh in a demonstration of how to be suave as he sweeps Rekha off her feet.

I like the soundtrack by Raj Kamal a lot. The songs ‘Kali Ghodi Dwar Khadi’ and ‘Kahan Se Aaye Badra’ are used beautifully to show hope and disappointment, and Yesudas’ vocals are very expressive. There is also a song in which Neha and Siddharth sing in a park about people who sing songs in parks. And the onlookers actually do react as though the couple are a bit mad. Although I think these kids may have been given conflicting instructions.

The upbeat love songs are not really remarkable, but I enjoy seeing ordinary people act in filmi ways and how that would play out in a real environment. Another thing that made me oddly nostalgic was a very silly kidnapping subplot. Thinking on all the news from Delhi of late about women being abducted and assaulted, it did make me wonder about whether the 80s were really more innocent times. There was certainly a lot less traffic.

I’ll tell you now I am horrified by the idea of David Dhawan remaking Chashme Buddoor. I cannot imagine him making a scene with an overweight grandma accidentally flicking through Playboy seem funny. I can certainly imagine him believing he can, but the execution is the key. I don’t think it is just because Sai Paranjape is female that I can relate more to this story. After all, a woman wrote the recent Ranbir Kapoor vehicle, Bachna Ae Haseeno, and I thought that was mostly male wish fulfilment rubbish. But I do think she has an understanding of the internal emotional life of her characters that makes for a more interesting film, especially when the people are the focus.

Sai Paranjape is smart without being too clever, makes fun of her characters but doesn’t humiliate them, and as befits a romantic comedy, there is a lot of affection and happiness. The actors are charming, and I laughed all the way through the film.

A full 5 stars!

Katherine at Totally Filmi is coordinating a month long celebration of women in Indian cinema. Links will be collated at Delicious so keep an eye on that page for lots of other articles and blog posts to be added throughout March.

Heather says: Chashme Buddoor is a very sweet film with realistic, likeable characters and a simple but effective story. I found it amusing rather than flat-out funny, but it did make me smile almost all the way through. The three flatmates are all well cast and it was great to see actors that I tend to associate more with smaller character roles get the screen-time they deserve.  I particularly liked Rakesh Bedi in this and his expressions alone were enough to make me start smiling before he even said anything. I think it’s the relaxed nature of the conversations between the friends and the way they interact with each other, but in many ways this film reminds me of the old British sitcoms of the seventies. I grew up watching (and loving) these and I got the same sort of ‘comfortable comedy’ feeling here.

As Temple has mentioned, a lot of the humour comes from the way many classic Bollywood conventions are parodied and there are many references to other films, although I’m quite sure that I didn’t catch them all. The parody song with Neha and Jai is just brilliant and I did enjoy playing’ spot the song’ as it went along. The main characters are all allowed to develop at their own pace and each has little quirks that make them seem like real people rather than conventional ‘filmi’ characters.  They’re also not at all glamorous and the guys either shop in the same store or seem to share shirts, which again falls in well with the whole student lifestyle portrayed. The splitting up of their room into three distinct areas by the various pictures on the wall was also something I remembered from my own days as a student in a shared room and was another very realistic touch.

I enjoyed all the music, especially the more classically based songs Kahan Se Aaye Badra and Kali Ghodi Dwar Khadi and agree that Yesudas’ voice works perfectly for these. The songs are all very well pictured as well, although there is a rather disturbing appearance by a bear in the song in the park which I really didn’t enjoy. All the actors were uniformly excellent and I particularly loved Deepti Naval as Neha. I was perhaps a little disappointed that she didn’t take more umbrage to Siddharth’s suggestion that she give up her washing powder job when they got married, but I could also see his point of view – it was a very good way to meet him after all! Chahsme Budoor is a very well made film with clever comedy and excellent performances. I cannot imagine a remake by David Dhawan being anywhere near the same quality or have any of the same subtlety. Much better to watch the original and step back to a simpler time. 4 stars from me.

Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu

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I must confess upfront. My friend Jess appears as an extra and dancer in Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu, and without that motivation I probably wouldn’t have gone to see it. But I am so glad I succumbed to the friendly emotional blackmail! It’s a well constructed piece nicely executed by first time director Shakun Batra and writer Ayesha DeVitre. Imran Khan and Kareena Kapoor were appealing and relatable, and demonstrated their comic flair. The standard masala trappings of big songs, blingy costumes and unnecessary subplots are for the most part missing, but instead I was treated to some good character development and writing with a slightly unconventional and very pleasing end.

Jess told me that she did ‘something’ in the opening scene but wouldn’t say what. If you’ve seen the film, the young lady giving birth is Jess. That was definitely unexpected. My friends (one of whom is very pregnant) and I cheered along as Jess grimaced and puuuuuushed!

Rahul Kapoor (Imran Khan) is introduced in a neat montage with a voiceover describing his childhood. With a distant demanding father (Boman Irani) and a vain socialite mother (Ratna Pathak Shah), Rahul learned to do what was expected and to navigate his parents ambitions. He grows into a nervous young man who never voices his opinions let alone acts on them. Drifting into a career as an architect, he moved to Las Vegas. Sadly his lack of passion for the career translated into lack of success and he was sacked. His instinct is to hide the truth from his parents and try to cope alone but he lacks the self belief to get going again. His dad’s friend, and indeed everyone else when asked, seems to think the cure for his malaise is sex and lots of it. Rahul is uptight, prissy and unlikely to heed this helpful prescription. He would think wearing un-ironed socks was totally wild behaviour.

Riana Braganza (Kareena Kapoor) is messy, extroverted, and affectionate. She rockets through life dealing head on with whatever setbacks she encounters and changing course as she deems fit. She has recently broken up with a boyfriend and it seems to have also made her break up with their friends who she accused of spying on her. She is looking to start again and get her life and career as a hairstylist back on track. Her parents are supporting Riana financially and emotionally after her break up. They talk openly about her relationships and dreams and she seeks their advice without feeling obliged to follow it.

Of course these opposites meet, and predictably enough Riana turns Rahul’s life upside down. There are several contrived plot set ups to bring the pair together and to keep them in contact, including a drunken Vegas quickie wedding. I have a sneaking fondness for the Elvis wedding celebrant idea. One of my friends got married there as he and his wife are atheists but they both believe in Elvis. Even though the catalyst was so filmi, the friendship between the pair felt quite substantial and the way the relationship developed was quite organic. Unlike other films where I have wondered why people stuck together, I believed that they were drawn together for a number of smaller reasons that eventually amounted to a significant bond.

Sensing that Rahul needs a break, Riana persuades him to come back to India with her when she visits her family. This eventually brings the story to crisis point. Is it friendship or love he feels? Is she just a compulsive hugger or does she have feelings for him? What will he do about his parents with their unrealistic expectations and social pretensions? If someone loves you do you feel obliged to love them back? It is so refreshing to see characters having some mature conversations about their feelings and what they might mean.

Imran has a youthful good boy look that suits Rahul, and initially seems withdrawn and listless. He loosens up and becomes more impish and demonstrative as Riana draws him out. He has a few moments of cutting loose where he seems to channel the Muppets, and generally hits the spot in his dialogue delivery and expressions. I particularly liked Rahul’s fixation on his teeth. At one point Riana tells Rahul that he is perfectly average – a compliment meaning he was balanced and didn’t do anything to excess. I think that sums it up. Imran gives a measured and deft performance in a film that has no real extremes.

Kareena’s performance is just right in terms of energy and sparkle, and she delivers the more emotional scenes with restraint and intelligence. There are shades of Geet from Jab We Met but Riana is more mature and self aware. Kareena’s rapport with Imran seems quite spontaneous and reinforced the feeling that I was seeing a friendship developing.

The story pivots on Rahul and Riana so the support cast is minimal. I really liked not having an unnecessary subplot. The actors who played Riana’s crazy family were all good, and they helped cement the sense that Riana was a real person and very much the product of her upbringing. There is one character who might fit the comedy uncle designation, demonstrating the vulgarity of the Kapoors’ social milieu, but he was a minor irritation. Boman Irani and Ratna Pathak Shah have perfect timing in their reactions.

The visual design is clean and uncluttered. There are some cute calendar graphics to illustrate the days as they pass, and they suit the laid back modern quirkiness of the story. Shakun Batra uses some wonderful shots of Las Vegas, and I liked seeing the overseas location treated as more than just a song backdrop. When the action moves to India the interiors are perfect for the two families and contrast their vastly different backgrounds. Both Imran and Kareena looked the part, with costume design that was mostly flattering and appropriate.

There are some nifty touches. For example, when Rahul is talking to his dad there is footage of a lion killing a zebra playing in the background, with the action in that sequence matching the ebb and flow of the dialogue. Or when on a date with Rahul, the girl (an old flame) sends a text to ‘Avantika Malik’ saying how dull he is. It’s a well thought out film, with a high level of craftsmanship.

The soundtrack by Amit Trivedi (lyrics by Amitabh Bhattacharya) is OK but a bit heavy on acoustic guitar and navel gazing. The songs do fit in the drama and the lyrics – while unsubtitled – seemed relevant from what I could make out. Aunty Ji is a highlight for upbeat fun and cheesiness. Imran has clearly been working really hard on dancing and looking like he enjoys it. Plus Jess – post ‘childbirth’ and now a backing vocalist and dancer! Yay!

Given there is usually only a choice of two possible endings, romantic comedies rarely surprise. Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu gave me some characters I liked, actors who did a very good job at realising their roles, an entertaining journey and a conclusion that was fresh and satisfying. It’s not a ground breaking masterpiece, but it is a pleasant and intelligent film. Recommended!

Kaminey

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I’ve been a Shahid Kapoor fan for quite some time and have always been convinced that he’s a good actor who just needs a better film to really show his acting chops. And Kaminey is that better film. Shahid excels here as an actor rather than just a pretty face with some nifty dance moves. While Jab We Met was a great performance from Shahid as a romantic hero, here he steps out of that more traditional chocolate box role to deliver an excellent performance as a darker action character.  Kaminey takes much of its influence from directors such as Quentin Tarantino and Guy Ritchie, but for all that it has its own unique flavour with a number of plot points that are distinctly Indian.

The story revolves around two brothers, Charlie and Guddu, both played by Shahid Kapoor. Although they are identical twins, the two hate each other and haven’t seen or spoken to each other in years.

Charlie

Guddu

Charlie provides the narration for the film and after a brief introduction about his philosophy on life as trains rush past, we see him running through a station. This sets the tone for the rest of the film: fast-paced and headlong with very few stops for breath along the way. Although the film does follow a fairly linear story path, there is plenty of misdirection and a number of twists and turns which keeps the final outcome in doubt until the very end.

Charlie works as a petty criminal in the world of fixing horse races and is what my family would call a ‘chancer’. His ambition in life is to be a bookie although just at present he is working for a trio of completely crazy Bengali brothers (Rajatabha Dutta and Deb Mukherjee). The youngest brother is Charlie’s best friend and the two have a very close relationship, although Mikhail (Chandan Roy Sanyal) also acts as a source of random mayhem pretty much every time he appears on screen.

Guddu, the other twin, is a softer and sweeter character who works for an NGO promoting AIDS awareness when he’s not studying. I listened (and sang along) to the sound track before the film released and never picked that this was a song about AIDS, but the picturisation makes it quite clear. It’s a great song and one of the more novel introductions of a character I’ve seen. Plus I love that everyone ends up wearing gigantic red mesh condoms at the end.

In one of those little ironies that litter the film, Guddu hasn’t followed his own advice and his girlfriend Sweety (Priyanka Chopra) is pregnant. The revelation is excellently scripted and is used to reveal a lot about both characters. Guddu doesn’t approve of abortion but as marriage doesn’t fall into his life plan he really doesn’t have a solution, other than letting Sweety deal with the situation as best she can. Sweety though is quick to point out that her brother is the notorious gangster Sunil ‘Chopper’ Bhope and that if Guddu wants a life of any sort he’d better figure something out – and fast!

So with his life plan in tatters and his future looking grim, Guddu sees no other option but marriage which totally delights Sweety. The romance is rather glossed over and from subsequent conversations it’s hard to understand exactly why the couple stick together, but the cut song Pehli Baar Mohabbat  describes their relationship beautifully. I can see why the song wasn’t used though as the slow pace doesn’t suit the rest of the film. Instead Raat Ke Dhai Baje captures the different attitudes Guddu and Sweety have towards the marriage and keeps the mood more upbeat.

Meanwhile, through a series of chances Charlie has got his hands on a large quantity of drugs and plans to sell them to realise his dream. The original owners of the drugs and their various minions are, of course, keen to get their hands on the drugs and once they know who has them, they’re keen to get their hands on Charlie as well.

So we have the two brothers each being pursued by different sets of gangsters for different reasons. Being twins it’s not long before the two get confused and end up being dragged into each other’s problems, although it’s nowhere near as straightforward as that makes it sound.

What I really like about this film is the clever script and the way the story keeps evolving. It’s also the best role I’ve seen Shahid play and he’s totally convincing as the twin brothers. Guddu and Charlie look different as well as having quite distinctive personalities and each has the added bonus of a different speech defect. Guddu has a stutter while Charlie pronounces s as f which makes for some funny and memorable lines from both.  At first I really didn’t think the speech impediments were going to add much to the plot and were going to be played for cheap laughs, but instead the humour is much sharper and the way they speak also helps define the characters more clearly.

Charlie is tough and used to dealing with the underworld. He can fight, think fast on his feet and is decisive and determined. Guddu is much softer (he even looks less muscled), he doesn’t like to fight and avoids conflict where possible. Guddu does come across as more selfish and self-absorbed than his brother but I think this is mainly because Charlie’s relationship with Mikhail allows more of his open and sociable side to be seen. Charlie appears to be the more dominant twin, but later events show that Guddu is equally determined and quite capable of standing up for himself when it’s something he cares about. Both brothers have been affected by their poor relationship with each other and this adds more shade to their characterisations.

It’s not just the two brothers who have well drawn characters. Sweety has plenty of personality and Priyanka is excellent here as the feisty girl who is willing to fight Guddu’s battles for him. She has shed her more usual glamour and is almost unrecognisable in her cheap cotton outfits. Although her role isn’t all that big, she breathes life into Sweety and makes her much more than just the pregnant girlfriend. I really like her character here despite her rather impulsive decisions.

The two main villains are more than just the usual requisite thugs and have plenty of personality. Even their underlings have some back-story and while this is mostly a good thing, at times it does become a little too unwieldy and starts to crowd into the main plot. Amole Gupte almost steals the show as ‘Chopper’ Bhope as he fits his larger than life role of the gangster turned politician perfectly. Tashi (Tenzing Nima), the gangster looking for Charlie, is more sophisticated but while less overtly menacing his callous treatment of his allies makes him just as frightening. The various other gang members and police, corrupt and otherwise, are all just as well drawn and fit into the story development well.

Perhaps the only downside to the story is that there is very little opportunity for Shahid to dance, but his performance more than makes up for that omission. The music (written by Vishal Bhardwaj with lyrics by Gulzar) is generally of high quality and as expected from a director with Vishal’s background, the songs are well integrated into the story without disrupting the narrative flow. In fact most of the time they carry the film forward and further develop the characters. Dhan Te Dhan for example does a great job of capturing the frenzy and manic energy of Mikhail along with Charlie’s exuberance of realising he may actually achieve his dream.

There is one issue with the film which I noticed much more watching on DVD rather than in the cinema. Although Tassaduq Hussain gets a very edgy feel with his camera work, the whole film is very dark and there are times when it’s hard to see the action clearly. It’s not helped by the fact that many of the outdoor scenes are filmed in what appears to be torrential rain which adds to the rather gloomy feel the low light levels induce. It also makes it very hard to screen-cap! And while I love the film climax, I don’t really like the final ending of the film which seems a little too pat with everything neatly tied up with a big shiny bow to finish. Maybe it’s my exposure to Tamil films but I don’t need everything to be happy ever after to make a good ending.

Vishal Bhardwaj is a good story teller who gets the most out of his actors and with Kaminey I think he succeeds in both those aspects very well. It’s fun and full of fast-paced dialogue and action plus fantastic performances from the whole cast.  An entertaining watch that’s a different take on the double role plot device for Bollywood. 4 ½ stars.

Temple says

Shahid does a great job in a complex dual role. When the brothers are together even subtle details like a tautness to facial muscles, posture, degree of neckline plunge or the angle of his head are enough to tell you which twin you’re looking at.  Sweety is an interesting character, and that complexity was in the writing as well as derived from Priyanka’s strong performance. Sweety is a manipulative, aggressive and entitled young woman who physically defends Guddu from attack and takes over decision making in a crisis. In short, she is like many a filmi hero. As she and her brother face off it clicked for me that she had been raised almost as his younger brother, and he was a role model for her when it came to manipulating and deceiving people. I appreciated Priyanka toning down the glam (except her too perfect manicure), and giving Sweety a harder edge. For a while I suspected Sweety of deliberately getting pregnant, and even wondered if Guddu was really the father. But I did believe she and Guddu were genuinely fond of each despite the lies. They were well aware of each other’s flaws and talked about the things that upset them so I think it was a fairly mature relationship and I wasn’t surprised they stuck together. Even in Raat Ke Dhai Baje there are glimpses of how their relationship works – he resists all change while she jumps into planning and implementation, but he lights up at her smile and enthusiasm.

The direction is accomplished and all of the music worked perfectly. I liked the way vintage filmi songs were used too. There was a lot of effort given to establishing the world Kaminey is set in, especially the contrast between the shadowy Charlie and the clean cut Guddu. There are lots of opposites and tensions, and the visual language really enhances the scripted drama. Charlie’s dream sequences were annoying on a re-watch but they do explain his character. Things run at a cracking pace, and kept me wondering how it would all tie together. The ending felt not entirely necessary, but it did show off an excellent hat and allow for one final lisp joke. I like Kaminey a lot but it doesn’t have quite the same impact on a repeat viewing when the suspense is diminished. But the strength of the script is evident in complex characters and some sharp dialogues. See it for excellent performances by Shahid and Priyanka, and for a stylish modern take on cops & gangsters. 4 stars!