Angoor - Confusion Unlimited

Willam Shakesphere's work has been a favorite with many film makers, in all the 'woods' - Hollywood, Bollywood, etc. One of the best adaptations of his work in Bollywood is Gulzar's Angoor, based on 'Comedy of Errors'. The plot is so convincingly modified to suit the Indian social setup, that it feels original. The plot, if you haven't read Comedy of Errors, is a little complicated. Let me try to explain.

Raj Tilak (Utpal Dutt) and his wife are on their way to a holiday with their twin sons, both of them are called Ashok (bada & chota Ashok to differentiate). On their way they adopt an abandoned set of twins whom they call Bahadur. Raj Tilak thinks once both sets of twins grew up, the Bahadurs will serve the Ashoks. During their sea travel, they meet with an unfortunate accident in which they are all separated. One pair of Ashok-Bahadur are with the mother and the other with the father, but in a different town. Soon the father dies and the pair are raised by one of the town's businessman.

Now to understand the plot, lets name the father's pair as Ashok1(SanjeevKumar) & Bahadur1 (Deven Verma), and the mother's pair as Ashok2 & Bahadur2. Fast forward a couple of decades, Ashok1 is married to the ever-nagging Sudha (Moushumi Chatterjee),the elder daughter of the businessman who raised him. Sudha, Sudha’s sister Tanu (Deepti Naval) and Bahadur1 and his wife Prema (Aruna Irani) complete Ashok1's family. Ashok2, single and a detective novel buff, decides to buy a grape yard. So, he and Bahadur2, single and a bhang lover, come to Ashok1 & Bahadur1's town.

The day Ashok2 and Bahadur2 land in the town, Askok1, tired of Sudha's nagging for a necklace, wows not to return home until he gets the necklace. Elsewhere, Ashok2 goes to the grape yard after instucting Bahadur2 to take care of the money he has got for the deal and not to leave the hotel till he returns. Sudha sends Bahadur1 to the market where Ashok2 sees Bahadur1 and asks him about the money and why he left the hotel. Bahadur1 thinks his master is mad and tells his mistress. Tanu, thinks its all because of her sister's nagging and sends Bahadur1 to find Ashok1. But she meets Ashok2 and Bahadur2 at her concert and gets them home. Elsewhere Ashok1 is worried about the necklace and spends the night waiting for it to be made. But, after the necklace is ready, it lands in Ashok2's hands, and the jeweller is asking Ashok1 to pay up. Finally the pair of twins meet and the confusion is cleared.

The plot is made more confusing by the clothes of the characters. Both the Ashoks wear a long white kurta and white dhoti and both the Bahadurs wear a grey shirt and white dhoti.

Gulzar saab as the writer and director is simply superb. The dialogues are rib tickling and witty. The screenplay never looses its grip and Gulzar saab extracts flawless performances from his artists. He has also used small characters aptly. Like there the goldsmith and his assistant, the diamond cutter, the taxi driver and the inspector - all of them take the movie to a classic level.

Angoor is SanjeevKumar’s masterpiece. His expressions and voice modulation make the movie a must watch. Deven Verma as both the confused servant and bhang lover is excellent. Sanjeev Kumar and Deven Verma share brilliant on-screen chemistry as twin duos. Deepti Naval and Moushumi Chatterjee though having small roles leave you impressed.

But the chink in the armour is the music of Angoor. Though it is composed by the genius R.D. Burman, its disappointing. Except for the song Roz Roz, the others are mediocre and halt the proceedings.

This is the 'baap' of all one of Bollywood most trusted formula in the 70s and 80s - 'bichde hua bhai'. Enjoy the fun ride.

Bugging or Debugging....

For the past few days I've been trying to identify memory leaks in the application we developed. And the debugging is bugging me. First there was Just-in-time debugger which would always launch itself at the wrong time or rather when I don't want it to launch. And one called Dr Watson refused to share my computer with it. It took me an entire day to throw JIT out and make way for Dr Watson. Now Dr Watson is living happily in my computer. He is also giving me some 'Greek-n-Latin' stack trace. Actually he is pretty helpful.
Chalo Dr Watson ka bulava aaya...

Cheeni Kum...

It had been a few months since I watched a movie with Arvindh. I was cribbing for the past week, more on Sunday, and of course, he gave in. I had 2 movies in mind - Pirates of the Caribbean or Cheeni Kum. Then we heard that Pirates is pretty boring, so decided for Cheeni Kum. The promos looked good, so expected it to be at least an OK movie.
But I was in for a pleasant surprise. The movie was really good. Its a mature love story, with absolutely no 'cheeni'. Amitabh is cool, and Tabu is better. Then there is the colgate/'zafrani pulav' and the kid called Sexy who make the movie a must-watch.
More on the movie when I have time. I want to do full justice to the movie with a nice long review sprinkled with appropriate adjectives.

Rang Birangi – Hrishida's Pati Patni aur Woh

Last year Bollywood lost one of its acclaimed directors – Hrishikesh Mukherji. Hrishida, as he is popularly known as has made many well known movies like Abhiman, Golmaal, Chupke Chupke - to name a few. I have choosen a lesser known Rang Birangi for the review.

The film is a take on BR Chopra's Pati Patni aur Woh. The story begins with showing us the life of two couples, first Ajay Sharma (Amol Palekar) and Nirmala (Parveen Babi), married for seven years and second Jeet Saxena( Farooq Shaikh) and Anita Sood (Deepti Naval), who are seeing each other for a long time. Anita is Ajay's secretary. Nirmala is unhappy because Ajay spends most of his time at work and doesn't give much attention to her. Jeet and Anita are waiting for Jeet to get a good job to get married.

In this comes Ajay's friend, Ravi Kapoor (Deven Verma). He wants to spice up the life of Nirmala and Ajay. He asks Ajay start flirting with Anita by telling her that his wife has been paralyzed for 6 years and there is no one to take care of him. Anita becomes sympathetic and starts taking care of him. The guilt in Ajay makes him give more attention to his wife.

One day Anita, comes to meet Nirmala and gets to know the truth. Nirmala requests her to carry on with the drama. Nirmala gets to know that Ravi is behind all this drama and joins him in plotting against her husband. On Ravi's instruction, Nirmala tells Ajay that she wants to work. Nirmala then plays the same trick on Ajay – she says that her boss's wife is paralyzed and her boss needs some sympathy. Jeet poses as Nirmala's boss.

Jeet poses as Dhurender Bhatavdekar, a private detective and blackmails Ajay with photographs of Ajay and Anita. The plot further complicates when the actual Dhurender Bhatavdekar (Utpal Dutt), a police inspector, turns out to be Nirmala's uncle and promises Ajay to capture the blackmailer. And this shatters plans of Ravi – perfect recipe for chaos.

Other characters in the movie include Mr. & Mrs. Bannerjee (Om Prakash and Chaya Devi) with whom Anita stays.

The comedy created by all confusion and chaos makes it a laugh-riot. The movie has great performances by all the actors – Amol Palekar, Deepti Naval, Parveen Babi and Farooq Shaikh. The dialogues are witty and the script has a plethora of aptly placed film references.

Music for the movie is by RD Burman. It has a classical number which is shot on the Bannerjees. The other song 'Kahin kuch pal jeevan ke' is a nice soft number.

Some scenes to watch-out are:

1. The hotel scene where Jeet poses as Nirmala's boss.

2. The actual Dhurender Bhatavdekar chases Jeet.

The movie can be watched over and over and you will always have a good laugh.