Ayee Milan Ki Bela (1964)

The final film in our Dharmendra week series of movies, is quite an unusual one as Dharmendra plays a villain in this one

Diwan Saheb's wife Pushpa (Mumtaz Begum) loses her child during labour rendering her childless for life, the nurse suggests Diwan Saheb ask their maid laxmi who had given birth to twins in secret (out of wedlock perhaps) for one of her kids to replace Pushpa's


Laxmi is reluctant at first but she gives Diwan Saheb one of her kids when he explains Pushpa might suffer a shock if she realises the child she gave birth to didn't make it, Diwan makes her promise not to tell anyone about the matter.


Shyam which is the child Laxmi keeps stays with his mother in the village and ranjit the child which she goives away to Diwan saheb goes abroad (i love the way this was done all through the credits)



Shyam grows up to be a successful farmer, he meets and falls for Barkha (Saira Banu) the daughter of a wealthy investor who had introduced machinery to farming in Shyam's village



Ranjit returns from London and is appointed as General Manager over Mr Chaudhuri's business which Shyam also helps in running, unknown to Shyam & Ranjit is the fact that they are long separated brothers, they meet and they both form a deep connection with each other


Shyam's mother realises who Ranjit is but due to her promise to Diwan Saheb she keeps silent


As time goes by Ranjit too falls for Barkha, when he realises Shyam is in love with her as well as Barkha's affections towards Shyam he starts getting jealous and resentment starts building towards Shyam


Rohanlal (Madan Puri) whom Shyam had caught stealing from the comapnay poisons Ranjit's mind furthermore, together they come up with a plan to frame Shyam


Shyam is then framed for stealing money from Barkha's father and accused of impregnating Rupa (Shashikala), understandably Barkha is gutted and things between her and Shyam go sour


Overall a standard commercial enjoyable and watchable 60's bollywood drama, the songs are excellent and the story doesn't drag on, the only minor quip i have about this film is Dharmendra's villain act

I was expecting some over the top evil scheming or plotting considering he's a villain but the script lets Ranjit's character as a villain down, as even his evil actions stem not from his own thoughts but from Rohanlal's maliciousness. As such Ranjit is more a character with a dark side or shades of grey as opposed to an outright villain, plus he didn't have as much screen time as Rajendra Kumar who was the central character


And i loved Rajendra Kumar in this, in fact i love him in most things i know some if not many people on the blogosphere find him a bit too much or overbearing but i simply adore his energy and his dramatic ways check him out in the scene below with Dharmendra





I absolutely loved Saira Banu in this, most times when i see her, she's always hyper or a bit too much but here she's restrained and as beautiful as ever


Ahhh i loved her cute litte dog too and i do covet that Radio, flask and briefcase



While watching this i realized how truly gorgeous Sulochana Latkar can be such a pity she was mostly relegated to motherly roles

Fabulous sondtrack from Shankar Jaikishen 'main pyar ka deewana' (audio only) the delightful colourful title track 'ayee milan ki bela', the sweet 'tum kamseen ha ho' & 'tumhe aur kya doo' with Saira doing some fab dance moves, 'O sanam tere' is my favourite track




Paisa Vasool Worthiness: 7/10

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