Sunday 22 August 2010

Justice Chaudhury (1983)

Kicking off Sridevipalooza is Justice Chaudhury, Sridevi doesn't get to do much in this acting wise, but as a fan you'll get your money's worth Sridevi-wise with lots of super fun songs as well as dance routines

Honest and upright Justice Chaudhury (Jeetendra) gets in the bad books of Jai Singh (Shakti Kapoor) when he gets his doppleganger brother Shankar sent to the gallows

Suave looking Justice Chaudhury

Jai plots to get back at Justice Chaudhury by ruining his reputation, to do this he hires struggling mechanic Ramu ( Jeetendra) to carry out his shady plans for him in return for cold hard cash. Ramu hopes the money he makes would help buy a mansion of dreams for his mother Radha (Hema Malini), who is spending time in Jail for a crime he had committed as a child, when he had murdered the man who attempted raping her


He meets and falls for Rekha (Sridevi), and in the usual filmi way she plays hard to get at first, but then eventually falls in love with him, over time she comes to know of his shady deeds and tries to make him see the error of his ways, arguing his mom won't be able to find peace once she finds out he had gained the money to buy her mansion of dreams through dishonest means


Justice Chaudhury on the other hand is burdened by his disabled daughter Laxmi's (Debashree Roy) plight to find a husband, this changes when Kiran (Raj kiran) takes a liking to her, they both get married and Kiran turns out to be a trap by Jai Singh in order to get Justice Chaudhury to release yet another one of his brother's who's been tried at the court of law



When Justice Chaudhury refuses to release Jai Singh's brother, Kiran divorces Laxmi which obviously is a taint on Justice's reputation/honour. When Kailash (Kader Khan), another Justice Chaudhury hater realises Ramu is Justice Chaudhury's son, he alerts Ramu that Justice Chaudhary is his father and tells him how he had impreganted his mother Radha and then left


Young Justice Chaudhary and Radha

Ramu is furious and is hell bent on avenging the injustice done to his mother, he disguises as Justice Chaudhury and sets up Justice's son Ramesh (Arun Govil) for murder


Ramesh is brought to the court of the law and none other than his father Justice Chaudhury must decide the case


Will he bend the law for his son or will he be his usual upright self? Did Justice really do the dirt on Ramu's mother or is there a reason why she ended up raising him alone?

This is one of my all time favourite Jeetendra films, he shines and is believable in his dual role as Justice and Ramu, he played both parts with conviction albeit in a very melodramatic kind of way, yet still he was convincing as both the father and son, plus the make up applied to age him was not over the top. The soap opera style sub plot after sub plot, as well as twists and flashbacks though a bit tiring after a while, made this film highly enjoyable to watch for me, i couldn't wait to see what twist or tale would be introduced next, overall i'd say Justice Chaudhury is a very entertaining flick with a stronger storyline than all the other southern style films Jeetendra did in the 80's like Himmatwala.

As for Sridevi as I've said at the beginning of this post, she doesn't get to do much apart from the Song and dance numbers, which I have to say are a treat if you're a fan

Other things i loved about Justice Chaudhury are

Jeetendra & Sridevi of course

lots of sychronised dance steps

some cool even if doll house like interiors


A sharp Suited and rather well dressed villain


a cool collection of sunglasses Jeetendra wears in the film



the psychedelic style sets of 'Mujhe kya hua' with giant sea shells with disco lights attached



And of course Bappi Lahiri's music made this film all the nmore enjoyable, from the sweet 'Laxmi o Laxmi' and 'Zindagi Anmol' to my three favourites

the sexy 'mujhe kya hua' watch as Sridevi and Jeetendra hug, and writhe seductively amidst psychedelic sea shell sets i've included the video below with subtitles


The aerobic style dance moves as well as the pure awesome double entendre lyrics in 'saath mere aaoge'


and not forgetting the bollywood disco classic 'Mamma mia'



Bappi Lahiri Zindabad

9 comments:

Sharmi Adhikary said...

I saw this film a long time back. So don't remember much. But you make it sound exciting :)
That girl who plays Laxmi is Debasree Roy, a very famous Bengali actress. She is also Rani Mukherjee's maternal aunt. She has played a variety of roles in both commercial and parallel films.

dustedoff said...

I haven't seen this one, but your review reminded me of another Jeetendra-Hema Malini film I saw yesterday, Khushboo. A fabulous film, and a far cry from Justice Choudhary! I'm not a fan of 80's and 90's Jeetendra (or 80's and 90's most everything, really), so probably won't get around to seeing this, though...

bollywooddeewana said...

@Sharmi Thanks for confirming Laxmi's real name, i'll edit it to the post

@DustedOff I'm sure Khushboo is a far far cry from this, i've been lazy about pushing it up on my rental list, and oh yes i know the 80's aren't your cuppa, i don't blame you either, for me though i have a strong love for 80's bollywood as a lot of films from that era were my introduction into hindi films

sophy said...

psychedelic sea shells and giant slugs are just soo fabulous. Really before I started watching Bolly I had no idea, no idea at all that they were out to create a fantasy fairyland. Satyam shivam sundaram has another one such set. There are others...

"THE BARD WHO DOESNT HAVE TO TRY TOO HARD" said...

omg..a typical masala movie 4 sure!!..n its a surprise 2c shakti kapoor so "suave" as u say 4 1c ;)..else must be a real fundoo 1 whc wil try 2 catch it up if it come on TV :)

sunheriyaadein said...

Long since I saw this film so dont remember the details but it was very entertaining.
Lakshmi (Debashree Roy), I know her better as Satyavati from BR Chopra's Mahabharat. Grew up watching the show. I was pleasantly surprised to discover her in a song sometime last year - . It's from a movie called Kabhi Ajnabee The . I have been looking for this movie for quite sometime now. I'm not very fond of 80's movies, but some of them manage to intrigue me, esp if they are lesser known, have the low budget feel and if it has a mediocre star cast.
Same is the case with Arun Govil....Ram comes first, before Arun when I see him. He immortalised the character of Ram in Ramnanda Sagar's Ramayan. Again another serial of our times, something that I grew up watching.

sunheriyaadein said...

The link didn't come...I had given it within html tags. So here's the direct link - Geet mere hothon ko de gaya koi : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLccnKyW11I&p=8A89869A17013D26&playnext=1&index=31
I find her very beautiful and sexy.

bollywooddeewana said...

@ Sophy that was indeed my first impression that it must have been inspired by the 'chanchal nirmal' number from 'Satyam Shivam Sunderam' not as fab as that one but this one holds its own rather well

@ the Bard Do give it a go, but pay attention, IT WAS SUB PLOT AFTER SUB PLOT BUT IN MY OPINION WELL WORTH SITTING THROUGH, THE SONGS ARE super FUN too

@ Sunehri Thanks for that link, she is indeed beautiful in that song and that's a lovely Lata Number

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