Tuesday 14 June 2011

Pasand Apni Apni (1983)


Now that I'm back blogging properly, I'm committed about writing some of my favourite stars whom I've written very little about on here, two of such who are the leads in this enjoyable comedy romance

When Geeta (Rati Agnihotri) a struggling working class girl hitch hikes a ride to work to avoid being late for her drama classes, her boss Sriram (Utpal Dutt) sees it as the perfect opportunity to get funding for his company through Sandeep Anand who owns the car, and whom Geeta claims to know, as a result he promotes Geeta to the leading role


When Sandeep Anand starts receiving bills for clothing which Sriram has been ordering under his name for the cast of his play, he decides on investigating matters which leads him to Sriram-ji and Geeta's press conference where they announce Sandeep Anand as their sponsor, they do all this not knowing Sandeep Anand is amongst the audience

Sandeep goes on disguise and meets Geeta, he claims he's from Sandeep's company and has come to inquire about the clothing bills his boss has been receiving, she's scared and tells him not to tell Sandeep of the bills, he agree's to her plea and they become friends

Geeta and this said employee of Sandeep Anand start spending time together and of course its not long till they start falling for each other, but he never reveals his true identity to her. Geeta too falls for him but seems to have a distinct class belief

When she's called upon by her boss to arrange a meeting with Sundeep Anand, Geeta realises she would not get away with lying

Will Geeta tell the truth? Will she come clean about her lies to Sandeep Anand? Will Sandeep come clean that he is in fact the real Sandeep Anand? Will Geeta forgive him for his lies? For the answers to all these question watch Pasand Apni Apni

Overall a lovely and nicely scripted rom com that sticks to its premise and eliminates unnecessary dross, its not an overtly funny rom com, and although it gets a bit slow in parts, its a good watch, and I'd recommend it for those of you not too keen on 80's bollywood (I love it), this is one of the more restrained movies from that much maligned decade that you might find appealing, the performances as well as Chemistry between the lead pair and Bappi Lahiri's music are good.

Kya Baat hai!! Rati -ji! Gotta Love the cute mole above her Lips

I especially love Rati Agnihotri, there's a certain 'Je ne sais quoi' to her apart from her beauty and gentle manner & charm I love, she's one of my favourite bollywood diva's and I realise I've written very little on her on here, so expect to see more of her in months to come. I wonder what it is about heroines from this decade that makes them not very memorable or easily dismissed by both bollywood fans and critics alike, actresses from this decade (the 80's) are never held up the same way those from other era's (say 50's-70's)are held up. Why is this? (an idea for a future post I think).

Mithun the Great!!
And of course Mithun Chakraborty was great as well, this was a good role for him, what a pity he's always remembered for the Cheese factor of films like Disco dancer or Dance Dance, this man is a fine actor

Bonus Screen cap, I totally loved this cute t-shirt, You dig
Indeed!!! I think i need a T-shirt like that

Lovely soundtrack from Bappi Lahiri and lyrics by Anjaan-Yogesh. My favourites on here include a seductive Asha Bhonsle ballad 'Tum jo mile ho' a lovely disco style track by Sharon Prabhakar 'Dingo! (Bole Gaadhi, ye saanso ki)' a mellow disco tune 'kisi pyar mein' a lovely upbeat number 'gaye kaye ko' my utmost favourite and the one I've chosen to embed is the beautiful 'Aise to socha na tha'(its officially one of my top ten favourite Asha Bhonsle songs)

Paisa Vasool Rating: 6/10

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

I haven't seen Pasand Apni Apni, but this sounds a lot like the Farooque Sheikh-Surinder Kaur starrer Idhar-Udhar, which was a delightful film. Surinder kaur plays an interior designer who's hired (all through letter/phone) by a wealthy businessman to redesign his home. A similar misunderstanding arises - one day his driver gives her a lift, and she ends up pretending she's romancing her rich client, without realising that the man she's trying to convince IS the man in question.

I'll look out for this one, though - Mithun isn't a favourite, but Rati Agnihotri definitely is!

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

Pasand Apni Apni??..amazed such a flick existed ;)..thnx 4 d awareness :P

sunheriyaadein said...

I haven't seen this fully, have just seen it in bits and pieces on tv. But has been in my must-watch list for a long time. It definitely is among the restrained movies of that ultra-loud period :-)
Poonam Dhillon, Rati Agnihotri and Tina Munim were 3 pretty actresses of the decade. And Rati is my favourite among the three. Tina looked good, as long as she kept her mouth shut. I dont like her dialogue delivery.
Poonam was ok, but there was something very adorable about Rati and she could act as well.

Sharmi Adhikary said...

This film has been inspired from Sajan at least in how it commences. Sajan however becomes serious towards the end and turns out to be a fine murder mystery. I've seen this film and quite like it's freeflowing form. And ya, I'm very fond of Mithun. He was so under-exploited as an actor. Watch his Bengali films. They are marvellous and award-winning. And ya, if you do not mind, it's Utpal Dutta, not Utpall Dutt! :)

prakashchandra said...

Dusted off mentioned one film as "IDHAR UDHAR", I think it should be "YAHAN WAHAAN" Am I right?

"Idhar udhar"is the name of famous DOORDARSHAN serial

Anonymous said...

@Prakashchandra: No, I'm quite certain it was called Idhar Udhar, because I liked it a lot and have tried looking for it - though without success. And some Doordarshan serials did have the same names as films, didn't they? - e.g, Phool Khilein Hain Gulshan-Gulshan or Fauji.

bollywooddeewana said...

@ Dusted off Thanks for that tip off,it seems a lot of films borrowed this format as Sharmi too states that Sajan starts in a similar way plus Booby of Bobby talks cinema says the plot is inspired from a 50's hollywood movie 'Happy Go lovely'
http://www.bobbysing.com/commentpost.php?postid=postid052411231459 another movie according to Bobby said to be inspired by this same storyline is Ghajini

@ Dusted off Who knows what the name could be for sure but Farooque Sheikh's imdb lists him starring in Yaahan Wahaan with Surinder Kaur, here's the movies imdb page
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0374343/

@ The Brad No worries ;) its a good watch

@ Sunehri Yaadein I love your observation on those actresses, though in fairness i have no problem with Tina's dialogue delivery but then I'm not a fluent hindi speaker so I guess you're a much better judge that i could be

@ Sharmi Yes Sajan has long been on my to watch list but there seems to be no copy with English subs available, and on Utpal Dutt don't blame me, a lot of Hindi films credit him as Utpal Dutt i admit i included the wrong spelling by adding double ll which i shall go and correct now

@ PrakashChandra Who knows what the actual name might be but under Surinder Kaur's filmography it credits her as starring with Farooq in Yahaan wahan

Anonymous said...

Hmm. Okay, maybe I was wrong about that... I should start looking out for Yahan Wahan instead!

Anonymous said...

But I have clearly remember the posters of YAHAN WAHAN, in theatre of our town.

Futher, the famous singer pair Rajinder kumar mehta and nina mehta sung the song"jab aanchal raat ka leharaaye, aur sara aalam so jaaye, tum mujhse milne shamaa jalaaye, taaj mehal mein aa jaana", for this film also, they themselves appeared in this film, singing the same song

regards

prakashchandra said...

oh sorry, I have typed my message under ANONYMOUS category, Its me prakashchandra

prakashchandra said...

Supriya pathak,ratna pathak sha, dina pathak, ravi baswani were there in the serial IDHAR UDHAR, directed by ANAND MAHENDRU

Shilpi Bose said...

As Sharmi already pointed out, Pasand Apni Apni has the same story as Saajan, however Saajan later develops into a murder mystery.

bollywooddeewana said...

@ Dusted off I'll keep an eye out for it too

@ Prakash Chandra Thanks for the update on taht information

@ Shilpi Thanks for bringing Sajan to my attention once more, now I'm simply hungry to see it, please shemaroo/moserbaer/eros/eagle/priya get it out on dvd with English subtitles soon

Ava said...

Saajan - starring Manoj Kumar and Asha Parekh - had a similar story. Rati was a sweetheart and there is definately more to Mithun than meets the eye. He was extremely popular at one time in certain kind of films - lots of bashing up involved - that masked the fact that he is actually a very good actor.

Rathi said...

Is it only me, or are there others who notice the similarity between this plot and the romance plot of Ghajini?

bollywooddeewana said...

@ Rathi You are indeed right, i said the same thing in the comment above, parts of Ghajini is indeed similar to this

bollywooddeewana said...

@ Avdi i agree with you, I hope I'll be able to find films that display his acting at its best for this blog

MADmusic&movielover said...

well, indeed all the three -sajan.pasand apni apni and ghajini are inspired from the hollywood film happy go lovely[1951]. I commented on the same thing at sharmi's blog also when she did a review of sajan.I have watched all the four and fing happy go lovely and pasan apni apni the best of the lot.

bollywooddeewana said...

@ Mad Music thanks for re confirming that, looks like I'll hunt happy go lovely down to see why its so popular

jondotkom said...

Funny thing I stumbled upon this blog while searching for more info on this film!

I just received "Pasand Apni Apni" from Netflix, and am enjoying it now as I type.

It's pretty charming and well made, not at all like the common stereotype of what most '80s Bollywood is perceived as.

By the way, there are many plot devices that are very similar to the film "Ghajini," well barring revenge plot and copious murders and such.

Perhaps "Pasand Apni Apni" is where that "Ghajini" director A.R. Murugadoss got some inspiration! Hmmmm.....

bollywooddeewana said...

@ Jondotcom Thanks for stopping by and commenting, I still haven't seen Ghajini but indeed you've confirmed the fact that Ghajini made use of the plot line