Army (1996)

The last film in our Sridevipalooza is Army, one where Sridevi gets to kick some ass, as most of the readers of this blog will know i have a love for female ass kicking flicks, this one is not right up there with my favourites though. Also this is the only film where Sharukh and Sridevi ever worked together on as a jodi (couple), such was Sridevi's iconic status that every young 'un wanted to be paired opposite her, Sharukh finally got his wish in this one

Lovers and parents to be Geeta (Sridevi) and Arjun ( Sharukh Khan) are torn apart when Evil Tyrant Nagraj (Danny Denzongpa) murders Arjun



Geeta who's a lawyer tries getting Justice for her husband's death in the court of Justice but her allegations are dismissed and Nagraj walks away free, before leaving the court Geeta is sure to tell him know he'll die in no other hands but her's

Determined and hungry to avenge, she employs the help of 5 men kabir ( Mohnish Behl), Khan (Sudesh Berry), Kishan (Harish), Kartar ( Ravi Kishan) & Gavin (Ronit Roy) who have also suffered injustice (going by all the K's seems Geeta knew there was success in numerology)

i love the side profile shots her Army were repeatedly given

Together they all form army, they even have their own theme song and are eager to take Nagraj down (how very flattering to his ego isn't it, if i knew six people from various walks of life came to take me down, i'd be very flattered )


Nagraj definitely has to be one of the most fashion conscious villains, from the draping of fabrics in his attire

to his golden engraved cuffs

and snake cinched in belt

and pearl studs

he definitely oozes style

Look at his chair, you better be afraid, be very afraid

So will Geeta and her Army succeed in taking down Nagraj, watch Army if you dare to find out


Unlike othe female revenge sagas bollywood dished out like Phool Bane Angaray, Khoon Bhari Maang, kudrat ka kanoon, Nagin, Zakmi Aurat etc. Sridevi's character as Geeta is not central enough for my liking, the fact that she needed to employ 5 other army's to join her in her quest makes me feel Sridevi's star power had waned and not enough faith could be placed on her to carry the film on her shoulder's, unlike the women in the afore mentioned revenge sagas's, they carried the film on their padded shoulders a la Rekha in Khoon Bhari Maang.



I couldn't help but feel Army would have been A LOT more fantastic had it been made in the 80's when Sridevi was at her prime, and of course if the script and a whole other things were handled much better , still though if a gun toting Sridevi is your idea of entertainment or if you're a die hard Sridevi fan by all means check Army out

And as for Sita-ji she's definitely right about Srk being the best mouth bleeder in her post on Ram Jaane, it is indeed something he does better than any other actor, since you're collecting screencaps for a post on Sharukh bleeding from the mouth i've added this for you ;0)


Hmm, Mujhe khoon bahut accha lagta hai


Ok music from Anand Milind, highlights are the upbeat prison number 'De Taali', 'Achiku bachiku' a rip-off of Harry Belafonte's Banana Boat song, a cute love song 'dil mein kuch hone laga' my favourites though are 'teri meri dushmani' (Amaluu add this to your list of bad guy lair songs)

and the superb 'Main to hoon pagal' one of my all time favourite SRK numbers

Paisa Vasool rating: 4/10

A big thanks to all who contributed to my Sridevipalooza and to Amaluu who organized it, looks like Sridevi will be on a long holiday from this blog for a while ;0)

Mast Kalandar (1991)

The lovely Roti kapada aur Rum came up with the idea of dedicating a whole week to trashy films, luckily for her, i have seen a good deal of trash and now seems like the perfect opportunity to let some of them loose

Raisaheb's (Shammi Kapoor) disapproval of his son's (Anil Dhawan) wife Sheetal (Nandita Thakur) leads to a breakdown in their communication

Years go by and Rai Saheb is missing his son, he also feels remorseful on how he had treated his son's wife. Too late for Rai Saheb though as his son is now dead, Sheetal his son's wife unable to raise their child Guddu on her own decides to leave him with Rai Saheb who's wealthy & thereby able to provide better

Upon hearing the news of his grandson arriving an overjoyed Rai Saheb is eager to pick them but his Personal assistant Prem (Prem Chopra)volunteers

Prem however has plans of his own, himself along with Raja Saheb (Amrish Puri) plan on inheriting Rai Saheb's property thus news of his Grandson arriving is bad news for them, they hire some Goondas (Henchmen) to bump them off, but unluckily for them Guddu escapes alive but the poor boy loses his mother thereby making him an orphan

Rai Saheb is disheartend at the thought of his lost grandson, he places adverts in the newspapapers, promising a substantial amount to whoever finds or knows of Guddu's whereabouts. Shankar (Dharmendra) an opportunist sees this as a chance to make a quick buck

Shankar dresses up and pretends to be the child (seriously???) while Preeti (Dimple Kapadia) pretends to be the mother

Shankar as the missing child

Preeti as the mother

But of course they fail at their attempt

Guddu later buddies up with Shankar who in turn becomes his guardian, Shankar realises he just might be the missing grandson of Rai Saheb. He takes him over to Rai saheb's house, unluckily Rai Saheb is not home & Guddu's locket which stands as proof gets left behind

When Rai Saheb out of frustration (Rai Saab what's the rush) decides to will all his property over to Prem his Personal assistant, the necklace magically falls down from the ceiling thereby giving Rai Saheb hope that his grandson is still alive

Prem and his aide Raja Saheb must now prevent Rai saheb from willing the entire estate to Guddu, even if it means killing him

Will they succeed in their venture? Watch Mast Kalandar if you dare to find out

Overall a major disappointment and complete trash is what this film was, I would have cried if I had spent my money on this dvd, luckily for me though, i rented it. The acting, editing, cinematography as well as dvd quality was BAD, if all that wasn't enough Eros had the guts to snip out the one juicy song making the film EXTRA trashy. Watch this only if you're a hardcore fan of any of the leads here, just so you can claim you've seen all their movies, otherwise this movie is pure unadulterated big Trash

Rum wants us to shame our favourite stars and it pains me Dharmendra had to be the one i shame in this film, he just looked tired and overworked and given his friendship with the director Rahul Rawail, I can only imagine he did this as a favour of sorts. Dimple Kapadia too was wasted and didn't even get the chance to do much

Shakti kapoor tries seducing Pinku

Pinku flirts with Dharmendra

Pinku in his carrot coloured mohawk

The only saving grace in this movie in my opinion is Anupam Kher, in fact he's the major reason i watched this, his character of Pinku is said to be Bollywood's first openly gay character, Amrish Puri plays his accepting father (well he sees his son flirt with men openly and never tells him off).

Of course he camps it up, but Anupham kher really nailed his performance as Pinku, well, not all gay men fall into this effeminate stereotype but Anupam kher makes it so real that i actually see some of my gay friends in him, anyway see him in all his awesomeness below

Very average Soundtrack from my favourite music directors Laxmikant Pyarelal in this one, there's the hilarious 'chor chor chor', the quite sweet 'jag ja ke soja' and the only one i really liked was a parody of 'ek do teen' with Anupam Kher trying to seduce Prem Chopra, it surely doesn't get trashier than this

Paisa Vasool Rating: 3.5/10

Mera Pati Sirf Mera Hai (1990)

When the title of a film translates into 'My Husband is mine only' you know you're in for some ridiculous campy melodramatic moments and that's just what this film provided me with. And as for the newspapaer journalist who according to dustedoff made these comments

“Both women, no matter how hard to believe this may be, fall in love with Jeetendra…”

better start eating his words because in Mera Pati Sirf Mera Hai not only do two women fall in love with Jeetendra, they're also fighting over him

Prakash (Jeetendra) a struggling road side tailor impresses Sharda (Rekha) a wealthy bank employee with his talent, who in turn invests heavily in his business as a result its not long before he hits the big time even owning his own department store

Sharda falls for Prakash's charm and his work ethic, and proposes marriage to him, her proposal is refused by Prakash saying he "esteems her too highly to be married to her" (huge suspension of disbelief!)

Years go by and Prakash is now married to Roopa (Raadhika Sarathkumar) with a lovely kid called Pinky

His marriage to Roopa though, is anything but peaceful as all she does is create havoc and trouble for him

Prakash had been forced into marrying her after his sister Jyoti had been impregnated by her brother Deepak. Deepak had then refused to accept the pregnancy, and in a bid to save the family's honour Prakash begs him to marry Jyoti, he agrees provided Prakash hands over his whole business empire to their family, supplies numerous amounts of Sari's & Gold to his mother(Shobha Khote) as well as marry his sister Roopa, surprisingly Prakash agrees to all these conditions (suspension of disbelief)

Years later Sharda moves back to the same city as Prakash, and in a strange case of melodramatic coincidence, she moves next door to Prakash

Prakash's daughter Pinky (Baby Shweta) becomes good friends with Sharda, when Roopa sees her grandmother whom she ill treats being pampered by Sharda, she becomes suspicious and starts spreading false rumours about Sharda claiming she's having an affair with her husband

Sharda's life is turned upside down by these allegations and everyone from her neighbours to her boss at work give her a hard time for it

She decides to clear her reputation and goes about it in a rather strange melodramatic way, (as I've said before, a huge suspension of belief is required while watching this film) She moves right into Roopa's house, and makes a home for herself there

Roopa is furious as one would imagine and beckons her to leave her house, Sharda makes her understand that unless she takes back her allegations in public she's not leaving

Roopa being the strong headed woman she is refuses to take back her allegations, Sharda too is adamant about moving out until Roopa clears her reputation, adding insult to Roopa's injury is her husband Prakash who backs Sharda, claiming Roopa must apologise

So Will Roopa apologise and clear Sharda's name of the accusations? Will Sharda be able to stick out oer will she give up and move out? Would Prakash realise his affection for Sharda or will he continue looking up to her as a goddess?

Ok i don't believe i actually just typed out what must be one of the most ridiculous plots i've ever seen, but alas it had to be done, it had Jeetendra in it after all, one gets the idea that his daughter Ekta Kappor the producer of many serials based on such story lines did her homework well watching her Daddy's films from the '90's, Mera Pati Sirf mera hai (what an amazing title, na!) is watchable even with its irritating storyline for its campiness and ridiculous soap opera style execution, if you're a big fan of the numerous Ekta Kapoor style serials that are hits with millions of Indian audiences then this is a film you might want to check out

Jeetendra's career was in decline at this point, despite the whole ridiculousness of the story his performance is good albeit in a very melodramatic way

Raadhika Sarathkumar one of my favourite heroines who played the lead role in one of my favourite bollywood femme fatale revenge sagas kudrat Ka Kanoon was ohh so annoying as Roopa in this, you know an actress has done her part rather well when you want to flip your remote at her for playing an overbearing character

Rekha as usual was a joy to watch, given the ridiculousness of the story, Rekha gives quite a commendable performance

The songs by Anand Milind seemed to have been hits at the time of its release, there's the sensuous 'Thandi hawa hai' two versions of this songs occur there's a seductive one and a more upbeat one which i've embedded below, it pretty much sums up the whole movie

A daaru song 'aaj gaale ke niche utara' and the wonderful peppy number 'maine tujhe khat likha' one of the contributing factors to me watching this film

and what better way to round off Jeetendra week than ending with what must be the best tailor/salesman song ever and such a fun picturisation too 'Aaiye Farmaiye' Jeetu-ji Zindabad

Paisa Vasool Rating: 4.5/10

A big thank you to everyone who contributed to my Jeetendra week posts, i'm still discovering more of his works, do feel free to leave recommendations of films to watch out for him in, i guess Nasir sums it up perfectly when he says "there's something about him, something that just can't be ignored" while he might not have been appreciated by the critics, he had lots of charisma and taht x-factor that saw him through over 3 decades of hindi cinema, Jeetu-ji zindabad