Phool Bane Angaray (1991)

I've never been one to believe in the idea of a guilty pleasure, in my opinion one likes what one likes and there's no reason to be embarrassed by it, this film changed my mind about the idea of guilty pleasures and i'm as guilty as charged, this film is one guilty pleasure i shall be indulging in again , votes rigging, corrupt polticians and an ass kicking female cop all made for a trashily entertaining film

Datta Babu (Parikshant Sahni) & Vishamba (Prem Chopra) are political opponenets when Datta wins the election Vishamba uses his wealth and influence to rig the votes as a result he's declared the winner


Honest police Inspector Ranjit (Rajnikanth) notices the dishonesty and sets out to expose Vishamba much to the dislike of his boss Ravi Khanna (Dalip Tahil) who works secretly alongside Vishamba


Murlidar (Shafi Imandar) an aide of Vishamba has a sister (Rekha) whom Vishamba's son Charan Raj wants to marry, when Namrata (Rekha) hears that her uncle plans on marrying her off to Vishamba's son she runs over to Ranjit whom she loves and asks him to marry her, Ranjit agrees and they both get married




When Charanraj hears about Namrata's marriage to Ranjit he is furious & he kidnaps her while she's on a school trip, when Ranjit comes to save her, he's captured by Charan Raj and his men who tie him up and force him to witness his wife's rape


Not only him but the School kids who were on the school trip with Namrata were forced to witness the rape (what was the director and the film censor board thinking?)


When Ranjit manages to break free in a fit of rage, he's shot dead by Charan Raj thus Namrata is now a widow


Namrata takes her angst to Shiva & she threatens to kill herself if she doesn't get justice, only to be rescued by her father in law (played by the avuncular Alok nath) who urges her to fight for the cause & bring all those who wronged her to justice


Thus Namrata enrols at a Police academy and trains hard to become a bad ass female cop



Will Namrata succeed in her quest to avenge her husband's death or will she suffer the same consequence? Watch Phool Bane Angaray (When a flower becomes a fireball) to find out



A truly atrocious and nonsensical film made watchable by Rekha (a MUST SEE for all her die hard fans) who gives a very passionate performance as the avenger, her fighting skills as the bad ass female cop were hilariously entertaining, i was literally rolling on the floor, seems the director was just hell bent on making Rekha display her fighting skills at any opportunity and Rekha just looked great doing them, the fights in this movie have to be campest but yet amazingly choreographed fights i've ever seen in bollywood, Rekha was pushing 40 when she did this but she pulled it off hilariously well. Below are some of the fighting clips for your enjoyment



Of all the female revenge sagas bollywood dished out in the 80's and early 90's like Khoon bhari Maang, Zakhmi Aurat, Kudrat ka Kanoon this is the wackiest of the lot, but i enjoyed it immensely, mostly for Rekha's kick ass action fights. There's somemething about bollywood movies with female lead characters exacting revenge that excites and entertains me immensely maybe there's some Freudian Psychosexual analysis that needs to be done on me

The music by Bappi lahiri is on the fun playful side, there's the hilarious daaru song 'Jeena agar jaruri hai to' & 'Dil tera jaan teri' title track 'phool kabhi' where we get to see Rekha training to be a bad ass cop, a beautiful wedding song 'Gori kab se huye jawan' my favourite is the fun 'Naina ho gaye bawre'



Total Paisa Vasool Rating: A personal guilty pleasure that i shall be indulging in again

Kudrat Ka Kanoon (1987)

There is something about female centric masala movies that get me excited, these movies are usually the atypical wronged woman avenges evil man ladidida, topped with some over the top drama moments, fashion to die for and decent music

Dr Vijay (Jackie Shroff) is happily married to Aarti (Radhika), they have a lovely daughter called Munni


He ignites the anger of the elder local Dharam Raj ( Om ShivPuri) when he disrupts the beating of a local man. Everyone in the village fears Dharam Raj and are unable to stand up against him,


Dr. Vijay however is keen to put an end to Dharam Raj's tyranny and sets out on a mission to expose him


However his househelp is an aide of Dharam Raj and she alerts him about Vijay's plan.With her help, Dharam Raj sets Vijay up for murder when a dead body is found in Vijay's hospital cupboard


Vijay tries to plead his innocence but the local man he had rescued gives a false testimony saying Vijay had killed the man in anger when he caught him having an affair with his wife, he is sentenced to 7 years in jail


Following Vijay's imprisonment, his wife Aarti and daughter Munni are considered unclean and then handed over to the police by the village councillor


Aarti declares her innocence to the policeman who promises to help, he takes her home and while there he tries to get her to lay with him, Aarti is having none of it and he tries raping her forcefully, her daughter Munni tries helping her but Inspector Pandey strangles her to death


Aarti is furious and she leaves with her dead daughter to seek the minister Charandas's help, he promises to do his best. He makes arrangements for her daughters burial and promises to bring Inspector Pandey to justice


Unknown to poor Aarti is the fact that Minister Charandas is after her as well, he rapes her and a depressed, shattered Aarti proposes to kill herself in front of a train


Bharati Devi (Hema Malini) a lawyer spots her and rescues her, she tells her how she's never lost a case and propose to get her justice


loved Hema Malini as the fast talking lawyer

At court Aarti is accused of killing her child by Inspector Pandey and Minister Charandas who conspire against her, she's sentenced to 6 years in Jail


A few years later and Aarti is back with a vengenace as a the glamorous Princess Julie Singh and dressed to kill in some fabulous fashions


she stages a fake political campaign and charity dance show and catches the eye of Minister Charandas, he takes a liking to her and begins dating her not knowing she is the same Aarti he had violated years ago



Watch as Aarti plots, connives and wrecks havoc in the lives for those who wronged her

better don't mess with Aarti

Aarti is also confronted by her husband Vijay, what will she tell him? How will she explain thigs to him?

loved Jackie in this, he's one of my fave actors from 80's bollywood

I really enjoyed this movie, it was so camp and fabulously over the top, while also highlighting the immense corruption of the judicial/political system of the state.

I've come to realise that the 80's is one of my favourite decades in terms of bollywood cinema, this might have something to do with me being born in the '80's and also movies from the '80's were my introduction to bollywood, and of course my taste for camp melodrama


This movie is very similar to Khoon Bhari Maang, both movies feature female protagonists wanting to avenge the wrongs done to them by an evil patriarchal figure, these wrongs were mostly avenged through the power of their beauty of course. This lends credibility to the line of thought that with beauty comes power, as it was the beauty Aarti as Julie possessed in this film and in the case of Rekha as Jyoti in khoon Bhari Maang, that they were able to gain access to the men who wronged them and then ultimately conquer them

I absolutely adored Radhika (now known as Raadhika Sarathkumar) in her role as Aarti/Julie, i liked her as the traditional vulnerable Aarti but loved her even more as the fearless, no nonsense glamourpuss Julie, i loved the last few minutes in the film when she decides enough is enough. I know very little about her and this is my first film with her in it, from my research on her, it seems she was a southern actress who did a few bollywood films but her career in hindi movies never really took off


She gave us some fabulous 80's fashions too

Check out that hat and those earrings


Aarti also works the power shoulders & sequins trend and check out those earrings (you go girl)

there were some down outright fugly ones which i shall be sending over to bollywood fugly, i'm torn over this black and gold sequin gown though, its complete with a headgear and matching wristbands, part of me thinks fab and part of me thinks fugly



Good soundtrack from Laxmikant Pyarelal too the joyful 'tujhe itna pyaar kare' the bolly disco sounds of 'Abhi to padi hai' where we get to see our beloved black and gold sequin gown complete with matching headband and matching wristbands my favourite has to be the super mujra 'O mukda chand ka'



Total Score: 6/10 ( One of my favourite 80's masala drama)

Buy the dvd


also spotted was this sshhhh picture,i've seen this picture so much in 70's/80's bollywood films, can someone confirm if this was a best selling painitng in india, why was it so popular, remember I also spotted it in Love story