Bhagwaan Dada (1986)

The third film in line for Sridevipalooza is Bhagwaan Dada, finally of all the films I've reviewed so far this week, at this stage of her career Sridevi seems more confident as an actress and displays some great comic timing in this rather forgettable flick

Bhagwaan Dada (Rajnikanth) is a tout who works under local terrorist Shambu Dada (Danny Denzongpa)

Following a rape act Shambhu carries out on a local belle, she commits suicide and her child Govind is adopted by Bhagwan Dada who's disgusted by Shambhu's behaviour, he decides to raise Govind him as his own. Bhagwan Dada thus becomes a changed man and leaves the world of stealing behind and becomes a saint of sorts in his local neighbourhood

This new goody goody image leads Bhagwaan Dada to report Shambhu's evil deeds to cops which leads to Shambhu Dada being sentenced to Jail

The child responsible for making Bhagwaan turn his life around grows into a cute little Hrithik

When Swaroop (Rajesh Roshan) a village bumpkin moves from Gangapur to Mumbai, he's robbed and none other than Bhagwaan dada saves the day, Bhagwaan takes a liking to him and helps him settle down to life in Mumbai

When Swaroop now a rather confident Mumbaiker rescues Bijlee (Sridevi) from a group of touts, Bhagwan urges her to live with them and in the atypical filmi way, Bijlee and Swaroop fall for each other

but trouble arises when she's caught in a prostitute sting operation, Swaroop and Bhagwaan are disappointed as she never revealed this to them, she tries pacifying them by explaining she only does it to swindle money out of men without actually selling her body (Really??????, either way a slut is a slut)

Swaroop is heartbroken and this revelation causes a strain in their relationship

Shambhu Dada is released from jail and is eager to right the wrongs committed against him by Bhagwan Dada

Will Bijli and Swaroop be reconciled? What is the reason behind Bijli's decision to walk the streets? Will Shambhu succeed in his quest for revenge?

Check out those tarantula lashes

Sridevi lived up to her character's name in this film, she was indeed the Bijli (electricity) in this rather dull movie, Sridevi's comic timing and general cuteness are what stops this movie from being a total bore, just look at the way she carries herself in the picture below its like she knows she's totally in charge of the screen

I'm guessing she at this stage of her career she was becoming more confident and it just shows in this film. I couldn't help but feel she was mismatched with Rajesh Roshan, these two won't be winning any Jodi (couple) awards, there wasn't much of a chemistry between them at all

And of course this film is also notorious for Hrithik's fight scenes with Danny, i love the way Danny puts him in his palce in the clip below, such were little Hrithik's guts that he tried attacking Danny, but of course Danny can always be trusted, he wastes no time in demolishing his legs with his spikey boots (catch this hilarious moment in the clip below)

And of course Danny & Rajnikanth spice things up too with their macho campiness, watch this fight clip below where Rajnikanth avenges Hrithik's death

Good songs by Rajesh Roshan, there's a mellow lullaby 'Tujhse pehle' picturised on Rajnikanth, a madrasi style dance number 'chugh gayee chidiya' and the cute 'aaj dil tude (superfast love)' my favourites are 'pehli baar pyar' Sridevi is just so sexy and lovely in this song and

'aaya aaya pyar ka zamana' yes she does look good with Rakesh in this clip but overall their Jodi lacks the excitement and energy she seemed to have with Jeetendra

Paisa Vasool rating: 4/10

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