Dharma (1973)

Pran without doubt is one of my favourite bollywood actors, this is one of the few films where his personality took centre stage

Dharma Singh (Pran) a wanted dacoit is betrayed by his friend Bhairon Singh (Rajan Haskar) who inserts plastic bullets into a gun Dharma intends to use in carrying out a raid, Dharma ends up being held by police but manages to escape

Following his escape he kills his betraying friend Bhairon Singh and while escaping from the cops a bullet hits his wife Parvati, as a result she and his son Suraj go missing. To avenge his missing wife and son, Dharma goes to Ajit Singh's (Ajit) house and then kidnaps his daughter, during a chase by the cops he throws her off the horse only for her to be picked up by a Madam

Years go by and Dharma Singh is now a high flying bandit known as Chandan, he also disguises as Nawab Sikandar in order to gain secrets from the cops through his friendship with Ajit Singh

Pran as Chandan

Pran as Nawab Sikander

His son Suraj now called Raju (Navin Nischol) joins Chandan's crew to help in carrying out heists, Chandan however has no idea Raju is his long lost son, as he thinks his family are deceased

Raju meets and falls for Radha (Rekha) who is a courtesan, but he doesn't know this

During a police chase following a stealing operation that goes wrong, Chandan & Raju seek hostage in a Kotha (Courtesan's residence) where he Raju sees Radha performing her courtesan acts

As usual in filmi scenarios like this, she explains she might be a courtesan but her honour is still intact(Is that so, how come???). When Chandan (Pran) thanks her for hiding them while the cops came searching, he asks her to request whatever she wants

she asks for a respectable life and home much to the dislike of her mistress in charge Jamnabai who had raised and trained her, Chandan promises to arrange this for her

Once she's left the Kotha she focuses her attention on reforming Raju, by getting him to quit his crime jobs and get on the straight and narrow

Meanwhile Chandan becomes wanted when a camera captures his face during a heist that goes wrong

Also on Chandan's heels are Chaman (Ramesh Deo) whose father Chandan had killed, joining him his is father's sidekick Mangal (Madan Puri)

When Mangal discovers that Parvati (Anjali Kadam), Dharma's wife is still alive, he hatches a plan to deceive her by pretending Chaman is her long lost son he had been caring for

Meanwhile, Ajit Singh while visiting his friend Nawab Sikandar (Pran), comes across Radha who just so happens to have a strong resemblance to his wife Asha

Will he realise she's his long lost daughter? Will Raju ever return to the world of crime? Will Dharma finally be exposed and caught by the police?

Dharma is a must watch for all Pran fans, this is one of the few films that relied heavily on him as no other person could have just pulled it off the way he did, Pran takes centre stage here and all the other characters wane in comparison to his. Dharma is a fun camp masala fare made extra enjoyable by Pran's fierceness, make sure you track this down if you're a Pran lover. Also his den is to die for check it out in the clip below

Some other Eye Candy

Bindu in her qawwali gear

Rekha dearest

This one's for you bollyviewer, i know how much you love Navin

The songs by Sonik Omi are fab too, from the sweet 'Sada teri umar' to the mujra 'Main teri Guneghar hoon' and 'Yaar Nighaon mein' a cabaret number with the who of who of Hindi film vamps, it starts with Helen and then Faryal, Sonia Sahni, Jayshree T and then ends with Bindu to my utmost favourite, the awesome qawwali 'Raaz ki baat kahedu toh' that takes place between Pran and Bindu, I've included the video with English subtitles, push play, Sit back, relax and enjoy

Paisa Vasool rating: 6/10

Kahani Kismat ki (1973)

The second selection in my Dharmendra week is this camp drama extravaganza from the same director who brought us kab? Kyoon? Aur Kahan? He again returns to his numerology idea of having triple K's in his film title with this one, and as luck would have it for him this one tured out to be a box office hit for him


Ajit (Dharmendra) is a graduate unable to gain employment, frustrated at his inability to support his family Ajit resorts to robbing, he's caught and sentenced to 2 years in Jail


His mother(Sulochana) out of guilt that her son had supported her from robbed items leaves the rich mansion Ajit bought her and moves to a poor bungalow


Ajit is pardoned and released from Jail early, he returns home and promises his mother he'll be on the straight and narrow


While on the search for a job, Ajit out of desperation takes part in a wrestling match with a money prize or 200 Rupees for the winner


He wins and with the money he buys various items for his families including a lunch box for his chota bhai ( little brother). He finds there's a huge amount of cash in the lunch box as well as the address of the owner who happens to be Mr Prem (Ajit)


Prem is impressed by Ajit's honesty and as a result he affers him a job, his daughter Rekha falls for him (i don't blame her)


She gets the help of her friend Jayshree T on how to woo him over

At first Ajit is shy and conscious of their class differences


but fierce Rekha ( oh how i loved her feisty dialogues in this scene) refutes him and challenges him to man up


you tell him girl


Ajit does and he declares his love for her to the whole world


Ajit soon starts getting weird fits and seizures, he goes to the doctor where he's diagnosed with cancer, and told he has months to live



This creates drama in his relationship with Rekha, Ajit not wanting her to be hurt by his death breaks up with her in a painfully neart breaking way when he introduces a paid actress to claim she's his wife



Karam Chand (Arjun Hingorani) who knows about Prem's past evil deeds threatens to reveal his secrets, if Prem doesn't pay him large amounts of money


Prem lies to Ajit about Karam Chand's threat and manages to convince Ajit to do his dirty deed by stealing the incriminating documents karam Chand has been blackmailing him with. Ajit out of desperation for money as well as the fact he might be dying soon agrees to the crime


Unfortuantely Karamchand is killed on the same night as Ajit's plans to rob him, as a result Ajit is framed for his murder


When Rekha discovers Ajit is in prison, the true love she feels for him, causes her to go visit him, on her way back she stumbles and collapses which results in a loss of huge amounts of blood

Khoon bhari maang it is indeed

The doctor finds it hard to find her matching blood type and a conclusion is eventually reached that only Ajits blood can save her, but Arjun has cancer, which means his blood can't be given to Rekha


Would Ajit be willing to give Rekha his cancerous blood, or can the doctor find a solution to this? Who framed Ajit? who killed karamchand? Does Ajit really have cancer? Also what dirty deed of Prem was Karam Chand aware of and threatened to reveal to the world Watch Kahani kismat Ki to finsd out these answers

Kahani Kismat Ki (the story of destiny) represents one of Dharmendra's camp peformances from 70's hindi cinema, there's nothing special here but if you love your camp 70's escapist fares, then you'll love this

For Dharmendra fans there's lots to love, ladies (or gents) you get to see Dharmendra fight in his briefs and flex his muscles






I was amazed by Rekha's look in this, i found her beautiful in this film, many people think she wasn't beautiful in her younger days but i loved her look here



Good songs from Kalyanji Anandji, there's the title track 'Kahani Kismat Ki' a seductive item number 'Tu yaar hi mera' and one of Dharmendra's most popular songs 'rafta rafta'

my favourites are 'Duniya mujhe Kehti Hai'



and Rekha and her girl friends in the playful and cool 'Kab tak na dogi dil' watch them rock out with their plastic guitars and other instruments on the beach




Total Score: 5.5/10

Suraj (1966)

Suraj, Suraj (sunshine), where do i start with this delightful movie, stolen kids, deception , evil scheming, wonderful costumes and great songs all make for a tasty 60's masala treat

After Sangram Singh (Niranjan Sharma) saves the life of Vikram Pratap Singh (David Abraham), he is highly grateful, as a reward Pratap Singh promises his daughter to Sangram Singh's son in Marriage, he secures this promise with a necklace

While the young king is playing with king Sangram Singh's guard Ram Singh (Gajanan Jagidar) the necklace drops and a palace maid steals it,Ram Singh is then accused of the theft and punished and shamed by the King, when the necklace is eventually found Ram Singh had left the palace and Sangram Singh gets no chance to apologise

Ram Singh is angry and promises to get even, he steals the young prince from the palace and then sends his own son back to the palace a few years later as the prince, he also creates a scar in his are similar to one the original prince has

The King and Queen are suspicious but when they discover a burn similar to the one the Prince has, they believe its truly him


Ram Singh then brings up the King's son as a thief with the intention of scorning the King one day, he also changes his name to Suraj

although Suraj is brought up as a thief, he has a heart of gold

Prince Pratap Singh (Ajit) who is actually Ram Singh's original son that is being brought up in the palace grows up to be a tout (oh the irony), terrorrising the villagers and troubling the young girls

Princess Anuradha (Vyjayanthimala) who has been promised to Prince Pratap Singh too comes of age and when her father tells her of her upcoming marriage to the prince, she's none too pleased but agrees to go and visit him just to please her father

She takes her maid servant Kalavati (Mumtaz) with her and when they get there she swaps roles with Kalavati arguing she wants to see what everyday life is like

Thus Kalavati becomes the princess and Princess Anuradha becomes the maid

While on her journey through town to discover what normal folks are like she meets and falls for Suraj in a spate of irony since he is in fact the original king

In another Spate of Irony the King doesn't take a liking to the acting Princess (Mumtaz) but falls for her handmaid who is fact the real Princess


Who would the king marry? Will the king discover that Prince Pratap Singh whom he has raised is not his real son? Will Suraj discover he is in fact the real prince? For obvious answers to these and many more fun reasons please watch Suraj?

An all round fun film is what Suraj (Sunshine) is, its full of hilarious well placed ironies plus the masalaic formulas of swapped children, mistaken identities & evil schemes, this movie has all the elements that became the standard formula of most masala films in the '70's and '80's.

I absolutely loved Rajendra Kumar in this, this was such a fun role for him and he pulled it off with panache, no tears or emotional acting for him in this, just fun all the way through

Johnny Walker as usual is comic relief with some hilarious Cock Jokes, according to my subtitles anyway

As for Ajit, what a handsome man he was, why didn't he ever make it to top hero status? He was hilarious and fantastic as the scheming terrorising prince

there was serious sexual chemistry between him and Vjayanthimala in a Villain fancies heroine kind of way


Never has Vyjayanthimala looked so gorgeous if you're a fan of Vyjayanthimala you might wanna add this to your collection, and although she doesn't dance so much in these she balances her roles as Princess Anuradha who knows what she wants and the damsel in distress perfectly


Baby Neetu Singh too had a small role


What an outstanding soundtrack by Shankar Jaikishen, all the songs from this films are gems, they won their 5th filmfare best music director award for this. From the romantic 'Chere pe giri' the sweet and heartwarming vocals of Sharda in 'Deko Mera Dil', the evergreen 'Baharon Phool Barsao' which won Mohammed Rafi his 4th filmfare best male playback award and the beautiful 'Ho Kaise Samjhaon', the fun 'Ho Ek baar' and the sweet enchanting 'Titli Udi' sang by the fabulous Sharda, which is said to ave been the No. 1 hit song of 1966


Total Score: 8/10 (A wonderfully entertaining Fairytale)

Suraj is available in 16 parts with English Subtittles on Youtube


the wonderful Sharda (image courtesy of BrookHaven National Laboratory)

Sharda whom i had heard nothing of till i saw this movie, apparently never made it big even though her voice was spectacularly magnificent due to dirty politics and monopoly of The Mangeshkar sisters whom i adore, but as much as i love them, when i read of allegations of them refusing to sing for producers should they give songs to anyone else i'm a little disappointed but that disappointment doesn't take away from the legends i think they rightfully are.

Sharda and some top industry people in the 60's Image courtesy of BrookHaven National Laboratory.

Sharda's education also seemed to have worked against her, read more on Wikipedia, i don't know how true the wikipedia article is, but with the very little that's written on her, the wikipedia article is well written and seems fair. She also has her own website as well which is aptly titled titliudi.com

See more of Sharda at the Brookhaven National Laboratory