Farz (1967)

Kicking off the 7 day Jeetendra Extravaganza is Farz (Duty) the first commercially successful spy movie modelled after the James Bond craze of the 60's, today also happens to be his birthday (Happy Birthday Jeetendra). Unlike most James Bond films of the era this bollywood take on the 60's espionage type thrillers much to the annoyance of one reviewer online comes complete with dance numbers, the said reviewer ranted at the fact that there was a song and dance in a spy (Sorry mate, its bollywood what do you expect).That said though, Farz is a cult classic or should i say has a cult following due to its James Bond type theme and its honour of being India's first commercially successful spy thriller. Farz itself is said to be based on the Telugu film Gudachari 116, which imdb describes as the first Bond-era secret agent movie made in India (does anyone know if there were secret agent type Indian films before the Bond-era?)

When Amarnath aka Agent 303 an undercover government spy takes pictures of enemies who are a threat to the India's safety, he's killed by the traitors, unknown to them is the fact that he had handed over the evidence to a photo developer

Gopal (Jeetendra) aka Agent 116 (who just so happens to be romancing & doing star jumps in the hills with his girlfriend) is given the task of recovering the pictures and exposing the traitors

Agent 116 hopes information from Agent 303's sister Kamla would help in his investigation towards finding the pictures

Kamla however is visited before Agent 116 gets there by Damodar (Sajjan) who claims to be her brother's friend, he twists her mind into believing Agent 116 is a villain, who's after the camera for his own gains, he urges her not to lash at at him but should rather join him in a cunning game that would lead Agent 116 to him

Agent 116 turns up and introduces himself but she's cold towards him due to Damodar's tactics, Agent 116 manages to get the location of the film and develops it, the pictures reveal a car with a plate number which he sees his love interest Sunita (Babita) driving

He later finds out Sunita's father Damodar is the owner of the car, Gopal becomes suspicious of him and links him to the traitors who had murdered Agent 303, when Damodar realises Agent 116 is suspicious of him he tries cutting a deal with him by offering Sunita's hand in marriage to him provided he quits his job as a spy, Gopal gives him his own condition too saying he (Damodar) would have to quit his own business too

Will they be able to reach a compromise? Will Sunita ever find out about her father's shady deals? Will Kamla ever realise Gopal is indeed innocent?

Added to the mix is a brain squeezing Gadget

60's style interiors

An evil bond style villain with the name Supremo

Overall Farz ends up being just a moderately enjoyable camp thriller, it could have been so much entertaining had the director cut down on the excessive dross in the form of tedious comic side plots which weren't too grating but still fell very much out of place. The major highlight for me were the songs and Jeetendra, his Gopal character i found very likable, he might not have had James Bond's suaveness or sex appeal, but he sure had a few smooth lines for the ladies, check out this line which he uses on Sunita

"I do not know what your parents named you but you're a true Mohini (Celestial beauty)' Now thats a chat up line you might want to try guys/gals

I loved his 60's style fashion too, skinny suits and pointy toe boots

As well as some truly hilarious ones especially this hat worn by Kamla

It actually reminds me of the Hat worn by Aretha Franklin at the President Obama's Inauguration

This was the first movie i saw Babita in and i really had to do a double take to ensure i wasn't watching Karisma, the resemblance is striking to say the least

Other points worth noting is the Patriotism Farz exudes, from its name alone which translates as 'Duty' one can invariably conclude Duty to motherland or Duty for nation, a great point Keith at teleport city makes in his extensive write up of the film is below in quotes

"Farz takes its nationalism far more seriously than Bond or any of the Eurospy films would have ever dared. While Europe had entered a phase in which such flag-waving patriotism was considered silly, at best, India was still pretty serious about it. That said, however, Farz is hardly a deadly serious film"

Fabulous music by Laxmikant Pyarelal is what makes this film extremely memorable in the minds of many including me, the catchy 'Dekho Dekhoji sochoji' the fun peppy 'Mast baharon ka', the lovely 'tum se haseena' and the wonderful 'Hum to tere asshiq' some of you might remember it as one of the songs in the antakshri medley from 'Maine Pyar Kiya', and seeing as its Jeetendra's birthday today what better way to celebrate than ending with the the superb 'Bar bar din ayee (Happy Birthday to you)' long live Jeetu-ji

Paisa Vasool Rating: 5.5 /10

Farz is available in 15 parts with English Subtitles on YouTube