Himalay Ki God mein (1965)

Himalay Ki God Mein (In the lap of the Himalaya's) is yet another one of Mala's more notable roles, she plays the stereotypical innocent village girl in a charmingly funny way, this film earned Mala her third filmfare actress nomination alongside Meena Kumari for Kaajal and Sadhana for Waqt, she was upstaged by Meena who won for Kaajal

On his way back home to India from London after completing his medicine degree Dr Sunil Mehra's (Manoj Kumar) plane is forced to make an emergency landing after a passenger on board suffers a heart attack


Thus their toy aeroplane makes a landing in the jungle, not even a make shift airport but a bloody jungle with a sandy runway (LoL)


Sunil gets off the plane to get help only to be confronted by daaku's (dacoits) who rob him and beat him to the point of exhaustion, he's left in a critical state only to be rescued by village belle Phulwa (Mala Sinha) and her friends




Surprisingly for someone away from home and whose family are worried sick about him, Sunil seems very cheerful and without a care in the world, he and Phulwa start developing a bond. Sunil's health is back on full form and he returns to the city, he thanks Phulwa and her guardian Dayal (David Abraham) and leaves them his contact details


When Dayal falls ill Phulwa takes him to the city to seek Sunil's help, he then decides to leave the fast city life behind to help the vilagers of the Himalayas as they have no doctor in the town


He's advised against this by his parents and his fiancee Neeta who argues 'what's in it for him' even after persuading Neeta (a qualified doctor herself) to go with him to help the people she's reluctant as she's not ready to give up her high flying career in the city


However Sunil is determined and heads for the Himalayas on his own, before he leaves for the Himalayas he's warned by his father (D.K. Sapru) to keep the fact that he's Inspector Mehra's son a secret, as his father had tried arresting the chief dacoits of the Himalayas Lakhan (Jayant)


At the village he's met with opposition at first by the villagers who believe in traditional healers (Mukri & Kanhaiyalal) who are in fact fraudulent, the villagers warm up to Sunil over time when they see the imapct of his work


Happy Doc

When Sunil makes it clear to his parents that he intends on staying on in the Himalayas for life they're unappy and they send Neeta his fiancee as a pawn to bring him back to the city


Meanwhile Sunil & Phulwa have fallen deeply for each other


Will Neela succeed in her mission to bring him back? Will the dacoits realise Sunil is the son of the Inspector Mehra who's out to get them

An enjoyable film overall, it was not as great as i was expecting, its the kind of movie you watch on a rainy sunday afternoon, i guess my expectations were really high because the film won the 1966 filmfare Movie of the year award, by now i think i should have learnt the lesson that just because a film was awarded 'movie of the year' doesn't mean its an exceptionally great movie.

Still though, the decent acting, fabulous songs & scenery makes it enjoyable, i can tell the film won for its Swadeish kind of philosophy of kindness and love for humanity over one's own personal ambition as could be seen in Sunil's decision to leave the fast life behind in order to become a doctor in a local village. Also added to the narrative is the now familiar trope of a dacoit being a lovable person at heart, and social stigma/prejudice being the reason for their waywardness

Decent performances all around, i loved Mala's Village belle character, it had the potential to be annoying but Mala keeps it refreshingly funny and charming

she also gets the chance to show off some of her dancing skills, i've rarely seen Mala dance apart from the 'Lootee jaa' number in Ankhen


Shashikala is fast becoming one of my favourites, no one could play a detestable/contemptuous character like she often did

Superb music from Kalyanji Anandji (the credits indicate they were assisted by Laxmikant Pyarelal) indeed the music of this film is what makes it memorable for many, highlights include the beautiful ballads 'Ek Tu na mila' vibrant 'tu raat khadhi thi' & 'kankariya marke jayaga' where we get to see Mala doing some fab dancing, and the evergreen 'Chand si Mehbooba'



Total paisa Vasool rating: 6/10

Boot Polish (1954)

Boot Polish is along the lines of the powerful impactful social melodrama's produced in the 50's signifying hope and courage for a newly independent India

Kamla (Chand Burke) is left with her brother in law's kids Bhola (Tattan kumar) and Belu (Kumari Naaz). In usual filmy style she starts treating them harshly and then makes them take up begging


After a long while begging the kids decide to stop begging with the intention of taking up Boot polishing in order to earn more money

they save up for this and they find support in the form of the friendly John Chacha who sees begging as unhelpful

They find it hard at first but with John Chacha's help and consoling nature they become good at polishing

However their support system is shattered when John Chahcha gets taken to jail for possession of bootleg alcohol

Kamla their wicked stepmother soon finds out about their boot polish trade and the fact they've been hiding money from her, she then kicks them out in anger

The two kids refuse to beg and an event following a riot at the train station they getseperated with Belu ending up with a childless rich family who adopts her

When she tells them of her brother they go to Kamla and shes compensated for their adoption of Belu, she tells them Bholu is dead

Bholu on the other hand is on the search for Belu

Will they ever be reunited again? Will Belu find out Bhola didn't die? Watch Boot Polish to find out

Overall a wonderful & uplifting even if a little frustrating particularly the last few minutes, which i guess is due to the rather winding and my impatience of whether Belu and Bhola would ever meet plus well placed circumstances that threatens to ensure this never happens, nevertheless this is a great film portraying the harshness of poverty and battle of our ideals over real life situations

David Abraham is fantastic as John Chacha who serves as a support system for the kids and gives them a hope for the future urging them not to be beggars and be entrepreneurs this can be seen in particular in the scene where a rich couple are handing out notes to the poor and he

instead takes them up on their good act arguing that rather than give alms, why aren't jobs created instead, which would create greater happiness and satisfaction than begging and perhaps a sign of a newly independent and hopeful India. His character as a christian drunkard also reminded me of this wonderful post by Calcutta chromosome on hindi cinema's potrayal of christians


Wonderful performances from the kids as well, i liked both Kumari Naaz and ratat Kumar's performance but it was Kumari Naaz who plays Belu that got a special mention at the cannes film festival. Her portrayal of Belu was mature and natural

Kumari Naaz (credited as Baby Naaz) as Belu

beautiful Kumari Naaz

I can only think Rattan Kumar's performance didn't get a mention perhaps because of his melodramatic acting which i enjoyed nonetheless

The charming Rattan Kumar

Fine performance from Chand Burke who played the wicked aunt Kamla, who was she, does anyone know anything about her, according to imdb she seemed to have done about 8 movies only, but from her performance here she looked like she had what it takes to be a star


Wonderful music as well from Shankar Jaikishen the awewsome 'Lapak jhapak' (does anyone know if this is can be called a qawali) with John Chahcha and his prisonmates, the fun joyful 'Hum matwale' which is a favourite of mine (however due to the low quality video of it on youtube i chose not to embed it) the traditional melodious sounds of 'Chali kaun se desh' and the fun hopeful sounds of 'Nanhe munhe bachhe'


Total score: 8/10 ( an elaborate social drama)

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