Jadu Tona (1977)

Today is the birthday of one of my favourite bollywood divas Reena Roy (Happy Birthday Reena) so i thought i'd check out this movie which was inspired or should i say rips off The exorcist that has her in it

The movie begins with this

Aamir (Prem Chopra) along with his two daughters Varsha & Harshu go to visit his parents in the village, he comes across a local villager who tells him to salute the banyan tree, Aamir dismisses him as an illiterate and drives off

While at the village Harshu (Baby pinky) his youngest daughter is lured into an old derelict building, there she meets an old man in the corner who begs her to get him his medicine from an old cupboard (hmmm, shouldn't she have been scared and head for the nearest exit)

Harshu why why?

Upon touching the bottle an evil spirit is released and our dear Harshu becomes possessed, which is shown to us by some hilarious special effects and some 360 degree eye rolling

Notice she's been split in two for the sprit to make way into her

Harshu collapses and is found by the villagers, when the village doctor tries treating her for what they believe to be exhaustion she bites him, leaving the doctor to declare her mad

Her grandmother perceives she must be possessed and gets Saint Bajrangi (Premnath) to come over and treat her, when he makes demands about things they would need for her to get well he's interrupted by Harshu's elder sister Varsha (Reena Roy) who dismisses him as Superstitious

Bajrangi is unable to treat her but upon many pleas from their grandmother he gives her a talisman to tie around her arm to ease the fits from the evil spirit

the family go back to Bombay and Harshu is referred to a Psychiatrist Dr. Kailash who thinks she's suffering from a split personality disorder

As time goes on Kailash and harshu's sister Varsha fall in love with each other ( i kinda admire the director for including a subtle romance, he knew & was out to take care of his Indian
audience)

However the sessions with Dr Kailash give no result and Harshu keeps getting fits and talking in strange voices

When a certain Dr. Vikram is murdered Inspector Jolly Goodman (Ashok Kumar) is assigned the case and due to witness reports Harshu becomes a suspect

Inspector Jolly Goodman's suspicion of Harshu leads him to her psychiatrist Dr Kailash who tells the inspector off for being too supertitious and ridiculous.As the story unfolds it's clear Harshu is possessed by none other than Panalal who had been murdered by this friends for his wealth, he plans on getting his revenge through Harshu

Inspector Jolly however must stop her from achieving this mission

Dadaa Moni looking darn fine

Will Harshu ever be rid of her demons? Will she succeed in killing all panalal's friend who had murdered him?

Overall i found Jadu Tona just a bit interesting, perhaps the fact that i had seen the Exorcist affected my judgement, which by miles is the better film, I really didn't know what to think of this movie, sure it was inspired by the exorcist but that's where the similarities end, Jadu Tona (Black Magic) is a poor tacky version full of dodgy special effects, which i don't really mind, but it failed to scare me in whatever way or form. I had huge expectations about this movie for some reason but the movie was sloppy and had way too much silliness to be taken seriously with names like Inspector Jolly Goodman seriously?????

Another thing that ticked me off about Jadu Tona was the silly comic side plots which thankfully were kept to a minimum, and some silly plot holes like Kailash taking an unpredictable Harshu who was prone to Epileptic fits on an aeroplane ride

But still i adored the director for trying to please his core audience and adapting it to their tastes as seen through the underlying themes of romance and good ol' revenge

And of course much like the exorcist the film tries tomake a case for science not being able to comprehend or explain all the unknown mysteries yet when all the medical treatments failed, none of her family who believed it might actually be a demon posession tried to get spritual help as was with the case of getting a Priest in the exorcist, the moive ends with this disclaimer

Everyone puts in an Ok performance, but what was it with Ashok Kumar and his abbreviations, hilarious examples include I LIKE YOUR ID (id meaning Interior Decoration) or get me some VES (Ves meaning Vegetable Sandwiches)

Baby Pinky is worth mentioning,but i found her weirdness during her possession bouts very jarring to say the least

I watched this film mostly because of Reena and she barely had as much Screen time as i would have liked nor is there much for her to do than worry over her sister's mental health, she looked fierce in some of the fashions though

i can totally see Carrie Bradshaw wearing this

vah! Kya fabulous hat hai?

Good music from Hemant Bhosle the songs are well placed within the movie there's the beautiful 'aaina kucch to bata de' the sweet 'yeh gaon pyara pyara' which is what our lovely Harshu sings before she gets possessed

and a birthday celebratory song 'Sawari saloni, jauna ka jivan'

paisa Vasool Worthiness: 4.5/10

Nagin (1976)

What do you get when you mix a star cast with fast paced thrilling action, body morphing, catfights, great songs, dodgy special effects, cool jazzy fashions and a femme fatale. The result is a superb movie and Nagin (female Snake) proves just that, this movie is total paisa vaisool (value for money)

The film is based on the myth of snakes who are able to transform into human beings and thus we meet Vijay (Sunil Dutt) who is exploring this matter in the forests when he sees and rescues Nag (Jeetendra) from a vulture about to devour him. Nag is taken by his act of kindness and when he learns Vijay is there to learn about Snakes who are able to take the human form, Nag joyfuly tells him he is one of them and reveals himself and his partner Nagin (Reena Roy) for Vijay to see

Vijay (Sunil Dutt) out of excitement takes his skeptical and unbelieving friends ( A stellar super cast of Feroz Khan, Kabir Bedi, Anil Dhawan & Vinod Mehra) to see the Nagin who just happens to be doing her lovely snake dance after a 100 year wait to mate with her lover

Clockwise from Top Left (Kabir Bedi, Sanjay Khan, Feroz khan, Vinod Mehra & Anil Dhawan)

when her lover descends upon her in snake form, one of Vijay's friends Kiran (Anil Dhawan) shoots it thinking the snake is about to harm Nagin

Vijay scolds him telling him that wasn't just any snake, but her lover, they try to look for the snake to prevent the female lover finding it, they're unsuccessful and when Nagin finds her husband Nag (Jeetendra) the killers are revealed through his photographic eyes, the Nagin then plots to avenge his death by killing them all


Man No.1 on Nagin's list is Kiran (Anil Dhawan) and she charms her way into his hands giving him a sob story, stupid Kiran is taken by her sob story and charm, he takes her home to have a one night stand with her. When they get home she turns the fierceness on and kills him


i love the way their faces go blue when she kills them

Next on her list is Man No.2 Rajesh (Vinod Mehra) she morphs into his girlfriend and then kills him


Upon Rajesh's death his friends are worried and they visit a Healer (Prem Nath) who gives them charms for their protection


Lucky charm

Next on Nagin's list is Man No.3 Uday (Kabir Bedi) This one proves tricky for Nagin as Rajesh has the protecting charm around his neck, but the fierce Nagin cuns him through Morphing into Prema Narayan. After a failed attempt to poison his alcohol she then employs Ranjeet, who grabs the chain from him during a fight, at which she launches her attack


Ranjeet the hot villain

On and on she goes and we are treated to more body morphing, a superb catfight, jazzy 70's outfits, highly venomous snakes, flying snakes and lots of thrilling moments

Snappy '70's Jumpsuit

Who knew snake venom is blue in colour


Will any of the men survive her wrath? Watch Nagin to find out

This is one of the first bollywood films i watched as a kid and the rest as they say is history, Nagin was crazily popular in lots of African countries including Nigeria. What made it popular i believe was the superb storyline, the acting and the great songs. The dodgy special effects (see below), is the only negative thing i'll say of the film, but then it was 1976 when high tech devices wasn't available to most bollywood producers, the direction is on point and there is never a dull moment in this amazing thriller



For the Human to snake transformation the images were shrunk to a very little size and then elongated to snake length

Another great thing about this film is the fierceness Reena Roy brought to the role of Nagin so much attitude, spunkiness and Fierceness in the very sense of the word no actress could have played the role better

Although she's mad with anger about her lover's death, we also see her sad, tearful side which i thought was amazing.

An excellent point the blogger Indiequill notes about this movie is that "during the whole Amitabh Bachchan Angry Young man image which was prevalent in the 1970's, slap bang in the middle comes Nagin proving female animals know better" or as it were know how to bite as well

Below is my Reena Roy picture galore, i love her so much, i couldn't stop taking screen caps

Rekha had a small role but she gives a great performance,I really enjoyed her catfight with Reena Roy(see below)

Watch it below

also having small roles were Yogeeta Bali and Mumtaz

Mumtaz

Yogeeta Bali

The music showcases Laxmikant Pyarelal at their very best, the fun playful "Tera Mera Tera Mera" the tender love song "Tere mere yaarane", a mellow number 'tere ishq ka mujh pe' sang by Asha Bhosle and Mohammed Rafi but my favourite has to be Tere sang pyar mein, the love song between the two snake lovers, two versions are in this movie, one a duet by Lata Mangeshkar & Mahendra Kapoor and a solo with Lata Mangeshkar which features the dancing Nagin at her curviest, fuller self, enjoying every bit of her body (see below)


Total score: 8/10 (Colourful fast paced thriller)

This is definitely one to get on dvd, its also available on youtube with English Subtitles in 16 parts
BUY DVD

A new version of Nagin called Hisss with Mallika Sherawat as the vengeful snake has been made by Jennifer Lynch which is due out later this year (see trailer below). As its the year 2009 and with all the Cgi help available, Nagin gets creepier and scarier and its one of the fims i can't wait to watch this year