Aas Paas (1981)

Continuing the Dharema theme is this rather significant movie, significant not so much because of its content but because it was the last film the great hindi film playback singer Mohammed Rafi recorded   for before his death in 1980

Thus the movie starts with this dedication

Then we're introduced to Arun (Dharmendra) who's just been released from Prison, the story goes on a flashback mode where Arun a wealthy and outgoing  young man meets and falls in love with a theatre actress Seema (Hema Malini)

 When Arun announces his plans to marry Seema, his Mother (Nirupa Roy) is none too pleased her son is getting married to a theatre dancer but Arun persists

Arun is later called to herald the family business, however Prem (Prem Chopra) his brother in law is none too pleased and sets about killing him off by planting a bomb in his plane

Distressed and shattered over Arun's death Seema finds herself unable to perform at the theatre which results in her being fired. If all this heartache wasn't enough for poor Seema, her father dies leaving Seema alone to fend for both herself and her brother

Poor Seema, I'd be traumatized as well

She becomes a big time Sharaabi (drunkard) and starts living with another washed up actress rani (Nadira) whose waning popularity had led to depression and drinking

Sita-ji!! those sharaab bottles screen caps are for you, Hema Malini sure looks like she enjoys her drink

During one of her drinking sessions, she's violated by Prem in vengeance for how she had insulted him during her time at the theatre (Poor poor Seema,  poor girl can't seem to catch a break)

After a rather long spell of horrid happenings, Seema's world comes alive once more when Arun is found alive, plans are made for their engagement

However on the date of their engagement Seema realises that none other than Prem who had  violated her is Arun's brother in law

How will Seema handle Situations, will she call off her marriage to Arun? Will She tell Arun about the heinous act his brother in law committed against her? Will Seema ever be able to catch a break?

Asides from its significance of containing the last recording of a Mohammed Rafi song 'tu kahin aas paas hai dost' (Does anyone know if Mohammed Rafi actually finished recording the song), Aas Paas is well worth paasing over. Of all the Dharema (that's Dharmendra & Hema Malini) films I've seen so far (and trust me I've seen a lot) Aas Paas is by far my least favourite, the performances from both of them was lacklustre, the chemistry and spark they both had in movies like Raja Jani, Naya Zamana etc was missing in this. Perhaps the tawdry soap opera style plot and execution plus the abysmal ending ruined things for me, but I just wasn't pleased with this movie at all and unless you're a die hard Dharema fan like me, I'd say paas on

There were a few things I liked though, I loved Nirupa Roy as Arun's wealthy mother in her stylish spectacles and lovely sari's

Nadira also brought me some  enjoyable hammy moments with her character as star whose popularity had declined , I really do wonder if her character as a forgotten legend bears some resemblance to her in the 80's when her popularity must have waned

Lovely t-shirt on Asrani, I remember seeing very similar t-shirts with that exact slogan being very popular a few years ago

And Madhu Malhotra who reminded me an awful lot of  Neetu Singh

the hair style, make up and her whole face screams Neetu!!!

 And look its mini Hrithik Roshan in one of his early filmi appearances

Ok Soundtrack from Laxmikant Pyarelal I remember loving just a coup[le of the songs,  the lovely punjabi style number 'shaher mein charcha hai'  and Hema Malini in full on daaru-tastic mode in 'hum ko bhi gham ne mara' and my utmost favourite from this film and in fact one of my favourite Dharema songs 'Tumhe dil mein bandh kar loon'


Paisa Vasool Rating: 4.5/10

For those interested in watching Aas Paas its available on youtube* with English Subtitles

*Due to copyright Issues depending on what part of the world you're in, the Video above might not play

Mast Kalandar (1991)

The lovely Roti kapada aur Rum came up with the idea of dedicating a whole week to trashy films, luckily for her, i have seen a good deal of trash and now seems like the perfect opportunity to let some of them loose

Raisaheb's (Shammi Kapoor) disapproval of his son's (Anil Dhawan) wife Sheetal (Nandita Thakur) leads to a breakdown in their communication

Years go by and Rai Saheb is missing his son, he also feels remorseful on how he had treated his son's wife. Too late for Rai Saheb though as his son is now dead, Sheetal his son's wife unable to raise their child Guddu on her own decides to leave him with Rai Saheb who's wealthy & thereby able to provide better

Upon hearing the news of his grandson arriving an overjoyed Rai Saheb is eager to pick them but his Personal assistant Prem (Prem Chopra)volunteers

Prem however has plans of his own, himself along with Raja Saheb (Amrish Puri) plan on inheriting Rai Saheb's property thus news of his Grandson arriving is bad news for them, they hire some Goondas (Henchmen) to bump them off, but unluckily for them Guddu escapes alive but the poor boy loses his mother thereby making him an orphan

Rai Saheb is disheartend at the thought of his lost grandson, he places adverts in the newspapapers, promising a substantial amount to whoever finds or knows of Guddu's whereabouts. Shankar (Dharmendra) an opportunist sees this as a chance to make a quick buck

Shankar dresses up and pretends to be the child (seriously???) while Preeti (Dimple Kapadia) pretends to be the mother

Shankar as the missing child

Preeti as the mother

But of course they fail at their attempt

Guddu later buddies up with Shankar who in turn becomes his guardian, Shankar realises he just might be the missing grandson of Rai Saheb. He takes him over to Rai saheb's house, unluckily Rai Saheb is not home & Guddu's locket which stands as proof gets left behind

When Rai Saheb out of frustration (Rai Saab what's the rush) decides to will all his property over to Prem his Personal assistant, the necklace magically falls down from the ceiling thereby giving Rai Saheb hope that his grandson is still alive

Prem and his aide Raja Saheb must now prevent Rai saheb from willing the entire estate to Guddu, even if it means killing him

Will they succeed in their venture? Watch Mast Kalandar if you dare to find out

Overall a major disappointment and complete trash is what this film was, I would have cried if I had spent my money on this dvd, luckily for me though, i rented it. The acting, editing, cinematography as well as dvd quality was BAD, if all that wasn't enough Eros had the guts to snip out the one juicy song making the film EXTRA trashy. Watch this only if you're a hardcore fan of any of the leads here, just so you can claim you've seen all their movies, otherwise this movie is pure unadulterated big Trash

Rum wants us to shame our favourite stars and it pains me Dharmendra had to be the one i shame in this film, he just looked tired and overworked and given his friendship with the director Rahul Rawail, I can only imagine he did this as a favour of sorts. Dimple Kapadia too was wasted and didn't even get the chance to do much

Shakti kapoor tries seducing Pinku

Pinku flirts with Dharmendra

Pinku in his carrot coloured mohawk

The only saving grace in this movie in my opinion is Anupam Kher, in fact he's the major reason i watched this, his character of Pinku is said to be Bollywood's first openly gay character, Amrish Puri plays his accepting father (well he sees his son flirt with men openly and never tells him off).

Of course he camps it up, but Anupham kher really nailed his performance as Pinku, well, not all gay men fall into this effeminate stereotype but Anupam kher makes it so real that i actually see some of my gay friends in him, anyway see him in all his awesomeness below

Very average Soundtrack from my favourite music directors Laxmikant Pyarelal in this one, there's the hilarious 'chor chor chor', the quite sweet 'jag ja ke soja' and the only one i really liked was a parody of 'ek do teen' with Anupam Kher trying to seduce Prem Chopra, it surely doesn't get trashier than this

Paisa Vasool Rating: 3.5/10

Suhaag Raat (1968)

Next in line for the 7 day Jeetendra extravaganza is Suhaag Raat (Wedding Night)

Jeetu (Jeetendra) & Rajjo (Rajshree) are lovers who are getting married, unfortunately for them, their marriage is disrupted when Jeetendra has to report back to his military base following an enemy attack on India. Jeetu leaves promising Rajjo he'll return and get married to her

following his departure the entire town is attacked and Rajoo loses all her family members amidst all the chaos, if all that wasn't bad enough she receives news that Jeetendra has been killed in war, a devastated Rajjo alongside her uncle leave town

Surprisingly Jeetu returns and soon learns about the death of his family, while wandering in a state of despair he's taken in by Sulochana who takes pity on him and makes him manager of her estate

Sulochana however is worried about her own irresponsible son Uday who goes about drinking & being a waste, Jeetu advises her to get him married threatening to disown him or cutting him off her will if he doesn't agree

can anyone id the Uday character, he's the one in the middle

Uday agrees to get married, on the day of the wedding when Jeetu goes to pick the bride up from the station, it turns out to be none other than his lover Rajjo, they're both shocked but they both keep knowledge of their past relationship a secret

On the same wedding night just before their intimate night together Uday's friends ask him to come drinking with them one last time at the kotha (brothel), after having one drink too many he gets into a fight at the kotha with another Nawab resulting in the Nawabs death

He escapes & Rajjo is declared a widow when a burnt corpse is mistaken for his dead body. He turns up one night much to Rajjo's surprise,he makes her promise not to tell anyone he's alive, which she agress to, they also get intimate with one another

Months later when her pregnancy is revealed, she's reviled & called a sinner who's brought dishonour to the family since Uday hadn't even touched her before his death, Rajjo keeps quiet all through the accusation as Uday had made her promise not to reveal the fact he's still alive

Jeetu is accused of defiling her and is sent out too as a result

Overall a self sacrifial melodrama which should be watched mostly for the gorgeous songs by Kalyanji Anandji or if you enjoy weepy melodramas that extol the virtues and sufferings of the ideal Indian woman whose husband is her god (this indeed is what the film advocates, even after going through numerous and in some cases unnecessary self sacrifice, Rajjo is given a goddess like status as a reward of her sacrifices) you'll enjoy this, the rest of you know what to do.

The thing with such movies is that despite knowing how its all going to end i can't help but be entertained and be glued to my screen till the very end. Perfomance wise everyone is watchable but this was a different kind of film for Jeetendra as compared to his fun escapist fares like Farz & Waaris, he was way too weepy in this

Rajshree is gorgeous, i love her face

This film also has one of the most hilarious dance offs I've ever seen in bollywood with Laxmi Chhaya dressed as peacock and Madhumati as a snake battling it out, its so camp but ohh so enjoyable

What i enjoyed the most as i've said are the songs by Kalyanji Anandji there's the bouncy Lata number 'Mohi lagi re' the fun 'mere dil se dil ko' my two favourites though are the lovely 'Khush raho' by Mukesh

and the super hot mujra 'Main Qayamat' with the lovely Madhumati & a very feisty Laxmi Chhaya

Paisa Vasool Rating: 4/10