Himmatwala (1983)

Following the massive flop of Deedar-E-Yaar, this film did magic for Jeetendra's career and catapulted him into the high realms of bankable stars in 80's bollywood. Directed by K.Raghavendra Rao, Himmatwala (Bravery) was a remake of the directors Tollywood film 'Ooriki Monagadu', these southern type melodramas (mostly remakes of southern films) became a winning formula in 80's bollywood with Jeetendra starring in almost every single one of them alongside Sridevi & Jaya Prada, coupled with dialogues written by Kader Khan as well as folky disco type music from Bappi Lahiri. Himmatwala is a typical example of this genre of films that became blockbusters

Ravi (Jeetendra) returns to the village of Ramnagar after completing his Engineering education in the city, he is disheartened when he finds his mother & sister living in dire conditions

He finds out about his mother Savitri's (Waheeda Rahman) sacrifice to get him educated & learns how his father Dharmamurti (Satyendra Kapoor) had been framed for rape by the village tyrant Sher Singh (Amjad khan), as a result his father was driven out of the village never to be found again, a furious Ravi promises to avenge his father's disgrace and gain back his father's honour by bringing Sher Singh to justice

Also taunting or should i say terrorising the villagers with her pranks is Sher Singh's daughter Rekha (Sridevi)

Better don't mess with Rekha or you'll be lashed

Unfortunately for both father & daughter they finally meet their match in the form of Ravi who squares up to them, he's met with admiration and respect by the local villagers who begin looking up to him

When he's given the contract to build a dam in the village, Sher Singh tries to bribe him into choosing his own plot of land for the project, when Ravi refuses Sher Singh sets out to get him

He manages to make Rekha see the error of her ways in a taming of the shrew kind of way, she falls hard for him & joins him in his quest to bring down her father's tyranny

Himmatwala is a silly film with a barely there plot which manages to stretch itself out for 2.5 hours, i'd be lying if i said i didn't enjoy it in spite of its silliness, these southern type films were widely panned by the critics, which didn't stop them becoming massive hits. Himmatwala of the two southern type melodrama's i've seen so far is not overly melodramatic like Tohfa, its charm lies in the charisma of Jeetendra and campness of Sridevi and the supporting cast, i think the rather simple and relate-able surroundings the film appears to have been shot in, as well as its themes on forgiveness and love for humanity coupled with visuals that felt very Indian perhaps made the film a hit amongst audiences

There's a certain Indian aesthetic to this southern type films that i admire, for example the 'Nainon mein sapna' number ranks as one of my all time bollywood song picturisatons, with its Bugsby Berkely style arrangement of props and dancers as well as the use of colours, it just packs so much of a raw Indian aesthetic which i just couldn't help but love. The 'Nainon mein sapna' song is the major reason i bought this film, i refuse to get tired of it, its one of my all time favourite bollywood songs, Why is this so, allow me to recap

massive area of land with carefully arranged clay pots and dancers

Sridevi in southern style dance poses

Cheerful looking dancers in colourful outfits with colourful dusters

Jeetendra and his colourful dusters

a giant glittery sun shaped prop

Perfectly synchronised dance steps

(see the video to this legendary song at the bottom of the post)

Himmatwala took Sridevi's career to new heights, i've read posts on various bollywood forums describing her effect on the filmi world as that of an earthquake hitting a town, upon the release of Himmatwala

What a long way she has come, i'm amazed that despite being older now, she looks half the size of what she looked like back then. She was curvy in this film, and seems she was given every opportunity to flaunt those curves at us, the cameraman perhaps in a case of perviness or perhaps to make the film more commercially viable gives lots of closeup shots of her thighs and posterior

lots of body close ups

The music by Bappi Lahiri is what makes Himmatwala a winner for me and one of the major reasons i shall be re watching it again, there's the fun 'ladki nahin tu' with lyrics such as "You simply aren't a girl, you're a wooden pillar" as well as 'taki o taki' a joy to behold for the perfectly synchronised dance steps of Jeetendra and Sridevi. My favourites include the highly infectious 'Wah wah khelu shuroo ho gaya' for its electro disco sounds

and the wonderful 'Nainon mein sapna' the major reason i bought this film

Paisa Vasool Rating: 6/10 (Extra points for the songs, props & Nainon mein sapna)

Buy the dvd here

Tohfa (1984)

This is one of the superhit remakes of a South Indian film in the '80's, these southern type films were very melodramatic in nature and usually starred Jeetendra, Sridevi and Jaya Prada with the music being composed mostly by Bappi Lahiri. These potboiler melodramas became a winning '80's box office success formula with movies such as Himmatwala, Mawaali, Justice Choudhary, Maqsad, Swarag Se Sunder etc all becoming box office hits. Tohfa (Gift) is one of these films, it was a remake of the Telugu film Devatha (1982), the film became the highest grosser in 1984 at the Indian box office

Janki (Jaya Prada) is a self sacrificing person who always helps and keeps a smile on everyones faces

She even sacrifices her own education so that her sister Lalita (Sridevi) can attend college without worrying about fees

Even Ram ( Jeetendra) the first person in the village to gain a law qualification attributes this to Janki, as he could only study due to Janki's help caring for his mother

Things take a turn when Janki falls in love with Ram, but Ram on the other hand loves Lalita but Janki does not know this

Many villagers come to seek Ram's hand in marriage for their daughters, but Ram's mother wants Janki to marry Ram, while Ram himself had promised to marry Lalita

When the two sisters's realise they're both in love, they decide to tell each other and in a game of 'no you go first' Janki reveals to Lalita that she's in love with Ram and their marriage has been planned by his mother

When Lalita finds out she keeps schtum and doesn't reveal her feelings and the fact that she's been dating Ram to her sister

Lalita out of desperation and heartbreak then marries a local tout kamesh (Shakti kapoor) in an attempt to get rid of her feelings for Ram

When her sister finds out about her marriage to loudmouth Kamesh she's disappointed and when she voices her opinion, Lalita accuses her of jealousy. Janki disowns Lalita and the two sister's part ways

Ram is disappointed when he finds out about Lalita's marriage to Kamesh

Lalita moves out of the village with Kamesh, while on the train to Mumbai kamesh gets in a fight which results in murder, he's sentenced to 7 years in Jail

Also Lalita is now carrying Ram's baby but Ram does not know this. Following their marriage, Ram and Janki also move into the same town but they find it hard to have a child of their own

Soon enough Ram comes across his son Gopi but he doesn't know Gopi is his son, soon enough Gopi takes him home to introduce him to his mother Lalita

Will she reveal Gopi's identity to Ram? Will she and her sister ever speak again? Will Janki ever learn of lalita's baby with Ram?

This melodrama while entertaining in some way was quite annoying at times, i hated the self sacrificial nature Janki was often subjected and praised for, but i still i enjoyed the melodrama, i loved the way it explores the consequences of what we might think are our good actions often wrecks havoc in the lives of others. For instance Lalita thought that by keeping her love for Ram quiet she was giving her sister happiness, but of course this complicated their relationship even further and both of them were never truly happy in their various lives


The music by Bappi Lahiri is superb they all had a hindi peppy folk touch to them, the picturisations of the songs were amazing to behold, from the carefully arranged steel pots and carefully lined dancers in a Busby Berkeley kind way in the catchy 'Gori Tere Ang'

the Busby Berkeley style arrangements of steel pots and dancers

Sridevi and Jeetendra in karma sutra style pose close to the carefully arranged pots in 'Gori tere ang'
to the car with colourful balloons in the breezy tuneful 'Albela Mausam'

and my favourite picturisation of all has to be 'Tohfa Laya' where saris were draped to form tents and maypoles (see below) and as one imdb commenter cleverly puts it "the best sari exhibition you'll ever see in bollywood" The producers even made it a point to thank Bombay dyeing


Jaya prada and Jeetendra in the tent made of sari's

Jaya and Jeetendra in the Circular tent made with Sari's in 'Tohfa Laya'

And my other favouite is the peppy 'Ek aankh Marun toh' with Sridevi and Jeetendra's doing some amazingly synchronised even if somewhat cheesy dance steps


Total Score: 6/10 ( An entertaining even if somewhat annoying in parts hyper melodrama)