Mawaali (1983)

Second film in line for Sridevipalooza is Mawaali (Loafer) this is yet another film where Sridevi didn't get much to do, but these films still helped lay foundations for her status as the No.1 heroine of the '80's she was to become

Mr Goyal (Sreeram Lagoo) lives in his wealthy mansion with his gorgeous daughter Nisha (Jaya Prada) & relatives from hell Ajit (Kader Khan), Shobha (Aruna Irani) & their son Ranjit (Shakti kapoor)

Ajit is one of the trustees of Mr Goyal's business, he carries out dodgy deals but Ramesh (Jeetendra) an honest employee always restores things

Check out that highly volumised hair

When Ramesh falls for Nisha, Ajit isn't too pleased as he wants his son to marry Nisha & hopefully become heir to Mr Goyal's fortune. When Mr Goyal hears about Nisha's romance with Ramesh , he's none too pleased with the news given his status as a labourer at his factory, as a result Ramesh is fired

One night while rushing to her father's room following a huge scream let out by her dad, Nisha bumps into who she thinks is Ramesh, he hurries out immediately. Upon arriving at her fathers room Nisha realises he's dead and none other than Ramesh is linked to the crime

During the court trial Ramesh pleads his innocence but Nisha's claim that she saw him on the night leads to him being convicted and sent to prison to await death at the gallows

the utterly beautiful Jaya Prada, what a face

In prison Ramesh is surprised when he finds a doppelgänger of himself Gangu

Did Ramesh (or should we assume its Gangu) really kill Mr Goyal? If not who did? What exactly was he doing at Nisha's house at that time of night?

I was tempted to describe this film as camp, but then camp is too kind a word to describe this outrageously wacky film, this film can only be fun if you have a sense of humour to appreciate the outrageous, the editing is bad, the wafer thin plot full of holes bigger than a colander dish manages to stretch itself out till just under 3 hours.

In fact i was wondering whether to bother writing this up or not but i conjured up the courage, it just had to be done, these films whether we like it or not are a part of Hindi film industry, they drew in the crowds and became blockbusters while gems like The Burning train, and many other great films failed miserably. Thus for all the abuse and shtick 80's bollywod gets, seems the audiences were the ones affecting the demand.

Just like in Justice Chaudhury which i reveiwed yesterday, Sridevi's presence is felt only in the song and dance numbers and in fact that's the only thing i enjoyed about this film, indeed Bappi Lahiri's folky disco type tunes must have been part of the major draw for audiences

Rumour has it both Jaya & Sridevi couldn't stand each other, there are a couple of stories i've heard especially the one below, which according to imdb goes like this

"Sridevi and Jaya Prada didn't exchange a word during the shooting of the eight or nine films they co-starred in. While shooting "Maqsad", their co-stars Rajesh Khanna and Jeetendra apparently locked the two women up in the same room. An hour later when they peeped in, they saw them sitting quietly in two corners of the room"

Can anyone confirm how true the above might be, i'll really like to know

As usual the music in these southern style films are always hilarious from the fun 'baap ki kasam' & 'rama rama rama re' the hilarious 'Jhopdi mein charli' with lyrics such as 'A cot in a hut is nothing without a man in it' the song i've chosen to embed today is the whacky 'Ek , do, teen, char' i guess this song and the picturization pretty much sums up this movie

and of course the highly catchy 'Ui Amma Ui Amma (Mushkil yeh kya ho gayi)' which has recently been gaining popularity due to the 'Oohh la la tu hai meri fantasy'song from the 'The Dirty Picture' movie sampling it.

Paisa vasool rating: 4/10

Buy the dvd here

Justice Chaudhury (1983)

Kicking off Sridevipalooza is Justice Chaudhury, Sridevi doesn't get to do much in this acting wise, but as a fan you'll get your money's worth Sridevi-wise with lots of super fun songs as well as dance routines

Honest and upright Justice Chaudhury (Jeetendra) gets in the bad books of Jai Singh (Shakti Kapoor) when he gets his doppleganger brother Shankar sent to the gallows

Suave looking Justice Chaudhury

Jai plots to get back at Justice Chaudhury by ruining his reputation, to do this he hires struggling mechanic Ramu ( Jeetendra) to carry out his shady plans for him in return for cold hard cash. Ramu hopes the money he makes would help buy a mansion of dreams for his mother Radha (Hema Malini), who is spending time in Jail for a crime he had committed as a child, when he had murdered the man who attempted raping her

He meets and falls for Rekha (Sridevi), and in the usual filmi way she plays hard to get at first, but then eventually falls in love with him, over time she comes to know of his shady deeds and tries to make him see the error of his ways, arguing his mom won't be able to find peace once she finds out he had gained the money to buy her mansion of dreams through dishonest means

Justice Chaudhury on the other hand is burdened by his disabled daughter Laxmi's (Debashree Roy) plight to find a husband, this changes when Kiran (Raj kiran) takes a liking to her, they both get married and Kiran turns out to be a trap by Jai Singh in order to get Justice Chaudhury to release yet another one of his brother's who's been tried at the court of law

When Justice Chaudhury refuses to release Jai Singh's brother, Kiran divorces Laxmi which obviously is a taint on Justice's reputation/honour. When Kailash (Kader Khan), another Justice Chaudhury hater realises Ramu is Justice Chaudhury's son, he alerts Ramu that Justice Chaudhary is his father and tells him how he had impreganted his mother Radha and then left

Young Justice Chaudhary and Radha

Ramu is furious and is hell bent on avenging the injustice done to his mother, he disguises as Justice Chaudhury and sets up Justice's son Ramesh (Arun Govil) for murder

Ramesh is brought to the court of the law and none other than his father Justice Chaudhury must decide the case

Will he bend the law for his son or will he be his usual upright self? Did Justice really do the dirt on Ramu's mother or is there a reason why she ended up raising him alone?

This is one of my all time favourite Jeetendra films, he shines and is believable in his dual role as Justice and Ramu, he played both parts with conviction albeit in a very melodramatic kind of way, yet still he was convincing as both the father and son, plus the make up applied to age him was not over the top. The soap opera style sub plot after sub plot, as well as twists and flashbacks though a bit tiring after a while, made this film highly enjoyable to watch for me, i couldn't wait to see what twist or tale would be introduced next, overall i'd say Justice Chaudhury is a very entertaining flick with a stronger storyline than all the other southern style films Jeetendra did in the 80's like Himmatwala.

As for Sridevi as I've said at the beginning of this post, she doesn't get to do much apart from the Song and dance numbers, which I have to say are a treat if you're a fan

Other things i loved about Justice Chaudhury are

Jeetendra & Sridevi of course

lots of sychronised dance steps

some cool even if doll house like interiors


A sharp Suited and rather well dressed villain

a cool collection of sunglasses Jeetendra wears in the film

the psychedelic style sets of 'Mujhe kya hua' with giant sea shells with disco lights attached

And of course Bappi Lahiri's music made this film all the nmore enjoyable, from the sweet 'Laxmi o Laxmi' and 'Zindagi Anmol' to my three favourites

the sexy 'mujhe kya hua' watch as Sridevi and Jeetendra hug, and writhe seductively amidst psychedelic sea shell sets i've included the video below with subtitles

The aerobic style dance moves as well as the pure awesome double entendre lyrics in 'saath mere aaoge'

and not forgetting the bollywood disco classic 'Mamma mia'

Bappi Lahiri Zindabad

Paisa Vasool rating: 7/10, even Jeetendra gives it the thumbs up

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