Saajan Bina Suhagan (1978)

I plan to make a tradition of posting a Nutan review on this blog for as long as I keep it running on every 4th of June as we both share the same birthday. This is one of Nutan's last leading central heroine films with that master of Soap Opera-ish movies Saawan Kumar Tak, I reviewed another one of his films with Nutan, Saajan ki Saheli here last year as well

Gopal (Sreeram Lagoo) a wealthy family man receives bad news of his cancer from the doctor, he's advised to leave his home in  the more relaxing environments of Simla for the hustle and bustle in Mumbai all in the name of hiding his illness from his family

He leaves his wife Asha (Nutan) and 3 Children (Barkha Chopra, Kasturi Bartake & Padmini Kolhapure) behind without revealing the real reason for his sudden move, especially since his youngest daughter Bulbul (Padmini Kolhapure) has a hole in her heart

With their father gone to Mumbai, Bulbul befriends the new next door neighbour Rajkumar (Rajendra Kumar), who turns out to be (in a strange coincidence of melodramatic emotions to come) her mother Asha's ex lover. They had separated when Asha's father gave her away in marriage while Rajkumar was away in England studying

Asha eventually does find out the truth about her husband Gopal's illness and before his death he makes her promise to keep living like a married woman when he dies (what????)

Its not long till he does indeed die, only that before he kicked the bucket, Mangatram (T.P Jain) a worker at Gopal's hospital had eave dropped on their conversation. He starts blackmailing Asha for it, making extortionate demands for Money Asha can't even dream of

How long will this go on for? Will Asha put herself out of the misery her husband placed her in by coming clean? How long will she cope with this pretense as well as having to raise 3 kids all on her own?

When the title of a movie translates as it does in this case into Married without a husband you know you're in for some ridiculous soap opera style melodrama. It was quite annoying watching Asha obey her husband's selfish and in fact bad for her health advice, I'm inclined to think of it as sexist and his way of exerting control over her, On the other hand Saajan Bina Suhagan reflects the flip side or should i say dangers of self sacrifice as  Asha ends up paying a big price for her obedience to her husbands ill advice  but this being a family drama it all gets mushied up for a candy sweet ending.

But alas depsite this Saajan bina suhagan is quite watchable, nothing special here in terms of performances , as its all very Soap operaish but give it a go if you like the leads (in my case Nutan) or if you love your inoffensive 70's melodrama time pass movies.

Nutan was one of the major highlights in this for me, her Chiffon saris are a Joy to behold, see for yourself below

Loving her pink polka dots

How's this big flowery one? very Beautiful i say

Lovely colourful Floral sari

Padmini Kolhapure never aged I see, she looked just like this in her later movies

Padmini Kolhapure  at about 10-12 years

Other Cool Screen Caps

Loving Vinod's Jumper here

Can someone please ID her, I think she's Barkha Chopra, she had some interesting neckerchiefs

Good soundtrack from Usha Khanna on here, my favourites are the catchy Jijaji Jijaji hone wale jijaji, the sweet 'Madhuban khushboo deta hai' which should go on the list of bollywood piano songs for anyone collecting them. The irresistible 'O jaani, jaani tum' which samples Spanish group Los Pop Tops 'Oh mamy, Oh Mamy, Mamy Blue' . The song I've chosen to embed today though is Happy birthday Mama just because it fits as today is my birthday and no I'm not a Mama but yet still, enjoy



Paisa Vasool Rating: 4.5/10

P.s. This post has been automatically published

Insaf Ka Tarazu (1980)

Writing my first review after such a long time feels weird which makes me proclaim 'away from me writer's block and be gone, be gone I say'. Insaf ka Tarazu is a movie i had planned to review on Zeenat Aman's birthday last month on November 19th, but as time did not allow, i thought it'd be the first movie i review now that I'm back in the swing of things.

Directed by the master of socially relevant bollywood films 'B.R. Chopra', Insaf ka Tarazu (The scales of Justice) is notable for being the first bollywood film that dealt head on with the subject of rape, it's also widely considered by many as one of Zeenat Aman's landmark performances. The film has been observed by many as a remake of the 1976 hollywood film 'Lipstick', which I'm yet to see, hence i shall not be able to comment on how much it rips it off, but this bollywood adaptation is a great watch, and is very much a bold film for its time

Our movie starts at a beauty competition where the audience decides who gets crowned the winner

(bollywooddeewana's note: How very forward thinking isn't it, voting for the winner is all the rage these days on Television shows)

Fashion model extraordinaire Bharti (Zeenat Aman) raises temperatures so much that a fan in the audience scores her a whopping 200 out of a possible 100. Bharti wins the competition and

the fan in question turns out to be wealthy industrialist Ramesh (Raj Babbar). As a reward for his enthusiasm he's called to crown Bharti, which he feels very honoured to do

Ramesh falls for Bharti and despite knowing she has a boyfriend of her own called Ashok (Deepak Parashar), he's hell bent on wooing her. Part of his attempts include hosting a special V.I.P birthday bash for her

Bharti goes along to the party with her boyfriend and sister, but Ramesh notices all his advances are being shunned by a rather childish Bharti in favour of her boyfriend Ashok

While Ramesh is nursing his broken heart/ego, Ashok and Bharti's relationship moves onto the next level when he takes her to his parents, Bharti's in laws approve of her and plans are made for them to get married

Ramesh still bent on wooing Bharti, calls her requesting to bring pictures from the party he threw for her, he's given the go ahead by Bharti. Ramesh goes that extra bit further and gifts her a present which Bharti in a rather childish and rude manner ignores in favour of her boyfriends call. Ramesh is furious and proceeds on raping Bharti

Bharti's sister Neeta (Padmini Kolhapure) walks in on them & thinks the sexual act between her sister and Ramesh is consensual

(bollywooddeewana's note:surely she should have seen the bruises & scars on her sister's face as well as the fact that she's tied up,or did little Neeta probably think her sister was indulging in some S&M fun, i'd fear to think so)

Violated and shattered, Bharti is determined to get justice

(bollywooddeewana's note:I must admit that i do rather like this painting revealing Bharti's inner state of mind)

despite the lawyer's (Simi Garewal) warning of the emotional turmoil and humiliation the court case will very likely bring, Bharti insists on taking the case to court

(bollywooddeewana's note: I actually find the film quite feminist in this regard as she (Bharti) stood up and made her voice heard rather that fear being ridiculed and as a result keep schtum)

True to the lawyer's word Bharti is subjected to all sorts of humiliating questions from her attire she was wearing before the rape to providing proof she was raped and many other mundane questions, she's eventually accused of luring Ramesh to bed & attempting to cover up the whole incident with the intention of remaining angelic in the eyes of her younger sister

Bharti loses the case mostly in part to the dubious lawyer Mr Chandra (Sreeram lagoo) whom Ramesh had bought out plus various pictures which showed them enjoying each other's company was enough to convince the judge Bharti was lying

Devastated and humiliated at losing the case Bharti's world comes crumbling down, What will happen to Bharti, will she ever be able to get justice? What will society make of her now? What will happen to her career as well as her relationship with Ashok? Watch Insaf Ka Tarazu (scales of justice) to find out

On the whole Insaf ka tarazu is a taut and gripping drama/thriller, it had me engrossed right from the get go and the film only begins to falter in my opinion in the quite tedious court scenes, and as usual my complaint with many a bollywood film that includes a court scene rears its ugly head here once more (see previous complaints here and here). Why is it that the court is always a place of jesting and other hijinks, for example raucous laughter is allowed to go on numerous times in the court without the judge shouting 'order'

But my complaints are far and in between as this film is a major winner for me, mostly in terms of its feminist stance in the form of Bharti not being afraid to seek justice at the cost of what might become of her reputation in society , that along side the injustices in the judicial system regarding rape which was echoed in the much later and rather over the top Zakhmi Aurat, makes this film a must watch, i definitely recommend it and i recommend reading the magazine scans at the end of this post too.

Looking back and judging by the rape and Judicial system in modern day India in the magazine scans at the end of this post, it seems a lot of the things i was angry about while watching this film happens in real life like Bharti's sister being asked to come and stand trial and then being shouted at by the lawyer. All these points and arguments which the article at the end of this post raised made me like this film all the more and made it even more relevant to our present times. As for the flat/rushed ending many imdb commenters seem to be unhappy with, alas the director had to bridge the gap between making a socially relevant film and making money at the same time, not a bad thing in my opinion.

I'd recommend this film as a must watch for all Zeenat Aman fans, i found her portrayal of Bharti passionate albeit a bit uber melodramatic and without sounding shallow she looked utterly gorgeous

Raj Babbar whatever you think of him doesn't really matter, as i think this is one if not the best role he ever played, he brought a certain creepiness to his Ramesh character so much so that you can't help but hate him, infact I've come across numerous people who hate him because of his role in this, but i say well done Raj for a great performance

Deepak Parashar another actor who gets schtick for being wooden , i actually found quite cute in this and he and Zeenat made a lovely pair

And lest i forget Padmini Kolhapure, she was nothing but great as Bharti's chirpy little sister this young actress who i believe was only a wee teenager at the time showed she was capable of handling melodrama whilst showing some restraint while doing so

Honourable mentions to Simi Garewal, Ifthekar and Sreeram Lagoo as well

Garam Dharam makes a special guest appearance

Lovely music from Ravindra Jain on this, i simply love this soundtrack and i've included links to all the videos with English subtitles, from the restrained title track 'insaf ka tarazu' to the playful 'yeh ho gayi' , my two favourites though are 'Hazaar khwaab haqeeqat' a wonderful love song by Mahendra Kapoor and Asha Bhosle

and 'log aurat ko' is definitely amongst my top three Asha Bhosle songs of all time

Paisa Vasool rating: 7/10

Magazine scans on rape the state of Rape and Justice in India

Click on image to enlage

Click to enlarge


Article courtesy Femina Magazine

Dream Girl (1977)

Apologies for the long absence, i had a bad case of the winter blues, but i'm well and able now, as its taken me ages to complete my Dharmendra week, i'm going for the kill today and i'll bring Dharmendra week to an end (or should i say month considering it took me so long to complete my 6 Dharmendra movies which i had all planned to review before his birthday on the 9th)

In Dream Girl directed by Pramod Chakraborty who did a handful number of films such as Naya Zamana (1971), Jugnu (1973), Azaad (1978) with Dharamendra and Hema or as Harvey has suggested "Dharema" our hero plays a ladies man who's on his quest for his dream girl

Anup (Dharmendra) is a ladies man and is such hot property amongst women, so much so that women act cattily towards each other all in the hope of being Anup's chosen one



Anup however has the hots for the dream girl in a poster he had purchased roadside


He comes across his dreamgirl Sapna (Hema Malini) while out on a business meeting, he's taken aback by her beauty and his dil (heart) gets all squishy



Sapna spots this and takes advantage of his infatuation, she deceives him and steals cold hard cash from his car, Anup is gutted a beauty like Sapna wasa such a shady character however it turns out Sapna isn't an all out bad girl, she had stolen Anup's money to help care for an orphanage she runs with Chandu (Asrani)


When the money runs out Sapna and Chandu realise they must start earning money to take care of the kids, they decide to allow a rich American NRI family The Kapoors (Ramesh & Seema Deo) to adopt some of the kids


When the kids in the orphanage realise they're about to be given up for adoption, they start acting up on the day of the adoption in order to deter the kapoors from adopting one of them, the Kapoors however settle for Chintu a crippled kid and promise to get him treated


When Chintu leaves the orphanage the other kids are depressed and start acting up refusing to eat (well they clearly aren't hungry) its not long before Chintu feels dissatisfied in his new environment and he returns to the orphanage


The kapoors give Sapna the choice of bringing him to America where they'll arrange for his treatment but Sapna must be able to fly him over


When pressure from Anup's grandfather Mr Verma (Ashok Kumar), starts for Anup to be married he comes across Sapna once more while she's out with her cunning ways


He cuts a deal with her promising he would pay her whatever she wants, all she has to do is act like a princess who is about to get married to him, as anyone who's watched lots of bollywood films should be able to tell, its not long before they fall head over heels for each other


Things take a turn when days before their wedding Sapna is reveled to be a former naachnewale (prostitute) and Anup is revealed to be the false grandson of Mr Verma



How will things turn out? Will Anup still be able to marry Sapna? Since Anup is not Mr Verma real son, what really happened to his own child, will he be able fo find him/her? Will Anup ever get to know his real parents?

This film is indeed where Hema earned her dream girl title, although i enjoyed it a bit, it did my head in especially in the last few minutes where things get a bit too zany for my liking, i wanted this film to be camp but it just ends up being a messy haphazard entertainment, it's not as slick or fun as Jugnu was but if you enjoy the jodi (coupledom) of Dharema give this a go

There were some hilarious moments though, like this one scene where one of the orphan kids walks into a room naked, the look on the kids faces were hilarious

Also spotted was a very young Padmini Kolhapure, she definitely kept her childhood looks growing up

a fly looking Prem Chopra


After spotting this breed of dogs in many a bollywood film, i have come to conclude they must have been hugely popular in India


What kiddies film will be complete without Master Raju, i simply adore this kid he might be a pain in the neck, but i love him



The songs are by Laxmikant Pyarelal are fantastic, there's feisty 'O Raja Babu', a fun kiddies song 'Chuppa Chuppi ke' and 'Duniya ke log' (see it below) where we get to see Hema Malini and the kids from the orphanage in disneyland Florida

Look its Donald duck and minnie mouse in bollywood



and of course the amazing 'kisi shayar nahin (dream girl)'



Paisa vasool worthiness: 5/10

BUY DVD