Chhote Nawab (1961)

Continuing the theme of maybe not so remarkable films but definitely a remarkable soundtrack is 1961's Chhote Nawab (Little Master) which as i understand gave Mehmood (one of my favourite comedians) his first leading role, but the great fact about Chhote Nawab is that it marked the  music directorial debut of the great Hindi film music director R.D. Burman. According to Mehmood (via wikipedia) he appointed R.D. Burman as the music director because he got tired of R.D. Burman constantly denting his car with his constant drumming.Great Choice Mehmood I say, as I'm in love with this soundtrack but first lets get into the plot

Our Story begins in Lucknow where Bade Nawab (?) is burdened by the upcoming birthday bash of his 5 going on 20 years old son (just as well, as he was born on a leap year) son Chhote Nawab (Mehmood)

He's advised by his personal Assistant Munshi-ji (S.N. Banerjee) to keep it a low key affair but Safdar (Kumar) his son in law reminds him of his reputation which results in the Nawab taking out a loan from Bhagwati Prasad (?) who's out to exploit him, Nawab places his house as a collateral (I think we know where this is going, bad mistake Nawab)

Days after Chhote Nawab's birthday celebration when he's unable to pay back his loan, Bade Nawab suffers a hear attack when Bhagwati comes to reclaim his property.It turns out the idea to get bade Nawab to place his house as a collateral was a plan between Bhagwati and Safdar to usurp Nawabs wealth. However, Bhagwati cheats Safdar out of his share and ends up usurping Bade Nawab's property leaving Safdar penniless

Angry and frustrated at being conned by Bhagwati, Safdar starts mistreating everyone around  him including his wife (Minoo Mumtaz) and her brother Chhote Nawab. Unable to take Safdar's humiliating treatments any more Chhote Nawab escapes to Mumbai.

He's found roaming the streets of Mumbai by family friend Nawab Nazir (Nasir Hussain)  who takes him home and offers his daughter Roshan (Ameeta) as his fiancee

Chhote Nawab comes across as uncouth and after a humiliating episode Chhote Nawab subjects her to, Ameeta alongside Kanchan (Johnny walker) starts educating Chhote Nawab and transforms him from a bumpkin to a city Slicker

Alas all her hard work soon starts causing jealousy when Sophie (Helen) a night club dancer starts flirting with him

Chhote Nawab starts acting erratically and turns cold towards Roshan and her family, forgetting how they  had helped him when he was down and out (see what the beauty of Helen can cause)

If all this wasn't enough he gets in with the bad crowd when he becomes friends with Bihari (Anwar Hussain) a gambler whose company causes him to start visiting Kotha's (brothels) as well as become a raging alcoholic

The lovely Sheila Vaz

Will Nawab ever come back to his senses or will it be too late to save him from his debauched lifestyle? Watch Chhote Nawab to find out

While not being up there with my favourites, I enjoyed watching Chhote Nawab, the first half moves along rather smoothly and was very enjoyable mostly due to Mehmood's child like antics plus the general drama, but then the second half which follows his journey from Lucknow to Mumbai and which sees him transformed from country bumpkin to city slicker becomes all preachy and moralistic in that cliched modern versus traditional life manner but alas Chhhote Nawab had matured and they had to pad out the story, still though this is na enjoyable film and I'd recomend it for mehmood fans and for R.D. Burmans

Performance wise Mehmood is the scene stealer in this film which I've heard he self produced, I'd describe him as delightfully loud and annoying yet oh so lovable, his childlike mannerisms and body language are simply unmatchable see the scene below for example, I love Mehmood I really do

And Ameeta is love interest was oh so beautiful though a bit too camera conscious as I noticed numerous sceens where kept glancing directly at the camera

 And Helen what a beauty, i loved her look in this film

Great Soundtrack from R.D. Burman, the songs on this blew me away and I couldn't help but appreciate R.D.'s talent ever more so, the songs on here are pretty remarkable for a debut. Favourites include the playful kiddie song 'aam chum tam chuum', the sweet and uplifting 'aaj hua dil matwala' and two super mujra's in the form of 'Ghar aaja ghir' with the lovely Sheila Vaz and 'chura ke dil' can anyone Id the lady in the clip (see her below)

can anyone id her?

two favourites I've chosen to embed are 'matwali ankhonwale' with Mehmood and Helen in full flamenco mode (I love this picturisation so much)


and the fun 'jeenewale muskura ke jee'  I love this composure so much and Mehmood's child like giggles added to the song makes it ever so delightful


Paisa Vasool Rating: 6/10

Saagar (1985)

My first contribution towards the ongoing Kapoor Khazana which is going on around some of the bolly blogosphere is this much lauded love Triangle which left me, well we'll see in a minute

Raja (Kamal Hassan) and Mona (Dimple Kapadia) have been friends since Childhood, now that they're grown up Raja finds it hard to express his feelings to Mona

Mona on the other hand is very casual about matters between them, Raja adopts this stance too when in fact matters of his heart are otherwise

In comes Ravi (Rishi Kapoor) the son of a wealthy industrialist who falls for Mona, he also becomes good friends with Raja

Raja hopes Ravi will help him learn how to be more expressive of his feelings towards Mona, he does this not knowing of Ravi's feeling towards Mona

When Ravi finds out about Raja's feelings towards Mona, rather than be upfront that he likes her too, he agrees to do the talking for Raja

(bollywoodeewana's note: Why Ravi himself could not be upfront about his feelings is way beyond me, senseless self sacrifice all in the name of being buddies I guess)

Ravi lets Mona know about Raja's feelings but then, Raja sees Mona and Ravi cuddling which leads him to deny any feelings when Mona comes to ask how he really feels (perhaps she feels the same, or is confused the film doesn't make this explicitly clear)

Raja chickens out and calls the whole thing a prank rather than be honest about his feelings (perhaps his honesty might have helped Mona examine her feelings closely)

Thus Ravi and Mona start dating until Ravi's wealthy Mother Kamladevi (Madhu jaffrey) decides Mona isn't up scale enough to be her daughter in law, Ravi is having none of it and decides Mona would be his bride

While Ravi is away on a business trip, Kamladevi cuts a deal with Mona to choose either between her son or the livelihood of her local townsfolk, whose businesses she threatens to buy out

What will Mona do, Will she sacrifice her love for the sake of her townsfolk? Will Raja ever get the girl of his dreams?

This much lauded classic of course marked the reunion of Raja (Rishi Kapoor) and his Bobby (Dimple Kapadia) who had eloped 12 years earlier in that 1973 classic Bobby, but for me i found it really hard to appreciate this classic say apart from the songs by R.D Burman, I felt zero sympathy for the characters.

Kamal Hassan's character i found way too pitiful and lacking in conviction especially in the way he dealt with expressing matters of his heart, as well as his deceit when he was confronted by Mona about his feelings. I also could not overlook the ending which in this case, like many other love triangles (see here) someone dies just so the decision making process can be made easier, I'd have liked Saagar even more if the female lead, in this case Mona (Dimple Kapadia) really got to examine her heart and make her choice rather than end up with one of her potential suitors just because the other potential Mr Right was killed off.

Smouldering Dimple!!!

Overall watch Saagar mostly for the songs and then for the actors if you're a fan of anyone here, acting wise everyone puts in a good job but the classic love triangle trope just killed things for me, needless to say I 'd rather Dimple was awarded the Filmfare Best actress award for Zakhmi Aurat where i felt her acting prowess, the same goes for Kamal Hassan who was awarded the Filmfare Best Male actor for his role in this, I'd rather he won it for Ek Duuje ke liye than this

And of course this film is famous for Dimple's towel dropping act which occurs in a blink and you'll miss it second, but pay attention to the rather fabulous dreamy sequence below where the camera just ogles at Dimple

Excellent music from R.D Burman on here with lyrics by Javed Akhtar. Favourites are the lovely 'Chehra hai ya' the fun 'Yunhi gaate Raho' which sees kamal & Rishi get all buddy buddy whilst also doing the can-can with Dimple and the lovely ballad 'Saagar Kinare'. My two favourites on here though are the Goan style wedding song 'Oh Maria'

Saagar - Oh Maria by kandigee

and the oh so seductive 'Jaane do na' where a wet Rishi and Dimple dressed in a wet Ghagra choli blouse and sari roll around seductively on the grass

Paisa Vasool Rating: 5/10

Ghungroo ki Awaaz (1981)

Here I am just right before the end of this month for what would be my last post for Rekhatober, I had prepared so much for Rekhatober but time would not allow, however the many Rekha movies I've watched are not wasted, and i shall be reviewing them randomly in the following months, also Rekha's induction into the bollywood fashion icon hall of fame shall happen at a later date next month. Seeing as today's Halloween i thought i'd round up Rekhatober with this Ramsay Brother chill fest or is it???

Its love at first sight when wealthy Ranjit (Vijay Anand) sets eyes on kajal (Rekha). Kajal however turns out to be a courtesan who's sick of her life in the Kotha (brothel), Ranjit buys her out of there and she comes to live with him

His uncle Jasbir Singh (Shreeram Lagoo) doesn't take too kindly to kajal as she's considered a taint to their family honour

She receives a letter from one of her former lovers Shakal (Dheeraj Kumar)which Ranjit's uncle reads and then alerts Ranjit about. His uncle comes up with a plan to set her up, he decides that if she does indeed meet up with her old lover, then she's a fallen woman and would be kicked out, on the other hand if she doesn't she'll be received into the family as a honourable woman

Thus Ranjit pretends to go a trip in order to catch Kajal red handed. Kajal falls for the trap as she does indeed go out to meet her lover Shakal (Dheeraj Kumar), but her intentions had been to poison him to stop him from coming back to her ever

Ranjit catches Kajal flirting with Shakal and in a state of fury he shoots them both

He and his uncle cover up the murders by setting the mansion on fire. Kajal's ghost soon starts haunting him relentlessly

if Ghosts looked like this, then i wouldn't mind being haunted by one

While on a trip to Bombay to getaway from it all, he meets a doppelgänger of Kajal called Kiran, she becomes his nurse and he falls in love with her too

So cute na, just look at him feeling very pleased with himself

But Kajal won't let him rest and keeps appearing to him and begins making threats to kill Kiran since he has stolen her happiness, in other words if she couldn't live with Ranjit neither will Kiran

Who is this doppelganger and why does she look so much like Kajal? Will Kajal succeed in her mission to kill?

Oh plus the cops are now on Ranjit's back over the murder that took place in his mansion

Ghungroo ki awaaz (The sound of the anklets) is not a great film by any means and those who are expecting the usual Ramsay brothers horror fest better look away as this film isn't their usual blood fest since Vijay Anand who starred in this was the producer himself, all that Ramsay brother gore had to be cleaned out. Indeed one might ask why he casts himself in this, i can only guess he was besotted with Rekha and wanted to share Screen space, just look at him in the pictures below

With that said I enjoyed the film despite its bad screen play, editing and so many other faults like this imdb reviewer lists here. For me Rekha and her ravishing beauty and the drama she brings to the role, gave me my money's worth. Overall Ghungroo ki awaaz (The sound of the anklets) is quite a watchable and a little enjoyable suspense melodrama ridden with plotholes, i wish it had been more chilling and a bit more daring but overall not a bad watch especially for Rekha lovers and for R.d. Burman's music. And oh, watching Vijay Anand scream like a little girl at the sight of Rekha's ghost added much to my enjoyment ;-)

For all Rekha lover's out there, feed your eyes

Ah how cute is the charlie's bag

Other Eye Candy

Padma Khanna had a small role

Tyhe other reason i'll forever remeber this film are R.D. Burman's songs on here, they're all winners from the fantastic 'ankhiyon ka kajra', the beautiful 'pagla pagla' & 'jo bhi tune dekha' i could go on and on but the two I've chosen to embed are the beautifully haunting 'rote rote naina' - i loved the lyrics to this so much and i wish i was able to upload them with english subtitles but the dvd kept playing up

and the other the wonderful Kishore Kumar number 'o mere humraaz (tere ghunghroo ki awaaz)'

Paisa Vasool rating: 5/10 (worth it especially because of R.D. Burman's music)