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

Shakti (1982)

Having heard & knowing of Shakti (Power) for such a long time as the first and only movie featuring two great bollywood legends Dilip Kumar & Amitabh Bachchan, i knew i had to check it out. I finally got the chance to see it, and it definitely did not disappoint, the movie is similar to Deewar in some aspects but i think i prefer Shakti more. The film was awarded the 1983 Filmfare best movie of the year award

Inspector Ashwini Kumar is an extremely hardworking man who takes his job very seriously, he has a wife Sheetal ( Raakhee) and a son Vijay(Amitabh Bachchan). One day he arrests a notorious and highly wanted criminal Yashwant (Goga Kapoor), J.K Verma (Amrish Puri) who is Yashwants partner in crime is unhappy about this and plots to kidnap Ashwini's son Vijay threatening only to release him if his dad agrees to release yashwant in return



Ashwini refuses to release Yashwant even when J.K Verma threatens to kill his son. His wife thinks he's crazy for doing this, but for Ashwini work and family should not and do not intersect. Vijay manages to escape from J.K Verma's den, and his parents are delighted to have him back, but he remains cold towards his dad, as he feels his dad chose his job over him, this creates a wall between him and his dad

Vijay grows up to be a lonely unemployed young man with this chip on his shoulder. One day he meets Roma (Smita Patil) and the two fall in love over time, Vijay also finds solace in his relationship with her. Vijay who had been jobless for a long time, finally gets a job at a hotel run by K.D. Narang (Kulbushan Kharbanda) a smuggler. Ashwini is unhappy about Vijay's employer being a smuggler and gives him an ultimatum to either leave the job or leave the house, Vijay refuses to leave his job and moves out of the family home


Vijay gets involved in K.D Narang's work, and when his dad who is on a quest to arrest him for his dodgy work disrupts J.K Verma's business, J.K plots to murder Ashwinwi


Will J.k succeed in his attempts? Will Vijay and his father ever be reconciled with one another?

Shakti is a very nice drama which gives a great insight on the psychology of relationships, this movie is quite similar to Deewar in some ways as in both movies the choice of family over occupation arises, however Shakti takes this even further with an added dimension on the psychology of relationships. For example Vijay becomes cold due to his fathers decision to choose his job over him, his father loves him dearly but his inabbility to express this is the major strain in their relationship and then the mother who is caught between her husband and son also trying to negotiate and mediate between these relationships. If you're into the psychology of relationships, Shakti is a great study in this.

The dialogues are superb and the performances are great all around and at times when Dilip Kumar and Amitabh Bachchan had heated conversations/confrontations, I could almost feel the testosterone boiling over the screen but Raakhee usually steps in and cools things down.

No one outdid each other here, both were great and Raakhee bridges the gap appropriately (as the poster at the top of this post even suggests). A very young and cute Anil Kapoor also makes a cameo appearance

The film, also like Deewar only had 3 songs composed by the legend that is R.D. Burman all the songs are beautiful and fitted nicely into the plot but my favorite has to be 'Jaane kaise kab' which captures the Amitabh & Smita pairing in a very sensual and erotic mood, especially in the last 40 secs in the clip below, the fire in the background adds to the intensity




Total Score: 8/10 ( a powerful and highly engaging drama)

Shakti is available in 17 parts with English Subtitles on Youtube