Chalte Chalte (1976)

Rounding off the segment of significant films maybe not so much for their content but their soundtrack is this cult classic movie with a much sought after pre-disco Bappi Lahiri soundtrack. I love Bappi Lahiri in whatever shape or form and I know many tend to prefer this pre-disco era of Bappi, but I love the man in all forms, both in his pre and post disco era.

Our story begins with Gita (Simi Garewal) who confronts a young man whom she calls Anil claiming to be his wife. However the young man who she claims to be Anil is adamant he's not her husband, and states he is Ravi Kapoor (Vishal Anand)

She persuades him to come home with her, where she claims she has pictures of both of them as a married couple. Ravi (or should I say Anil) reluctantly agrees to go home with her and true to fact, right there in her home is a picture of  Gita and a doppelganger of Anil

Despite all of her claims as well as proof of a picture taken of both of them, Anil still insists he's Ravi Kapoor

Gita later finds out her beloved Anil is also in a relationship with Asha (Nazneen)

Not one to take no for an answer, Gita breaks into Anil's house & continues pestering him, he eventually declares furiously that he's not Anil and never will be, Gita is shattered and embarks upon committing suicide

She's rescued on time but cops keep Anil in custody till they get a statement from Gita who's awaking from a coma, He's eventually bailed out by Asha his girlfreind and Gita is diagnosed as mentally ill

During treatment by psychoanalysis, she reveals how she had met a young man named Anil, fell in love, and then got married, only for him to be murdered on their wedding night

Did Anil really die? If not why is Ravi who looks exactly like Anil claiming he's not Anil? Are they Related?Will Gita recover from her mental illness? For this and many more reasons, feel free to dip into Chalte Chalte

To call this film camp or campy  would be paying it way too much of a compliment, this is a badly directed and badly written film with plot holes aplenty and a very incoherent story line, generally I don't seek after well rounded characters or good scripts when I'm selecting my movies as I love escapist fares, but this film just felt shoddy and lacked the finesse that might have made the plot holes and other mishaps forgiveable.

That said there are numerous things i enjoyed, like Simi Garewal's wacky and hammy act as Gita, her act as the deranged obsessive lover really puts Sharukh's act in Darr in the shade, her hammy acting actually helped me enjoy this film, plus she wore some interesting outfits which you can find over at my other fashion blog here

Nazneen the supporting actress was rather restrained in this amidst all the hammy performances, very little is known about her as I could barely find out anything about her from my research. She had some lovely clothes too which you can see here

And as for Vishal Anand who played the hero in this, I felt his resemblance to Dev Anand was uncanny and true enough when I did some research, I found out he is indeed Dev Anand's cousin, he even has some of his uncle's mannerisms (see images below) but alas he lacks the acting skills of Dev Anand.

Notice their identical hand gestures

His act as Anil/Ravi was extremely wooden  but one thing I'm grateful to him for, is for having one of the

 snazziest collection of shirts I've ever seen on a bollywood hero, see them over at my fashion blog here

Also quite impressive was the Art direction in some scenes like those I'e screen capped below, J'adore!!!!

I love the design on that door

And of course what really makes this film memorable is Bappi Lahiri's unforgettable score from the popular title track 'Chalte Chalte' which is mostly wrongly titled as Kabhi alvida na kehna to the fun 'pyar mein kabhi kabhi' to my two favourites the seductive 'Door door tum an rahe'


and the breezy 'Jana kahan hai'



Now head over to Veen's blog to get the music of this film

Paisa Vasool rating: 5/10

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