Aas Paas (1981)

Continuing the Dharema theme is this rather significant movie, significant not so much because of its content but because it was the last film the great hindi film playback singer Mohammed Rafi recorded   for before his death in 1980

Thus the movie starts with this dedication

Then we're introduced to Arun (Dharmendra) who's just been released from Prison, the story goes on a flashback mode where Arun a wealthy and outgoing  young man meets and falls in love with a theatre actress Seema (Hema Malini)

 When Arun announces his plans to marry Seema, his Mother (Nirupa Roy) is none too pleased her son is getting married to a theatre dancer but Arun persists

Arun is later called to herald the family business, however Prem (Prem Chopra) his brother in law is none too pleased and sets about killing him off by planting a bomb in his plane

Distressed and shattered over Arun's death Seema finds herself unable to perform at the theatre which results in her being fired. If all this heartache wasn't enough for poor Seema, her father dies leaving Seema alone to fend for both herself and her brother

Poor Seema, I'd be traumatized as well

She becomes a big time Sharaabi (drunkard) and starts living with another washed up actress rani (Nadira) whose waning popularity had led to depression and drinking

Sita-ji!! those sharaab bottles screen caps are for you, Hema Malini sure looks like she enjoys her drink

During one of her drinking sessions, she's violated by Prem in vengeance for how she had insulted him during her time at the theatre (Poor poor Seema,  poor girl can't seem to catch a break)

After a rather long spell of horrid happenings, Seema's world comes alive once more when Arun is found alive, plans are made for their engagement

However on the date of their engagement Seema realises that none other than Prem who had  violated her is Arun's brother in law

How will Seema handle Situations, will she call off her marriage to Arun? Will She tell Arun about the heinous act his brother in law committed against her? Will Seema ever be able to catch a break?

Asides from its significance of containing the last recording of a Mohammed Rafi song 'tu kahin aas paas hai dost' (Does anyone know if Mohammed Rafi actually finished recording the song), Aas Paas is well worth paasing over. Of all the Dharema (that's Dharmendra & Hema Malini) films I've seen so far (and trust me I've seen a lot) Aas Paas is by far my least favourite, the performances from both of them was lacklustre, the chemistry and spark they both had in movies like Raja Jani, Naya Zamana etc was missing in this. Perhaps the tawdry soap opera style plot and execution plus the abysmal ending ruined things for me, but I just wasn't pleased with this movie at all and unless you're a die hard Dharema fan like me, I'd say paas on

There were a few things I liked though, I loved Nirupa Roy as Arun's wealthy mother in her stylish spectacles and lovely sari's

Nadira also brought me some  enjoyable hammy moments with her character as star whose popularity had declined , I really do wonder if her character as a forgotten legend bears some resemblance to her in the 80's when her popularity must have waned

Lovely t-shirt on Asrani, I remember seeing very similar t-shirts with that exact slogan being very popular a few years ago

And Madhu Malhotra who reminded me an awful lot of  Neetu Singh

the hair style, make up and her whole face screams Neetu!!!

 And look its mini Hrithik Roshan in one of his early filmi appearances

Ok Soundtrack from Laxmikant Pyarelal I remember loving just a coup[le of the songs,  the lovely punjabi style number 'shaher mein charcha hai'  and Hema Malini in full on daaru-tastic mode in 'hum ko bhi gham ne mara' and my utmost favourite from this film and in fact one of my favourite Dharema songs 'Tumhe dil mein bandh kar loon'


Paisa Vasool Rating: 4.5/10

For those interested in watching Aas Paas its available on youtube* with English Subtitles

*Due to copyright Issues depending on what part of the world you're in, the Video above might not play

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

Mera Pati Sirf Mera Hai (1990)

When the title of a film translates into 'My Husband is mine only' you know you're in for some ridiculous campy melodramatic moments and that's just what this film provided me with. And as for the newspapaer journalist who according to dustedoff made these comments

“Both women, no matter how hard to believe this may be, fall in love with Jeetendra…”

better start eating his words because in Mera Pati Sirf Mera Hai not only do two women fall in love with Jeetendra, they're also fighting over him

Prakash (Jeetendra) a struggling road side tailor impresses Sharda (Rekha) a wealthy bank employee with his talent, who in turn invests heavily in his business as a result its not long before he hits the big time even owning his own department store

Sharda falls for Prakash's charm and his work ethic, and proposes marriage to him, her proposal is refused by Prakash saying he "esteems her too highly to be married to her" (huge suspension of disbelief!)

Years go by and Prakash is now married to Roopa (Raadhika Sarathkumar) with a lovely kid called Pinky

His marriage to Roopa though, is anything but peaceful as all she does is create havoc and trouble for him

Prakash had been forced into marrying her after his sister Jyoti had been impregnated by her brother Deepak. Deepak had then refused to accept the pregnancy, and in a bid to save the family's honour Prakash begs him to marry Jyoti, he agrees provided Prakash hands over his whole business empire to their family, supplies numerous amounts of Sari's & Gold to his mother(Shobha Khote) as well as marry his sister Roopa, surprisingly Prakash agrees to all these conditions (suspension of disbelief)

Years later Sharda moves back to the same city as Prakash, and in a strange case of melodramatic coincidence, she moves next door to Prakash

Prakash's daughter Pinky (Baby Shweta) becomes good friends with Sharda, when Roopa sees her grandmother whom she ill treats being pampered by Sharda, she becomes suspicious and starts spreading false rumours about Sharda claiming she's having an affair with her husband

Sharda's life is turned upside down by these allegations and everyone from her neighbours to her boss at work give her a hard time for it

She decides to clear her reputation and goes about it in a rather strange melodramatic way, (as I've said before, a huge suspension of belief is required while watching this film) She moves right into Roopa's house, and makes a home for herself there

Roopa is furious as one would imagine and beckons her to leave her house, Sharda makes her understand that unless she takes back her allegations in public she's not leaving

Roopa being the strong headed woman she is refuses to take back her allegations, Sharda too is adamant about moving out until Roopa clears her reputation, adding insult to Roopa's injury is her husband Prakash who backs Sharda, claiming Roopa must apologise

So Will Roopa apologise and clear Sharda's name of the accusations? Will Sharda be able to stick out oer will she give up and move out? Would Prakash realise his affection for Sharda or will he continue looking up to her as a goddess?

Ok i don't believe i actually just typed out what must be one of the most ridiculous plots i've ever seen, but alas it had to be done, it had Jeetendra in it after all, one gets the idea that his daughter Ekta Kappor the producer of many serials based on such story lines did her homework well watching her Daddy's films from the '90's, Mera Pati Sirf mera hai (what an amazing title, na!) is watchable even with its irritating storyline for its campiness and ridiculous soap opera style execution, if you're a big fan of the numerous Ekta Kapoor style serials that are hits with millions of Indian audiences then this is a film you might want to check out

Jeetendra's career was in decline at this point, despite the whole ridiculousness of the story his performance is good albeit in a very melodramatic way

Raadhika Sarathkumar one of my favourite heroines who played the lead role in one of my favourite bollywood femme fatale revenge sagas kudrat Ka Kanoon was ohh so annoying as Roopa in this, you know an actress has done her part rather well when you want to flip your remote at her for playing an overbearing character

Rekha as usual was a joy to watch, given the ridiculousness of the story, Rekha gives quite a commendable performance

The songs by Anand Milind seemed to have been hits at the time of its release, there's the sensuous 'Thandi hawa hai' two versions of this songs occur there's a seductive one and a more upbeat one which i've embedded below, it pretty much sums up the whole movie

A daaru song 'aaj gaale ke niche utara' and the wonderful peppy number 'maine tujhe khat likha' one of the contributing factors to me watching this film

and what better way to round off Jeetendra week than ending with what must be the best tailor/salesman song ever and such a fun picturisation too 'Aaiye Farmaiye' Jeetu-ji Zindabad

Paisa Vasool Rating: 4.5/10

A big thank you to everyone who contributed to my Jeetendra week posts, i'm still discovering more of his works, do feel free to leave recommendations of films to watch out for him in, i guess Nasir sums it up perfectly when he says "there's something about him, something that just can't be ignored" while he might not have been appreciated by the critics, he had lots of charisma and taht x-factor that saw him through over 3 decades of hindi cinema, Jeetu-ji zindabad