Saajan Ki Saheli (1981)

The last film in my Nutan birthday special is Saajan ki Saheli, too often when it comes to her work in the 80's, Karma (1986), Meri Jung (1985) & Naam (1986) are often cited as Nutan's best work, however i'd go for Saajan Ki Saheli as her best work from this decade, very soap opera-ish without doubt but it showed Nutan's versatility in delivereing the goods, whatever role she was required to play, plus I just loved the way she was styled in this, too often when one thinks of Nutan, draped white Sari's come to mind, here her character gets to wear glam outfits

The story starts on Munmun's (Rekha) graduation day where she accepts the top prize for Ancient History, her mother Chand (Chand Usmani) is shocked when she sees the man she's receiving the award from

She rushes home, shouting and looking furiously for a certain diary, when Munmun confronts her on her behaviour, she urges her not to read the diary and thus suffers a heart attack

A very distraught MunMun reads the diary (good for her) and finds out Chand isn't in fact her real mother, her real mother was kunti (Nutan) a young woman who had dreamt of marrying a wealthy millionaire, however she had been involved in a one night stand which a poet Anil (Anil Dhawan) which resulted in being pregnant with Mun Mun, she jilts Anil whose heartbreak then leads him to commit suicide



As a result of a marriage proposal from a wealthy Barrister Avinash kumar (Rajendra Kumar) she gives birth to the child in Chandanpur, after which she rejects it, calling it a 'Paap ki Aulad' (Child of sin). Chand decides to raise Munmun on her own and promises Kunti she would never reveal the secret to anyone


MunMun is gutted on how her birth mother had treated her, she moves away from Chandanpur to Srinagar to work as a tour guide, there she meets and falls in love with a popular singer Anand (Vinod Mehra) who wants her to be in his band, as a result she moves to Bombay where she perfoms in his musical troop


Avinash kumar (Rajendra Kumar) the same man who had married her mom Kunti and had awarded her a prize at college, is impressed by Munmun's talent and sets up a meeting with her

When he goes over to her place he comes across Kunti's picture & in his conversations with Munmun, he realises she's the child of his wife Kunti with whom he's been unable to have a child, he's diasppointed she hid her past from him and decides on tormenting her with jealousy

He tells her about a client on the search for a mother who had deserted her years ago, this gives her a guilty conscience, but Kunti none the less acts jugmentaly about the whole matter and even when prompted by Avinash who hopes she'll tell him the truth about her past, Kunti keeps schtum


When Munmun arrives at Avinash's house for the dinner he's invited her to, she realises his wife is none other than her mother, she's shocked but reveals nothing to her, when Kunti realises she's the girl Avinash is talking about, Kunti treats her like an outcast all without knowing Mumnum is in fact her daughter

Avinash on the other hand keeps bringing the subject of Munmun up much to Kunti's frustration, her anger escalates even more when an emotional adviser Suresh (Suresh Oberoi) brings up her past as well as telling Kumti about Avinash's affair with Kunti

Who is this Suresh, and how does he know so much about Kunti's past? Will she realise that the Paap ki Aulad is in fact her own child? Will she come clean about the past to her husband?

Overall as i've said at the beginning, this film is as soap opera-ish as it gets, it felt like i ws watching an episode of Dynasty and the glam stakes just like Dynasty were high, it was refreshing to see Nutan in Strapless Maxi dresses, made up to the nines with bright red lips, feather boas, assymetric dresses etc. I just loved her style in this




Also hilarious were the dialogues in this film, for some reason i never pictured Nutan as the kind of actress to say 'main tera khoon pi jaunga' (I will kill you) and she gets a lot of room to say such camp dialogues on here, i've included an example of her fierceness in Saajan ki Saheli in this camp scene below, where she slaps Rekha to the point of fainting



The rest of the cast give a decent perfornmance too,Rekha was just gorgeous in this movie, she looked divine and i just couldn't stop taking screencaps



Overall watch Saajan ki Saheli if you like your soap opera-ish type storylines and even more so if you're a fan of Nutan or Rekha, it doesn't drag on endlessly and it closes in at just over 2hrs 8mins

The Lovely songs by Usha Khanna also made this film enjoyable,, there's a lovely Goan flavoured track 'Navtak mangta', a wonderful qawalli 'Aaye hai woh' as well as two gorgeous Mohammed Rafi Numbers 'Boondein Nahi Sitaren' & 'Aise na the hum' my favourite of them all is 'Jiske liye sab ko choda'



Paisa Vasool Rating: 5.5/10

Previously in Nutan Birthday Special

Milan (1967)
Happy Birthday to Me & Nutan

Thikana (1987)

Ahh poor 80's bollywood, its always getting all the knacks for being the worst decade, personally and i've heard this feeling echoed elsewhere as well, its the 90's i would describe as the worst decade and not the 80's. This is one of my favourite Anil Kapoor films, this film proves if there's anyone who can match Amitabh Bachchan in the angry young man stakes or should i say give him a run for his money its Anil Kapoor

Kamla who is politician Rane MP's (Avtar Gill) keep appoints Avinash (Madan Jain) a young photographer to plant a video camera in her bedroom in order to capture her affair with Mr Rane M.P who refuses her to date anyone else, she hopes the tape would help her blackmail him so he would get off her back



When Rane comes over for his usual lovemaking sessions with Kamla he finds out about her lover Bhaskar, he murders her out of jealousy, unknown to him is the fact that the video tape has captured his wicked deeds



Avinash gets the tape and intends to make an expose but the newspaper is owned by Rane MP, Avinash manages to escape with the tape & Rane MP's men give chase, he manages to ring his sister Shaila (Amrita Singh) alerting her about the sticky situation he's in



The next day when he dosen't turn up for a court trial, Shaila is worried and is on the lookout for a lawyer, alcoholic and slacker lawyer Ravi Goel (Anil Kapoor) is recommended to her, but he's too much of a lazy sod to be up for the challenge



His sister Shashi (Smita Patil) is the breadwinner of the family and dotes on him way too much,
when their mother (Rohini Hattangadi) finds a gynaecologist's card in her wallet, she becomes suspicious of her and soon learns that Shashi had an abortion



Ravi finds out from her fiancee Ranbir Singh (Suresh Oberoi) that Shashi had aborted her babies just so she can have enough money to feed and cater for her family, Ravi become's overwhelmed with guilt, he smartens up and decides to clean up his act, he accepts his first proper case from Shaila regarding her brother Avinash's safety from Rane MP, his petition for Avinash's protection is rejected on the basis of Rane MP being a respectable officer


Ravi is eager to get to the bottom of the case, he starts getting threats and attacks from Rane MP's men urging him to back off the case, Ravi is so relentless that he almost gets framed for a murder committed by someone else


Anwar (Anupam kher) a police officer who's racked by enormous guilt arranges to meet up with Ravi, he reveals details about Avinash's death and how Ranbir whom Avinash had come to for help had killed Ranbir for threatening to expose Rane MP



Ravi is now caught between handing over his sister's future husband to punishment and getting Shaila justice ? What will he decide on? Will Rane MP be brought to justice? Will he tell Shashi that her would be husband is a murderer? Will Avinash's tape which contains the proof be found?


I don't really understand what Film Noir means but i've heard many refer to this film as film noir, asides from it being a very interesting drama slash cum thriller what impressed me most were the characters, they all had an edge to them and seemed very real. We have a heroine who asks for it and has one night stands, a sister who has premarital sex and even aborts her baby several times, a greedy mother who betrays the trust of her kids, and a mother daughter conflict


that even culminates into a fight ( the first mother/daughter fight i've ever seen in hindi cinema) all this happens without someone dropping dead or meeting some ill fate as is usually the case in some bollywood films

Great direction from Mahesh Bhatt, i'm always impressed by his movies ( all the one i've seen so far at least) the movie moves at a steady pace and allows no room for silliness, the film closes in at just about 2hrs 15mins


Passionate performance from Anil Kapoor, this ranks as one of my all time favourite Anil Kapoor films, the rest of the cast are great too

the film was dedicated to Smita Patil and as usual what a performance, there's something so intense about her, this film made me realise how much i love her and how i need to see more of her work



Excellent music by Kalyanji Ananadji makes this movie even closer to my heart there's the reflective ballad 'aasman ho chhat meri' the flamenco style 'bachaana dil bachaana' and my two favourite numbers are the smoochy 'Ajnabi koi kabhie'



and the beautiful 'Thoda sanam Thodi Khushi'




Paisa Vasool rating: 8/10

Thikana is available in 12 parts on Youtube with English Subtitles