Boond Jo Ban Gayee Moti (1967)

Apologies for my long absence, its great to be back and i really have to say i missed bolly blogging, Its been a while and i'm so eager to round off on the last two V.Shantaram movies i'm yet to review. Boond Jo Ban Gayee Moti (The drop that turned into a pearl) gave Mumtaz her first leading role in mainstream cinema after a whole string of B movies and supporting roles in many other productions

Our story starts with a man being taunted for wasting his years being a teacher, this results in a flashback

Before the death of his parents Satya Prakash (Jeetendra) is given the responsibility of caring for Mahesh his chota bhai (little brother), as such his brother's education and such other responsibilities lie on him

He manages to send Mahesh to Delhi for college, while he gets a job at the local governmnet run school


on his first day in a rather squirmy scene his students pack his drawer full of frogs (eurrgghh!!)

Village belle Shefali (Mumtaz) takes a liking to Satya Prakash due to his gentle and hardworking ethic, but then drama enters her life when her mother (Lalita Pawar) who had left since childhood following a marriage to Christan man (perhaps a missionary) attempts to rebuild a relationship with her

Shefali is having none of it and the villagers too aren't particularly helping matters as she's criticised for her conversion to christianity

While Satya is sacrificing a lot for the sake of his brother's education, rather than studying, Mahesh is living a partying lifestyle with girls, drinks, smoking etc.

Satya however is focused on his career as a teacher and sets upon putting theory into practice for the students, the headmaster opposes his teaching style which results in Satya getting the sack. He later gets the job back when they realise how much the students have improved or shall I say how smart they've become

Meanwhile Mahesh falls for wealthy Renuka, this love affair makes Mahesh even more estranged from his studies, which culminates in him not showing up for his final year exams, thus not only as he wasted his brother's precious efforts to educate him, but he also fails his finals

Rather than come clean to his brother, he steals a friends examination number and passes it onto his brother as his, an oblivious Satya is thankful and proud of his little brother


but then the story takes a major turn when Renuka who is Mahesh's girlfriend gets pregnant, she is later discovered dead, all evidences place Satya Prakash as responsible thereby leading him to be linked to the crime

Will he be proven Innocent? Who really killed Renuka? Will mahesh come clean about his dodgy ways to his brother?

Compared to some of the other V.Shantaram films i've reviewed on here Boond Jo Ban Gayee Moti (The drop that turned into a pearl) is a lot more restrained and devoid of the usual showmanship one associates with V.Shantram.

At the heart of the film is its exaltation and respectability of the profesion of teaching hence the name 'the drop that turned into a pearl' perhaps a metaphor for the work of a teacher being responsible for the drop turning into a pearl. The film also advocates the need of practical rather than just theoretical education. Though this are the fine points of the film some things like the comical court scene, (why does a court scene, well in some if not most Hindi movies, seem to be a place for high hysterics and drama, as implausible as they seemed in this, i have to admit they were quite funny).

I would have liked more insight into why Shefali's mother left her and the vilagers, or the reason for the villagers reaction to her conversion to christianity, this made the film have or should i say gave out a bit of an anti-christian vibe.

Performance wise everyone gives a restrained performance here and Mumtaz is lovable and confident in her debut leading role. Jeetendra was lovable and there was none of his Jumping Jack behaviours on here, a rather mature performance i must say. The supporting characters Akashdeep who played Mahesh and Vaishali who Renuka were lovable too

Lovely lovely songs by Satish Bhatia, according to imdb this is his only film score, there's the lovely 'Hum maine bhi' a wonderful song on nature 'Yeh kaun chitrakaar' but my two favourites are 'Meri zindagi ek khwab' all fans of campy song picturizations would love this, it features Mumtaz in everything from a fish inspired evening gown to a space rocket scientist

and the fun 'lovely lovely hai sama'

Paisa Vasool rating: 6/10

Jal Bin Machhli Nritya Bin Bijli (1971)

First of all what a fabulous poster that is, i hope to make it into a Tshirt one of these days, in fact i've been doing a lot of that, wearing some of my favourite bollywood posters as Tshirts, i'll share the images on here at some point, now back to Jal bin Macchli Nritya Bin bijli (Fish without water, lightening without dance), is yet another V. Shantaram film that is very much an acquired taste, from what I've gathered from the comments on my blog this seems to be a lot of people's least favourite V.Shantaram film

The film starts with the memo of "No art form is great if there is no imagination behind it"

Alaknanada's (Sandhya) mother had given up her love for dancing for the sake of her husband Dr Verma (Iftekhar) all in the name of not wanting people to label her as characterless. Before she dies she urges Akalnanda to fulfil these dream of hers

the ever so quirky but undeniably lovable Sandhya

She impresses Kailash (Abhijeet) a wealthy artist/musician who sees her dancing, he's taken aback and says its the kind of dance he wants for a show he's working on as her dance comes from the heart and is full of passion

Her father thinks she can take up whatever dancing as much as she wants after marriage, thus refusing to let her go to Kailash but she overrules him and starts meeting Kailash for dance lessons, over time they both fall in love

Meanwhile Kailash parents are matchmaking him with foreign returned Princess Roopmati (Minal), his mother Rajamata (Dina Pathak) had promised Roopmati's mother she would be her daughter in law

Despite his parents choice of Roopmati, Kailash only has eyes for none other than Akalnanda which leaves Roopmati frustrated adding to her frustrations even more is when Akalnanda saves Kailash's life from a tiger which makes him love her even more

When Akalnand's uncle Mr Rai blabs about Kailash and Akalnanda's love to her father he reprimands her but she refuses to leave him as she wants to stay not only for her love but for the sake of her art

Also trying to break them up is Kailash's mother who tries to buy her out Akalnanda refuses, but when her mother in a case of "why don't you just let her go ahead and do it" attempts to swallow poison, Akalnanda in order to prevent her death decides to sacrifice her love (yawn!!)

On the day of her dance , Uncle Rai sabotages her performance which results in her breaking her spinal cord

She's taken to hospital where after treatment she's left with the support of crutches. Kailash goes to her with his marriage proposal (Gotta love him, broken spines and all) but she turns him down (Silly girl) saying she never loved him and had only been leading him on for the sake of learning dance from him

Kailash is angry and thus decides upon hating all womankind

Will kailash find out the truth behind Akalnanda's lies? Will Akalnanda be able to dance again? Will Kailash ever love womankind again? Will Akalnanada and Kailash end up together? Watch Jal Bin Macchli Nritya Bin Bijli to find out

There's melodrama and then there is hyper-melodrama, this film is the latter of the two, I'm not surprised this ends up on the bottom pile as a lot of people's least favourite V.Shantaram movie, its completely zany.

Of Course the major theme of the film is on the passion and sacrifice of dance, especially Akalnanda's struggle to prove the purity of her art since it was considered dirty for her mom, a little bit of emphasis on the spirituality and sacrifice needed for one's art just like in Jhanak Jhanak Paayal Baaje. Overall i don't know if i'd recommend this for everyone, let your tastes do the talking, if you do love your flamboyant art as well as costumes this might be the film for you. Personally as much as i enjoyed the music and the dance sequences some of it especially the second half was rather exhausting to sit through, it took a lot of effort on my part not to forward through some scenes

Here are some of the flamboyant costumes we were treated to, which i have to say i found rather interesting

a human snake

a peacock man

and Sandhya in an amazing holographic skintight Green Lantern-esque jumpsuit complete with troll like green wig hair and glittery mask, if you're stuck for inspiration this halloween perhaps watching the clip which i've embedded below will help you decide on what to wear (the actual song starts at about 3.20)


And imitation as they say is the sincerest form of flattery, that is in fact the case with this 'Kajra laga ke' song which i'embedded above, everything from the costumes, the choreography and the song itself was copied in the 1981 Telugu movie 'Agni Poolu' with Jaya Prada in Sandhya's role in the dance above

Finally one of the best things about this film asisdes from the flmaboyant costumes and art are Laxmikant Pyarelal's music. My favourites are 'Taron mein sajna ke' with its clever use of Ennico Morricone's The Good, the bad and the ugly theme , 'kajra laga ke' which i've embedded above with English subtitles, the cabaretesque 'Ek to jawani ke din char' my favourite of the whole lot though is 'Jal bin mahhli (Man ke pyaas)' where Sandhya dances like a fish out of water, she even colour coordinates her outfit with that of the fish

Now head over to My music Movies and Mutterings blog for an amazing write up of the soundtrack and to get the music for free

Total Score: 6/10 (Extra points for the sake of the costumes, songs and sets)

Navrang (1959)

Going by the films I've seen so far from V. Shantaram i can say without doubt that his later films apart from say the music is very much an acquired taste, this is particularly true in the case of Navrang (Nine Colours). V.Shantaram set about making this eye candy of a film following an accident which almost made him go blind on the sets of his previous film 'Do Ankhen Barah Haath' (which i hope to review at a later date) upon regaining his sight he set upon making this technicolour feast for the eyes

The movie begins at the time of British rule in India when Indians started adopting British mannerisms, the film goes on flashback mode where an old man looks back at his life as a colourful youth where we are introduced to his life as Diwakar (Mahipal) a gifted poet who is deeply in love with his wife Jamuna


However, whenever he wishes for her to dress up she shuns his advances but an imaginary muse very much like his wife called Mohini help bring his fantasies to life

When the ruling Thakur of the time Bahadur singh is relieved that the British aren't invading his territory he holds a holi party where people can play with colours to their hearts' content Leelu Rangbaz is commissioned to write the holi song, Leelu knowing the depths of Diwakar's talents asks him to write the song


Diwakar writes the fantastic Holi song which goes down so well that he's made the royal poet, his new post in the King's courts court singer Manjiri (Vandana) takes a liking to him and tries seducing him but he lets her down gently and the two become good friends

The British invade India and during battle with them Thakur Karan Singh dies at the same time Diwakar gives birth to a son Munna. The British take over India and a new system is declared Divakar is asked to sing a congratulatory song instead he sings a song about the west (The British in this case) and the east (India) not being able to come together, he's threatened by Diwan Daulatrai (?) who keeps him on the pay roll despite his actions

but when Diwan Daulatrai asks him to write a song that would cause his name to be glorified in all of India, Diwakar refuses on the basis of Daulatrai's corrupt ways and quits his job as the royal poet

As he earns no money his family are forced to live on rations and his wife Jamuna out of frustrations and unable to put up with his artistic visions of Mohini who she doesn't realise is herself leaves him taking their kid Munna with her


With his wife gone Diwakar finds his creativity stifled, plus he has to perform will he be able to find inspiration without Jamuna


Like Jhanak which i reviewed a few days ago, this film works as a musical fairytale, the colours are sumptuous and everything from the costumes to the sets seemed well planned out, the song picturisations are excellent and creatively done, that said you need to have some appreciation for art to appreciate this film fully as its unlike other bollywood movies from this era, i wouldn't even describe this film as melodramatic as there's hardly anything dramatic about it but theatrical and eccentric oh yes

Lots of Visual Eye Candy from the Pastel palace interiors

To some lovely backdrops and jaw dropping sets similar to what you'd see in a bugsby Berkeley musical

To Sandhya's amazing range of make up and costumes as the muse

Everyone just seemed to be in sync with one another, the set decorator, costumier and dance directors, if you love and appreciate classical filmi dance here's a film for you

Also added to our enjoyment are two lovely animals which were included in the credits as Moti the smart Pony


and Ramchandra the wonder Elephant who even manages to shake a leg with Sandhya


the songs by C.Ramachandra are absolute classics and this film is notable for giving Mahendra Kapoor his break in the film industry as well as for Asha Bhosle singing all the female vocals which was quite unheard of at a time when Lata Mangeshkar was the dominant female playback singer. Highlights are the beautiful ballad 'tu meri mai teri', the beautiful 'ae dil se milale' & 'tu chupi hai kahan' a wonderful holi song 'Are ja re hat' which i've included with English subtitles my favourites and ones i've chosen to embed are

the fabulous 'Tum saiyan kulake phool' (o darling did you call me a flower) to which Moti the smart Pony nods accordingly like he can hear what she's actually saying (or maybe he can)


'Shyamal shayamal baran' which is the only filmi song that I've heard so far which celebrates Dark complexion all the songs i hear about complexions tend to be Gori this Gori that, also lovely is how Sandhya incorporates dancing into her housework


a gorgeous Asha bhosle & Mahendra Kappor duet 'Adha hai chandrama raat adhi' where Sandhya manages to balance about 7 pots on her head while still doing some serious classical dances, it just has to be seen to be believed

Now head over to My Music Movies and Muttering's blog who has uploaded all the songs on download for free and also to find out why Lata didn't sing any songs on this album

Total Score:7/10

Buy the dvd here