Himalay Ki God mein (1965)

Himalay Ki God Mein (In the lap of the Himalaya's) is yet another one of Mala's more notable roles, she plays the stereotypical innocent village girl in a charmingly funny way, this film earned Mala her third filmfare actress nomination alongside Meena Kumari for Kaajal and Sadhana for Waqt, she was upstaged by Meena who won for Kaajal

On his way back home to India from London after completing his medicine degree Dr Sunil Mehra's (Manoj Kumar) plane is forced to make an emergency landing after a passenger on board suffers a heart attack


Thus their toy aeroplane makes a landing in the jungle, not even a make shift airport but a bloody jungle with a sandy runway (LoL)


Sunil gets off the plane to get help only to be confronted by daaku's (dacoits) who rob him and beat him to the point of exhaustion, he's left in a critical state only to be rescued by village belle Phulwa (Mala Sinha) and her friends




Surprisingly for someone away from home and whose family are worried sick about him, Sunil seems very cheerful and without a care in the world, he and Phulwa start developing a bond. Sunil's health is back on full form and he returns to the city, he thanks Phulwa and her guardian Dayal (David Abraham) and leaves them his contact details


When Dayal falls ill Phulwa takes him to the city to seek Sunil's help, he then decides to leave the fast city life behind to help the vilagers of the Himalayas as they have no doctor in the town


He's advised against this by his parents and his fiancee Neeta who argues 'what's in it for him' even after persuading Neeta (a qualified doctor herself) to go with him to help the people she's reluctant as she's not ready to give up her high flying career in the city


However Sunil is determined and heads for the Himalayas on his own, before he leaves for the Himalayas he's warned by his father (D.K. Sapru) to keep the fact that he's Inspector Mehra's son a secret, as his father had tried arresting the chief dacoits of the Himalayas Lakhan (Jayant)


At the village he's met with opposition at first by the villagers who believe in traditional healers (Mukri & Kanhaiyalal) who are in fact fraudulent, the villagers warm up to Sunil over time when they see the imapct of his work


Happy Doc

When Sunil makes it clear to his parents that he intends on staying on in the Himalayas for life they're unappy and they send Neeta his fiancee as a pawn to bring him back to the city


Meanwhile Sunil & Phulwa have fallen deeply for each other


Will Neela succeed in her mission to bring him back? Will the dacoits realise Sunil is the son of the Inspector Mehra who's out to get them

An enjoyable film overall, it was not as great as i was expecting, its the kind of movie you watch on a rainy sunday afternoon, i guess my expectations were really high because the film won the 1966 filmfare Movie of the year award, by now i think i should have learnt the lesson that just because a film was awarded 'movie of the year' doesn't mean its an exceptionally great movie.

Still though, the decent acting, fabulous songs & scenery makes it enjoyable, i can tell the film won for its Swadeish kind of philosophy of kindness and love for humanity over one's own personal ambition as could be seen in Sunil's decision to leave the fast life behind in order to become a doctor in a local village. Also added to the narrative is the now familiar trope of a dacoit being a lovable person at heart, and social stigma/prejudice being the reason for their waywardness

Decent performances all around, i loved Mala's Village belle character, it had the potential to be annoying but Mala keeps it refreshingly funny and charming

she also gets the chance to show off some of her dancing skills, i've rarely seen Mala dance apart from the 'Lootee jaa' number in Ankhen


Shashikala is fast becoming one of my favourites, no one could play a detestable/contemptuous character like she often did

Superb music from Kalyanji Anandji (the credits indicate they were assisted by Laxmikant Pyarelal) indeed the music of this film is what makes it memorable for many, highlights include the beautiful ballads 'Ek Tu na mila' vibrant 'tu raat khadhi thi' & 'kankariya marke jayaga' where we get to see Mala doing some fab dancing, and the evergreen 'Chand si Mehbooba'



Total paisa Vasool rating: 6/10

Baiju Bawra (1952)

As a great lover of Meena Kumari, i knew i had to check out the film that made her a Superstar. Baiju Bawra is also the first film which was awarded the Filmfare 'Best actress' and 'best music director'. I watched this movie with a non bollywood fan and i was so surprised a) that he liked it and that & b) that he sat through the whole thing. So what is it about Baiju Bawra which is said to be based on the legend of Baiju Bawra from the Mughal times that gripped a non bollywood fan

Mian Tansen a well accomplished composer in the kings palace, orders the guards to maintain silence around the kingdom as he's composing

Young Baiju (Rattan kumar) and his dad who happen to be passing by in a praying singing troop, are confronted by the guards who order them to be quiet, Baiju's father refuses to be quiet saying 'Music should never be restricted'. One of the guards flings him and Baiju's father is seriously injured, before he dies he tells Baiju to avenge his death from Mian Tansen the palace composer


Baiju is now orpahned and is bitter and eager to get his revenge from Tansen, he meets Shankar (Manmohan Krishnan) an elderly man who takes him in, he also meets Gauri a lively girl who lives in the same locale. The two fall in love and Baiju is overcome by Gauri's love and forgets about his quest for revenge


Word soon gets around that Gauri is dishonouring her father because of her relationship with Baiju (Bharat Bhushan) as she has been betrothed to another young man by the name of Narpat. Her father through Shankar eventually agrees to Baiju & Gauri's marriage when he discovers their passion for one another



When stealing Bandit Roopmaji storms the village one day, she takes a liking to Baiju's voice when he starts singing, she decides to leave the village goods if she can take Baiju with her. Baiju leaves and promises Gauri he will come back for her

While away from Gauri, Roopmaji's actions raises the vengeful spirit in Baiju and he remembers his promise to avenge his father's death from the Tansen. Baiju then travels to avenge his father, when he's about to kill the Tansen he discovers cold murder won't do it but that he would have to challenge him in a sing off, after which if he outsings the Tansen, the tansen would kill himself out of shame. Thus the battle commences (in a sing off to give American idol and other singing reality type shows a run for their money) with the first out of the two to melt a marble in a glass of water winning.



Will Baiju outsing the Tansen? Will he succeed in fully melting the marble with his voice? Will he be back in time to prevent Gauri being married off to Narpat?

This is one of the first movies that gave Meena the tragic diva tag i believe, she balances her role of being a sprightly fresh faced beauty to the distressed lover awaiting her lover's return effectively

Happy Meena

Sad Meena

Bharat Bhushan was cute and adorable in his role

Overall a wonderful film with romance, suspense, drama, great dialogues music (lots of classics here) and comedy all rolled into one, but although this movie had all these, the ending ruined it for me, however still watch it if you like classics and if you like films that have a bit of history behind them. At the heart of the film's theme is the powerful effect of music, how music can be very spiritual and passion/love's ability to tame.

The music by Naushad are classics and i was really gutted the GVI dvd of the songs came without subtitles but i really enjoyed Door koi gaye with Meena Kumari and her girl pals, Aaj gawat mann mero which Mian Tansen and Baiju sing for their sing off, and Tu Ganga ki Mauj (see below) which won Naushad his first and only filmfare best Music director award




Total Score: 7/10 (Entertaining classic musical)