October 30, 2008

Halloween Pradesh guidelines for a horror movie!

Muahhhaahahahhaha, the Nagin!
Reena's queen of the Halloween Pradesh!

It's halloweeen, my favorite time of the year, all the better to add a new Masala Pradesh state, the Halloween Masala state, a state where the Ramsays and Ram Gopal Varma movies belong. Many other movies that aren't scary simply fit here because they are so spookily god awful many including the 80's masala cling-on projects of Amitabh, Shatru, and Dharam! So like my other posts on new Masala states I'll list some key ingredients to add in the horror cauldron.
  • A horror masala must feature a hero past his prime ala Sunil Dutt in Jaani Dushman, romancing a daughterly-young heroine ala Reena Roy! Many Ramsay movies feature Shatru in his "portly beer-gut of manliness" which hinted at his past-prime looks
  • The copy of the film is terrible usually Ramsay and some other idiotic Southie directors directed in grainy and 80's camcorder style which makes it impossible to be scared as the images are horrendously pixelated and more scary is the picture quality
  • A horror movie from Bollywood more than always is a slasher or possession flick, the easiest target of possession is a busty lady ala Parveen Babi in the shoddy Telephone where she is haunted literally by a telephone which rings her up trying to kill her and she runs to past-sell date Shatru who spooks out the phone by throwing it against the wall but magically by wonder SFX it reforms
  • A horror movie needs to have masala ingredients of a long-lost bhai/bahen/hamster that will get killed by the other haunted brother, usually before they die they reveal the source of the black magic before squelching in pain and sighing into death
  • Most 70-80's movies have a Scooby Doo like quality, where the haunter is a beast or fugly looking animal suit, through a series of shocking/stupid conclusions a mask or transformation is pulled off, and the haunter is the least expected person sometimes!
  • A helpful dose of sleaze is incorporated in the movie, usually the shite ones from the 80's a lady usually takes off her top, only showing the back of course, or a man strips down to his undies in somehow porny-horny scene. Or a horrible love scene is attempted!
  • Lollywood (Pakistani film industry) is the reigning king of the Horror State they are even sleazier and seedier, they incorporate busty babes, fugly men, and lots of suggestive sounds when the haunter comes to kill people
  • A nagin is always a good topic to be some type of horror movie, I liked the Reena Roy Nagin simply coz she killed so many hot guys using her charms and assets, but she was a doll in the horror genre, always present in the 80's backwass horror she spooked out anyone with the sheer scream of NAHIIII!!!!Reena Roy slasher flick
  • The newer horror flicks like Raat,Bhoot, Phoonk, Bhoot, and Kaun are all good examples of how horror movies can be made well. Ram Gopal Varma is a god compared to the rest of the horror directors that have come out recently. He's able to spook us as well as making us think.
  • Urmila, I love her- is becoming the new Reena Roy with all her horror movie namely Kaun, Bhoot, Naina which were all good shows of her talent. She was bloody fantastic in Bhoot, and Ram Gopal always gets the best out of her
  • Some preposterous Bigfoot is used in manyy movies, as a kill every girl you see type movies that the Ramsays made, usually they had fugly apeish hair, and massive jaws to bite into the necks of the Reena's and Rekha's of the day
  • Ramsays can be blamed for the backwass that made me make a horror Pradesh, but sometimes they made a good movie once in a while like Telephone, which was a novel idea about a telephone trying to haunt Parveen, and the silly Darwaza! They tried earnestly to make a scary movie, often failing and make a clap and laugh-worthy movie
  • Rajkumar Kohli who made Jaani Dushman and Nagin was one of the better horror directors, both were good movies with a humungo cast, that more or less got killed in each of the 3 hours alloted!
  • Of the non-horror movies, and just plain horror of the past-sell date movies there are many with Amitabh. One spookily awful one was TOOFAN, Todd reviewed this brilliantly at Teleport City, Toofan is just absolute carp and backwass that it needed to be here
I hope you have a spooky Halloween, and do sign up to be my under secretary of the Halloween Masala state, or even attend the Spooky school of the Ramsays!BOOOO, says Toofan!

October 27, 2008

An Evening In Paris - How Shammi charmed and jumped in Paree!

Suzie the most stylish sassy vamp ever!
Happy DIWALI! I thought I'd better take a break from my nonsensical posts on moustaches and Anil Kapoor, and focus back to another loverboy of mine Shammi Kapoor! In the Masala Pradesh this movie belongs in Genuine masala state and the Funkadelic State, because it is genuinely entertaining for me, and its completely and brilliantly funky and fashionable! I love Shammi Kapoor just like I like chocolate cake: very sweet and multi-layered-cuteness! And this was my second Shammi movie, it's the nicest piece of tourism of Paris in the 60's, and how clean and cool everything was back then!
It starts off with Deepa(Sharmila Tagore) a disillusioned in love heiress who moves to Paris to find a true love, as she thinks Indian guys are all after her money. She gets to do that, I've always wanted to go to the romantic cities and fall in pyar, not fair was my immediate reaction! She is looked after by her father's business partner Damodar(David) and her driver/bodyguard Makhan Singh(Rajendranath) but she makes a plan with her secretary Honey(Sarita) so that she looks like a penniless maid so that she can fall in love and test out the French men. She dresses up in ghagra choli in the middle of Paris, its a silly expensive looking one, but anyway she attracts the eye of Shyam(Shammi, yaayy) and his friend Jacques(Some french guy) the French guy speaks some good Hindi and charms Deepa, but Shyam messes up there meeting by using the great old Shammi device of comicalness and pouting! He persist and pursues her in the usual Shammi way which I just love, and he doesn't disguise but says he's a French guy called Sam and learnt Hindustani when he was in Lucknow! Meanwhile there is Shekhar(Pran) an Indian in the silliest blonde wig, very Parisian now with his bad drinking, smoking, and general bad character who finds out Deepa's truth and wants to marry her to pay off his gambling debts!

Both needed hands warming by the funky lamp!

While running off from the very persistent Shammi, Deepa goes off to Switzerland on a nursing trip? Naturally Shammi follows on the advice of Honey and Makhan who are equally smitten with each other. They also go to Beirut where Shammi does some more Indian caricatures as a Bengali water-skiing instructor Deepak Sen. Sharmila returns the love and rides on the Shammi-persistence-pays-off train till she is kidnapped in AN EVENING IN PARIS after a small jhagda with Shammi when she finds out he wasn't French!Shammi's sleuthing : You can tell she's a vamp

Then enter Suzie, one of my favorite 60's vamps who is actually and Masala ingredient Deepa's long lost sister Roopa, who was kidnapped and given to Jaggu(a very suave KN Singh) who is the loan shark after Shekhar! So he holds Roopa hostage, and demands a ton crore or lakhs I forget which, and her dad comes over to pay it off, and realizes due to Shammi's great sleuthing that this is the very Parisian and western Roopa. Shammi sleuthing includes rejecting her due to her wanting to kiss him, her dancing in a risque dance bar, her smoking, and her generally being in pyar with him in a more forward way than the virginal and good Deepa!
They eventually get the ransom money together and are ordered by Jagga to send it to a man outside Niagara Falls, but also Shekhar turns up, and due to a bit of convolutions the bag of paisa gets mixed up. Deepa and Roopa meet up, and have the usual bahen-bahen cry and realization, but it was very choppy in that scene as both Sharmila's look like they are looking past each other, bad editing but anyway!

Hey who you talking to?

The only pitfall of this movie is that the makers don't tell you what happened to poor old Suzie, did she die, did she stay with Jaggu? AHHHH I hated that they slightly demonized her, because she was western and her horrible dad rejected her coz she was dancing and just being funky!
Shammi was really cute persistent and just generally Shammi-esque, with his pouting lips in serious parts, his funny diguises - here he became a Persian caricature of magician Hukum Pasha and Bengali instructor Deepak Sen, his just general jumping about in foreign countries ability - he swung around a pole, he skipped around in the Eiffel tower, he did dishoom dishoom behind Niagara Falls - and he makes a wonderful jodi with Rajendranath
Rajendranath is great in capturing the Punjabi spirit as Makhan Singh, he has the right diction and must have influenced Akshay in Singh is Kinng with the various pagh colours!
Sharmila made my fashion dream here, with the great eyeliner, gorgeous saris, colouful smocks, and just generally funkadelic, she makes a really sexy duo with Shammi here, she's better as Suzie simply coz Suzie's is soo swinging, soo 60's and sorry again just FUNKY!
Some trivia: This movie was the first time a heroine wore a bikini and actually did some water-skiing, one of the first movies to shoot overseas and to shoot in Beirut.
And every good movie has an iconic image and one of them where Shammi walks with Sharmila a cigarette in hand, or the one below where his arm is round Sharmila's neck and staring off dreamily into space while the Eiffel Tower is in the back!
An Evening In Paris is one of the coolest and most funkadelic movie that Shammi has done overseas- at least for me~

Absolutely Iconic Image! Another poster I have in my room!

October 23, 2008

Anil aur Rum - A Long Indoctrinated Love Affair!

CUUUUUTTTTE!!!
As the youngest Bollyblogger, I have to explain why I love moustaches and facial hair, and just generally Anil Kapoor, because my dosts you need to know why I become fangirly at any review of yours featuring ANil!
  • It was love at first sight, though the love was very young at 2 years old, but like Laila Majnu and many silly examples of star-crossed pyars, ANIL-RUM can never be together, coz I'm 18(in November) and he's 51/50 I think now, but also coz he's married and I'm in Vancouver. Many obstacles are in our way, but I sound like a crazy cat now but I just love Anil!
  • I watched him in "1942: A Love Story" at 2 years old, my mum and dad threw me in front of it while doing the hoover, and I've been a fangirl or pyar ever since. He was soo gorgeous then, in his paper boy hat, and 1942 waistcoats and pouffy shirts! He was sooo earnest and loving snogging(kissing) Manisha Koirala in that movie, and Anil's standout scene was when he protested to her dad "Me sub kuch chodh diya, me Rajjo se pyar karta hoon" (I've left everything, I love Rajjo)
  • After that movie, I went Anil bonkers probably due to my mum and next door neighbour Rita using Anil as my "indoctrinate her while doing hoover" the next movie I think I watched was "Meri Jung" by Subhash Ghai, which also started my "Subhash Ghai is the lord of Anil movies" that was till I was 8 and realized what backwass he did make! But this movie had Anil playing a virtuous lawyer who meets his memory-forgotten Maa Nutan while battling father-framing villain Amrish Puri.
  • As I grew up an Anil-loving indoctrinated fan, I watched many of his movies at Rita's house with a bag of popcorn, and good ol Zee Cinema with ANil flicks in the afternoon in my summer holidays! A great movie of his is Mashaal, another required Yash Chopra movie about povery, it also made a moustache duo of ANil and Dilip Kumar, who were great together perfect foils of new talent and old. He played a rough brash tapori slum dweller who gets educated by Dilip an equally honest and brash journalist. As an upcoming hopeful journalist the movie did capture Anil well as one, with a notebook in his hand, pencil behind the ear!
  • Another reason I love the ANIL, is he made brilliant couples with any lady except Twinkle and Karishma Kapoor. In fact usually he launched his actresses into the big league such as Padmini Kolhapure in his first movie Woh Saat Din, Sridevi in anything, Poonam Dhillon in Karma, Rati Agnitori in Mashaal, Dimple back into her sexy roles in Jaanbaaz.
  • I find ANil lovely, because he acknowledged that he wasn't that cute to conventional standards "I don't have the usual looks, but get into the skin of the character" awww ANil you're always cute and moustachey to me!
  • ANil can rock the mullet sometimes as tolerable in Judaii and as fugly in Virasat
  • Anil always has something that the others don't: longevity he's still the only fresh-faces 50 year old playing the hero in many movies when his counterparts Mithun, Amitabh and others play dad and grandad and cute old guy.
Anil's entry as a tapori angry kid was compared with Big B
  • Anil is soo romantic in his movies, he skips in the 1942 fields, jumps around in Deewana Mastana,another great movie where he outdoes Govinda in many scenes, I remember watching this when I was six or seven, it was hilarious and ANil has great comic flair.
  • ANil doesn't mind snogging the face off his heroines even doing love scenes that too in the conservative but suggestive early 80's, he snogged Manisha in 1942, Madhuri in any movie together but I remember the long snog in Tezaab, Meenakshi in Meri Jung, Sridevi before she got married to his brother Boney, made love to Dimple in Jaanbaaz in a very inappropriate hay setting!
  • He makes up for the lack of mush in his superb acting as seen in Lamhe.
  • Anil has a cute laugh, and usually screams "haah heyyy" when he runs in love or is really happy as seen in any movie of his.
  • Anil makes a good jodi with anyone such as Dilip =Anilip?? the funny Govinda team = Anilinda, the forever battling Anilrish(Amrish Puri), weird duo Anilved(Javed Jafferi) the HAWT moustache duo Anilackie(Jackie, who else?) and many more!
  • He simply cares, he's sponsered a million different charities, played in that fundraiser cricket game they play each year, and donated tons of money for the Bihar relief
  • He like his father started off as the glorious Shammi Kapoor's secretary, so Memsaab you have to like him by association with the Shammi!~
  • And when I went past ANil's bungla in Mumbai, I achieved a sense of happiness, and when I received on my 9th birthday an autographed picture of ANil which I dammit left in London! And when I phoned my aunt's show on the BBC Asian Network and asked him the journalistic question "What's the secret behind your longevity as a hero and not others?" then I fangirly screeched in the other room as he said "ThankS Rumnique for the great question, I think its Botox and a lot of effort that I put in in the earlier days pays off for me looking good and acting good too"

I can rock the mullet~

Bloggers slowly I will indoctrinate you all at your ages! You will swear your allegiance to the new Masala Pradesh state of the ANil Mush Masala! And I will rule as the Big Sister of you all!
This concludes the never ending series of " Star aur Rum" the most insightful series of why I love who I love with the indoctrination and pyar that I have to give, you and the faithful masalizens of the Masala Pradesh!

October 21, 2008

Aadmi aur Insaan - Funkadelic Social + Cement Masala!

A symbol of friendship of the Bollywood Bloggers! AWWWWYaaay for Bromance!
Aadmi aur Insaan is one of those seriously funky movies that makes you wish you lived in that time, this movie is a social masala movie, commenting on the dodgy deals of corruption on big projects like dams and railwys! I mention cement in the title, because of the many unnecessary shots of it, in this movie.
AAI is one of my favorite types of movies, it follows the beaten path of way tooo friendly best friends. They grow up together, they feed each other (Jimmy in Disco Dancer would be in heaven on this set) one is an orphan, they have a fight, they love hugging, and holding eachother!
The look of love!
The orange eyes of a Vamp
Some Funky clothing on the stars!

The movie is a joint venture between brothers BR Chopra producing, and Yash Chopra directing, Yash is one of those excellent directors who got caught in a genre and couldn't get out. The genre being romance, though he is mega brilliant at directing the grittier themes of poverty in Mashaal, mine workers in Kaala Patthar, titanly opposition in Deewar. Here he becomes a pro in the bromance and social masala movie.
We have Jai(Feroz Khan) and Munish(Dharmendra) to best friends who have grown up together, Jai looks after Munish's family while also paying for his education in London(yaay). I loved that Yash didn't treat us to a look at them when they were kid-now look at them older scenes, it's just implyed that Feroz is an orphan, and that Dharam is in London. When Munish comes home, he meets Rita(Muntaz-with some really funky clothes in this movie) a disillusioned lady, because she sings "Zindagi Ittefaq Hai(Life's a Coincidence)" everytime she meets the two bromance guys!
The funkiest upper floor ever!
I want a bedroom like that and Dharmendra playing underneath

Jai meets them off the boat, and meets Rita and is instantly attracted, Feroz and Mumtaz always made such a sexy couple in any movie. Jai immediately offers Munish a job as a chief engineer at his massive dam project. Rita comes back by sheer "coincidence" as Jai's secretary and vamps it up around Munish who's polite and nice toward her advances. At the dam, is a social worker Meena(the forever-funky Saira Banu) who by a series of misunderstandings that only Bollywood can produce, falls in love with Munish.
A little later we find snippets that Jai, is not the honest business man we thought he was, and his faulty cement is made by my fave villager-villain Madan Puri, another partner in crime is the always-in-a-movie Iftikar! Meena goes off to skiing with her rich daddy in Shimla, she also in Bollywood bumping into scenes meets Jai, who falls in love with her too. He informs Munish in a unintentionally shouting down the phone scene, I always love the Dharmendra "Ohh U love my Girl" face = mouth a bit open, eyebrows up there, jaw cracking sadness!The rich social worker behind a funky window & backdrop
Some Saira love!
A bit of flirting by Jai later, he proposes by sending his unofficial Maa to Meena's house, in another confusion Meena thinks its Munish's proposal. What I liked here was when she found out it was Jai, she didn't become a sacrificial Lamb and be thrown between the two men, she shouted at Jai, and took charge for a very unmanly Dharam! Yaayy for no cliches Yash! Jai is reallly angry and gets mad at Jai, in a fantastic face off and slap off the two end their friendship, including their family engagement between Jai's bro and Munish's sis.
We get into the social masala element next, where we see Jai pulling all the stops with corruption so that Munish doesn't get a job at any engineer place. The movie raises some good points about experience vs qualifications, but its there for a few mins then back to the disintegration of the friendship! In a great scene of superior set design a railway bridge breaks using lego or the Jab We Met claymation, and its Jai's company that made it, and Munish has to investigate it, ohh what a test of friendship!
I loved this movie from start to finish, I didn't even forward anything except for the heavy handed social song about caring about the dam! But it fits in the Masala Pradesh state of Unintentionally Funny and Funkadelic Masala, perhaps I could split it! But the acting was great Feroz is another rugged king of my dil as well as Todd's I'm sure, he was nice and evil and calculating in this movie, he unfortunately/fortunately had lack of his signature chest fluff. Though he sure was dapper in this movie, those funky neckerchiefs, shiny blazers!
Dharam my fave was dapper, and had the early signs of the "beer-gut of manliness" which every 70's hero had! Mumtaz won Filmfare's best supporting actress here she was great as the vamp, after this movie it propelled her into the big league of Bollywood. Feroz also was deserving of his best supporting actor he was great! Saira ohhh Saira I love her and general funky outfits and sunglasses, (lol I bought most of the glasses from this movie and Yaadon Ki Baraat) she's one of my style icons after this movie!
Aadmi aur Insaan is great funky movie to watch for style, for set design, and bromance!

Oooo! Touchy!
Subtitle cut off, but look at the grip of the hand! OHHHFFF

The Slap OFF is on!
The Slap to end all friendships!
I have this slightly better image as a poster in my room, its gorgeous!


October 19, 2008

Moustaches and Beards Maketh Man

Uncomfy Mush on Shashi

Queen of Nonsensical subjects is me, so I needed to do a post on moustaches and beards! Moustaches are featured on any actor throughout his career or if he's popular enough he'll keep it. But a moustache is more than that, a mush is a sign of a bad character/villain or a swoony cute hero, but it varies in suitability and uncomfyness in a mush. A beard is also a sign of a bad-ass villain, but also it varies in cuteness and just plain why! So on the list are the worst and the best of the facial hair in Bollywood

1.Pran - In many movie he had some very silly mush's and beards but some funny ones are from Chakker, where he looks like a right demon or some type of gladiator, but the mush ahhhh its horrendous like a big fat bush! Another horrible but funky beard is in "Yeh Gulistan Hamara" where he has some funky eyeliner and piratey looking beard, I have watched these movies and couldn't stop laughing at the genuine fuglyness of the mush's! He could very sophisticated in his mush and character in "Adalat" he was very noir with it on and moved his mouth around in a silly circle as a twitch!

A leopardy daku with an afro!

Pran and his pirate beard!

Ohh Pran and his noiry mush

2. Raj Kapoor - he was a sweety pie with his mush, a small line sprouting from under his nose, it wasn't a funky mush like Inspector Amar, but it was a significant showing of his cuteness and blobbyness. In many a film where he was suffering from TB he usually had the "stubble of death" not much though. But in his Chaplin-esque tramp his mush was a sign of his sweetness and the childlike faces he made with his mouth! A moustache worthy of a cuteness award

Cuteness and mush = Raj

3. Anil Kapoor - a man who inspired this post with his cute mush! I think when I saw him it was love at first moustache (sight) and thats why I think muchas and beards look handsome on a bollywood hero. His mush has varied through his career, I can never forget his fugly mush in Virasat it was just toooo thick it made me ill. But in Ram Lakhan he had the tapori style mush with it ending near his mouth with a slight upturn. Then he's had the "stubble/beard of seriousness" in "My Wife's Murder" He also adapted the Village Police style mush for the recent Tashan and Race, which make him look slightly younger!
Waay to thick and a bloody mullet nahiii!
The Bhaiya-JI mush

4. Vinod Khanna - He has always looked dapper and funkadelic in his moustaches, none more so than as Inspector Amar in AAA, he was HAWWWT in that mush, when he was bashing the villains in that jail cell it was a reflection of his general gorgeousness. No wonder Shabana fell for him he had that mush on, nowadays he sports a beard that looks a lot like the recent Amitabh style glistening black hair with oldie white beard!


5. RaaJ Kumar - By far the most bad-ass on the list of cool mush's and beards is Raaj, he had that bloody amazing beautiful voice, and that funny line mush that added to his bad-ass voice. He was cool in every way his mush that varied in AMar style line, or a thin Raj Kapoor style, he had cool dialogue delivery, he almost never got his woman in 2 hero movies, and he was an awesome actor, through the "Mush of cool!"

6. Shammi Kapoor - my favorite loverboy in my dreams, once had a mush, but it was a mini mush, a very thin line under his lip, it made him seem like a bad boy in his movie, a type of rogue or maybe gentlemanly. But i though it was yuck! Shammi was waaay better without facial hair, though he has that grandfatherly beard now, which looks cute!

There we have my favorite moustache and bearded men, if you have some wicked or just plain fugly let me know!

October 13, 2008

The Masala Youth - Poor Filmi Bachhe Chit Fund!

In the Masala Pradesh, there are many movies that involve a childhood grudge or a long winded flashback with young kids growing into funky young men. I thought I'd start a foundation called the "Bechaari Filmi Kids Fund" it's only fair as many of them became quick side roles as the buddies friend or backup disco dancer/fighter in the case of Master Tito. The list highlights the cutest and sweetest ones, and what became of them when they turned my age (17-20.) The cutest grown up kid who I wouldn't mind seeing as a hero is Mayur the brilliant actor from "Muqaddar Ka Sikandar" who grew up kinda cute in "Sharaabi."My favorite and adopted Filmi baccha Master Ravi

1. Master Somebody/Ravi - Can someone name this kid, I couldn't find him anywhwere! The cutest and my favorite filmi baccha. He was usually in many of the Manmohan Desai movies as a younger version usually as Amitabh. He was also in Coolie as the slightly grown up Iqbal, he has the characteristic sore throat sounding voice, which makes him great when he does a revenge speech or cry. My favorite movie of his is Amar Akbar Anthony, where he played a young Anthony, his cute dialogue of "Meine roti nahi kayya" (I didn't have roti) was such a sweet utterance, and he carried little Akbar so tightly and when he was outside the church. Ravi was also an actor that did a few movies after his child roles, not much till he retired in 1996.
AWWW, Mayur as a teenager
Mayur at my age, double chin but cute~

2. Mayur - A brilliant actor in this list, he had such good emotions and body language in all his movies, he was the excellent actor in Muqaddar Ka Sikandar as the young Amitabh, and that moment when the song "O Saathi RE" came on, he had the best facial expressions showing his absolute love for his memsaab! He was also in Yaadon Ki Baraat as a young Dharamendra, his transition shot from kid to grown up was great. He grew up into a nice looking guy when he came in Sharaabi as a waiter that frets over Amitabh's Sharaabied state! Mayur still does occasional movies and has showed in Raju Chacha, Ek Rishtaa and more.

AWW Tito why did you turn into this:

Bleuuuurgh~

3. Master Tito - A lovely kid actor, he featured in Naseeb as the young John, he was a cutypie here and mastered the street lingo in the waiter scene! He was in Suhaag playing Shashi, and that scene where he drank the alcohol and cried after is soo sweeet. Not as good as Mayur though, he unfortunately came later in the disco backwass "Love Love Love" he unfortunately did not age as cutely as Mayur or Aftab Shivdasani, he grew a moustache and it was a fugly porn star kind, and played Aamir's best friend, and did some workout style disco, such as Disco Dandia the most eye popping and fugly workout dandia dance ever!

Puff the chest, hands on hips, and he's ready to haunt!

4.Master Raju - Memsaab's favorite little filmi bachha. He is one great kid, he has the wise old eyes of a sage as seen in Daag, and loves to push out his chest. A one of a kind Hercules impersonater, nawww I've seen him in Abhimaan where he stomped along, fists on hips, chest out like a proud animal, and shouting at Amitabh "Meri maa Uma Devi hai" (My mum is Jaya) He also featured in Deewar as a young Shashi, and has made some movies after usually as the hero's friend or a random dancer.


5. Daisy Irani - Another one of those sad cases where girls play boys, none more so in the 50-60's as Daisy. She was up there with Mayur, she was a pint sized cutie, with hair so like mine that my filmi family call me Daisy even till now. I remember her in one sacrificial movie called "Ek Hi Raastha" she was a complete brat in that movie shunning Ashok Kumar as a step dad, running off with a new brother to a railway, nearly getting run over,, but gawsh she was amazing as a brat! And when she started she was called Tomato in Bandish, what a wonderful name! She grew up lovely in Kati Patang, with those lovely eyes!


6. Master Aftab - he grew up HAWWWT, we all know Aftab now, but he was a gorgeously sweet actor in Mr.India with his wiggle dance, and creating my film judgements when he threw pies at villains in that movie. He also was in Naseeb as a small Rishi Kapoor, he endured an earthquake and bad set design as things fell on him! He also did his revenge as a kid role in Shahenshah as a young Amitabh, vowing revenge to turn into a supercop, with a wonderful shaky arm made of tin.


7. Baby Naaz/Kumari Naaz - she is one of my favorite kid actors, up on my list with Daisy. She played a curious slum kid in Boot Polish and is the only child actor who made me have a "BARSAAT CRY" and that's saying something! Naaz also won the critics over at the Cannes Film Festival, and in a magazine I have at home, she recounts the time Rattan, and Raj Kapoor had a standing ovation! She was also in my fave movie "Kaagaz Ke Phool" where she played Guru Dutt's daughter, the moment when she confronts Waheeda to stay away from her dad, is world class acting, that simple fidgety gesture of playing with her hands later in the movie! God I adore her, she came up in a few other movies like Raja Saab, and Saccha Juthha as the love interest.


8. Rattan Kumar - He was also in Boot Polish as the sturdy and sensible older brother of Naaz, he is sooo talented but stopped so quickly, he was a brilliant actor even surpassing Mayur.


Sweetness and a moustache = The Shash!

9. Master Shashi Kapoor - The Shash was a wicked little tyke when he was in the old Raj Kapoor movies like Aag where he wore a hilarious moustache and his same maslala and Shashi Type mannerisms: the wiggly face movements, the stutter, the eyelashes, and the cute-as-button-itis! He was glorious in Aawara even enduring the slaps from Leela Chitnis and wandering around not wanting to be a judge-saab!

I'm a bad ass kid with a drinkin problem and a red bow tie!

10. This kid = due the "unfortunance" of some movies which never show credits properly, I couldn't find him. This kid was a great bad-ass character in Naseeb playing one of the bad guys either Shakti Kapoor or Prem Chopra. He had the swagger of Shatru almost, he also had a drinking problem and asks for some booze in that screencap! That why you need to contribute to the fund!


11. Mehmood Jr - a great little kid with bundles of infectious energy and a comic flair that was just as good as bade bhai Mehmood! That hilarious scene in Brahmchari where he parodied the Alumna song with Helen and Mehmood was just priceless! But my favorite role of his is in Caravan as Monto, he is cuteness personified there, even as an older kid he was a sweetypie. When he helped out Asha Parekh in the food making part it was soo sweet! He's an actor who makes me go "AWWWWWW"

October 9, 2008

Kashmir Ki Kali - How Shammi jumped and bounced into my heart!

Shammi's shocked by his Punjabi-ness

If we all lived in Bollywood land, then my lover boy would be the gorgeous Shammi Kapoor, he's just so chirpy, dances like Elvis, has a flick in his hair, and darn it he's just soo Kapoor-y. He has the simpleton face charms like Raj, the masalaness of Shashi and the generally jumpyness of his personality.
Kashmir Ki Kali was my first Shammi film at 10 years old, I saw it on the great Zee Cinema channel which I wish I had now! At first I thought who is this idiot, I was 10 though, now at 17/18(next month yaaay) I find him to be the cutest buffoon/guy there is in my favorite era of Indian films the 60's. After seeing clips of Junglee, and watching Shammi's dance of bopping up and down, arms flailing here and there, and just an aura of fun about him, I immediately fell in pyar!
This movie is in my "Shammi Danced in my Dil" series of the 60's movies, that I recently bought, here he is Rajivlal, a businessman who is not interested in it that much and is looking for his dreamgirl either me or Memsaab or in this case Sharmila Tagore. He shirks his impending marraige proposals and runs off to Kashmir, with his best friend Anoop Kumar. He has a mansion out there and masquerades as Rajiv's driver, Rajiv is now Anoop who falls in love with 3 (not so gorgeous girls) who rent the house from Bholaram(Dhumal) Along the way Rajiv falls in love with Champa(Sharmila Tagore) a local flower girl, who has a blind dad(Nasir Hussain) with a secret. Gorgeous Sharmila

Nasir Hussein always reminds me of the lion from the movie "The Wizard of Oz" and here even more so because he has a very silly beard and mad urchin wig.
The movie also contains a masala element of supposed orphans and lost parents, this is in both Champa's and Rajiv's life. This brings me back to why I love Shammi's movies, because he is so fun, and he always has to have a dress-up scene, in this movie he pretends he's a Patthan burqa-clad wife to hop on the bus Champa is on, and next he turns into a Punjabi dancer. In that song he does some funny Giddha(Punjabi dancing) which made me laugh out loud because he looked like a drunken uncle at a wedding!
Shammi and Sharmila have such sexy and smart chemistry, she always is a perfect foil for his general over the top-ness, because she's so down-to-earth while he is jumping stomping and skipping through the fields.
Pran is also here is as the usual villain, he adapts the rustic character well though he did annoy me with his pronounciation of anything s would turn into sh in his mouth. And the way he smokes his cigarrette through his fist but i did like his cackly laughter!
Now back to Shammi, as professor Lutgendorf noticed in a book that some writer thought Shammi used his body as a "you know what" I do see that in some places. However overtly sexual or silly he is in some ways makes him just as cute. I just see him as an Indian Elvis, not Elvis even more a rockabilly Beatle of India, or just a funkadelic guy jumping around! And he is sooooo persistent in his love, he follows her around, perhaps he invented the stalker-boy that came back in 90's movies. If I had a boyfriend in Bollywood land he would be as persistent and urgent as Shammi, as sweet as Raj, as funky as Shashi, as Spunky as Randhir, as dancey as Rishi, as awkward as Rajiv, as regal as Prithviraj, and as lean as Ranbir! (There named all the Kapoor men in this post)
I love Shammi, his deep voice and general tall ness, and not forgetting his cute double-chin cute itis as I mentioned in the Blobby Raj Kapoor Post! Don't forget his swanky teddy-suits, neckerchiefs, puffy hair with a flick coming down, and his lovely pouty lips!
Vaah, How cute is he?