A Filmic Education in Masala and Filminess of 19 years!

I'm not old enough to start cranking out the stories that begin with "In my time Dilip Kumar was an emo method De Niro" but as I'm 19 tomorrow on the 12th I decided to take a look at some of the films that spiralled my Bollywood odyssey~ It all started when i was 15/16 reading the Philips fil-ums blog and Carla's too, that I realized Bollywood was really wonderful if you looked carefully and overlooked the masalaness that i so love! So here's a reaction from my 16 self on the reaction of these classics and my verdict now! Amar Akbar Anthony
16 year old self: OMG what cool clothes that Shabana is wearing makes her look very mod than she is now, Did Amitabh just put his legs around that dishoomer and kick him into a wall! Maybe my mum is a shrew like Nadira and I can be rescued by a lovely Vinod Khanna, Rishi has never looked so cute and i can foretell he'll look cool in some disco suits too! Jeevan's dialogues are hilarious and playing his twin brother too "GET ME OUT HERE", do i sound that silly with an English accent talking in Hindi like Pran, and I need Pran's hat!

19 year old self : Look at how many masala bits their are! Lost boys, bad hilarious villains, a maa who regains her sight with a hilarious laser beam! The quintessential masala film by the masala master!

Aawara

16 y/o : OMG he's soooo CUTTTEEEEE! I love Nargis' lawyer glasses and her cute acting with the flared nostrils and her quivering smile! Wow Prithviraj looks like Shashi! OMG SHASHI BACHHA! Shashi is the cutest Filmi Bacha so far, and he makes me wanna say "Main judge banoonga maa!" Awww why Shashi have to grow up but alas he turned into his cute brother RAJU!! Singing along to Awara Hoon down the street so Chaplin! Ohh dear he hit Nargis - i dont like this Junglee anymore! The fantastic dream sequence, woah Nargis has got too much glitter on her face, but secretly I want to looks 90's again and put it near my eyes and hairline LOL! Jagga is pretty hot if I may so, KN Singh is my favorite villain right now! AWW I like this progressive ending!

19 Y/O: AWWWWWWW RK is so cutttteeee, wow what an Oedipal film with a strict dad, a blind mother, a boy who loves a strong motherlike figure and to put most of his family in it too! Very expressionist sets especially Prithviraj's Xanadu like house! I guess he hit Nargis to signify his junglee-ness and his unhappiness with their class divide! AWWW SHASHI BACHHHA!Chaudvin Ka Chand (lol i saw this before Pyaasa! How could I?!)

16 Y/O: (These musings are not favourable) What the heck! Rehman likes her, wow she lifted up her veil to show the most gorgeous elegant face ever! AWWW Johnny's here maybe he'll lighten my mood! Yess he did with his shoe throwing jokes, OMG who's that handsome piece of Pie: Guru Dutt! WOW couldn't Rehman have asked his maa to find that girl instead of shrieking at his wedding! AWWW Waheeda and Guru still have nice chemistry despite the breakup! Guru why are so mean to your wife, its not her fault your friend was stupid! OHH no, one of those sacrificial deaths

19 Y/O: Pretty much the same storyline hate as the above, but i really love the Urdu dialogues soo lovely coming out of Guru's mouth and you can soo see his influence in the songs, and the lush lyrical tone! Its a timepass for me though!

Deewaar

16 Y/O: What a bad labour leader Kamal Kapoor is! AWW he got a tatoo without his maa's consent why cant I? What a nice kid Vijay is pays his bro's way through school and loving his maa as well! OMG Vijay grew up this SEXY! Ohh dear he wont go to the temple, I expected the priest and his maa to smack him one! 786 the Yashraj number! AWWW SHashi bachha grew up to be jobless Shashi that has a girlfriend like Neetu who doesnt do much! Nahiii waste of Neetu! Iftikar not a policeman, hai hai he's a suave bad businessman that looks really cool! OMG sex in bed the after shot with cigarrettes what a movie for Indian film! Ohh dear Ravi is a tell-tale that messes up their nice house for his principles, POOR VIJAY! He has bank balance, bangalows and cars what does Ravi the soppy bastard have : MAAA!

19 y/o : What a script! Full of the cliches yet completely reinvented with the opposing bhais like Ganga Jamuna and a very good maa Mother India like! This movie has the best number of faceoffs between the Shashitabh! An absolute classic that established AB as a big pin up for me! And Shashi too

Mother India

16 Y/O: WOAH soo many extras, what a wonderful Filmi Bachha the young Birju is, I wanna scoop him up. Kanhaiyalal is gonna be very typecast as an evil moneylender after this famous role! Nargis and Raaj Kumar make a nice couple and a couple that cuts stalks together stays together! Nope, Raaj and his lovely voice saunter off in the horizon, bechaara with no arms! The sons grew upto be Sunil Dutt and Rajendra Kumar, both very good-looking! Errmmm...I know this is a classic and all but do you expect me to ignore Sunil Dutt's orangeface throughout!

19 Y/O: What a wonderful sweeping epic on the Demille esque scale. Its such a spectacle of beauty and class, and how can it miss by one vote an Oscar to Nights of Cabiria which I hated! UGHHH but Mehboob was Commie and his messages of the land and the people sharing just make me wanna be red too !

Andaz
16 Y/O: Firstly I applaud Mehboob for getting Dilip, Nargis and Raj in a film together and letting each of them have a battle of hysterics and good acting. Nargis listen to your dad when he tells you about modern relationships! Nope she wont and can't she see the love song that Dilip just sang to her means something! Coupla songs later she's still avoiding the issue! STOP stringing him along! NAHII Dilip finds out about Raju! All 3 in an uncomfy friendship! That famous scene when the lights go out at the party:CLASSIC, Ohh Raju dont hit my Dilip with a tennis racket! Ohh dear he's gone pagal! I love Dilip's "Tum meri ho" and then she shoots him! BITCH
19 Y/O: I think i love Naushad! The music is so beautiful and melodius, and I must point out that I loved Cuckoo's dancing and acting skills! Perhaps she influenced my crazy dancing! But its a very thoughful ambiguous film! Bobby
16 y/o: Awwwww isnt Rishi a naughty boy that needs to be sent away well Pran thinks so, he grew up into Rishi! AWWW he's so cute! His maa and paa have a fight and in an RK turn her pallu falls down to show her cleavage! Dimple arrives on the scene, what a natural actress she is
and the swimsuit does look good on her! NOTE: She was lovely in that swimsuit and she showed off her curves with it (another complaint of the skinny society in Bollywood today!) Aww Premnath as the dad is hilarious!
19 Y/O: AWWWWWW RISHI! More importantly the film popularizes the "motorbike of cool" as the lovebirds sing songs on it and hug on it and dressed very funky while on it! I want a motorbike of cool for my birthday Daddy! It is the classic Romeo and Juliet and I did hear that Raj Kapoor was gonna do the tragic ending but pulled out of it! The father's are defined well and their reasoning for the pair has become stereotypical of filmi father opposers!

So these were some of the films I first watched, to have an appreciation for the classics and you can probably see not much has changed as I have a high intake for masala and squeal at the cute boys, but with the help of some Bollybooks and my own developing critical eye, I now watch these films with a bit of my 16 year old squealer and 19 year old Bollywood cinephile!