October 19, 2007

Sholay plans...

I am thinking of reviewing Sholay- even as I doubt that there is much that I could add to what had already been said and written about the movie.

In the interim, enjoy this picture I found online- they looks SO good all of them! It was obviously shot on set during the making of Sholay, with the male cast posing very fraternally- Dharam and Amitabh are even still in costume!

I realise I kind of miss Amjad Khan's movies- must find some of his stuff and see it soon...




October 16, 2007

Movies can be bad, no matter what

And this is proved by the following movies:

Title: Ghungroo Ki Awaaz
Year: 1981
Cast: Vijay Anand, Rekha, Shriram Lagoo



Vijay Anand made movies like Guide (1965) and Jewel Thief (1967). Then he debased himelf towards the end of his career with this clunker of a movie, which yours truly delighted in rushing through and promptly dissing.

Vijay was never a handsome man by any standards, and here he looks downright decrepit as he goes through the motions of being a wealthy landowner, who meets a prostitute, Rekha. Love happens, as does marriage, until one day he witnesses her with an old boyfriend and shoots her to death. He begins to see her ghost everywhere- in the middle of which is revealed to us that his uncle, Shriram Lagoo, has actually hired Rekha as an accomplice to get Vijay's wealth, and that she is alive not dead. By faking her murder and scaring Vijay with her fake ghost, Dr. Lagoo hopes to drive Vijay to the asylum and usurp his wealth. And all this does happen, very painfully, and with bad acting and deliberation by all involved.

Rekha cant take it anymore when her lover is finally nuts- she reveals all to him and gets him out, whereupon they eventually get sweet revenge upon the evil uncle. That's it.

Pros: Rekha, who looks beautiful, despite all odds (the sets and lighting are awful, not to mention the costumes, which appear straight out of some charade). She made this movie the same year she did the immortalised Umrao Jaan and Silsila- I guess she is allowed some wrong!

Cons: Over the top scenarios, terrible script, horrible sets.

Note: Tulsi Ramsay directed this movie, and it was therefore one of the many horror/semi horror/intrigue movies released under the "Ramsay Brothers" banner. It is interesting to note that Tulsi began his career by directing 1967's Indonesian horror movie, Penanggalan- still looking of a copy of that!




Title: Kaisey Kahein
Year: 2007
Cast: Honestly who cares, but: Rajveer Dutt, Neha Jhulka, Aditi Gowrikar.

We jump more than 25 years ahead to 2007 from Ghungroo.. to this movie- and what do we find? ah nothing my friend- just crap.

Rajveer and Neha meet live in the UK (I think), meet, and fall in love. They live together for awhile, but Neha moves away to India 'cos she is made senior editor (or something) at the Indian national office of the newspaper she works for (HOW??? she doesn't seem to do any work- but whatever). Rajveer stays back for his own career. They part bitterly, but eventually make up long distance- she even comes back for a visit, but leaves in a huff after refusing to give up her work, marrying him and staying back. In between, an aging Aditi Gowrikar appears as a cougar female boss that Rajveer briefly sleeps with. Years later, Rajveer and Neha meet again when he is being felicitated in some shady "Businessman of the Year" awards ceremony- but she is already with someone else. Somehow, the entire blame of their break-up is somehow, by this time, Rajveer's doing. The movie ends here.

What the heck???!!! What was this about anyways? Neha is a screachy, shrill woman who can act, in parts. Rajveer is not that great looking, cant emote, but can speak. No personality on those too either. The script is horrible, with initially Rajveer etched as a sympathetic character, and Neha shrewish. By the end of the movie, we somehow see a character reversal, where neha softens, and Rajveer is labelled the bad guy for no apparent reason. When folks walk away from each other, they normally find other people to be with, and its no one's fault- their time together was up, and one would hope that the director/writer would give some recognition to that. Technical flaws are rediculous and many- Rajveer uses his laptop on a river back in the UK, as well as other locations where it would be technically very difficult to have wireless connectivity, even in this day and age. However, he is not only shown to have connectivity, it is apparently seamless- he chats and emails with amazing speed (what kind of in-built router does that man have? my firm better not know- they will make us work 24-7 then (right now its still 14-6))

This movie is so bad that it is simply bad, with no reprise of any kind. Saw it in about 1/2 hr, fast forwarding much, but still felt like killing myself after it was done. Ugggh!!!

October 15, 2007

Meta Post! So many movies...

...so little time. Therefore here is a meta post of 4 movies, without the comic-book styling.

The Good
Title: Laga Chunri Mein Daag
Year: 2007
Cast: Rani Mukherjee, Konkana Sen Sharma, Jaya Bhaduri.

Note that I have just put in the women's names- I should also mention Abhishek Bacchan, Kunal Kapoor and Anupam Kher, who are the corresponding male protoganists. However, the women hold centerstage, and do a great job of it. The plot hovers around Natasha (Rani), who becomes a prostitute when she cant find any other way to help her family which is experiencing financial collapse. She walks away from Abhishek, maintains a separation of her job and family where neither know about the other. And then things come to a head: Chutki (Konkana) is getting married to Kunal, who is Abhishek's younger brother. Dont hold your breath for very tragic results however: it is a Yash Chopra movie after all. Wipe those tears- it all works out eventually, as my friend Steve often says.

Pros: The men are good actors, the women are brilliant actors. Jaya is amazing- she is every mom, every woman, and you gotta weep right along with her!
Cons: Mmm- the plot is a tad regressive for my taste (honestly- why the heck hide so much from your own family? Speak up and have done woman- but then we'd have no movie), and I honestly get bored with too much emotion.

The Kinda Good
Title: Manorama: 6 feet under
Year: 2007
Cast: Abhay Deol, Gul Panang, Sarika, Vinay Pathak, Kulbhushan Kharbanda.

Anyone who has read this blog knows how much I love Abhay Deol- I am not sure why, but I do find him the best Deol ever since Dharam. He reminds me always of Amol Palekar: that may be too much praise, but I find both actors endearing and very natural in their bodies of work.

In Manorama, Abhay is brllliant as a small-town bribe-embibing PWD engineer, with Gul Panang playing the housewife enamored with daily soaps.

Its a noir style thriller, but fails primarily due to the complexity of the plot, and the director's failure to execute the plot twists to the fullest. Abhay plays a closet writer, whose single offering: a detective novel has failed gloriously. Frustrated in a dead-end job, his life gains momentum when Sarika knocks at his door one day, to offer him a job as a real detective. She is quickly killed in a accident which he suspects is really murder. And in spite of his many misgivings, he sets out in the search of her murderer, truth, justice, etc. Of course he is successful- but what yuo need to see this and find out is HOW. You do need patience watching this movie, but if you like noir and Abhay (like me), it can be done.

Pros: Abhay and Gul's marital bickerings, along with Vinay's easy humor.
Cons: Plot complexity

The Kinda OK

Title: Darling
Year: 2007
Cast: Esha Deol, Fardeen Khan, Isha Koppikar.


Its funny! and it sort of works! Fardeen is cheating on Isha (his wife) with Esha, his secretary. Things go to hell when on a weekend getaway, Esha springs the news of their pregnancy on Fardeen, they have a huge row, she is pushed around by him, and promptly dies. She comes back as a ghost and troubles the heck out of Fardeen until basically the wife gets into a very very bad accident, and dies. Whereupon Esha's soul enters Isha's body- so that she can live with (and torture the poor sod) Fardeen for the rest of his life!

Pros: The prepostureness of the plot! And for once, Esha actually acts- you root for her as the ghost who should have revenge on that crappy ex-bf!
Cons: None really. This doesnt mean it was brilliant- it was merely passable- no outsnading flaws, but nothing shines either.

The Ugly
Title: Ram Gopal Verma ki Aag
Year: 2007
Cast: Amitabh Bacchan, Ajay Devgun, Sushmita Sen, Prashant Raj, Nisha Kothari, Sushant Singh, Mohan Lal.

Ram Gopal Verma did the screenplay of this- and it is definitely one of the worst screenplays of the year, translated word-to-word from "Sholay" (1975). The actors do the best they can under the given circumstances- but they cant very well do much if the script sucks!

Unless you have never seen a Bollywood movie ever (in which case you would never be readoing this), Ajay (as Heroo- aka Veruu from the old movie) and Prashant (playing Jay) are friends, and are enlisted by Mohan Lal (playing Inspector narsimha aka Thakur from the older movie) to pay out a grudge against Amitabh (playing Babban aka Gabbar). They do it, Prashant dies, and Ajay ends up with Nisha (Ghungroo aka Basanti).

This could have worked very successfully as a modern rendition of Sholay- it worked for Romeo and Juliet (1996) after all. But the horrible script makes impossible any rescuing: there is no time taken to establish the friendship of Prashant and Ajay; instead long minutes are spent in inconsequential fight sequences. The comic releif comes courtesy Rajpal Yadav, who again has horrible material to work with, and doesnt hold a candle to Asrani and Jagdeep from Sholay.

Not to miss: Prashant Raj's screen presence and Mohan Lal's acting- both deserve much better than this.
Cons: The very blah actions sequences, Ms Kothari (who cannot act for peanuts).

October 11, 2007

Mera pyaar....Shalimaar...

Title: Shalimar
Year: 1978
Cast: Dharmendra, Zeenat Aman, Rex Harrison, Sylvia Miles, Shammi Kapoor, OP Ralhan, John Saxon.

This is hands down my all-time favorite movie. Why? Because it has every ingredient that makes the quintessential Bollywood movie, its raving, barking mad and is an action adventure with a bunch of Hollywood names who honestly just appear to be in a state of constant shock through the movie. With Rex Harrison headlining as the villain of the piece, it was released as “Raiders of the Shalimar” in the U.S., and was a very dismal flop.

The movie starts at a “Dance Studio” where Aruna Irani is teaching some unheard-of version of the Cha Cha Cha, with Kumar (Dharmendra) lounging at the receptionist desk in a newsboy cap. This Studio is more than what it seems, because apparently there is a gambling den in the back with Raja Bahadur Singh (Prem Nath) rapidly losing at cards, and a shooter keeping a watch on the whole operation with binoculars across the bridge.


While Aruna swings to “1 2 Cha Cha Cha,” Raja Bahadur has a heart attack and is helped out by Kumar to a taxi, to bring him to a hospital.


As they walk out to the taxi, Raja Bahadur is shot, and somehow sheltered enough by Kumar to make it to the hospital. Kumar has his own interests in the forefront as he swipes Prem’s pocket book- to find an invitation to a private soiree at the island of Sir John Locksley (Rex Harrison). He figures the shooter was targeting him rather than Raja Bahadur, and confronts the man behind it all: Tolaram (Sriram Lagoo). This is one of two times I have actually seen Dr. Lagoo play a sleazy character (the other time was in “Ghungroo in Awaaz”), and both times I am sort-of appalled- he is so genial looking- its somehow disturbing to watch him play an oily villain.

The conversation with Tolaram leaves Kumar very clear on the fact that he needs money asap- the Dance Studio/Gaming den isn’t paying well, and the owner (who we never see on screen) is experiencing losses that Kumar must make up one way or another. He is reminded of the invite he stole off Raja Bahadur. He shows up at the appointed day and time dresses as a Sikh (Raja Bahadur is one), pretending to be Raja’s Son: Raja Bahadur, Jr. He meets KPW Iyengar (OP Ralhan, an actor who was also a fairly famous director, and gave Dharmendra one of his biggest 1st hits in Phool Aur Patthar (1966), which Ralhan wrote, directed, produced and acted in (!!!). Iyengar is also an invitee to the same shindig as Raja Bahadur, and they are picked up by a boat of uniformed tribals on behalf of Sir John.
They get to a small island and are next escorted via a horse carriage to Sir John’s estate- we see no houses or development exists here, and are told that the island belong to Sir John, and is small enough to be off all maps. The tribals consider Sir John as God and savior, since he saved them from death on the hands of their enemies, a rival tribe.


They get to Sir John's castle/mansion- which I am in love with ever since ever. (It is actually Tipu Sultan's palace in Bangalore, India.....mmmm).


In his guise as Raja Bahadur Jr., Kumar meets up with fellow invitees: Countess Rasmussen(a very old and decrepit looking Sylvia Miles), Dr. Bukhari (a very very fat Shammi Kapoor) and Coloner Columbus (John Saxon- remember "Enter the Dragon" (1973) ?)- supposedly Iyengar has always had a thing for the Countess- and it is established that all 5 individuals are expert thieves.They are joined at dinner by Sheila Enders (a very hot looking Zeenat), who is their hostess and Sir John's nurse.

Midway through dinner, Kumar figures out that they are being watched by cameras, and traces his way to Sir John's who has been observing the party via this camera network. He finds Sir John (A rather tired looking Rex Harrison) in bed in a gold sherwani (a knee-length men's jacket worn in South Asia only at very formal occasions , if ever). Kader Khan provides the voice-over for Harrison, who appears very very weird mouthing Hindi :D


Kumar soon rejoins the party for a bit of after dinner coffee and Carnatic music (a form of Indian music that is almost ancient in its history). At this point, Sheila has recognised Kumar through his guise, turns out he is an ex-boyfriend who had cheated on her and she had therefore walked out on.....


Next morning, Sir John meets his guests, and takes them on a walking tour of his estate,, which is apparently very well guarded. So well guarded that when Columbus touches that plant in the picture, there is a blast about 1/2 a mile away- which is really dumb- how the heck does a bomb a half-mile away really help???? and aren't there any cats/birds/dogs in the estate? who would hit plants and cause blasts, like every 5 minutes????oh well...


And finally we meet the reason why Sir John has called them to the island. He is dying of cancer, and he wants them all to take turns in trying to steal his prized possession: a ruby known as the Shalimar, that's as big as a rock.


Iyengar loses it at first sight of the ruby, and whips out a knife, ready to grab the jewel and run...

They are immediately surrounded by guards, and so of course Iyenger cannot pre-empt the theft of the ruby. They draw straws and thus decide the order in which they would make attempts to steal Shalimar.

They gather later that evening, and watch the CC TVs for the 1st theft to begin.....



Columbus, who is mute, slithers down the mansion/castle wall (he has been faking a disabled leg), and gets very close to the Shalimar....


But he is found out by the security system (and no, Sir John doesnt alert his guard despite monitoring him via the CCTV- that's the game's rules) and is shot down by the guards, uttering a faint scream, considered a miracle by everyone who hears him- he has no larynx.....


1 down, 4 to go. The guards cart away Columbus, and everyone retires to their rooms. Kumar makes a half-hearted attempt to get into Sheila's good book,s but that fails miserably.


What appears to work better is Iyenger and the Countesses' romance. We see a very wrinkled Countess undressing to a palpably excited Iyenger. Supposedly, this is her ploy to deter him from making a bid for Shalimar that same night.

Once Iyenger has slept off, she decides to walk on a straight rope to the room where Shalimar is housed (what the heck??). Very ungraceful, ungainly and definitely past her prime, Sylvia Miles is horrible in a pink ballerina's outfit (wonderful camoflauge- yes indeedy).

That is very clearly a man.......


She makes it successfully to about 2 feet away from the Ruby's case when she is blasted off by a security bomb in the room. 2 down, 3 to go. Everyone again retires for the night (Sir John, Shela, Dr. Bukhari and Kumar have been watching), and we next find Kumar being treated to a massage by Sheila (????????????!!!!!- this is totally strange- she is supposed to be really angry with him. My hubby figured they wanted to give the movie international appeal, and to that end, they couldnt insert a love scene in at the time, they did a massage scene- I agree, but it is totally surreal...).


That night, the tribals who have disposed off the Countess' and Columbus' bodies are found embalming Columbus- turns out the mute man's burst into speech in his dying moments gives him God status.....

So we get a whole dance sequence with a lot of mini-skirted "tribal"dancing in honor of the new God....


Soon enough, Dr. Bukhari tries and fails, and demotivated with the 3 deaths, when Iyengar tries to walk out, he is killed by Sir John.


Now that the 4 major thieves are dead, Sir John reveals that he was never dying of cancer- it was just pretense to ensure some modicum of safety for Shalimar (what rubbish- there are tons more thieves in the world my friend…) Mad with rage, Kumar attacks Sir John, but is captured by and then escapes the guards. They search high and low, but are unable to find him….



Until Sir john finally spots him in one of his CCTV viewers…


Kumar has dressed in a v cool outfit camouflaging him as a chessboard to match the room where the Shalimar is housed (where the heck did he get the outfit on an island where there are no shops- let alone seamstresses?)…

Kumar successfully grabs Shalimar, and escapes the guards with Sheila’s help, who it seems has forgiven him after all….

Kumar successfully grabs Shalimar, and escapes the guards with Sheila’s help, who it seems has forgiven him after all. Meanwhile, Dr. Bukhari is actually alive- he has been faking his death in order to live… He incites the tribals against Sir John and leads their revolt against him, where eventually, he is shot dead by his own guards…


Meanwhile (again), Kumar and Sheila escape after some scuffles with the guards on a small ship (which emerges tethered to the bay, fully gassed and ready to go)…


They hide in a hotel, but their happiness is short-lived, since guess who is still after them...

Yup, that’s the tribals/guards from the island, now dressed in hippie outfits on the mainland, out to get back the Shalimar which they believes rightly belongs to them. So Sheila forsakes her greed for Shalimar and begs Kumar to give up the ruby to the police, so that they can be safe…..
That’s when Kumar accepts that he is in fact a part of the Indian Secret Police, and was after the 4 thieves and Sir John for a long time…

This is utter rot, since there are many loopholes here:
1- After getting out of the island, why did Kumar wait so long? Why risk carrying the Shalimar around in a hotel room when he could just hand it over to the police asap???
2- What was all that crap with Tolaram in the beginning of the movie about? Establishment of criminal history to gain street cred? Ughhh….

Whatever- they get married in a Christian ceremony by exchanging flower garlands, a Hindu custom (huh??!!)….

What a cool movie! It makes no sense whatever in many many scenes, but it is made with a lot of sincerity, and everyone puts in their best. The canvas is too small to capture what the director was probably trying to portray (a jewel heist and a Indiana Jones style movie comb0 perhaps), that the movie is simply a great example of being so bad that it is very good. See it, and enjoy Zeenat's sensuality, Dharam's hunkiness and the ruins of Rex Harrison's greatness, against pretty good cinematography. Brilliant.

October 3, 2007

Teesri Manzil

Title: Teesri Manzil
Year: 1966
Cast: Shammi Kappor, Asha Parekh, Helen, Iftekhar, Prem Chopra, Prem Nath.

Its my favorite decade for movies (the 60s rock!), with my favorite team: Nasir Hussain (Production), RD Burman (Music) and Vijay Anand (Direction)- how could one go wrong? Every song is dripping with cool, and Shammi gives us his best Elvis impersonations ever!

The movie opens with a woman running up to the 3rd floor of a building, and falling to her death as the opening credits roll.

Its scene one, and we realise the woman was named Neeta, and she was Sunita (Asha Parekh)'s sister. Neeta was apparently engaged to Ramesh (Prem Chopra), and a year after her death we find that Ramesh and his dad are discussing Sunita and Ramesh's marriage. But our perky young heroine has no time for that yet- she is off to Dehradun (a town in the Northern Indian hills), to meet a friend.


At the train station, she meets up with Anil (Shammi Kapoor), and as was common in movies at that time, we note the old "girl-meets-boy-they-argue" routine.



More hilarity follows in the train at the expense of a fellow traveller- cue the fat jokes!

By the end of the journey, Sunita has had it with Anil, who promptly disappears. Her friend Meena has come to get her...


Sunita reveals to Meena that her sister had been in Mussoorie (another hillside town) at the time of her death, and had fallen in love with Rocky, the hotel's band's drummer. She believes that Rupa had killed herself by jumping off the hotel's roof since Rocky had raped and deserted her. She means to track the man down and extract revenge by having her university's girl's hockey team beat him up (oh go figure! I don't get it either!). Little does Sunita realise that Anil, the man she met in the train, is actually Rocky himself.......

And of course Rocky overhears the whole thing when Sunita idiotically repeats the whole story at the hotel roof from where Rupa had jumped.....

Anil thinks on his feet, and pretends to be Anil Kumar Sona, the son of the Hotel's owner and a important businessman of the city. He flirts with the girls...


While one of his friends pretends to be Rocky instead of him. Folks- look carefully at the guy playing the pseudo-Rocky- recognize him? Its none other than Salim Khan, of the Salim-Javed scriptwriters duo (Sholay), Salman Khan's dad and Helen's husband!


A surreal song sequence follows; this is the only time Helen and Salim are in a frame together in any movie (ever), and this adds to the coolness of the song with its barking mad visuals....

Sunita tries to flirt with the Peudo-Rocky, and sets up a date with him; but not without some interference by Anil/Rocky...



But pseudo-Rocky breaks the date (and also vanishes from the movie from good- bye bye Salim!) He leaves Sunita a note saying he has had to leave urgently for his village, and only Anil (real Rocky) can get him back. So Sunita and Rocky decide to leave together for the village....

But not without Meena stowed away in the boot with a gun (!!!!).....

Meena goes on a bathroom break somewhere in the middle of nowhere while Anil/Rocky romances Sunita.....

who resists his charms until he rescues her from a fate worse than death by risking his own life....

So Sunita falls in love with him and they drive back to the hotel (what? no more going after Rocky to his village? what happened of the plans to seek revenge????) but luckily they remember to pick Meena from the middle of the forest where they had left her overnight (Sunita is attacked by goons despite being in a licked car- how about Meena? - does no one care for her virtue??????)
They get back only for Anil/Rocky to find that his room has been rifled through.....



He is sure that the police suspect him in Rupa's suicide case, and he wants to tell Sunita the truth that he is in fact Rocky but had no hand in his sister's death, but ignore these finer feelings in favor of going to the fair with Sunita in pink heathers and himself in a teal dress jacket....



Anil/Rocky decides to share his traumatic thoughts with Kunwar(Prem Nath), the hotel's owner, and his mentor.



We have a flash back, where Anil/Rocky recounts how Rupa had fallen in love with him and his drum-beating skills when she heard him in concert at the hotel a year ago. She was engaged to Ramesh, but went after Anil/Rocky anyway, who avoided her advances (why?????). It allcame down the day Ramesh came to town on a surprise visit to his fiance, and yelled at her while she was swinging on the dance floor with Anil/Rocky, even throwing out a death threat or two at her.....

Later that evening, Rupa had called Anil/Rocky, threatening suicide if he didnt open his room's door to her when she came to visit him late that night. he refuses,she comes over anyway, knocks, but he feigns sleep and ignores her beating down the door.....


And guess what that results in....looks like she did jump/or was she pushed??????




Kunwar hears out Anil/Rocky's tale, offers encouragement, and even goes with him to meet Sunita and her dad, to talk about Anil/rocky's wedding to Sunita, all the while pretending to be Anil/Rocky's dad. Neither of them makes much of an attempt to lay the facts before Sunita and her dad......



At last, wracked with guilt, he tells all to Sunita in a letter to her. The dumb idiot that she is, she ignores everything else he has written to note just one fact- that Anil is indeed Rocky. That is enough to send all of them over the edge, throwing out Rocky bodily from the house....


This is when our secret police steps in....its Iftekhar to the rescue! Young and suave, it
is a pleasure to see him in one of his countless "inspector" avtars....

Iftekhar informs Anil/Rocky that Rupa didnt kill her self- she was in fact murdered, and the police doesnt suspect him at all. Rather, they need his help figuring out who did it- his first suspect is Ruby (Helen), who has been throwing herself at him since the beginning of the movie, and he figures she killed Rupa out of sheer jealousy. His suspicions are unfounded however; when he goes to question and proceeds to manhandle her, she is shot by a mysterious man hanging out of the window the shooter, not Helen- duh!) and dies weeping in his arms....
This second murder is the talk of the town and again finds Anil/Rocky in custody, where the police keeps him, inspite of Kunwar's attempts to bail him out....

Once Kunwar leaves, Iftekhar reveals to Anil/Rocky that the shooter had in fact attempted to kill Anil/Rocky, that the murderer is definitely a man (why the heck didnt you tell him this before he went rushing off to threaten Ruby?She may have lived!), and this is proved by the fact that when Rupa died, she had clutched in her fingers a button from the murderer's jacket, which was a huge diamonte, the kind that belongs on a flashy men's jacket.


Next we find Iftekhar doing some real work for once (like why was he folllowing Anil/Rocky when he wasnt a suspect? helllo??!!) He bascically moseys over to Ramesh's/Ramesh's father's/Sunita's/Sunita's dads/Meena's home and deduces/announces to the assembled folks that Ramesh was in fact in staying at the hotel the night Rupa jumped off it, and since he had threatened her earlier, he may very well have carried out those same threats and bumped her off easily....




All this seems to do really is to throw a damper on all talks regarding Ramesh and Sunita's wedding.....which had come back into discussion since her breakup with Anil/Rocky. Meanwhile, a mysterious woman wanders into Anil/Rocky's room, and announces that she knows who killed Rupa and Ruby, that in fact the dame individual is trying to kill Anil/Rocky, and has sent his goons to accomplish that aim. the goons in question are currently at a cafe, and leaving it in 15 minutes, so he should therefore make haste and catch them before they take off. Anil/Rocky shows great presence of mind by actually informing inspector Iftekhar about this via telephone before locking in the mysterious woman in his room and dashing off to the goons.....


Something strange is afoot since the minute he leaves, the woman basically walks out of the room (you idiot! you didnt tie her up!). Anil/Rocky is rushing down the Dehradun hills before realising that the old plot favorite, the failed car crashes, have been imposed on him.....




He humps out of the car before if falls off the cliff. Since he is convinced now that someone is indeed after his life, he chooses to remain in hiding while the police declares him presumed dead. Sunita, who has been growing convinced of his innocence in her sister's murder, now openly mourns him, but the mourning is short-lived- he basically knocks at her door one evening, and tells her how he is being hunted down by her sister's murder, because he apparently knows something that may convict the murderer. They drive over to the hotel to make inquiries.....


While Sunita is at the hotel making said inquiries, Anil/Rocky waits in the car, when he sees the same mysterious woman who came to his room coming out of a cottage and walking to a car.....

He follows her to.....Kunwar's estate, where she disappears somewhere in the grounds....he is trying to decide whether to walk in on the shadows he sees in the window when.....

Kunwar drives in! Anil/Rocky explains his dillemma to him, which Kunwar rubbishes, and they walk into the house to find that the shadows are in fact Kunwar's estate manager drinking himself to a stupor...a very cool and sly cameo by the amazing KN Singh, a villan popular in Bollywood Noir from the 50s and 60s.


Kunwar talks Anil/Rocky into sleeping over at his house for the night, and locks him into his own bedroom till morning, claiming this is the only way that Anil/Rocky will get his much needed rest. Anil/Rocky is somewhat mollified and opens a wardrobe in the room, looking for pajamas to chill in when he discovers….

Kunwar has a jacket with the buttons matching the one found in the hand of Rupa’s dead body! Anil tries it on for size (whyyyy????), getting more and more visibly upset that his mentor has killed two people, and has definitely retained him for the night to make him his third victim. Rocky/Anil escapes the bedroom via a window, so that when Kunwar walks in (with a gun in his hand!) to shoot him, he is furious to find an empty room….

Kunwar stomps out and discusses the matter with his cohort, the mysterious woman (I still don’t know her name!) who Anil/Rocky had been following. She tried to run out on him, fearing discovery and jail, but he bids him to stay while he goes and seeks out Anil/Rocky…

As soon as Kunwar leaves, Rocky jumps back into the room, and forces the woman to blurt out the truth via telephone to the police.
She gets on the phone with Iftekhar, and recounts her story: she was a new widow when she met Kunwar, a married man. Their consequent affair was discovered by his wife, who died accidentally in the ensuing argument with her husband, witnessed by the woman.
To avoid public scandal, Kunwar and the woman took the body to bury it in the hills, which was seen (accidentally, again) by Rupa, on the night she was coming to visit Rocky in his room at midnight, as warned by her earlier…
She was noticed by Kunwar spying on them burying the body, so he took off after her, hoping to kill her before she blurted out the truth to all and sundry….
She got to the hotel, and tried to wake Anil/Rocky, who didn’t open his door, thinking he was only avoiding her amorous advances…

So she runs up to the roof to avoid discovery by Kunwar, who fids her anyways and throws her off the roof….
and yup- thats poor Rupa....
The woman’s narration is just complete, when Kunwar comes back and shoots her to stop her confession- a tad too late, you would think…..
And so Anil/Rocky get into a fight, wrestling all the way to the roof….
And Kunwar ends up dangling from the roof, giving a to the police present, then releasing himself from Anil/Rocky's arms....
And he diestoo, kinda like Rupa....

And next we know, Sunita and Anil/Rocky live happily ever after!


Lots of plot holes here- including the most important- Kunwar never had any real reason to suspect that Anil/Rocky knew of his having murdered Rupa. Lot of coincidences are a little too convenient- Anil just happens to see Kunwar's accomplice/gf as he waits outside the hotel. All such plot contrivances aside, the movie makes for great entertainment, and the mod outfits are alone worth the three hours spent. If you have seen it, see it again! If you havent seen it, what are you waiting for??? :)