My childhood memoirs of this movie * the new villain was very frightening * the song 'Meri Rampiyaari', very popular amongst kids * an overall bore
So, why would I watch or write a review on this one? To save you from the pains that I bore on a Sunday evening. Not really. It so happened that while browsing youtube, I came across this movie with the preview photo of an inspector that resembled Monish Behl. I wonder that is it really Mohnish Behl who acted with the famous Big B? And that got me started to this painful journey.
I had initially planned to see just one part before I continue hunting down another movie for the holidays. But then big names started flashing - Amitabh Bachchan, Amrita Singh, Jackie Shroff, Meenakshi Sheshadri, Laxmikanth Pyarelal, Ramesh Sippy! I recollected only AB and Amrita Singh. But the rest of the names made me wonder if I was being harsh on this movie. Ok! I would give it a try. After all, how bad can it be given Ramesh Sippy gave us Sholay, Shaan, Seeta aur Geeta and much more.
Coming to the story section. Did I hear you mutter: Is there a story? Sigh! There's one very predictable and unnecessarily elongated one.
Story: Vijay Varma (Amitabh Bachchan), Shekhar (Jackie Shroff) and Seema (Meenakshi Seshadri) are college friends. Seema and Vijay are in love but never disclose to each other. Shekhar loves Seema (completing the typical Hindi triangular love story). Shekhar asks Vijay to aid him in asking Seema's hand in marriage from Seema's mother (Helen). Vijay decides to sacrifice love for friendship and takes to alcohol ever since. His only solace lies in his brother Ajay(Aditya Panscholi), who loves Neeta (Kiran Juneja, after all she is director's wife and needs to be casted). Ajay stays in college as he continues his education while being a teaching assistant.
Vijay is a very lonely police officer (hence the title Akayla) whose aim in life to is to kill criminals to get rid of crime. As a result, he finds quite often disreputing himself and the police department. Consequently, having verbal disputes with the police commissioner (Shashi Kapoor) as well. Vijay finds his lost love interest in Sapna (Amrita Singh) who he meets while saving her from Ranjeet's (Mahesh Anand) clutches.
Trivia: Which hero has acted most along with AB? And your four options are: (A) Vinod Khanna (B) Dharmendra (C) Shah rukh khan (D) Shashi Kapoor Answer towards the end of the blog
The villains of this story happen to be twin brothers - Tony and Jojo (Keith Stevenson). They kill Shekhar and Seema as well who try to stop them from escaping. The Rampiyari song is when Vijay and Sapna try to cheer up Shekhar and Seema's son.
After many attempts, Vijay succeeds in killing Jojo. An angry Tony kills Ajay and Neeta and attempts to kill Sapna as well. However, she is rescued just in time. And the rest of the story is another set of chase sequences.
Salim Khan (of Salim-Javed duo) is credited with this story. Like Oscars, if there were Filmfare awards for most painful movie of the year - this movie would have no competition in winning the coveted title for the year 1991. This was not the last torture from Ramesh Sippy. I recollect Zamana Deewana, also directed by him, as a very bad remake of Khudgarz.
You can easily fast forward all the songs. Not much to write about any other department - choreography, cinematography!
Trivia: Of the four options, correct answer is (B) Dharmendra (A) Vinod Khanna (10) (B) Dharmendra (20) (C) Shah rukh khan (7) (D) Shashi Kapoor (14)
In case you are still wondering if there was Mohnish Behl in the movie then it was Kanwaljeet who I mistook for Mohnish Behl in the preview photo.
Masti, Masala, Comedy, Drama - sab kuch toh hai iss movie main. So, what's such a movie called? Classic.
Story: This story is about Kishanlal (Pran) and his family. Kishanlal is released from jail and is dishearted, shocked to find how his ex-master Robert (Jeevan) has never taken care of his family despite Kishanlal being loyal and taken the blame and punishment for latter's deeds. Robert, on the other hand, insults Kishanlal to make matters worse which evokes Kishanlal to rob Robert of some of his riches.
Kishanlal's wife, Bharati (Nirupa Roy), tries to commit suicide to free her husband of more worries, leaving behind their three sons - Amar, Raju and Chotu. Her attempt proves to be futile as fate had something else stored in for her and she turns blind. While trying to escape the bad goons chasing for Robert's goods, Kishanlal has an accident that makes everyone think that he's dead. Another turn of luck and that his three sons are separated too and lost in the big world.
Amar, Raju and Chotu grow up to be Amar, Akbar and Anthony respectively. Amar (Vinod Khanna) is raised by a Hindu police inspector, while Anthony (Amitabh Bachchan) is raised by a Christian priest and Akbar (Rishi Kapoor) is raised by a Muslim tailor.
Now, this is one movie which is not at all deficit of 'kahaani main twist'. Kishanlal kidnaps Robert's daughter and raises her as Jenny (Parveen Babi). Another reason for Robert to seek vendetta from Kishanlal.
Anthony and Jenny paint the town red, while Akbar is head over heels in love with Salma (Neetu Singh) and Amar finds his soulmate in Laxmi (Shabani Azmi). Each love story has its own villain. Zebisko (Yusuf Khan) wants to marry Jenny and won't stand Anthony a second. Salma's father, Taiyyab Ali (Mukri), finds Akbar not so perfect for his daugher. And then, we have Laxmi's step brother Ranjeet (Ranjeet) who molests Laxmi and is jailed by Amar.
Disclosing anything beyond this would be an awful crime. :) It's a Hindi movie and so all ends well as all separated ones reunite.
However, this blog does call for quoting certain popular moments. Or should I say, THE CLASSIC MOMENTS.
* What do I think of when I need to start a song with 'Ma' in Antakshari??? Think, think, think... :D
* Talk about how one should apply dettol on their wounds, then have a dekko here.
Something that has always amazed me is the pace of some of these classic movies. There are so many twists and turns. And some of the masterpieces (like this one) have taken every care to make sure that every scene is connected logically and that there's a reason for everything that happens. For example, does it matter what profession does the hero/heroine belong to? Not really, as seen in majority of the movies. Consider Neetu Singh's character in AAA: She's a doctor. And that's for just one purpose: she's the one to overhear Jeevan identify Nirupa Roy as Pran's wife.
Manmohan Desai, the director of this movie did repeat the very same formula after a gap of 4 years - Naseeb. A hard core AAA fan can easily call Naseeb a passe'. However, Naseeb did purvey the famous 'John Johnny Janardhan' number.
Besides making sure that his movie has twists and turns, nothing new to proffer and a cast full of stars - Manmohan Desai also made sure to convey a point that India is a secular country.
The movie had music composed by Laxmikanth Pyarelal. The music department gets a 4.0 rating as well. Now the songs are popular and well known till to-date.
That's all from your very own think-M for now. Happy reading!
To honor the epitome of acting, I decided to watch a Big-B movie on his birthday. And I was so glad to see this movie - a complete entertainer, not that this movie did not have twists and turns, fights and songs just like Ram Balram, but it had good direction. Rakesh Sharma did a good job at it.
Rajesh Roshan's song-collection is not great but for the 2 numbers - an adorable children song sung by AB himself - 'Mere Paas Aao' and 'Pardesia'. This just confirms my belief that Rakesh Roshan, brother of Rajesh, manages to extract better work out of Rajesh for former's home production.
Whatever be said about AB's acting and style in this movie, is not only less but also will not do justice to latter. A must movie for AB fans. One can just adore Bachchan for his - ever-prominent dialogue delivery - cute-face-making capabilities - stylish-personalized suits from Kachins clothing in Mumbai
Rekha has done a decent job but AB hardly allows anyone else to share screen with him. Not that it's his fault but the expectations are too high :). I would mention a few exceptions being Dileep Kumar in Shakti, Abhishek Bachchan in Sarkar, etc. :)
Story: Girdhari Lal (Ajit) is a honest police cop, and is a road-blocker for Vikram (Amjad Khan), the baddie. Vikram tries to kill Girdhari Lal and his family but all in vain. Though, as a result, Girdhari Lal and his pregnant wife lose their son and cannot be parents again. Girdhari Lal's wife considers Natwar (AB), younger brother of Girdhari Lal, as her son.
Natwar, as a child, has been deeply impacted by these series of incidents and he ends up being a cheat. The rest of the plot is surrounding as to how AB settles his vengeance against Vikram. Involved in plot are residents of a village, Chandanpur, close to border and rich in diamond mines. These residents are tortured by Vikram through a tigress and made slaves to work in those mines illegaly.
Both Ajit and Amjad Khan have done good jobs. It is nice to see Ajit in a positive role, though in one particular scene, you see him delivering dialogues the way he did in Zanjeer. Kadar Khan has written the dialogues for this movie and he himself is in movie as Chandanpur's mukhiya (sarpanch). In some of the dialogues, you see the typical Kadar Khan touch - exaggeration of stuff, lengthy, addressing humanity, God, etc. to no bounds.
For folks in general, this a mediocre movie but children would love this movie and so would hard-core AB fans, just like me ;). Here's wishing AB many many happy returns of the day. :)
Standing in Mayuri (a cassette/dvd rent out place in my neighborhood), my friends and I decide to pick Ram Balram to entertain ourselves on a Friday night. What a great decision it was. :)
This movie is not an Anil Kapoor starrer - do not get confused with Ram Avtaar or Ram Lakhan. It stars the rock solid combination from Sholay/Chupke Chupke[/Hum Kaun Hai :)] - Dharmendra and Amitabh Bachchan. No Hema Malini/Jaya Bhaduri though - it has got Zeenat Aman and Rekha.
A cup of tea, a blanket and buzzing sound of heater on a wintry day in summer is what we all found to comfort ourselves as Ram Balram unfolded itself. The title song plays - "Ek rasta, aha ahaa, Do raahi, aaha aaha...", one of all the hummable songs by Laxmikanth Pyaarelal in this 1980 release.
As names go by your eyes - Dharmendra, Zeenat Aman..., you start thinking of their hits... DharamVeer in 1977..., AB, Rekha..., the most happening pair of late 70s and early 80s... this all makes you ready for a fun-filled night. And the last but not the least name to appear is that of Vijay Anand - WOW, director of Tere Ghar Ke Saamne, Teesri Manzil, Blackmail, Johnny Mera Naam, Guide, etc..., I am all geared up for a fun-filled evening. :)
First 10-15 minutes into the movie and it's damn fast - so many turns and twists into the story... one of my friends' is all praise for my selection... the much awaited "aaha-aaha" song comes... awesome music... but what's more in the movie - nothing - a couple of songs, a couple of fights, old mirch-masala with nothing I could enjoy... perhaps, my expectations were too high. But the truth is the movie disappointed me thoroughly. This was no where close to the movie I remembered from my childhood - something I had enjoyed lots...
Story: After assassinating his step-brothers, Jagatpal (Ajit) forces his sister-in-law (Urmila Bhatt) to give everything she has - money, property, life and two boys - Ram (Dharmendra) and Balram (AB). Fear is deep rooted in the 2 boys since childhood and result - Balram (Amitabh Bachchan) is a police inspector and Bholuram (aka Ram) is a motor mechanic. Ram and Balram acquire wealth, by hook or by crook, for their uncle. In doing so, Ram incurs the wrath of Chandan Singh (Prem Chopra) and Suleiman Seth (Amjad Khan). But all ends well in the end.
Twists & Turns: Balram has fallen for Shobha (Rekha), daughter of Professor (Utpal Dutt). And Ram is in love with Madhu (Zeenat Aman), little knowing that Madhu is the daughter of none other than his uncle, Jagatpal. Not really - Madhu is portrayed as daughter of Ajit by Helen, though Helen has Madhu from a social worker and had aborted Ajit's child. Also, Ram's mother and Balram's aunty (Urmila Bhatt) manages to save her life to return towards climax to agitate Dharam-praaji enough to end up in villain's den.
A total disappointment from story and direction perspective - though - all songs are more or less hummable and pretty pleasant to hear. See ratings. But the last song in the movie - "Balram ne bahut samjhaaya" is a sidey one.
And needless to say the tremendous amount of beatings and scoldings I got from my friends for recommending this movie... :( But the quest to entertain myself continues... :)
