Sadak

Directed by: Mahesh Bhatt

Starring: Sanjay Dutt, Pooja Bhatt, Deepak Tijori, Sadashiv Amrapurkar

Released: 1991

Verdict: destroy every copy – horrible – bad – whatever – flawed but enjoyable - good – great – amazing

I think I am not wrong to say that Bollywood does not make too many thrillers. Romance and masalla have always had a strong grip on the Hindi film industry, and thriller has always seemed more rooted in the West. No wonder then that to find a really good Hindi thriller is not an everyday matter. If you are looking for one though, Sadak should be next on your wish-list.

Mullet-walla Sanjay Dutt play Ravi (for whatever reason I just hate that name), a poor but honest taxi driver, burdened by a terrible tragedy that had occurred earlier in his life. His beloved sister went missing, and when she reappeared, it turned out she was forced to become a prostitute. Ravi refuses to follow his family´s example of turning their back upon her, but to his utter horror Rupa is murdered right in front of his arms – she falls to her death from a window, pushed by an unknown killer. This experience causes Ravi to nearly loose his mind, and whenever he closes his eyes the whole drama is happening in front of him again. Because of that he avoids sleep, because of that he often thinks of committing suicide.

Naturally his friends are worried, and one of them (Deepak Tijori, the ultimate 90s sidekick) at least makes him visit a brothel for some distraction. They happen to witness a girl trying to escape from there, and Ravi recognizes in her a girl whom he had met before. From that moment on his focus turns from the dead sister to the living girl, and he sets out with decision to set her free no matter what. But his intentions are difficult to materialize, as his opponent is none other than a brothel owner Maharani. Do not let yourself to be fooled. Maharani is not merely a greedy woman, but an extremely intelligent and cunning eunuch, with great power over the dark side of the society.

I really liked the plot. It was dramatic, but not over-stuffed with happenings, which would only harm the thing. The filmmakers managed to concentrate on one storyline (which is rather rare in 90s Bollywood) and it certainly was for the better. The performances were solid – Pooja Bhatt projected helplessness very well and Sanjay, though a tough guy, managed to show Ravi as caring and innocent man rather then an avenging machine. He is more like pushed into action by consequences, rather then searching for it, he does not seek a blood thirsty revenge, but simply defends himself and his loved ones, coming to terms with the past in the process. Plus Sanjay and Pooja made a really lovely jodi. The greatest impact (of disgust and repulsion, as well as terror) was however left by "Maharani". Bit of a caricature, but so well acted, that the character seemed terrifyingly real, and definitely waking fear in the viewer.

I was completely puzzled by the character of Pooja´s uncle though. So here is a man, who leads his niece into a brothel (the reason for which he did it is irrelevant), he is not at all surprised to see her escape later, BUT is majorly upset about her being in love with the man who led her out. T would have been better if the character in the second half was somebody else, some other relative of the girl, than the very same man who caused her suffering in the first place.

Of course the extremely dramatic scene where the nearly finished hero is made to suffer is not missing, what more – we get some shots that show the innocent Ravi crossed in a very Christ-like way, to really understand the physical and mental pain he is going through. And a bit later quite drastic and bloody climax, during which everybody who has survived in the film this far has to make an appearance, is in there too, all that being obligatory back in the day. The girl is saved, the villain is punished and a pimp is reformed. That is what I call a satisfactory ending, don´t you?

Dil Chahta Hai

Directed by: Farhan Akhtar

Starring: Aamir Khan, Saif Ali Khan, Akshaye Khanna, Preity Zinta, Dimple Kapadia, Sonali Kulkarni, Ayub Khan

Released: 2001

Verdict: destroy every copy – horrible – bad – whatever – flawed but enjoyable - good – great – amazing

Searching for some background information about this film I came to know that it has achieved a cult status. Objectively speaking – no wonder. The movie captures the sensitive period of coming of age, when young men (because they hardly are boys anymore) become „full men“. Three distinctly different characters taking three different paths. True enough – Aamir Khan in the lead is filthy rich and with opportunities hardly anyone in society has, still there are traits to him and his friends that the audience could connect with and find themselves in.

Akash, Sameer and Siddhart are best of friends, who just graduated and find themselves in front of the age old question: What now? Akash seems quite comfortable lazying around, Sid would like to pursue a career as a painter and artist, and Sameer dreams of nothing else but a perfect romantic relationship. Their dosti only suffers a critical wound when Sid falls in love – and that with a woman who is not only 15 years older to him, but also is divorced, has a daughter and serious problems with drinking. All that notwithstanding Sid finds in Tara somebody he can share everything with, even ideas, feelings and thoughts that he kept secret even from Akash and Sameer. However when Akash learns about the way Sid feels, he insults both Tara and Sid´s feelings for her in his ignorance. Rift is created, Sid leaves the city for further studies, Akash flies to Australia to manage family business and Sammer is left behind, without friends, and in love with a girl, who loves somebody else.

At this point one story divides into three, that only come together at the end, just like old friends, who finally realize they mistakes and find strength to forgive and ask forgiveness. Aamir Khan gets the biggest scope with his story, that sadly is the least engaging of the three. Akash is yet another Bollywood hero who doesn´t really believe in love, and so of course he bumps right into Shalini (fresh-faced and clear-eyed and all kinds of cute Preity Zinta), which naturally leads to him falling head over heels with her, althoug for some times he doesn´t realize it. And then there is the problem with her already being engaged. Sameer is completely sidelined, as his pursuing Pooja (Sonali Kulkarni), is not meeting with a success for a while, but all´s well that ends well. His bit of the film is a sweet romantic comedy. Sid´s story turns all sad and melancholic, because Tara refuses to accept his love, too scared of consequences, and Sid doesn´t find support even with his family. Ultimately his first love takes course to a tragic ending....

Aamir Khan gives his standart performance – reliable, good, nothing amazing. Ironically he looks less of a student than what he did several years later in 3 Idiots, and the whole time I just wanted to grab a razor and shave off that horrible thing from his chin. Saif Ali Khan reminded me of a cute puppy in this, always just hoping for everyone around him to be content and happy. The best performance of the three though is given by Akshaye as quiet painter, who knows too well his feelings will be questioned, judged and condemned. As for ladies – Sonali Kulkarni is hardly worth a mention, while Preity Zinta pulls off one of the bubbly roles she became famous for, looking very lovely throughout, and Dimple Kapadia impresses as Tara, a woman who has seen the worse sides of life. There is depth to her, and in consequence also to her relationship with younger man. That storyline, rather daring and unusual, deserved a way more space than Aamir/Preity love frolicking in Australia.

Dil Chahta Hai is a pleasant film – about friendship more than anything else. It is not the best one on that theme, but one of the best of the past decade for sure.

Chaudhvin Ka Chand

Directed by: Mohammed Sadiq

Starring: Guru Dutt, Waheeda Rehman, Rehman, Johnny Walker

Released: 1960

Verdict: destroy every copy – horrible – bad – whatever – flawed but enjoyable - good – great – amazing

Even in black and white the visual beauty of this movie is astounding. The costumes, the sets - and of course the heroine - all is just overwhelmingly gorgeous. Wonderful camera work that takes into account the magic of light and shadow managed to capture even the smallest details. As a result Chaudhvin Ka Chand reminds one of a long lost fairytale or a dream long ago forgotten, but all the more familiar once before our eyes again. And once the films switches to colour for a little while, during the iconic title song, you could just faint at all the beauty. Interestingly enough having only that one song in colour while the rest of the film is in black and white, only ads to the magic overall. Sadly, the story itself let me down. When Pyare (Rehman) sees a beautiful girl at a market, he is completely besotted and immediately falls in love.

I so don´t blame you Pyare.

However soon he looses her in the crowd. Fortunately for him the very same girl attend his sister´s birthday celebrations, and so Pyare entrusts a servant with a task to find out her name and whereabouts. The servant indeed does have a name for him after a while, but unknown to Pyare, she got mistaken and identified another girl for him. Without checking anything or asking anyone (least of all his own sister), Pyare has a marriage fixed, and the only thing that seems to be between him and his love is his mother insisting he marries a daughter of a priest and family confidant. Pyare thus seeks help with his best friend Aslam (Guru Dutt), and wants him to marry the priest´s daughter in his stead, to save his own happiness. And Aslam, a good friend he is, readily agrees.

Without even looking at his friend´s new bride, that he himself drove into his arms, Pyare is in for a nasty shock, as he realizes the girl he is supposed to marry is not the one he´s been looking for. And it shall remain unknown to him for a long time after that still, that it was actually Jameela, a daughter of the priest, who now has found her home with Aslam, who too has fallen madly in love with her. Till now I was absolutely charmed. However as much as I loved the first half, that much I was shaking my head over the second. Yet again we deal with sacrificing love on the altar of friendship, a concept, as I understand, this movie actually made popular, however in this particular case it is all worse because one of the friends already married the girl in - and yet he still is trying to find way to to push his wife into somebody else´s arms. I was genuinely frustrated by the character of Aslam for doing everything stupid just to ensure his friend be happy, while in the process he is destroying himself AND the woman he loves, without giving her any explanation. Why is he so unable to tell his friend the truth, I might understand, but why he is equally as unable to share the secret with his wife? Especially after he must have realized she is not leaving him in spite of anything? The scene in which he tells her a story about a precious stone that a friend unknowingly gave him, in spite of wanting it himself, made me want to scream that this was no inanimate object he was speaking about, it was his own wife, and to compare her to a thing, no matter how precious, was just completely off-putting.

In the end I was seriously mad as selfish Pyare, for whom the whole world obviously needed to make a sacrifice, and I was rather miffled with Aslam, who goes nearly mental by the end of the movie. At the same time I did feel sorry for his plight, which I guess has a lot to do with Guru Dutt´s ability to portray a complete disintegration of a personality with such conviction. Johnny Walker as the third friend has way too much screen time for my liking, fortunately his character was not so completely over the top as usual, and so I could tolerate him. 

Waheeda Rehman is a stuff of legends. It was definitely not enough of her in this film, that ultimately is more about the two friends than love between husband and wife (which is a pity because her scenes of marital bliss with Guru Dutt were the highlight of the film for me), however she was an appropriate choice for a film like this, because apart looking as breathtaking as if she has just stepped out of the pages of a Tolkien´s book, she is one of the few actresses who just needs to be in the frame and she completely draws attention to herself and leaves audience in awe and wanting more, in other words exactly the kind of a woman that could make others fall in love at the first sight so passionately.

While the plot and the story were disappointing for me, the technical aspects of the film win some points, as already mentioned. Also - some of the scenes are just wonderful examples of love and romance. Aslam scaring his shy bride describing how hideous he is until she panics and throws the veil away from her face to look at him, when he finds her asleep by the door, waiting for him and carries her to her bed, even a little scene near the very end, when he stops her going into the room Pyare just died and silently draws a veil over her face, the very face which was the reason of that death – all that and more made me fall in love with the love Aslam and his wife shared. All I wanted was for Aslam to come to his senses, and after some impuls stand up for his love, rather then mope and making her suffer for the sake of a selfish friend. Yes, there was a scene like that, however unfortunately it did not lead to a finish I would have preferred. So did I like the film or not? Looking back I did, however I realized I pretty much erased all the scenes that made me fume with frustration from my memory. All that I remember and that I dearly love is the beauty - of the costumes, the sets, the music, Waheeda and her loving moments with Guru Dutt.