Cult Classics
Caught up on Hrishikesh Mukherjee's directorials this week, Golmaal, Chupke Chupke and Guddi.
I cannot find any film maker make such entertaining films by using simpletons in the lead cast and also delivering social messages at the same time.
In Golmaal, he takes a dig at Bhavani Shankar a role which aptly suited Utpal Dutt and is some thing which is the highlight of his career. The protagonist is an employee working for Bhavani Shankar and looks to please him all the time to keep his job. Bhavani Shankar is flawed in his retrograde ideas about men having moustaches being the real men, a person should not be having any interests apart from his job in his employment period and some others.
In Chupke Chupke, again an elderly person Raghavendra Sharma is targetted who is obsessed over language perfection and is very confident about his knack for recognizing people for what they really are. The protagonist in this case tries to defy him by impersonating a driver who comes to work for him and is more obsessed with Hindi vocabulary than his employer.
In both movies, Bhavani Shankar and Raghavendra Sharma are pleasing characters, you will find nothing wrong with their viewpoints but only that they try to force it on the next generation and this is debated in these movies.
Guddi is Jaya (Bhaduri) Bachchan's first movie in Hindi, where she plays a coy school girl who is smitten by Hindi movies to a point that she thinks that she will forever be betrothed to the cinema hero "Dharmendra". My mother tells me that those were the times when Rajesh Khanna was very much popular among teenage girls including herself. Some had gone to the extent of marrying him by garlanding his photo.
Apart from educating Guddi, the film also touches upon the stark realities of film making in the 70s. It touches upon the issues such as the stars hog the limelight while some workers still struggle for "do waqt ki roti".
I can go on and on about these, as I kind of know most of the dialogues verbatim. But the real essence lies in watching these movies and enjoying the simplistic story telling, without spending much on the costumes, without having any "videshi" locations and having great music.
I cannot find any film maker make such entertaining films by using simpletons in the lead cast and also delivering social messages at the same time.
In Golmaal, he takes a dig at Bhavani Shankar a role which aptly suited Utpal Dutt and is some thing which is the highlight of his career. The protagonist is an employee working for Bhavani Shankar and looks to please him all the time to keep his job. Bhavani Shankar is flawed in his retrograde ideas about men having moustaches being the real men, a person should not be having any interests apart from his job in his employment period and some others.
In Chupke Chupke, again an elderly person Raghavendra Sharma is targetted who is obsessed over language perfection and is very confident about his knack for recognizing people for what they really are. The protagonist in this case tries to defy him by impersonating a driver who comes to work for him and is more obsessed with Hindi vocabulary than his employer.
In both movies, Bhavani Shankar and Raghavendra Sharma are pleasing characters, you will find nothing wrong with their viewpoints but only that they try to force it on the next generation and this is debated in these movies.
Guddi is Jaya (Bhaduri) Bachchan's first movie in Hindi, where she plays a coy school girl who is smitten by Hindi movies to a point that she thinks that she will forever be betrothed to the cinema hero "Dharmendra". My mother tells me that those were the times when Rajesh Khanna was very much popular among teenage girls including herself. Some had gone to the extent of marrying him by garlanding his photo.
Apart from educating Guddi, the film also touches upon the stark realities of film making in the 70s. It touches upon the issues such as the stars hog the limelight while some workers still struggle for "do waqt ki roti".
I can go on and on about these, as I kind of know most of the dialogues verbatim. But the real essence lies in watching these movies and enjoying the simplistic story telling, without spending much on the costumes, without having any "videshi" locations and having great music.