Darna Mana Hai – Part 4

The Nineties saw the rise of the Ramsay clones. Ramsay themselves turned to dole out the crap on television. Horror movies never had a future in India. Not until there was Ram Gopal Varma. But before Ram Gopal Varma started with “Shiva”, there were some memorable horror movies and not all of them were good. In fact they were worst.

Lekin (1990)
Gulzar directs the movie. Dimple Kapadia plays a ghost who is trapped between time and the vast ruins of the Rajastan dessert. Vinod Khanna plays an engineer working in Rajasthan. The movie is known more for its beautiful songs by Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosale like “Yaara Seeli Seeli”. Music was by Lata Mangeshkar’s brother Hridhaynath Mangeshkar. The movie is not exactly haunting and is a beautiful experience but slower in pace. I think it did not succeed because of slow pace.
Rating: 8/10

Pyar Ka Saaya (1991)
Remember an English movie, “Ghost”. Now imagine the movie with actors speaking in hindi. Now replace Patrick Swayze with Rahul Roy. Replace the irreplaceable Demi Moore with the forgettable Sheeba. Replace the villain, Tony Goldwyn with Mohnish Behl and replace the balding ghost Vincent Schiavelli with our own bald Avtar Gill and Finally replace Whoppi Goldberg with Amrita Singh and you have a perfect copy of “Ghost” with same scenes, same story and even same dialogues. Lawrence D’souza who earlier directed “Saajan” gives a crap of a movie. And yes also replace the classic love making scene between Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore, when she is making earther pots with a song in the rain by heavily drenched Rahul Roy and Sheeba. Watch Ghost instead.
Rating: 2/10

Junoon (1992)
Mahesh Bhatt directs ths Rahul Roy and Pooja Bhatt starrer, a take off on Werewolf. Rahul Roy is bitten by a killed by a curse tiger and becomes a tiger himself every full moon. He marries Pooja Bhatt against her wishes. Avinash Wadhavan (Remember him?) plays her lover. It was said that Rahul roy spent hours to complete his makeup for tiger. The film begins quite well before going from good to bad.
Rating: 5/10

Raat (1992)
Ram Gopal Varma made an impressive debut in the Hindi film industry with “Shiva”. The Hindi film industry was about to see different, if not good movies. A diversion from the regular masala movies. In 1992, he made “Raat”, a horror. These were the times when the Ramsay and their clones totally dominated the horror scene. Horror movies meant sleazy B-grade movies with gross faced demons and ghosts. “Raat” was different. The ghost is only seen in the climax. The rest of the movie is an excellent use of camera angles and sound to put fear in our mind. The fear of unknown is scarier than an actor in a gorilla suit. Revathy plays a normal girl leaving with her parents and her sister’s son. The family moves to a new house and then Revathy is possessed by the ghost of a woman who mysteriously disappeared from the house. The movie plays on the viewer imagination where the ghost is imagined by the viewer. The movie had no songs, the only star were Revathy and Om Puri who plays the exorcist. The exorcist is played by Om Puri. The movie was a roller coaster ride just made to scare. Each camera angle, each sound was supposed to make your heart stop. My friend saw this movie in the theatre and the whole movie he saw with his eyes covered. Don’t ask me how? The opening scene where Revathy walks down from a bus into an unnamed village and the camera follows her just like a third person following her. Nobody is in the village and then she is shown running from the camera. Ram Gopal Varma rates this movie as his worst movie.
Rating: 8/10

Paapi Gudiya (1996)
Mahesh Kothari is a well-known Marathi producer-director. He has given many hit, entertaining movies. He sort of made a remake of Child’s Play in Marathi called “Jhapatlela” The movie was low budget and had Dilip Prabhavalkar as the villain and comedy by Laxmikant Berde who operates the doll. In spite of having low budget and limited resources, the movie was well appreciated because of the special effect achieved at such low cost. What does “Paapi Gudiya” has to do with “Jhapatlela”. Well, “Paapi Gudiya was a remake of “Jhapatlela”and it was really a bad remake. Starring Avinash Wadhavan and Karishma Kapoor.
Rating: 2/10

To Be Continued…………………..

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Darna Mana Hai – Part 3

The 70’s and the 80s saw the age of Amitabh Bachchan. And in terms of horror movies, it was the age of Ramsay brothers and their clones. They churned out horror movies by the dozen. A little skin show, gross makeup and forgetful actors recovered their investment.

Jaani Dushman (1979)
The first horror movie I had seen. A multi-cast movie with Jitendra, Vinod Mehra, Sunil Dutt, Reena roy, Neetu Singh and Sanjeev Kumar. I was in school those days and the movie gave me sleepless night. The movie had mystery with horror. The story centers around brides dressed in red wedding dress disappearing mysteriously. The story was of normal man turning into beast and then killing the newly wed brides. The movie was my first step into the world of horror movies. The movie had decent special effects with man turning into a werewolf like creature. With such a big star-cast, the movie was a hit. Watch out for two surprises in the form of Vinod Mehra as a lunatic who is actually a Police Inspector in disguise. Directed by Raj Kumar Kohli. He also directed Jaani Dushman in 2002 with his son, Aarman Kohli as the hero and Manisha Kohirala as the heroine. If you still don’t remember then, it had Akshay Kumar, Sonu Nigam and many big actors. Some thing to do with Snake and ichadhari naag. A big budget, stupid, flop and boring extravaganza.
Rating: 5.5 out of 10

Mangalsutra (1981)
I think it was from a south Indian director. Rekha plays the wife of Anant Nag. Anant Nag rejects the advances of a woman. The woman commits suicide and then possesses Anant Nag. The rest of the story is how Rekha fights with the woman ghost and forces it to leave Anant Nag’s body. The movie was ok with heavy doses on the Indian woman and how there was strength in her Mangalsutra to fight the ghost alone. For special effect the woman’s face was superimposed on Anant Nag’s face. A forgetful flick but better compared to the sleazy movies during that time.
Rating: 5 Out of 10

Chehre Par Chehra (1981)
The only reason it can be remembered is because it had Sanjeev Kumar and Rekha. An Indian version of Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde. Sanjeev Kumar plays the scientist who tries to prove that the evil side of a man can be completely eliminated. The movie is a very poor adaptation of the story and even uses English names for the characters. Rekha is the sweetheart of Sanjeev Kumar. She does what? Nothing. A forgetful B-Grade movie if Sanjeev Kumar was not present who is the only saving grace of the movie.
Rating: 3/10

Purana Mandir (1984)
The Ramsay brothers were known for their horror movies. When you watched a Ramsay movie, the credits had the Ramsay family handling most of the responsibilities. Purana mandir was a very successful movie. The Ramsay’s made many movies in their movie careers but never was any horror such a hit. Mohnish Behl was the hero along with Puneet Issar. He removed his shirt long before Salman Khan made it a routine in every movie. It was a story of old curse on a family, a big mansion, a life size portrait which had blood oozing from the eyes. It had everything. A little scary when I saw it first, the movie became a benchmark for future horror movies in India. Then it had those sleazy scenes. A must for future horror movies. The ghost was a man in a bear outfit. Strangely the stronger Puneet Issar dies and the weaker Mohnish Behl kills the demon.
Rating: 5..5/10

Veerana (1985)
The better of the Ramsay horror movie, Veerana was a hit. The story was of a village, a witch and a landlord who kills the witch. A priest brings the witch back to life. The priest also hypnotizes the thekur’s elder daughter and directs her to kill people. “Veerana” was full of sleazy scenes, gross looking monsters and some memorable songs. It also had Hemant Birje. (Remember “Tarzan”, remember the countless B-grade Mithun movies in which he acted as villain). Veerana was not a good film but the overall exposure to sex helped the movie greatly.
Rating: 4/10

Bees Saal Baad (1988)
Rajkumar Kohli directed Mithun Chakraborty, Dimple Kapadia and Meenakshi Sheshadri in these ghost drama. Dimple Kapadia is madly in love with Mithun. Mithun and Dimple dies. Mithun is reborn but Dimple is stuck between life and death becoming a ghost. Twenty years later Mithun marries Meenakshi. Dimple s back for Mithun. It was a melodramatic story mentioned only because of the star cast and Dimple playing a ghost.
Rating: 2/10

To be continued…………………

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Darna Mana Hai – Part 2

The sixties saw some good horror coming from Indian Hindi movie industry. The period after 60s saw the end of quality horror. After 60s was the period of the Ramsay’s and their clone

Who Kaun Thi (1964)
A Black and white classic. A murder mystery, a horror. Who said ugly has to be scary? Even someone beautiful like Sadna could achieve the same effect. This movie scarred the life out of me. The opening scene sets the mood just right for the rest of the scary part. Manoj Kumar who plays a doctor is driving on a rainy nights. He cannot see where he is driving. Suddenly a woman in white appears in front of the car, asks for a lift. He still cannot see the road. She tells him, she can and will guide him. The wind wipers stop working. She guides the way with confidence and unbelievable perfection She asks to stop in front of a graveyard. The graveyard door open automatically and close behind her. Fog covers the graveyard door and she is lost in the fog. And the wipers start working again. It still makes my hairs stand. It was psychological thriller. The movie makes you jump, keep your heart racing and is on the edge of the seat scary movie. See the scene where he sees his bride, also Sadna for the first time. Combined with a haunting music, the movie was a winner. Who can forget “Lag ja Gale” in which Sadna is suggesting their last meeting. But the question is who is going to die? Him or her. Raj Khosla directs this mystery about a lady in white. After the gripping first scene, the movie moves ahead with Sadna exiting and re-entering the life of Manoj Kuma. The movie was inspired from Alfred Hitchcock’s “Vertigo”
Rating: 9 Out of 10

Gumnaam (1965)
Put a search on Internet for “Gumnaam” and you will find that the song from this movie featured in 2000 hollywood movie “Ghost World” and it is not a ghost movie as the name suggest. Gumnaam on the other hand is a thriller, a murder mystery and still has that horror element. A story of six passengers who have won a free trip in some dance competition, make an emergency landing on an island. The plane takes off again but without the passengers and the co-pilot. The stranded people explore the island to find a big mansion and the eccentric caretaker, Mehmood in a lungi, stripped t-shirt and a Hitler style mustache. Manoj Kumar is the pilot, Nanda, Helen, Pran, Madan Puri all stranded on the lone island. The voice of lata Mangeshkar echoes with regular interval “Gumnaam hai Koi. And then the murders start. One after another of the passengers are killed. The killer is….. Well the killer is a surprise.
Rating : 6 out of 10

Bhoot bungla (1965)
Mehmood directed this roller coaster of a movie. A thriller with a touch of spooky and humor. It had Mehmood playing as the hero, Tanuja as the heroine. A house is said to be haunted by dancing ghost. Mehmood who plays the leader of a youth club decides to investigate. Tanuja is the heroine whose uncles have been murdered because of the house. Will she be next? The movie is remembered for its songs. R. D. Burman gave music to the enjoyable flick. The memorable songs were “Bhoot Bunglaaaaaaaaa”, “Aao Twist Karen” and “Jaago Sone walo”. The surprise, watch out for R. D Burman playing Mehmood’s clumsy, always hungry friend. Watch RD making tea in the house removing all the ingredients from his ever-useful coat. The special effect was ok. Skeleton ghost walking over thin air where a part of stairs were visible could not be called excellent graphics.
Rating: 8 out of 10

Jadu Tonaa (1977)
A ghost who is out to take revenge on her father possesses a small girl. The movie had impressive cast like Prem Chopra as the father, Reena Roy as the sister of the little girl and Feroz Khan as a doctor who is treating the girl. The story was similar to “Exorcist”. The movie had good special effects and it used camera angles to make even more scary scenes. When I saw the movie in my childhood, it was more scarier because of the small girl talking with a man’s voice. The story revolves round a small family of a father and two girls who have lost their mother. They visit their grandparents in the village where the father accidentally insults an auspicious tree. After some time her, the evil ghost possesses younger daughter. The evil ghost forces the girl to perform different tasks and also murders. Enters Feroz Khan as the doctor who believes that Science has all the answers. It also has Ashok Kumar playing the police detective who is investigating the murders committed by the small girl. So how does the movie fare. Scary to an extent. The romantic track and songs slows down the movie. The movie supports superstition.
Rating 7 out of 10

To be continued…………….

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Rebecca

I tossed and turned in my bed the whole night with the images of Alfred Hitchcock’s “Rebecca” flashing in my dreams. Let me make a check to myself: do not watch a haunting movie just before going to sleep.

Rebecca (1940) was remade as Kohra in 1964 starring Waheeda Rehmaan and Biswajeet. Alfred Hitchcock’s first Hollywood movie, “Rebecca” is about a shy woman who marries a rich guy and moves into his big house only to find that her husband and the servants are still in awe of his first wife.

Maxim de Winter (Laurence Oliver), recently widowed meets a young ladies companion, Joan Fontaine. The two ultimately fall in love and get married. They return to his big gigantic mansion, Manderley. The new Mrs De Winters (strangely she does not have a first name) finds that the first Mrs De Winter, Rebecca has a strange hold over her husband and the servants, especially the housekeeper, Mrs Denver. The new Mrs. De Winter finds it difficult to cope with the different lifestyle of the rich as well as the cold and short tempered attitude of her husband who still seem to love his late wife.

She also finds it difficult to cope with the housekeeper, Mrs. Denver (Judith Anderson). Mrs. Denver adores the late Mrs. De Winter, Rebecca and resents the new one. She struggles and succeeds in keeping alive the memories of Rebecca in Manderley. She makes life impossible for the new Mrs. De Winter.

Rebecca is never shown in the movie. She is the central character and is never shown in the movie and yet she manages to create a haunting image by her absence. She can only be imagined from the different conversation of the characters. Everybody describes her having the aura, the class and the mystery associated with her. The judgement about Rebecca character changes from time to time. Hitchcock manages to build a mystery around the unseen Rebecca and at the same time underplays the character and importance of second Mrs De Winter by not even giving her a first name.

Hitchcock manages to keep an eerie atmosphere in the movie. The big mansion, the sea, the fog and the cold Mrs Denver contribute to the haunting nature of the movie. I had to stop the movie and watch something else to stop myself from getting scarred. And of course, the climax with the Hitchcock’s twist in the tale makes it a worthy thriller.

Laurence De Winter does an ok performance playing the widow in grief. Joan Fontaine does an excellent work as the second Mrs De Winter. She is quite beautiful and looks like Nargis (my thoughts). She successfully shows the change in personality by turning into a confident woman from a scared, shy normal woman.

But the scene stealer is Mrs Denver played by Judith Anderson. She plays the cold, strict manipulative housekeeper perfectly. She keeps the legend and the mystery of Rebecca alive long after her death. She manipulates the new Mrs. De Winter into madness. She creates the ghost of Rebecca.

The movie is worth a watch although made in 1940 and also for the fact that it is the only Alfred Hitchcock movie which got an Oscar for Best Picture.

Rating: 9/10

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Socha Na Tha!

Yesterday I had the chance to watch “Fun-can be dangerous sometime” (what a title?) or “Socha Na Tha”. I choose to watch “Socha Na tha”. And I am glad I did.

“Socha Na Tha” (SNT) is a romantic comedy starring Abhay Deol and Ayesha Takia. Directed by debutant Imtiaz Ali (He directed “Imtihan” for Doordarshan long back. The one which had Renuka Shahane in it). SNT is a very sober debut for Abhay Deol, cousin of Sunny Deol and Bobby Deol. Sunny Deol’s “Betaab” and Bobby Deol’s “Barsaat” had both the brother playing larger than life, confident characters. Dharmendra produces the film under his “Vijeta Film” banner.

Abhay’s debut is about lost chances and realization of what you desire and what you love. Abhay plays Viren Oberoi, a confused youth who goes to see Aditi (Ayesha Takia) for marriage. The families want them to get married. Even their kundali matches. But Viren is in love with a Christian girl, Karen. So he talks to Aditi and both of them decide to reject each other and so Viren officially rejects her. This leads to big confrontation and war between the two families. Meanwhile Viren and Aditi continue to bump into each other. They become good friends and then finally discover that they have a special relationship. Viren meanwhile manages to propose to Karen. Karen and her families agree only to find Viren’s family being a big hurdle. By the time Viren’s family relents, he finds himself falling for Aditi and wishing to marry her. The rest of the story is how Viren falls from grace trying to convince Aditi, trying to ditch Karen and trying to make amends with all the three familes (His, Aditi and Karen)

SNT is a fun film and does not intend to be anything else. After the movie ends you actually smile and are happy about watching a good movie. It does not have the love-at-first-site or hate first and then love syndrome. It has a normal boy and a girl meeting and then meeting again only to realize that they are in love with each other. Happens everyday, doesn’t it?

Some scenes are done very well. The first meeting between Viren and Aditi and they talking about the “Ladki Dikhana” program, their trip to Goa and Aditi playing cupid to Viren and Karen

Viren asks what Aditi felt about Karen and Aditi giving a goody goody review of Karen because Viren wants to hear something good.

The climax scene is good where Aditi visits Viren in his office to elope with him and Viren walking out with Aditi out of the office fighting with her and all the time explaining the wrongs of eloping and end up actually eloping.

The songs except a couple of them are good. The songs are shot well. The music by Sandesh Shandilya is foot-taping especially the song at the ending credits. The film jumps from a good scene to an ok scene to back to a better scene without actually having the grip on the story. Abhay Deol makes an OK debut. The movie could have been better but I guess its ok with regards to Abhay showing his talents. He does not look like a hero much. Ayesha Takia shines in the movie. Her portrayal of a simple girl restricted by so called parampara and wanting to break free but again understanding her limitation is good. The dialogs are not melodramatic which is good. The director gives the movie happened-to-my-friend-or-me touch without indulging in big emotional and dramatic scenes.

Ayesha Jhulka plays Viren’s bhabi. Not long ago she used to play heroine in movies. She does a good job with her character. Suresh Oberoi plays Viren’s strict father and is ok. Rati Agnihotri plays the screaming aunty of Aditi.

All in all a good entertaining family movie about a boy-meets-girl from a hatke angle that definitely worth a watch. Like the title suggest “Socha Na tha”.
Rating: 7/10

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Madhumati (1958)

Madhumati (1958) – Bimal Roy directs the classic story about reincarnation. The movie had very good song including Lata Mangeshkar’s favrouite “Aaja re Pardesi”.

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Darna Mana Hai – Part 1

Horror movies are the world of their own. They breed on our fear. I have loved the thrill of seeing a good horror movie. Feeling scared, the sweat and the heartbeats. A walk down memory lane for the best in Hindi and Hollywood horror movies.

Mahal (1949)
Ashok Kumar and Madhubala in classic about a haunted mansion. The movie was known for the haunting song by Lata mangeshkar, “Aayega aayega aanewala” Ashok Kumar following the voice through the maze of the huge mansion. A person on the swing disappears when Ashok Kumar reaches the swing. The movie was kind of love story with a tragic ends. Ashok Kumar plays a lawyer who inherits a mansion. He sees a portrait on the wall of a woman who is the mistress of the builder. The Builder and the mistress have committed suicide. The lawyer becomes infatuated with the woman in the portrait and also sees her in the mahal. The ghost of the woman asks her to die or get married to her reborn form who is now the caretaker’s daughter. The directorial debut of Kamal Amrohi, the movie manages to keep the tension till the end. The end is somewhat dramatic and tragic. Kamal Amrohi went on to make “Paakeezha” later
Rating: 8 Out of 10

Madhumati (1958)
My friend’s dad saw this movie more than 40 times in the theatre. Not in the same year it was released, but over the years when the movie got re-released. Dilip Kumar, Vyjantimala, a good mystery with the right amount of ghost factor and some very good songs makes the movie memorable. An artist, Dilip Kumar visits a jungle where he meets Madhumati, a tribal girl. Both fall in love. But Madhumati disappears and Dilip kumar goes insane. He see Madhumati again but she turns out to be another girl, Madhavi (Vyjantimala in a double role). Dilip Kumar believes that the villain has kidnapped Madhumati and ask Madhavi to help him out. They plan to dress Madhavi into Madhumati’s clothes. The villain does confess of killing Madhumati in front of Madhavi. And then as the police take the villain away, Madhavi comes to the scene apologizing for coming late because of a broken car. So if Madhavi was late, who was with the villain? Bimal Roy directed this story of reincarnation. Using lights, sound and brilliant story telling capability the movie becomes a classic horror cum love story. Another plus feature of the movie were the songs, music given by Salil Choudhury Songs like “Suhana Safar”, “Aaja re Pardesi” and “Dil tadap tadap ke” have become all time hits.
Rating: 9 out of 10

Bees saal Baad (1962)
A landlord rapes a peasant daughter. She commits suicide and days later the landlord is killed believed to be killed by the ghost of the peasant woman. The son is also killed in a similar way. And the mansion where they live is labeled as haunted haveli and believed to have a curse on it. Years later their grandson returns to claim what is rightfully his. Everybody warns him of the curse on the Haveli. Granson played by Biswajeet hires a detective to investigate the spooky happening around the mansion. He falls in love with a local doctor’s daughter, Waheeda Rehman. A man is found dead wearing Biswajeet clothes and then the search starts for the killer. The movie was a murder mystery with the horror ingredients. The swamp, the fog and the tall grass makes the athmosphere eerie. The movie had excellent music by Hemant Kumar. It had the evergreen song used and reused many times for showing ghost, sung by Lata mageshkar, “Kahi Deep jale kahi dil”. It was directed by Biren Nag. The same team made “Kohraa”two years later
Rating: 7.5/10

Kohraa (1964)
Biswajeet and Waheeda Rehman team again with Hemant Kumar and directed again by Biren Nag in almost a remake of Alfred Hitchcock’s “Rebecca”. Poonam, wife of Biswajeet has an affair with another man. One night she goes to meet her lover and is killed. Biswajeet moves on with his life. He meets Waheeda Rehman, falls in love and marries her. Waheeda comes to the old house where she finds Poonam after her death still has an effect on the house and servants. Trouble starts when Poonam’s ghost returns to haunt Waheeda. The movie is a psychological horror and murder mystery. The ghost of Poonam starts to affect the life of Waheeda Rehman driving her to insanity and suicide. The movie again had good songs from Hemant Kumar. The most memorable of them was “Yeh Nayan dhare dhare” sung by Hemant Kumar himself.
Rating: 8/10

To Be Continued………..

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Mahal (1949)

Mahal (1949) was the last successful film from Bombay Talkies. Starring Ashok Kumar and Madhubala, the movie was a major horror story.
The song by Lata Mangeskar “Aayega aayega aanewala” gives the movie an eerie feeling.

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