Swayamvar (Sanjeev Kumar, Shashi Kapoor, Vidya Sinha)
Sept 20, 2015 3:08:03 GMT
dancelover likes this
Post by odadune on Sept 20, 2015 3:08:03 GMT
Once upon a time there was a rich widow named Durga (Nadira), whose late husband had been revered for his loving care for others. Durga had a daughter named Roopa (Moushumi Chatterjee) who was the apple of her eye, and although Roopa was a goodhearted person, she was spoiled rotten by her mother and behaved accordingly. Durga also had a stepdaughter named Shanti (Vidya Sinha) from her husband's first marriage, whom she disliked and forced to do housework. Not *all* the housework of course, because there are some things that a conservative Indian woman would rather have a male servant handle, either due to a need for heavy-lifting or concerns about propriety, but still Shanti was worked as hard as any Cinderella. Shanti was not a terribly cheerful person, but she remained kind-hearted and loyal in the face of her troubles, and did not allow herself to become embittered by her stepmother's shrewish behavior or the machinations of Makhanlal (Madan Puri), a relative of Durga's who was determined to marry Roopa to his jailbird son (Ranjeet) and gain control of her fortune.
One day, a wealthy industrialist (Sriram Lagoo) came to see Durga about the possibility of Roopa marrying into his family. The industrialist have been a servant to Shanti's and Roopa's father, before the death of Shanti's mother, and with some help from the girls' father and his first wife, this servant had gone into business for himself and become a very rich man with two sons, Ram (Sanjeev Kumar) and Laxman (Shashi Kapoor). Makhanlal instigated Durga against the industrialist, slamming him for his lowly beginnings, and the industrialist was both appalled at this and at the treatment of Shanti. He went away and asked Ram and Laxman to woo and win the two daughters and bring them home, which both men agreed to do, with Ram posing as a servant and Laxman posing as a wealthy Prince-or rather, posing as a shady adventurer posing as a wealthy Prince....
The More Casual Fan and I both like this one a fair amount, mostly for Sanjeev's performance as the elder brother/Cinderella's love interest. He outthinks and outmaneuvers Madan Puri's character at every turn, and the two of them are so much 24kt comedy gold together that even Nadira can't keep a straight face at times. Additionally, Sanjeev is teasing yet tender towards Vidya-if you like hurt/comfort fanfics where one character is going around shattered into little woeful pieces and another character is very sweetly trying to help them pick up the pieces, this is that kind of thing. There is also an awesome climax where
Shashi and Moushumi also get some laughs, and are very cute together, but their characters have less interesting and more problematic material. The idea that Laxman pretends to be a disreputable character (complete with mildly funny drinking song) in order to show his love interest/wife and mother-in-law how easily they could have been conned by someone worse...well, okay. It's consistent with the fairy tale logic of the story as a whole. Having to rescue Roopa from assault by a sleazy Ranjeet character...that's pretty much standard operating procedure for late 70s/early 80s masala. Living in poverty with Roopa, her still having no idea that he's rich, both of them working hard to make ends meet, with the idea of hopefully getting her to understand what her half-sister went through...again, that's fairy tale logic for you. What I object to, and what a lot of the bollybloggers object to, is Laxman lecturing Roopa on how her husband (ie, him) is her only true protector, and offering smug, gloating updates to his father and brother on the progress of Roopa's transformation into a good traditional Indian wife. A sequence in the fourth quarter summarizes everything good and everything bad about this subplot: Laxman asks his sister-in-law Shanti for a sari to give to his wife, and Shanti, ever the good and forgiving Cinderella type, fetches a bunch of gorgeous embroidered silk saris, Laxman smugly says no, he wants an old, plain one for his wife, Shanti objects (not for the first time; she's the only person who has a problem with the whole "keeping Roopa in poverty until she gets over herself" scheme), and Laxman overrules her. Cut to him bringing his wife a cute, clean sari in cotton or linen, with a simple woven pattern in it. Roopa is pleased that he brought her a gift, but saddened because it reminds her of her sister, how badly Roopa treated her.
Basically there are flawed movies that aggravate me because I can see the pieces that deserve to be in a better movie, and then there are ones that charm me so much that I enjoy trying to mentally fix them, and this one's the latter for me, but others might find it to be the former. Has a couple of cute songs though, with lyrics by Gulzar:
One day, a wealthy industrialist (Sriram Lagoo) came to see Durga about the possibility of Roopa marrying into his family. The industrialist have been a servant to Shanti's and Roopa's father, before the death of Shanti's mother, and with some help from the girls' father and his first wife, this servant had gone into business for himself and become a very rich man with two sons, Ram (Sanjeev Kumar) and Laxman (Shashi Kapoor). Makhanlal instigated Durga against the industrialist, slamming him for his lowly beginnings, and the industrialist was both appalled at this and at the treatment of Shanti. He went away and asked Ram and Laxman to woo and win the two daughters and bring them home, which both men agreed to do, with Ram posing as a servant and Laxman posing as a wealthy Prince-or rather, posing as a shady adventurer posing as a wealthy Prince....
The More Casual Fan and I both like this one a fair amount, mostly for Sanjeev's performance as the elder brother/Cinderella's love interest. He outthinks and outmaneuvers Madan Puri's character at every turn, and the two of them are so much 24kt comedy gold together that even Nadira can't keep a straight face at times. Additionally, Sanjeev is teasing yet tender towards Vidya-if you like hurt/comfort fanfics where one character is going around shattered into little woeful pieces and another character is very sweetly trying to help them pick up the pieces, this is that kind of thing. There is also an awesome climax where
{Click to view!}
Shanti saves the now-repentent stepmother's life and kicks butt on Makhanlal's super-shrewish wife, while Ram alternately fights with, and trolls the bad guys' jailbird son.
Shanti saves the now-repentent stepmother's life and kicks butt on Makhanlal's super-shrewish wife, while Ram alternately fights with, and trolls the bad guys' jailbird son.
Shashi and Moushumi also get some laughs, and are very cute together, but their characters have less interesting and more problematic material. The idea that Laxman pretends to be a disreputable character (complete with mildly funny drinking song) in order to show his love interest/wife and mother-in-law how easily they could have been conned by someone worse...well, okay. It's consistent with the fairy tale logic of the story as a whole. Having to rescue Roopa from assault by a sleazy Ranjeet character...that's pretty much standard operating procedure for late 70s/early 80s masala. Living in poverty with Roopa, her still having no idea that he's rich, both of them working hard to make ends meet, with the idea of hopefully getting her to understand what her half-sister went through...again, that's fairy tale logic for you. What I object to, and what a lot of the bollybloggers object to, is Laxman lecturing Roopa on how her husband (ie, him) is her only true protector, and offering smug, gloating updates to his father and brother on the progress of Roopa's transformation into a good traditional Indian wife. A sequence in the fourth quarter summarizes everything good and everything bad about this subplot: Laxman asks his sister-in-law Shanti for a sari to give to his wife, and Shanti, ever the good and forgiving Cinderella type, fetches a bunch of gorgeous embroidered silk saris, Laxman smugly says no, he wants an old, plain one for his wife, Shanti objects (not for the first time; she's the only person who has a problem with the whole "keeping Roopa in poverty until she gets over herself" scheme), and Laxman overrules her. Cut to him bringing his wife a cute, clean sari in cotton or linen, with a simple woven pattern in it. Roopa is pleased that he brought her a gift, but saddened because it reminds her of her sister, how badly Roopa treated her.
Basically there are flawed movies that aggravate me because I can see the pieces that deserve to be in a better movie, and then there are ones that charm me so much that I enjoy trying to mentally fix them, and this one's the latter for me, but others might find it to be the former. Has a couple of cute songs though, with lyrics by Gulzar: