Khoon Bhari Maang (*ing Rekha, Kabir Bedi, Shatrughan Sinha)
Mar 15, 2015 13:32:45 GMT
dancelover likes this
Post by odadune on Mar 15, 2015 13:32:45 GMT
Here's dreamy girl's take on this one, from the recently viewed movies thread:
Here's mine:
I kept hearing fairly positive things about this revenge melodrama (I will try to put up links to the various bollyblogger reviews at some point), which has Rekha as a frumpy but wealthy widow who is conned by Kabir Bedi into marrying him, only to have him push her into the jaws of a crocodile. She survives that experience, undergoes plastic surgery at the hands of an unusually sympathetic Tom Alter character, and comes back as a glamorous supermodel wearing bizarre glittery outfits, in order to wreak vengeance on Kabir and his accomplices. And you know what, this is a pretty darn good revenge saga, complete with cute and only mildly annoying kids, very pretty anipals (a blue-eyed German Shepard and a beautifully built chestnut horse), and relatively understated performances by the leads. Kabir in general is not good at theatrical, over-the-top roles, which was part of why he became a much bigger deal in Europe (as "Sandokan") than he ever was in Bollywood, but he is excellent here as a quietly ruthless con artist who can project just the right amount of charm and earnestness to deceive Rekha and her children without coming off as a blatantly obvious fraud. Also his physical presence works in his favor: he's a tall man, and at that age he had a fairly imposing physique, so you believe in him as an adversary it would be difficult for Rekha or anyone else to overcome in a straight-up fight. Kader Khan, playing his evil comic relief uncle, does come off as a blatantly obvious fraud, but you can safely fastforward most of his scenes without missing out much of the plot, and he does at least pull his weight as a co-writer by giving everyone moderately clever dialogue.
Rekha juggles the dual persona of Aarti (who hides a deep innocence behind her plain, unyouthful appearance) and Jyoti (who transforms herself, not into a crone but a glamorous and vaguely sinister "Queen" in order to compete with Kabir's girlfriend, who claims to be the fairest one of all) with even more than her usual skill. She's a solid actress in general, but she can be a bit...grandiose at times, and here she times her laserlike stares and bemused eyebrow raises just so, never overplaying her doublemeaning conversations with Kabir in the second half any more than he does in the first half.
The songs are decent if derivative, and there's some okay action sequences. Shatrughan Sinha is likably hammy in the small role of a photographer who befriends Rekha in her supermodel persona and helps her out at the climax-I sincerely hope she lets him marry her, because what we see of their respective families would be really cute as a blended family. The Parveen Babi wannabe playing Kabir's girlfriend holds up her end well. Rakesh Roshan does a pretty good job of directing, by the standards of the period. I was not wild about the horse taking a gunshot wound to the chest for the heroine, but at least he survives somehow. Also rolled my eyes a bit at the usual desperate need to invoke Durga and Kali before letting the heroine do anything "unwomanly" like whip the man who stole her fortune, nearly killed her, abused her animals and her children.
Random note: alot of people comment on the greenish-blue contacts Rekha wears as Jyoti. I think it's meant to be symbolic: there's a lot of emphasis on the similarity between Kabir Bedi's striking greenish-hazel eyes and the green eyes of the crocodile stalking Aarti, and so Jyoti takes on this eye color to show that she's turning the tables on the predators.
Khoon Bhari Maang - Rekha's acting is so good in this. A classic for her, the fashions, the revenge, the green contacts, and the "cosmetic surgery" that makes her "completely unrecognizable" yet she is immediately recognized the moment she takes the green contacts out. Recommend!
I kept hearing fairly positive things about this revenge melodrama (I will try to put up links to the various bollyblogger reviews at some point), which has Rekha as a frumpy but wealthy widow who is conned by Kabir Bedi into marrying him, only to have him push her into the jaws of a crocodile. She survives that experience, undergoes plastic surgery at the hands of an unusually sympathetic Tom Alter character, and comes back as a glamorous supermodel wearing bizarre glittery outfits, in order to wreak vengeance on Kabir and his accomplices. And you know what, this is a pretty darn good revenge saga, complete with cute and only mildly annoying kids, very pretty anipals (a blue-eyed German Shepard and a beautifully built chestnut horse), and relatively understated performances by the leads. Kabir in general is not good at theatrical, over-the-top roles, which was part of why he became a much bigger deal in Europe (as "Sandokan") than he ever was in Bollywood, but he is excellent here as a quietly ruthless con artist who can project just the right amount of charm and earnestness to deceive Rekha and her children without coming off as a blatantly obvious fraud. Also his physical presence works in his favor: he's a tall man, and at that age he had a fairly imposing physique, so you believe in him as an adversary it would be difficult for Rekha or anyone else to overcome in a straight-up fight. Kader Khan, playing his evil comic relief uncle, does come off as a blatantly obvious fraud, but you can safely fastforward most of his scenes without missing out much of the plot, and he does at least pull his weight as a co-writer by giving everyone moderately clever dialogue.
Rekha juggles the dual persona of Aarti (who hides a deep innocence behind her plain, unyouthful appearance) and Jyoti (who transforms herself, not into a crone but a glamorous and vaguely sinister "Queen" in order to compete with Kabir's girlfriend, who claims to be the fairest one of all) with even more than her usual skill. She's a solid actress in general, but she can be a bit...grandiose at times, and here she times her laserlike stares and bemused eyebrow raises just so, never overplaying her doublemeaning conversations with Kabir in the second half any more than he does in the first half.
The songs are decent if derivative, and there's some okay action sequences. Shatrughan Sinha is likably hammy in the small role of a photographer who befriends Rekha in her supermodel persona and helps her out at the climax-I sincerely hope she lets him marry her, because what we see of their respective families would be really cute as a blended family. The Parveen Babi wannabe playing Kabir's girlfriend holds up her end well. Rakesh Roshan does a pretty good job of directing, by the standards of the period. I was not wild about the horse taking a gunshot wound to the chest for the heroine, but at least he survives somehow. Also rolled my eyes a bit at the usual desperate need to invoke Durga and Kali before letting the heroine do anything "unwomanly" like whip the man who stole her fortune, nearly killed her, abused her animals and her children.
Random note: alot of people comment on the greenish-blue contacts Rekha wears as Jyoti. I think it's meant to be symbolic: there's a lot of emphasis on the similarity between Kabir Bedi's striking greenish-hazel eyes and the green eyes of the crocodile stalking Aarti, and so Jyoti takes on this eye color to show that she's turning the tables on the predators.