PM Review

  Since I have started watching films from the classical age, especially from 1940s & 1950s, I am getting, as I said before, a bit of a structuralist in finding the shared themes & reality that are omnipresence.   The value of being authentic & simple in life is always lower in the eyes of people. The skilled and educated persons who suffered most to get the employment is a recurrent condition in Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay’s male protagonist as it is depicted in Raj Kapoor’s Shree 420 [1955]. While watching Shree 420, I was thinking simultaneously about Aparajito’s Apu & Aranyak’s  Satyacharan who had experienced the same existential predicament s in life but Shree 420’s Raj projection largely satirical and cinematic melodrama but it touches the hearts of millions. Sometimes I think what if Shree Raj Kapoor would not follow little tramp’s attire and attitude the way Chaplin did, and would make his own way. He is just gorgeously talented in facial ex...

I think, as of my updated knowledge about all time best romantic imagery in cinema history, Raj Kapoor’s Barsaat [1949] where Pran [Raj Kapoor] playing a violin on hand and Reshma [Nargis] falling like a chiffon saree and stuck on the other hand of Pran like broken arrow is one of the most uplifting and sublime cinematic imagery I have ever seen. It is one of most imitable and ardent romantic poses any cinema maker can dream of to have one’s creative venture.   The battle between hedonist & crude epicurean what Gopal [Prem Nath] is sunk into with lust & luxury versus virtuous & idealistic principles what Pran [Raj Kapoor] is envelope with is the most enticing cinematic prognosis that is copied henceforward in South Asian cinematic narrative.   Lata Mangeshkar’s exuberant and melodious song “Jiya Beqara Hai '' has put an unfathomable impression on my mind that I have been humming the tune all day long. And the acting style of Prem Nath is so elegant and soph...

  It was 1949. The new born country was in the process of coming out of British influences in every aspect and facing a great crisis of duality of cultural & intellectual blending and existential crisis. On the high moment, Mehboob Khan’s Andaz [1949] shed lights on the exact spot through a rom-com narrative. The Indian upbringing with European liberalism of Meena played by Nargis had reflected in a balanced way in the movie.   The trio mega stars of that time [Nargis Dutt, Dilip Kumar & Raj Kapoor] in the same movie made it a big attraction that time I suppose. The narrative also reminds me of Adhiyaman's Hum Tumhare Hain Sanam [2002] starred by another trio Madhuri Dixit, Shahrukh Khan & Salman Khan with a different rendition.   The high value of women's loyalty and morality over love, lust & marriage are significantly exercised as it has been in Mother India [1957].   Andaz [1949] Mehboob Khan Hindi, India

  Mehboob Khan’s Mother India [1957] is a melorealistic movie [I prefer to use MELODRAMA when the story is written fully on fictional ground & MELOREAL when story is adapted from real incidence with fictional touch ] I have seen after Bimal Roy’s Do Bigha Zamin [1954] just the following Satyajit Ray’s Pather Panchali [1955]. It’s evidently clear that South Asian cinema had flourished after post-independence & partitions.   The first half, till Ramu & Birju being grown up, is a superbly a true realist film and is commendable but it turned into melodramatic with so many subplots and compulsively emotional chronicles that made Mother India a near epical cinema. Mother India had a probability to fall into the genre of Akira’s Rashomon [1950] in respect of the high morality of women character and with all the loopholes of social justice. But its hyperbolic melodrama kept it stayed back with the Indian formula film.   There are some establishing and epic s...