Abhimaan (1973)

            Today’s post is dedicated to Abhimaan, the oldest movie that I have documented on this little endeavor of love and respect. The movie comes from Hrishikesh Mukherjee in 1973, starring (obviously) a very young Amitabh Bachchan, and even younger Jaya Bhaduri, later to become Mrs. Bachchan.

            The movie is the Desi version of A Star is Born but, as always, the Desi version outshined the Hollywood version. It centers on the character of Subir “Beetu” Kumar, India’s most famous and beloved singer, as personified by Amitji, and his wife, Uma Kumar (Mrs. Bachchan) who begins to gain more fame and recognition as a singer then her husband. The movie is a wonderful mixture of extremely heart-melting romantic moments between the future Bachchan couple, woven with magical songs performed by Lata Mangeshkar, Kishore Kumar and Mohammed Rafi, and a story line that accomplishes what it sets out to.

            I think this movie is incredibly well written, especially because the message it sets out to communicate is executed beautifully. Fortune and glory, no matter how hard we seek them out, no matter how hard we try to gain notoriety, and no matter how important they may seem to us, cannot compare in what our family, what our love, is capable of giving us. It really makes the viewer think about what we hold dear, and how ignorant we are of what we really want.

            One of the most profound lessons that I’ve learned from this movie, is that pride, hubris, is one of the worst and most disabling traits a person can have. Subir’s refusal to admit or submit to Uma, to communicate with her that he is apologetic over his actions, his words and his inability to acknowledge her fame, shows the evil of pride.

            Jaya Bhaduri, cum Bachchan, is beautiful in this movie. She embodies the character she plays so wonderfully, becomes the simple, sweet, loving girl that Uma is. And Amitji delivers a performance, able to communicate his characters faults with the style and grace that would lead to his own fame and fortune.

Nothing but nice things to say about this one! But I must add, that when I was looking through reviews of this movie, the correlations and parallels that are drawn between the Kumars of the movie and the Bachchan’s of real life.

            So I pose this question of you today, what gives us the right, or the false notion, that we are allowed to draw any conclusions about anybody! Especially celebrities or film actors whom we have never met and will never meet. I call this foul play and praise Mr. and Mrs. Bachchan for their life together, they are an exemplary and extraordinary sample of all that can go right with a marriage, and with the intertwining of two lives.

            I end this post by sending prayers and wishes for a long and happy life for the beautiful couple that so sweetly intertwines together on the movie screen.

Ram Gopal Varma's Ki Aag (2007)

            I can finally start to blog about Amitabh Bachchan ji’s movies that I have watched. Since last count, I am down to seventy something movies left.

            Last night, I managed to talk myself into watching Ram Gopa Varma’s Ki Aag or sometimes RGV’s Indian Flames from 2007, or as I call it for simplicity’s sake New Sholay. And I was very surprised by the movie, and how much I enjoyed it!

            Going into this movie, I had the same dread I have with the movies made by the Big B in the 1990’s. I had seen an interview on Coffee with Karan (Johar), which featured Jaya Bachchan and Hema Malini where they discussed how they did not like the idea of Sholay remake. They were both adamant that a remake was a terrible idea, and I have read countless articles where various filmmakers condemned Ram Gopol Varma and even Amitabh Bachchan for daring to even suggest a remake of the classic curry western. The movie has a 1.8 rating on IMDB, and one star on Netflix streaming, where I ended up watching it. I even saw that it was called blasphemous and is one of the first Indian movies to make it to the IMDB 100 lowest rated movies. 

            I do not like remakes. I am, in fact, very much angry with the industry for remaking Amitji’s movies. Seeing advertisements for Don 2, Agneepath, and for the love of God, now Zangeer? The suggestion here is that the movie originals were not good enough and I do not believe that. But with this movie, I have seen the difference between a “remake” and “interpretation”, and I found myself like Ki Aag when I stopped thinking of it as a remake, but as Ram Gopal Varma’s interpretation of the classic movie.

            I am a huge fan of RGV, and the movies he creates with Amitji, have always produced movies that I love, movies that are interesting and creative.

            So, let’s get to Ki Aag!

            The movie stars Ajay Devgn as Heero (a new spin on Dharamendra’s Veeru) and Raj (the take on Amitji’s unforgettable Jai), and Amitabh Bachchan himself stared as the bandit, Baban Singh, his take on Gabbar Singh, immortalized by Amjad Khan. With Amitji playing the villain, you cannot go wrong.

            I was tweeting the entire time I was watching the movie, to record my reaction to the movie and found myself screaming half the time about how absolutely terrible Baban is. With mismatched color eyes and a scar that runs across his nose, I can very honestly say that it has been a long time since a character in a movie terrified as much as Baban.

            Perhaps it was because I am used to seeing Amitji in roles where he simply blurs the line between good and evil. Instead of living in the gray zones in this movie however, Mr. Bachchan in this movie is steadily planted in the black end of the spectrum. Pure evil.

            What I love about this movie, specifically, aside from being terrified out of my mind, is that Baban is actually given a reason for being violent, and having such a personal hatred for the Thakur. This background that Gabar was missing always bothered me because there was never justification for his actions, Gabar was just crazy. Baban is crazy, but he has his reasons.

            Again, Baban is crazy.

            And this movie, independent of its similarity to Sholay, is a movie that should be a given a chance. 

Watch this movie, just to see Amitji in a new, interesting, and terrifying light. And watch this movie, so you can see why I was tweeting what I was tweeting….Seriously, the Kabhi Kabhie reference made me scream. 
Here are my tweets: