I recently saw The Burning Train again and I'm reminded of why I love the combination of Dharmendra and Jeetendra. Released in 1980, the star studded film was declared a below average performer despite its 100% opening. I don't care about those numbers, it is a great movie...
The story is quite interwoven but in summary its the story of a railway engineer, Vinod (Vinod Khanna), who got awarded the contract to build a train which he names 'Super Express'. This happens to the disgust of another engineer, Randhir, who was also chasing the same dream. Incidentally, Randhir also looses his love interest, Sheetal (Parveen Babi), to Vinod. This makes him plot an evil scheme against Vinod and the Super Express...
It is also a story of Ashok (Dhamendra), best friends with Vinod who meet, fall in love, and get engaged with Seema (Hema Malini) and are soon to be married. Ashok however, looses his father to suicide because he was debt-ridden and further lost all his properties as well as Seema.
Then, there is the story of Ravi (Jeetendra), a common thief, who tries to befriend Madhu (Neetu Singh) in order to steal from her. Madhu had eloped from her arranged marriage with money and jewelries and Ravi had seen this.
Super Express is bombed, goes up in flames, and it won't stop... It is a tale of how these three characters put their lives at risk to save the passengers of the doomed train!
My favorite song is the prayer song by the school children and their teacher - 'Teri Hai Zameen'. It's a very emotional song and the meaning is just wow!...
"You are the Lord of the Heavens and the Earth
You are the most compassionate one
You belong to all, and all belong to you
Be merciful to us Lord
We have come into this world by Your will
By Your grace we have received this body and the life within
Keep us under Your watchful eye
Please take care of us
You may admonish us or keep us close to you
You are the Master of our destiny
This body and the life belong to You and so do all the desires that arise therefrom"
Over 34 years ago, Amitabh Bachchan (Big B) regained consciousness after a near-fatal accident while filming "Coolie" and the legend remembers the day as his second birthday.
On July 26 1982, Big B suffered an accident and was injured in the intestines while shooting a scene from the film in Bangalore. In the fight scene, Bachchan was supposed to fall onto a table, but mis-timed his jump. This resulted in an internal abdominal injury. He was transferred to a Mumbai hospital, where according to the actor, he went into a "haze and coma-like situation", and was "clinically dead for a couple of minutes".
Despite critical injury, Bachchan recovered remarkably and resumed shooting on 7 January 1983. In the final cut of the film, the fight scene during which he got injured was frozen and a message appears marking the scene as the one in which he was injured.
Due to Bachchan's injury, the ending was also changed. The original script showed Amitabh dying after Kader Khan shot him. But later on, after the injury-and-recovery episode, Manmohan Desai, decided to change the ending. The modified ending has the hero recover after his operation.
Big B took to Twitter same day last year to thank his fans for their wishes and prayers on the incident...
“To all that wish me today, may I just say I am overwhelmed by your prayers and concern and love … Indebted.”
On July 13, 2016, he shared a throwback picture of himself and veteran actor Dharmendra and wrote... :T 2315 - When Dharam ji came to wish me on my first day on set after Coolie accident recovery .. !"
His son Abhishek also took to Instagram last year to wish him. He shared a picture of Big B from a scene in Coolie and wrote, “I can’t even remember how many times I would drape a bedsheet in the same way and re-enact this sequence from Coolie. Would make my friends play the role of Zafar and shoot me with a plastic play gun and I would play the part of Iqbal. Yup, I learnt very early in my life that God made only one Amitabh Bachchan. Happy second birthday Pa. You are my inspiration...”
We all remember Coolie right? It remains evergreen; actually Big B himself is evergreen...
There were tons of wishes for the legend on Twitter for this second birthday including one from me too... 😍
Let's throw it back to 2001 with the star studded cast of Karan Johar's Kabhie Khushi Kabhie Gham (or K3G) I believe it means 'Sometimes there's Happiness, Sometimes there's Sorrow'.
The movie stars Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bachchan, ShahRukh Khan, Kajol, Hrithik Roshan, and Kareena Kapoor in major roles. Although, this movie is about 16 years old. It remains evergreen...
PLOT
Yashvardhan Raichand (Amitabh Bachchan) is a rich businessman who lives in India with his wife Nandini (Jaya Bachchan). They have two sons Rahul (Shahrukh Khan) and young Rohan (Kavish Majmudar). Rahul is an adopted son of Yash and Nandini; this is known to everyone except Rohan.
Rahul meets the feisty Anjali (Kajol), the daughter of a confectioner who lives in Chandi Chowk, a local and low class vicinity (sort of like our own Ajegunle 😃) when he had gone to check on their order for his father's 50th birthday and also give their nanny, Daijan (Farida Jalal) some medicines because she was ill. It was a love at first sight kind of situation for him.
At the same time, Rohan meets young Pooja (Maalvika Raaj) but theirs was not pleasant as Pooja taunts Rohan with some other local kids.
As Rahul and Anjali's love blossomed, Yash had his own plan of marrying his son to Naina (Rani Mukherji). A situation, coupled with some other unfortunate incidents between Yash and Anjali, that would make Rahul and Anjali's love forbidden.
In the midst of all the drama, Rohan is sent to a boarding school, which is part of their family's tradition; and Yash announces his desire for Rahul to marry Naina. Naina learns that Rahul is in love with someone else, and encourages him to pursue her.
When Yash finds out about Rahul and Anjali's relationship, he is enraged. Rahul, at that point, promises not to marry Anjali and sets out to inform Anjali but discovers that her father (Alok Nath) had died and marries her (Here, I thought to myself - wtf - is that how people just get married?! 😒). Yash learns of the marriage and disowns Rahul, reminding him that he had proved that he was not his blood. Nandini and Rahul share a tearful goodbye and she sends Sayeeda (aka Daijan), to watch over him. Rahul also visits Rohan in school and begs of him never to ask where he went or why he left, and asks him to take care of their mum, join the cricket team, and loose some weight.
Ten years later, Rohan (now Hrithik Roshan) returns home from the boarding school, and learns from his grandmothers (Achala Sachdev and Sushma Seth) that Rahul was adopted; he also learns the reason why he left the house; whereupon Rohan vows to reunite the family. He finds out that Rahul, Anjali, and Pooja moved to London, and tells his parents that he wishes further his studies in London. In London, Rahul is now a wealthy businessman; he and Anjali now have their own son, Krish.
Grown up Pooja (Kareena Kapoor) is now a popular student at King's College London, she is popularly called 'Poo'. Rohan enrolls there too and plots his meeting with Pooja where he tells her that he has come to London to bring his brother and sister-in-law back home and asks for her help.
Pooja tells Rahul that Rohan is her friend's brother who has nowhere to stay and persuades him (more like bully him, lol), to let Rohan stay with them. Rohan introduces himself as Yash and set a series of event in motion to remind his brother of home.
Finally, at Krish's school function, he sings the Indian national anthem, and thereafter, recites an advice which Rohan had given him. This advice had been given by Rahul to Rohan ten years back. Rahul thus realise that Rohan is his brother. Rohan begs Rahul to come home, but he refuses.
Pooja convinces Rohan to invite his parents to London and had to buy him a gift upon arrival. They agree and come. Rohan tells his father the exact mall where he should by this gift in a plan to get everybody at the same place. His plan works as Rahul and Nandini see each other but Rahul still refuses to talk to his father.
Yash is angry with Rohan after he finds out what he tried to do, he even slaps him at a point in the heated arguement. He then learns that his mother had died and that her last wish was for Yash, Rahul, and Rohan to light her funeral pyre together. Anjali convinced Rahul to let them go to India, he agrees.
The entire family attends the funeral, and Nandini tells Yash that she thought he was wrong for disowning Rahul. Rohan and Pooja convince Rahul to talk to Yash, he does and all is well between father and son.
Rohan and Pooja are also married and the family hold a belated celebration of Rahul and Anjali's wedding. And I guess... they lived happily ever after!
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I love love love this movie! Infact, it was my first 'modern' bollywood movie (as I was used to classics of Dharmendra and co). It was that which introduced me to the jodi world of SRK and Kajol 😉
But then, like many movies, it wasn't perfect. There were some really minute details that didn't get attention... I love you Karan but you just missed them! 😏
1. Rahul wore the same shoes for good ten years. Amazing! Despite all his wealth?! He could relocate to London but could not change his shoes. But then again, maybe he kept them so his mum could recognise him ten years after... or he simply loved those exact design that he just kept buying them year in year out - don't worry Rahul, I got your back! 😖
2. Pooja's shoes magically match at the party after leaving home with mismatched shoes. Perhaps, we missed the scene where she stopped by a store to buy a new pair of shoes... 😄
3. The movie was set in 1991 and Yash used a Nokia communicator that was launched from 1998... but then again he is not a rich mogul for nothing. With all his wealth, he definitely could have afforded a time travel machine to buy it from the future 😎
4. The song that Yash sang to Nandini on his birthday - 'aye kya bolti tu' is from the movie Ghulam which was released in 1997. Need I remind you that Yash is so rich that he could go to the future to get gadgets and information... so why should we be surprised! 😝 #OKBye....
Popular Zee TV's show, Jamai Raja aka King Of Hearts on Zee World Africa is finally coming to an end. The serial which launched in 2014 and ran 3 seasons is being reported to air its last episode on March 3.
Ravi Dubey (aka Sid) confirmed the news to a leading daily saying, "The show will end immediately after completing 700 episodes. We have had a successful run. I played over 18 characters in the show. I am grateful for the terrific opportunity; it helped me grow as an actor."
Those who follow the series on Zee TV have seen Ravi transform from Sid to Tai to Raghu to Satya (at least, those are the characters I am familiar with).
After Roshni (Nia Sharma) left the show, I just stopped following. Read here to see how her exit was played out. I mean, without #SidNi, there is no #JamaiRaja.
So for those following King Of Hearts, well you still have time. Let me give you some spoilers...
They will soon introduce Shabnam who will show Sid/Roshni/DD pepper. Shabnam is Roshni's half sister and older sister of Aisha - yep! Aisha is Roshni's sister...
Sam will start coming for Kritika under the impression that she (Kritika) wants to steal Yash.
Yash will become evil and kill DD (YES!)
There is more oh! I just can't deal! And this is still season 1 (there are 3 seasons with different themes)
Brace yourselves people... it's a long and tiring ride! 😔
What happens when the 'He-Man' fall in love with the 'Dream girl' of Bollywood?!.... A sizzling love story of two drop-dead gorgeous people...
Dharmendra and Hema Malini's love story is epic! The stars fell in love on the sets of Tum Haseen Main Jawan in the 70's. That time, Hema was allegedly engaged to actor, Jeetendra and Dharmendra was already married to Prakash Kaur with two sons, Sunny and Bobby.
Dhamendra married Prakash in 1954 when she was just 19 years old. A few years later, he moved to Mumbai to pursue a career in films and soon became a star. While this marked the beginning of a new phase for the couple, it also laid the seeds for the affair that would shake the foundation of their marriage.
Hema's biography says that she got attracted to Dharmendra because he was strong and silent like her mother. The actress finds her husband very romantic and says he still looks at her the same way he did when they first met. It was rumoured that when the film, Sholay, was being shot, Dharmendra bribed some of the light boys on the set to constantly disturb the lights. This leads to many re-takes and gave him more chances to hold Hema close to him!
They were in a relationship for several years before they finally decided to tie the knot and because Prakash did not want a divorce, the couple decided to convert to Islam in order to get married despite the strong opposition from both families. Hema's father was strictly against the marriage, so Hema married Dharmendra only after he died. They got married in a Nikahnama ceremony when Hema was 29 and Dharmendra was 44; the nikah was kept secret for a year.
The families also expressed disappointment in them for converting to Islam but eventually, gave in to their love and accepted them.
This famous couple have acted in 42 movies together; they have two daughters, Esha and Ahana (whom are also married) and Dharmendra still lives with his first wife, Prakash.
They truly epitomise love in all forms. Even now, whenever they appear on screen or on any show, they look the same - beautiful and madly in love! 😍😍😍
As always, ShahRukh Khan took me to the cinemas. I saw Raees on Saturday despite my marathon training earlier in the day as well as me getting to the theater late, there was no way I would miss my date with SRK.
Truth be told, if Silverbird cinemas had shown both Raees and Kaabil, I would have seen Kaabil; I prefer its storyline...
SYNOPSIS (I missed about 20 minutes):
I walk in on a young Raees and his friend Sadiq getting a job with a bootlegger named Jairaj. Jairaj is impressed with the way Raees dealt with an older guy who had called him 'Battery' (apparently battery is an abusive word for those who wear glasses); and also how he was able to get his bottles of alcohol past security.
Raees works with Jairaj till he is full grown (now becomes SRK) and decides it was time to set up his own business with his friend. This of course does not go down well with Jairaj and he creates a stumbling block for Raees who doesn't have the money to start the business. A determined Raees hatches a plan and goes to Mumbai to get money, there he meets Musa who ends up giving him the money (long story - go and see the movie to find out how 😏)
Raees becomes a full blown bootlegger and builds an empire. We also see his personal life, his marriage with Aasiya (Mahira Khan), and how they plan to build what they referred to as 'Our World'.
We further meet a very resolute and unwavering cop, ACP Majmudar (Nawazuddin Siddiqui), despite being transferred all over the country courtesy of corrupt politicians, is hell bent on putting an end to Raees' criminal ways.
What was not surprising to me, is how Raees' is both evil and good at the same time; a villain that is a do-gooder (and why not, it is SRK afterall). His criminality is given a human face and he garners popularity, fame and love amongst the people by being their messiah who always came to their aid.
As the film went on, I played it out to the end in my head. Raees would win, he would become a good person and live happily ever after with Aasiya and their son; Majmudar would become his friend and help him somehow. Alas! I imagined too soon... Raees is betrayed by Musa who use him to import bomb explosives causing chaos and deaths; Raees is held responsible and Majmudar becomes more determined to end it all. He secures an unofficial approval to deal with Raees since he always got away everytime he was arrested.
Majmudar and the police force raid Raees' neighbourhood and tortures everybody to get to him. Raees sends Aasiya and Faizan (their son) with Sadiq out of town and goes to Mumbai to seek revenge on Musa. He gives himself up afterwards to a bitter Majmudar who had given a shoot on sight instruction to his team. A brilliant Raees evades that by surrounding himself with reporters. He is arrested, taken away, and shot dead by Majmudar on the land where he was building 'Our World'.
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The first thing I said to myself after the movie was, 'If I knew that SRK would die, I wouldn't have seen the movie'. I was left with the haunting image of SRK's (no - Raees') lifeless body at the end, I almost teared up.
SRK, as always, gives us a feisty performance. His shadowy eyes and 'batteries' (I hope Raees does not come and give me the beating of my life for calling him that 😃 - oh wait, he's dead! lol!) give him the perfect bad boy look. He delivers the action scenes superbly. And why not, he is King!
I love Sadiq (Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub), he was funny and good looking too 😊
Fierce Majmudar and his constant request for illegal orders to be given to him in writing; he was excellent!
If you love goons, guns, and blood... especially where the villain is ShahRukh Khan, you do not want to miss this one!
The movie also shows the 'culture' of Islam in Gujarat. We see a traditional marriage ceremony, the celebration of Muharam, the first Islamic month by 'mourning', and the Shia muslims celebrate Maulud (the birth of the prophet).
All the songs were nice (although I thought they were too much - about 6/7 songs in all); I especially like the rhythm of 'Dhingana' but my favorite is 'Zaalima'...
Bandits can be so fine and romantic... especially when they are Dhamendra 😍😜
Let's throw it back to 1972's Samadhi!
PLOT:
Lakhan Singh (Dharmendra) is the leader of a gang of armed robbers who are greatly feared in their locality. One evening they raid a village that was celebrating a child’s birth with the feisty Champa (Asha Parekh) dancing and singing. The celebration is interrupted by the arrival of Lakhan and his men who rob everybody. Lakhan takes one look at Champa and is smitten. He throws her onto his horse and rides away with her.
Back in their cave, Jaggu and Kundan (members of Lakhan's gang) are displeased when Lakhan refuses to 'share' the girl with them. He talks them down and takes Champa to his room to assault her. She refuses him and even shoots him with his own rifle; this makes his respect for her overtake his lust and he decides to escort her home safe.
When they reach her house, they overhear Champa's aunt and uncle talking about how glad they were to be rid of her and how all her property will now belong to them. This saddens Champa immeasurably and she decides to cast her lot in with Lakhan, who is now completely in love with her.
They get married in a temple and Lakhan gives up his gang life to settle with her; he even changes his name to Laxman (but I will keep using Lakhan for easy reference). He buys a cart with the proceeds from selling Champa’s jewelry, which she forces him to accept, and they build a happy life (of course with some pretty songs in between 😊). Together, they have a son, Jaswant.
A few years into their new life, Champa becomes very ill with cancer and the doctor tell Lakhan that her treatment would be expensive. He approaches a local moneylender named Lalaji to borrow the money to treat his wife but the guy was just too callous (all Lakhan needed was 5,000 Rupees).
On his way home from Lalaji’s, a desperate Lakhan sees a little boy (named is Ajay who is about the same age as his own son) playing in the courtyard of a big mansion and gets an idea (a bad idea, if I might add). He scribbles something on a paper and gives it to the maid who was with the boy telling her that his employer had sent it for her master; he tells her that he would watch the boy whilst she ran the errand.
Inside the mansion, Ajay’s father, Manoharlal is horrified to read a ransom note from Bandit Lakhan Singh instructing him to bring 5,000 Rupees to a temple that evening in exchange for his son. He does so, but tragedy strikes when Lakhan, who was in a hurry to return to Champa with the money, rushes down the rocky slope beneath the temple to meet Manoharlal, loses his footing and accidentally drop the boy, who rolls down the hill and die (I cried at this scene... it was just too painful and heartbreaking).
Manoharlal reaches the temple from another side and calls desperately for Lakhan to return his son. Feeling terrible, Lakhan hides until Manoharlal gives up and goes; he buries the boy under the rocks. He returns home dejected and finds Jaswant outside crying, Champa had died.
With the police now looking for him, Lakhan, takes Jaswant and returns to his life as a bandit; they welcome him back and his bad ways take a full swing. The gang members become fond of Jaswant, they even begin to teach him things like how to fire a rifle (which Lakhan didn't approve of). Years of looting pass and the police finally catch up with them; Lakhan escapes with Jaswant while the others are either arrested or killed. Lakhan ends up at the temple where little Ajay had died, he is suddenly reminded of his haunting past. He sees people who had just finished worshiping in the temple and notices a frail man get into his car. He meets with the temple's priest to enquire about the man.
The man is Manoharlal, his wife had died from the shock of Ajay's kidnapping and he comes to the temple every day with the hope that he will find his lost son. Struck anew with guilt, Lakhan makes a decision that will profoundly affect the rest of his and Jaswant’s lives.He goes to Manoharlal's house and declares Jaswant as Ajay, convincing him that on the day the ransom was to be paid he had been forced to flee with Ajay because of the police. He tells him that he has brought Ajay up for the past eight years as his own son.
Manoharlal's brother calls the police and Lakhan is arrested and sent to prison for 17 years. Jaswant (now Ajay) grows up (is his father's look alike) and fall in love with Rekha (Jaya Bhaduri). Lakhan is released from prison and he goes to Manoharlal's house to find his son; he is elated to see him but Ajay is not as happy referring to him as 'Daku Lakhan Singh' (Daku is hindi for Dacoit). Manoharlal scold him and tell him that Lakhan will live with them going forward. Ajay is pissed and walks away.
Ajay does not trust Lakhan and shows it. He even slaps Lakhan during an incident when they found him with a gun.
Ajay gets engaged to Rekha and Lakhan is very happy. He imagines that he is standing there at the venue as the father of the groom and also hands out sweets to the guest in excitement before Manoharlal's brother come to chase him out.
Lakhan's grave past catches up with him as he meets Jaggu (a former gang member) who had also been released from prison but has not let go of his bad ways. Jaggu plans to rob Manoharlal much to the disapproval of Lakhan. Jaggu visits Lakhan at home and they have an arguement and a struggle which was broken by Manoharlal (he had heard their arguement and realised that Ajay was not his son). Lakhan leaves Manoharlal's house for good afterwards.
On Ajay's wedding day, Lakhan stands outside the mansion with some beggers watching the event from afar. He notices Jaggu and the other bandits pose as guests following the wedding procession. As he was about to stop them, some of them capture him and begin to hit him. Ajay's wedding is disrupted by the bandits who begin to rob but Ajay will have none of it as he swings into hero mode and begins to take them down one by one. Lakhan too fights for his life and defeats the two bandits that captured him; he enters the mansion and has a face off with Jaggu with the intention to kill him but he is stopped by Manoharlal.
As Lakhan and Manorhalal were talking, Jaggu picks his rifle and shoots Lakhan. Ajay shoots Jaggu from behind and kills him. As Lakhan lie on the floor breathing his last, Manoharlal reveals to Ajay that Lakhan was his real father. Lakhan dies and all are in despair.
I really loved this film. It's my third film seeing Dhamendra play a double role. He looked really cute an as old man ...
And that scene where he dropped the real Ajay at the temple, it was oh so real and I truely cried. I felt so bad more for Lakhan than the boy who died.
When Champa died, the way that kid cried, he couldn't have been acting and if he was, he deserved the Filmfare award for that year.
The film was filled with a number of 'what the heck?' but it had the stellar performance of Dhamendra so I will pardon but still mention them 😃
Anyways, it was the 70's and they did a great job!
So here goes...
- Lakhan and Champa's love and marriage. Everything happened overnight. Literally!
- Manoharlal must really have a forgiving heart to accept Lakhan so easily. Who does that?
- Ajay grows up to be Lakhan's look alike and no one notices?!
- Oh yes, the magic beards of Bollywood that can disguise anyone beyond recognition 😝
My favorite song from the movie is 'Jab Tak Rahe Tan Mein Jiya'
