If you have a quick look through the rest of my posts, you’ll notice I have a particular style when I review a film. I typically begin with an introduction—what made this film special for me, why I wanted to see it, and so on—and then I go on to a brief synopsis of the plot. Not a blow-by-blow account, and not giving away the climax, but enough to present a broad enough picture of what the story’s all about.
Not so with The Sundowners.
When I was a teenager, Dev Anand ranked way up on my list of favourites—right at the top, in fact, with Shammi Kapoor. This film, one of his earliest, stars him opposite his real life ladylove Suraiya, but other than some nice songs, is fairly forgettable. And yes, along with a callow Dev Anand, it also has a very young-looking (yet villainous) Madan Puri.
A friend was talking about Douglas Sirk and Rock Hudson the other day. Rummaging through my pile of films at home, I couldn’t find any Douglas Sirk, but Ice Station Zebra, directed by John Sturges and with Rock Hudson heading an all-male cast, was around. I’d heard of this Cold War film (though I still haven’t read the Alistair Maclean novel on which it was based), and Rock Hudson was adequate—and looked good. So Ice Station Zebra it was.
Mehboob Khan, who directed Aan, Andaz and Mother India, also made this unusual film. It explores themes that were avant garde for the 50’s: a man’s sudden succumbing to sheer lust, while being in love with another woman; a woman’s sympathy for `the other woman’; a villain who’s shades of grey rather than totally black-hearted. Not exactly standard Bollywood fare. There are clichés of course, but on the whole, this is worth a watch.
Yes, I know. Another Alfred Hitchcock. But I really can’t help it: this man directed some of the most gripping suspense films ever, and he deserves more than just a passing mention in any site dedicated to the films. So here goes: a great film starring the lovely Grace Kelly, and with some brilliant twists and turns in the plot.
The other day, watching Mr and Mrs 55 for the nth time, I found myself realising that it shares a few details with the equally delightful Shammi Kapoor starrer Professor (1962).
For starters, both films have a poor, unemployed hero called Pritam:
Pyaasa, Kaagaz ke Phool and Sahib, Biwi aur Ghulam may be Guru Dutt’s classics—but this gem of a movie, in a much lighter vein and starring the inimitable Madhubala, is one of my favourites ever.
It’s a strange thing, but I’ve noticed I invariably end up watching one actor again and again—often unwittingly. I saw Deborah Kerr in Vacation from Marriage a couple of weeks back; last week, I saw her in The Prisoner of Zenda, and then today, in Heaven Knows, Mr Allison. This is a film I hadn’t heard of till a few days back, and now I can think of few films that I’ve loved more. It’s superb.
This film has melodrama and mindless self-sacrifice, two elements that invariably put me off. And Saathi really was no different: I got thoroughly put off. Oh, it starts off all right—much happiness and flowers kissing etc—but then the lives of the protagonists fall apart so completely, it’s just not on. Nobody should be subjected to so much tragedy, not even on screen.
A couple of posts back, I’d mentioned one of my favourite directors: Alfred Hitchcock. And a few posts before that, an actor whom I’d want to see more of: Robert Donat. So here’s one that brings them together: a classic chase across Scotland, in one of Hitchcock’s early British films. This, by the way, was the first Hitchcock film I recall seeing as a kid. I enjoyed it as much then as I do now.
Dustedoff 