Apradhi Kaun (1957)- A short Note

Last night saw 'Apradhi Kaun', a 1957 murder mystery produced by Bimal Roy and directed by Asit Sen. It could have been a taut and gripping tale, had it not been for some silly side-tracks and romantic adventures. The first 40-50 mins of the film are deceptive, as they promise a delicious Agatha Christie kind of an atmospheric murder mystery. But once the actual crime is committed, things go haywire. Although the suspense element is intriguing, I guessed it right very early into the film, owing to some obvious hints they didn't bother to disguise . After that it was all about how the sleuth would work things out. But to my surprise, the sleuth was an ultimate buffoon, rather not much different from his silly assistant. In fact, I have never seen a worse detective on screen. Then too many songs and too many ridiculous plot turns later, the mystery ended with a 2-3 minute explanation from this genius (which in a serious film should form a major chunk of the entire last act) . It was too funny actually, but I don't know whether the makers intended to make a comic-mystery. The film also features a KatrinaKaifesque woman in a meaty role. She is terrible on the acting department, but her character is a so dumb that it is a joy to watch. That can be said for the whole film really. The songs by Salil Chaudary, although melodious, are quite ridiculous in the context of the film. But the actors have had so much fun performing them, that it made me smile. Quite entertaining actually. But not the neat mystery I expected.

Thikana (1987)

There was a time when Mahesh Bhatt used to make films. Good, bad, ugly- whatever- but they were never business projects, just stories that he used to put to life on celluloid. And more often than not they were stories that emanated from the heart that aimed to strike a cord with the hearts of the patrons. Strike a cord with hearts. Nothing above. Nothing below!

Thikana is one such story that is quintessential Mahesh Bhatt of the 1980s. Emotionally verbose, melodramatically intricate, perfectly imperfect, and remarkably sinuous. And yet at the core the film’s simplicity is akin to a child bawling in pain in front of his mother. Save the last thirty minutes when it deep-dives into the pits of mediocrity, the film could have been a well remembered one.

The genre of the movie can be defined as pulp fiction at best- the kind which is available in abundance in the bookstalls of the railway stations across the country. The sub-genres can be described as concentric circles- with mystery forming the outermost circle, and drama forming the central core. The story is woven around the travails of an idealist lawyer, Ravi, who is also unabashed drunkard. Anil Kapoor plays this wasted young man who is pitied, detested, and admired in equal measure. This is established by scene early on in the movie when an inebriated Ravi returns home one night to the caustic remarks of his widowed mother and the comforting presence of his elder sister Shashi (essayed by Smita Patil). What follows next is a full blown melodrama where a semblance of sobriety is incorporated through some wonderful dialogue. The very next morning, however, normalcy is restored, acting as a subtle metaphor to the new day and the fresh start it indicates.

Some other powerful scenes follow, one in which when Ravi’s self-respect is questioned he decides to do away with the ideals he had inherited from his father. In the court of law, he is asked to prove that a young girl is of legally marriageable age, when she clearly looks like being years away from that. How Ravi’s hands waver while signing the testimony and how he admits to have been led astray by his own insecurities, is a study in how a single powerful scene can etch out a characterization that in most movies a series of scenes cannot. Some remarkable scenes between Shashi’s fiancé Ranbir Singh (a police officer- enacted by a superb Suresh Oberoi) and Ravi follow. In fact it is the relationship between these two men and their confrontations constitute the most emphatic part of the movie. A cameo by Anupam Kher is worth mentioning, but just like the movie- it is overstretched and redundant beyond a point.

The most striking part of this movie however is that each and every character has grey shades. And thus the dialogue is so forthright that it gets uncomfortable for an average Hindi movie watcher after a while. But what’s not unusual here is the generous use of songs, and none of them worth a mention. And neither the unnecessary and completely headache inducing last part of the movie, which kind of overshadows the merits of the first three-fourth of the movie to a certain extent. It looks like a lot of it shot keeping the commercial prospects of the film in mind. But in retrospect it might have just backfired.

Performances from Anil Kapoor and Suresh Oberoi are the highlights. Smita Patil is her usual poor weepy self and Amrita Singh (who plays Ravi’s love interest) is in her usual flashy yet lost avatar.

Parting Note: The film is engrossing for most parts and has some remarkably well-written moments of drama. However the last half an hour prevents this movie from being a fondly recalled one.

Trivia: This film was released after Smita Patil's demise and thus its release was dedicated to her.

Kanoon (1960)

Capital Punishment has a marked prominence in the annals of all recorded history. There has been no civilization where this form of punishment has not been practiced. Be it the Greeks, or the Romans, or the Chinese- all had strict stipulations on human execution as a part of their code of law. Even major religions like Islam, Christianity, and Hinduism have permitted capital punishment for certain offenses. But despite all this, there has always been a serious debate on whether human execution is justified. It has always been argued whether justice is always just; most certainly there have been many recorded instances where apparently innocent have been executed. BR Chopra’s 1960 movie Kanoon essentially debates and discusses this very pertinent issue of whether a human has got the right to take the life of another human, even if it is a means of enforcing punishment. Starring Ashok Kumar, Rajendra Kumar, and Nanda in principal roles along with some splendid lesser known actors essaying crucial roles, Kanoon is a resounding statement on the fallacies of human court of justice and on the inadequacies of the written law.

The movie starts off with a cold blooded murder like many of the other thrillers of the time. However this regularity is just a smokescreen for this apparently routine murder hides an uncomfortable truth behind it and exposes the ineffectual nature of our law. The case is adjudged by Justice Badri Prasad (Ashok Kumar) who is set thinking by the completely unexpected things that it throws up. This sets the ball rolling for a gripping tale that interweaves a poignant family drama into a courtroom battle. Another cold blooded murder takes place; that of a wealthy and manipulative city moneylender. The setting of the murder witnesses an unusual turn of events. Advocate Kailash Khanna (Rajendra Kumar) visits the moneylender to obtain some crucial papers that could put his girlfriend Meena’s (Nanda) family into great financial trouble. His girlfriend is the daughter of none other than Justice Badri Prasad, making the renowned judge his to be father-in-law. While at the moneylender’s place, Kailash spots Badri Prasad from a window, making his way towards the house. To avoid meeting his father-in-law and spilling the beans on his brother-in-law’s carelessness, he goes and hides in the other room. What happens next truly shakes the daylights out of him. Badri Prasad takes out a knife, rams it into the moneylender’s chest, and leaves the place smoothly. Completely shaken and not knowing what to do next, Kailash too runs away from the scene of the murder. Once the place is deserted save for the corpse of the moneylender lying on the floor, an aged thief enters the house with the intention of pilferage. However in the dark of the night he steps onto the corpse, leaves his fingerprints on the knife, and while escaping from the window gets caught by two policemen patrolling the area. Expectedly the poor thief gets embroiled in the case and gets implicated for the murder, with all the evidences pointing towards him. Not wanting to give his father-in-law away, Kailash decides to fight the case for the falsely accused thief and embarks on a battle to save him, while making all the efforts to spur the conscience of his father-in-law. What follows next is a riveting courtroom drama and a completely unexpected climax that throws up a host of questions, while answering a few too along the way.

Kanoon is completely a director’s film. It is an explosive subject and each and every scene shows the kind of efforts that would have gone in writing it. The dialogues are emphatic, the silences even more so. Most of the movies have one or two memorable scenes, but this one boasts of a series of such spectacular scenes that create a tremendous impact- right from the first scene, to the culmination of the drama. If one has to choose the most dramatic scenes, surprisingly a lot of them also come outside the court of law- behind the scenes of all the true drama. My vote would go to the interactions between the father and son in law post the murder, when Badri Prasad finds Kailash peeping into his private diary. Also the dialogue between the accused thief and his defendant Kailash is remarkably handled. There is also a superbly done slight side track when Meena starts suspecting Kailash of the murder, having absolutely just reasons for doing so. This delicate interplay of emotions between the protagonists is a delight to watch. The highpoint, though, as expected is the jaw-dropping climax, complete with the tense buildup and replete with an efficient disrobing of facts post the suspense is revealed.

The actors do more than a fine job, and show great dexterity despite the help they receive from the remarkable written material. I haven’t seen much of Rajendra Kumar, but still can safely assume that this would be one of his best performances (most of the others I believe are in the sappy romantic space where he excelled and thus got knighted as the Jubilee Kumar). Ashok Kumar is truly amazing in his highly sinuous role. His effortless ease is hard to miss. Meena is slightly more than a typical Hindi movie heroine and gets good scope to leave a mark. There are no songs in the narrative, though it does boast of a finely choreographed ballet dance performance that blends seamlessly with the story.

Parting Note: Kanoon is simply a MUST WATCH for the people who love their court-room dramas, and also for those who like watching thrillers (though this is not a thriller in the conventional sense). What elevates it from being just an excellent film is its thought, and its purpose which it conveys in the most effective manner possible- through the route of a highly entertaining story. 

Kudrat (1981)

There are many different views regarding the number of basic plots possible in storytelling. Some say that there seven; a few argue that there could be twenty. An argument also claims that all kind of plots center on conflict (either internal or external), and in that sense there is only one basic plot in all stories. Whatever be the case, it leaves very little room for storytellers and film-makers to experiment. Or does it? The finest film-makers have, at times, taken the most mundane of stories and have presented them in such a novel manner that they have left the audiences spellbound. They have proven that though the plots may be limited, the possibilities are endless. And this is what essentially Chetan Anand did in his 1981 feature Kudrat starring Rajesh Khanna, Hema Malini, Vinod Khanna, Raajkumar, and Priya Rajvansh in principal roles.

Kudrat is Chetan Anand’s intricate version of Madhumati set entirely in the serene locales of Shimla. It begins with Chandramukhi (Hema Malini) and her family returning to the place of her birth, Shimla, after twenty years. Even though the twenty years haven’t seen the twenty something Chandramukhi return to Shimla, she starts finding a lot of things about the city very familiar. Just two days into their stay, she meets Dr. Naresh Gupta (Vinod Khanna), a family friend, and they start dating all over the city. Just when things look like they couldn’t go any better, Chandramukhi runs into Mohan Kapoor, a city advocate who has the city’s richest man Choudhary Janak Singh (Rajkumar) for his guardian. Although Mohan Kapoor is a stranger to her, she feels a quaint pull towards him, as if they had been romantically involved at some point in their lives. For his part, even Mohan seems a bit perturbed when Chandramukhi is around him, despite having Choudhary Janak Singh’s daughter and his fiancée Karuna (Priya Rajvansh) with him. 

Over the next few days, Chandramukhi starts getting flashes of her past life triggered by her visiting the places she used to visit with Madho (Rajesh Khanna) in her previous birth. Not only this, she starts getting nightmares that leave her feeling utterly depressed and scared. To help her, Naresh, also a psychiatrist, decides to do a past life regression on her and through it he discovers that what Chandramukhi was claiming was absolutely the truth. She and Mohan Kapoor had been lovers in their past lives and had lived in the very city in which they were present at that point of time. He relays all this to Mohan Kapoor who refuses to believe the story. But soon, even he starts getting convinced about Chandramukhi’s claim. In fact, she makes him recall something more sinister. He and Paro (Chandramukhi in her previous birth) had been separated in their past lives because of a terrible crime. Paro had been raped and killed by an otherwise honorable man who turns out to be none other than Choudhary Janak Singh. What follows next is a riveting courtroom drama in which Mohan Kapoor accuses the most reputable man in Shimla (and also his beloved guardian) of a crime that he had committed twenty years ago. What adds more drama to the proceedings is that the man is defended by none other than his own daughter Karuna, who refuses to believe that her father could commit such a ghastly act.

Chetan Anand laces the screenplay with some brilliant sequences that are truly one of their kinds in Hindi cinema. The past life of the two actors is set in the pre-independence era when Shimla was the summer capital for the Britishers. The past-life regression is done very authentically and the way it has been shot is way ahead of its times. The entire court-room battle and the superb culmination are captivating, and in fact haunt you till much later after finishing the movie. Also, the scene of the crime and the subsequent few minutes, are shot in a style that is not usual for the Hindi cinema. The inherent drama in the script is accentuated by superbly designed situations and some wonderful dialogues. The performances by all the actors complement the brilliantly written screenplay. Hema Malini has the most complex role of all and she does well while looking absolutely gorgeous throughout the movie. Vinod Khanna and Rajesh Khanna are able, while Rajkumar is his usual flair and glory. Priya Rajvansh looks a misfit in the cast as despite the tons of make-up she looks far from the young lady she plays (But then she and Chetan Anand were romantically linked and he used to cast her in all his movies). Even Aruna Irani has a critical role which she performs well.

The entire feel of the movie is of melancholy and suspense. The setting is akin to an old English mystery drama- and rightly so for Shimla is indeed a Victorian town in many ways. What adds to the whole atmospherics is a wonderful tune by RD Burman, who is at his best in the movie. The tune which forms the song ‘Humein Tumse Pyaar Kitna’ comes more than once in the film and complements the soul of the story wonderfully well. The other memorable song in the enterprise is ‘Tune O Rangeele’ which is like a beautiful show-reel of both Shimla’s beauty and Paro and Madho’s romance. The other songs too are good, though not as fondly recalled.

Parting Note: Kudrat is an excellent suspense-mystery-reincarnation-drama movie that boasts of some remarkable sequences and some memorable songs. Although its story seems to be a homage to Madhumati, it has its own uniqueness and own charm which is a result of the brilliant screenplay and direction by Chetan Anand.

Madhumati (1958)

So when one of the biggest superstars of our country is reliving a cult character from the much loved Amitabh Bachchan classic Don in cinemas this week, me recalling one of the most popular Dilip Kumar classic from the 1950s- instead of the usual lesser known stuff.

• A rainy night with the hero finding it tough to navigate his car through the sloppy slippery roads. CHECK
• The car breaking down and no help in sight. CHECK 
• A ‘purani’ desolate ‘haveli’ where the hero decides to take shelter for the night. CHECK 
• An old and rickety caretaker with a ‘lalten’ in his hand. CHECK 
• A huge photograph of the haveli’s one time owner. CHECK 
• The hero finding many things familiar about the haveli and the setting which evidently he is visiting for the first time. CHECK 
• The hero remembering his past life. CHECK 
• The hero falling in love with a village belle. CHECK 
• The hero singing songs with the village belle. CHECK 
• The hero not getting along well with his boss and the owner of the estate he manages. CHECK 
• The owner being a lecherous fellow starts lusting for the hero’s love interest. CHECK 
• The disapproving father of the girl. CHECK 
• The disapproving father of the girl giving his approval after the hero’s show of honesty and integrity. CHECK 
• The village celebration song with the hero’s girl joining in. CHECK 
• The hero’s lecherous boss setting a trap for the hero to go away from the scene. CHECK 
• The hero’s imbecile girl falling in the villain’s trap. CHECK 
• The villain going after the girl like a mad animal. The girl escaping his claws and jumping of the terrace. CHECK 
• The hero unable to forget his love. CHECK 
• The hero laying a trap for the villain to confess to his crime (being helped by his girl’s look alike). The look-alike girl entering and scaring the daylights out of the villain. The villain shouting for penitence. The police coming forward and grabbing him by his neck. The look-alike standing there smiling after getting ‘her’ revenge.  The hero suddenly realizing that there is something weird going on. The actual look-alike bursting late on the scene. The spirit of the hero’s dead love luring him to salvation. OM SHANTI OM

All of the above points may sound familiar. In fact take any Hindi mystery/reincarnation movie; chances are that one or more of the above points will be a part of that enterprise too. Bimal Roy’s 1958 Dilip Kumar starrer MADHUMATI is a movie that had all of these points together for the first time in a Hindi movie.

Despite the familiarity born out of watching many rehashes of this movie over the years (some good some tacky), Madhumati is an extremely fresh watch owing to it’s well crafted scenes and some sparkling performances by Dilip Kumar, Pran, and Vyjayanthimala (the last especially for her ebullience in the songs and dance sequences). Moreover each and every song by Salil Chaudhary is a classic, and it was a pleasant surprise to see so many memorable songs back to back in a movie. Though it must be said that having eight songs in a two hour movie is like an overdose, and considerably hampers the otherwise fast paced narrative. Without the songs the story could have been said in an hour flat. But then, it wouldn’t have been this charming.

Parting Note: Madhumati is a highly enjoyable affair and people who love old Bollywood musicals should certainly watch this one. For them it would be an absolute treat.

Khamosh (1985)

Though the title hints at it, Shatrughan Sinha is not a part of this supremely well-crafted suspense thriller by Vidhu Vinod Chopra. Instead this movie stars a host of other well-known actors like Naseeruddin Shah, Shabhana Azmi, Amol Palekar, Pankaj Kapoor among others. The story takes place in the pristine locales of Pahalgaam and is about a murder that takes place while a film crew is shooting their new venture in an outdoor schedule. The premise of a film shoot within the film is certainly novel for that time. Revealing the exact plot would spoil the fun and therefore I resist the temptation to do so.

For a suspense genre fan like I am, this movie is a must watch. The script is full of twists and turns and it is hard to guess what will happen in the next frame. The mood, setting, and treatment are ideal for a murder mystery. Also, this is one rare Hindi movie that has no songs. The narrative, however, is peppered with instances of satirical humor. The performances are natural and Shabhana Azmi leads the way in that department. Naseeruddin Shah is top-notch. Now that I am watching more of his work, I am fully able to appreciate why he is known as one of the finest actors in the history of Indian cinema.

Parting note- if you like Agatha Christie and don’t mind a bit of violence Khamosh is a must watch.

PS: There are no loose ends in the plot and everything fits together perfectly. However there is a small thing that is left unexplained, although it doesn’t matter as it is not a part of the jigsaw. I won’t mention it right now. If you spot it then please do comment.