And I can't put my finger on what it was. There's nothing especially spectacular about any of its parts. It's a fairly straightforward remake of The Sound of Music, and probably has even less drama than the original. Still, Jeetendra, Jaya, Pran, and Master Rajoo Shrestha all do excellent jobs in their roles. It's hardly melodramatic, and yet it still had enough punch to make me tear up at one point. It's not eventful, but it's hardly boring (I never believe people when they tell me that, but really and truly it isn't). It's just a really sweet, heartfelt film, and I like that kind.
On a side note, it makes me laugh how much they apparently thought Vinod Khanna needed to be disguised in order to give Jeetendra a fair chance. Vinod Khanna, I admit, is an extremely attractive man, but I'm not sure they needed to go quite so far.
I quite liked Jeetendra in this film and began to wonder why I haven't seen more of him.
On the other hand, Vinod Khanna is Vinod Khanna, and his charm shines even through his bulky glasses and bad hair. So perhaps they had reason to be worried.
Some adjectives that come to mind for this movie are beautiful, well-crafted, tragic, sensual, and unsatisfying.
The courtesan in this movie is about the same as the courtesans in Benazir, Devdas, and Mangal Pandey. She's gorgeous, well spoken, elegant, graceful, tragic, and hungry for love. Her love affair does not work out, in spite of her best efforts. The difference between this one and the others is that this one has the family story, too, which is also sad.
Artistically, it's a well-made film. The beginning and end mirror each other, the way jewelry and mirrors are used is significant, etc. The costumes, the songs, and Rekha are all lovely.
My least favorite part of the movie: the plot. I don't go in for tragedies that much. Especially ones about courtesans. (If it has to be a tragedy, I prefer something noble, as long as it isn't also pointless and stupid.)
My favorite part of the movie: definitely the songs. They were lovely, especially this one. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a version of it with subtitles, which are part of what I enjoyed about this song, but it's still lovely without.
My school library has a decent amount of Bollywood films, but not many oldies. That's why I was very pleased to see Awara on the shelf, and I checked it out immediately. After I watched it I glanced through a few Bollywood blogs, and I was surprised to see this listed on so few of the blogs I checked. I suppose there are reasons for it not to be a popular pick, but there are also some strong reasons to watch it. I'll just tell you two, these being:
Reason 1: Little Shashi! I make it a point never to read back covers before I watch the movie—they tend to give away too much—so I was very surprised and happy when Shashi showed up as the young Raj. He looks just like himself (i.e., adorable). He actually gets a fair amount of screen time, too, and acts extremely well. The cover informs me that this was the only child's role he ever played. See how cute he is!
Reason 2: The song at the end of this post. It's quite trippy, which is usually a plus in my book. I especially love the fallen column slide. Of course, the devils dancing in hell are quite entertaining, too. The helpful back cover informs me that this was the first dream sequence in Hindi cinema. Obviously, it caught on.
In case you were curious about what reasons would make you not want to watch the film, I'll share one of those. Prithviraj Kapoor plays Judge Raghunath, and Raj Kapoor plays his son, Raj. Judge Raghunath firmly believes that honesty is hereditary. Predictably, Raj becomes a thief, but he does inherit another characteristic of his father's—mistreating women. Judge Raghunath throws his wife out of the house while she's in labor with Raj because he suspects (falsely) that she was raped. Raj slaps his girlfriend until she falls to the ground when she tells him it's ungentlemanly to look her way when she's changing. (Both of the women seem to think they somehow deserve this treatment, too.) This made the rest of the story a bit less satisfactory.
Still, the movie has its points. I mean, it has Little Shashi! That's worth something. Also, it's a must-see if you're a fan of the Kapoor clan; it's got Prithviraj, Raj, Shashi, and Wikipedia says that "Prithiviraj's father Dewan Bashwanath Kapoor also played a cameo role in his only film appearance." I'm not quite sure, but I have a guess about who he played.
