Dilli Ka Thug (1958)

Kishore Kumar (Kishore Kumar): a man reduced to poverty and gambling by his father's murder

Asha (Nutan Behl): Kishore's childhood fiancee, whom he has not seen since infancy

Anant Ram (Amar): a manufacturer of false medicines and the murderer of Kishore's father; he has now assumed the identity of Asha's uncle (wearing a prosthetic mask) and writes detective novels

In short, the plot is this: Kishore Kumar uses a disguise as the Prince of Sajampur to get a job with Anant Ram, and also unwittingly ends up with a wallet containing a letter that reveals Anant Ram's true identity. Kishore does not examine the contents of the wallet, but Anant Ram sees him with it and tricks Kishore into writing a suicide note signed with his own name. While Anant Ram bides his time, Kishore does his best to repair the fortunes of his family and woo Asha.

The point of this movie, as far as I can make out, is simply to be a vehicle for Kishore Kumar's irrepressible buffoonery and to showcase Nutan Behl's glowing beauty. The film does a good job at both these things. Kishore Kumar is pretty funny in some places, and Nutan is always stunning.

Unfortunately, they don't really enhance each other, in my opinion. Nutan does a good job of coming around to Kishore (as well as the script allows, anyway), but Kishore . . . . Kishore apparently had a very odd personality, and you can tell from his movies that not all of the bizarreness was acting. You can also tell, I think, that Kishore wasn't that good at relationships. He does a good job at the acting that involves personal emotions, like stress and fear, but when it comes down to relational acting, he looks pretty uncomfortable. He and Nutan have a beautiful love song where Nutan looks loving and radiant. Kishore, on the other hand, looks like he wonders how he ended up there and where the nearest exit is.

The movie also has a few other odd things, like the part where Anant Ram shows up to take Kishore (in his very silly disguise as the Prince of Sajampur) to "the water valley" just after Asha figures out the Prince is Kishore. The valley turns out to be a kind of pond full of girls floating around on intertubes and singing, and then Asha pops up out of the water in a lily kind of thing.

So, I'm puzzled. Why would the Anant Ram have a pond full of singing women, and why would Asha, who was annoyed at that point, show up and sing in it? If it's a dream sequence, why would the Anant Ram come and tell Kishore he was taking him there? Maybe it's actually a show Asha was in (and that was never explained)?

Incidentally, Asha, who seems to spend most of her time at home like normal Indian girls, is not only an international swimming champion and owner of a large medicine company, she also seems to spend a little bit of time being a recreational -- doctor? (I think it's great, too, how often she rescues Kishore. And how swimming gives her colds.)

I don't really understand this movie. I don't really get Kishore Kumar, either, other than that he seems to be the Indian equivalent of Danny Kaye. I love Danny Kaye, and I'm beginning to kind of understand the Kishore Kumar humor better, too, but I still find him rather odd.

But if you're a big fan of Kishore Kumar or Indian slapstick, this is your movie. Or if you can't get enough of Nutan Behl (and I don't really blame you there) and you don't care a ton for a tight plot (this is Bollywood, after all), go ahead and watch Dilli Ka Thug.