Jugnu (1973)

I'm not going to come right out and say that any movie with Pran, Dharmendra, and Hema Malini is worth watching, because I'm pretty sure there's some movie out there that would prove me horribly wrong. Still, I'd say it's a pretty good start!

Shyam (Pran) is a freedom fighter in pre-Partition India. His father (Nazir Hussain) disapproves, and in their argument over the subject, Shyam's father disowns him. Shyam defiantly retorts that "Only the weak hide behind their father's names." Before Shyam gets a chance to storm off, the police show up to arrest him.

Thanks to the quick thinking of Shyam's wife, Parvati, and also to some remarkable athletic stunts of his own (he does a flip into the air and dives three stories, landing sitting on his motorcycle), Shyam escapes.

Shyam is that blur high in the air. Impressive, no?

Several years later finds Parvati living with her son, Ashok. Parvati had separated from her father-in-law at the time of Shyam's disappearance and had moved during Partition. Shyam has not located them, but coincidentally, Shyam's father is the one handing out awards at school (and Ashok gets many). He asks Ashok his father's name and is taken aback when he hears, "Only the weak hide behind their father's names."

That day as Ashok heads home, he sees his mother being assaulted by Mr. Ghanshyam Das. He rushes to her rescue, beats the man, and starts to leave. Unfortunately, Ghanshyam shoots at him; Ashok's mother steps in front of Ashok and takes the bullet in the heart. Enraged, Ashok bludgeons Ghanshyam to death before escaping on his horse.

Witnessing the scene is the trusted accountant of Ashok's grandfather, and he figures Shyam's inheritance is now up for grabs. He introduces a kid named Ramesh to Shyam's father, telling him that Ramesh is Shyam's son, and Ramesh is warmly accepted. Spoiled by his adopted grandpa and looking forward to inheriting a fortune, Ramesh (Prem Chopra) grows up to be a drunken dissolute.

Ashok grows up to be Ashok Roy (Dharmendra), a respectable philanthropist who runs an orphanage. He funds his philanthropy by also being Jugnu, a patriotic, mustachioed bandit who steals from bad guys.

Running from the police one day with a suitcase full of diamonds, Ashok runs into the beautiful Seema (Hema Malini) out target shooting. Ashok hides his suitcase in the trunk of her car, so when she drives away he follows and uses a Jugnu disguise to get into her house and retrieve the suitcase (and flirt).

Dharmendra is hysterical in his Jugnu disguises, especially when he's with Seema. Ashok keeps running into Seema, and after a lot of flirting -- and after she finds out he's super rich -- Seema falls for Ashok. Yay! They are super cute together, whether Seema's with Ashok or Jugnu.

Ashok has a prestigious position in society, a pretty girlfriend, and a fun moonlight superhero job, but suddenly his luck changes, and he sees no way out.

In his heartbreak he turns to his one friend, Mahesh (Mehmood), to help him. Mahesh spends half his time helping Ashok and the other half running away from his ringmaster father-in-law who wants him to help train the tigers.

One final heist, Ashok decides, will settle everything . . . .

It's kind of a fun movie, mostly because of Dharmendra's hilarious Jugnu scenes, his chemistry with Hema, and Hema's gorgeousness.

Seriously, how come I don't look like that?

Jaane Anjaane (1971)

I watched this movie a couple weeks ago because I was home sick, and Shammi seemed like just the thing to make me feel better. (I first watched Dil Deke Dekho when I was home sick, and it has been my go-to comfort movie ever since. I figured since the key ingredient was Shammi, I could branch out a little and still get the cure.)

Oh, Shammi. You can tell I'm getting to be a seasoned Bollywood and Shammi fan, because I was really not weirded out that all the girls went for a clearly aging Shammi, even over a young and adorable Vinod Khanna.

In fact, I think I'm beginning to even kind of understand it.

At any rate, the movie starts with Laxmi (Lalita Pawar) praying at the temple for a baby. Immediately she hears crying and discovers an abandoned baby wearing a heart-shaped locket.

The baby's mother (Sulochana Latkar) is shown jumping off a bridge and being rescued, but Laxmi does not see her and brings the baby home. Her husband gets out of jail shortly afterwards, and he welcomes the addition to the home, looking forward to having a son carry on his legacy of hooliganism and petty crime. They name him Ram Prasad and call him Ramu.

Laxmi does her best to raise Ramu to be a good man, but her husband undermines her efforts and encourages their son to skip school and engage in crime.

One day after skipping school and gambling all day, Ramu peers over the wall to see a party, and sees a little girl named Mala give a little boy named Hemat a toy train from Japan for his birthday.

Um, nice reasoning, Ramu.

He breaks in that night to take the train, but Hemat wakes up and fights him for it. The noise raises Hemat's parents, and Hemat's dad would have called the police, but his mother recognizes the locket Ramu wears. She is the mother who gave it to him before she abandoned him and tried to commit suicide. She has him sent away free, in possession of the train set, and probably believing that his theory about everything belonging to him is correct.

Years later, Ramu is still on the wrong side of the law, and while running from the police one day he bumps into a grown-up Mala (Leena Chandavarkar) preparing to dance in a concert. He is smitten by her and, realizing her musicians are no-shows for the event, he happily takes on the job. She accepts his rather weak excuse for this craziness, and is delighted when they continue to run into each other.

They bump into each other when she catches him driving her car (his explanation for that is pitiful, but she buys it) and then at the beach, where Ramu was smuggling and Mala was picnicking with her friends.

Then they run into each other again at the airport, where Ramu has come for another smuggling deal, and where Mala has come with Hemat's parents to receive grown-up Hemat (Vinod Khanna) from studying abroad.

He's so adorable!

And awesome.

No one looks as good with his hand on his hip as Vinod.

Hemat is now a police inspector, and seemed to have been looking forward to developing his (very cute) friendship with Mala into something more. However, when she tells him that she likes someone else, he steps away with no fuss and continues to be a good friend to her. Throughout the movie, he acts with uniform decency, restraint, kindness, and level-headedness. He's pretty much amazing.

Hemat is assigned to shut down the smuggling operations that Ramu works with, and he threatens a dancer (Helen) into giving him some information. He wounds and nearly catches Ramu, but Ramu runs for cover into Hemat's house and is hidden by Hemat's mother, who once again recognizes the locket around his neck.

A little later, Hemat happens to see Ramu out with Mala, and he recognizes him as a wanted man. He meets Mala at her house that day and privately informs her that Ramu has an extensive criminal record. He shows her Ramu's file, suggests that she consider where a relationship like that could lead for her, and bids her good-day without ordering her around, threatening her, or telling her parents. He treats her like an adult who can make her own decisions but deserves to know the facts.

See what I mean? Awesome! That kind of respect is practically unheard of in a Bollywood man. Frankly, this role is not very large -- most of the plot and action revolves pretty tightly around Ramu -- but Vinod manages to give Hemat a sensitivity and a depth (apart from his action-hero awesomeness) that brings him to life. He's a smart man and a decent man, but he's also a man who could totally be one of my brothers.

Actually, my brothers are kind of like that.

At any rate, Mala comes to Ramu heartbroken after Hemat talks to her, and her pleas inspire him to change as neither of his mothers has been able to inspire him.

He decides to go straight, and hands all the smuggling business back to his dad. His dad, with whom he had previously had a great relationship, considers this a rejection of himself and kicks Ramu out, in spite of his mom's tears.

Sad, sad! But I'm so glad that Ramu sticks it out and does the right thing! He starts honest work and he and Mala are happier than ever.

They have this wonderful song as he works. I love it. I love the song, I love them, and I especially love the smiley back-up dancers/coworkers.

Near the end of the movie an unfortunate accident prompts Ramu to make some very bad choices and head into Crazyland (he really could have used a psychiatrist), and that sort of was irritating. It was also irritating how especially in this Crazyland period, but also throughout the movie, Ramu puts all the blame for his actions (and for things that could not be helped) on others. Oh well.

Crazyland notwithstanding, this is still a pretty cute movie.

I wanted to mention, too, Koyli (Sandhya Roy), a side character with a major crush on Ramu. At one point, he has her hide in a water tank because his mother was about to come out on the veranda and find her there with him (trying to get him to like her). It was pretty full, too!

I liked this character. She's spunky and sweet, but Ramu always sees her as that little girl down the street. Oh, well. I always like to think that after the credits, these kind of characters run into Dharmendras or Amitabh Bachchans or Shashi Kapoors and live happily ever after.

It sounds reasonable to me. That's pretty much what my future's going to look like, after all!