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!

Bandini (1963)

This film has a number of actors I really enjoy, and they all give solid performances. Dharmendra's is particularly -- I want to say, delicate, but that doesn't sound as manly as it should. Each flicker of his face is perfect, with subtle changes that express clearly his preoccupation with his work, his distractions, or his emotions. And Nutan's face has always struck me as not only beautiful but tender and intelligent, and her eyes are invariably expressive and lovely.

The storytelling is exceptional, diving into the plot immediately and continuing steadily, unveiling information bit by bit. We start out with the transfer of a new -- batch? is that the word? -- of lady prisoners to a jail. Kalyani (Nutan) catches the eye of the deputy jailor (Iftekar) because of her great beauty, youth, and quiet dignity.

Shortly after the transfer, one of the lady prisoners becomes ill with tuberculosis, and the jail doctor (Dharmendra) is summoned. The doctor tells the head jailor (Tarun Bose) that he will need someone to stay and look after her, and the jailor requests a volunteer. The other women silently hide behind their blankets, but Kalyani steps forward.

When he takes her papers to put these orders on them, the jailor is shocked to see the crime she is undergoing punishment for -- murdering someone with poison. The doctor asks about his reaction and learns about her crime.

The young (and handsome!) doctor, however, is an unusually kind, loving, and forgiving man, and he withholds judgment.

During the illness of the patient, the doctor begins to fall in love with the melancholy and mysterious Kalyani, but she begins to avoid him. Eventually she tells him that associating with her would be bad for him and that her past is incompatible with a happy future with him. The doctor sadly resigns and returns to his hometown. The jailor, who sympathizes with both, tries to intercede for him and begs Kalyani to tell him her story. She does.

Kalyani's past includes a freedom fighter (Ashok Kumar), a string of very bad luck, an incident of nobidity, and a moment of insanity. "Nobidity" is a word I just made up. It means "an act that a character believes is noble but is in fact simple stupidity; the making of a pointless sacrifice for someone, generally in direct opposition to what that person wants; a plot device that greatly aggravates Bollywood viewers."

So the nobidity part was a bit aggravating, and I'm not really sure how I feel about the ending. But still, the movie was unusually well scripted, intelligently told, and finely acted. Camera work, music, too -- everything was above par in this movie, with meaty, "artistic" undertones that add to rather than distract from the main storyline.

Whether or not you agree with everything the movie is saying is another question, but it certainly is beautifully told.

With lots of beautiful people.

Isn't Nutan just the cutest thing?

Just Married (2007)

The honeymoon of an arranged marriage couple. Very awkward. (Unfortunately I didn't take any screen shots of this. Sorry.)

Abhay (Fardeen Khan) is the groom -- a playful, kind man. Abhay is written to be very likable, I think, but something about the way Fardeen Khan played him was off-putting to me -- I didn't like him much. Ritika (Esha Deol) is the bride -- an accomplished, educated woman, but one still very uncomfortable around men, her new husband included. Being somewhat socially backward myself, I related probably too well to Ritika's freezing up at physical contact.

The two of them are sent off to honeymoon in Tamil Nadu at a resort, and they become friends with the other couples honeymooning at the same hotel. Everybody has a story, and all of them combine to give a portrait of love and marriage.

And awkwardness.

I watched this with my Mom and Dad, and I think they liked it fairly well. As far as I was concerned, though, what wasn't awkward was pretty forgettable. Still, it looked like a fairly accurate portrayal of the way an arranged marriage might start, so if that interests you, don't let me get in your way.

I Hate Luv Storys (2010)

To quote 27 Dresses, "A man who doesn't believe in marriage? How refreshing!"

Yeah, it's not a new idea. And the filmmakers were clearly aware of that. They intentionally play off every cliche in the book.

And they try to spin it off a little, but it doesn't really work. It ends up okay. Nothing great, nothing terrible.

Jay (Imran Khan) is assistant director to the director of great love stories, Veer (Samir Soni), but Jay is not a believer in love. So when he has to work with the love-obsessed set director, Simran (Sonam Kapoor), they don't see things eye-to-eye at first. But then they become friends, and then love happens, although Jay is somewhat romantically retarded and it takes him forever to realize and accept the fact. And then a bit for Simran to decide to go with it, too.

My favorite part is Rajiv, the guy who plays the actor in the film they are making. In spite of being rather self-absorbed -- he stops Jay outside an elevator at one point to point out to him how good his own tight jeans make his butt look -- he is also a good friend to Jay. He pulls him aside and gives him encouragement and advice about love when he realizes Jay is in love with Simran, telling him that girls are like buses -- they come and go, but only one bus will take you home.

And my favorite part of the whole movie, by far, actually, was when Rajiv gets Jay admitted to the party where Simran will be at the end, and Jay runs and gives him a big hug and tells him thank you in the best way he can.

Rajiv looks surprised at first, but immediately smiles and accepts the compliment.

I don't know what that tells you about me, but that was the only thing in the movie that surprised a grin out of me, (partially because I love Rajiv's response -- I think it's adorable. For some reason, there are few things I find as delightfully whimsical as narcissism. In films anyway, and when used for comic effect.)

Well, that's about it. Other than that I wish Bollywood (and Hollywood, too) would get tired of the Casanova hero, because I am.