Sunday, February 28, 2010

70's week: And everything else...

So what else did the 70's have to offer besides the brilliance of Parvarish which I think has now been captured adequately?

Of course, early 70's were as I understand it, the height of Rajesh Khanna mania. I haven't figured out why yet! Dude's a nice actor, can be charming .. but letters in blood, really? Here he is in Sachaa-Jhutha as a kind-hearted simpleton.

Helen item numbers is something that Parvarish lacks and that I haven't therefore discussed. Here she is, trapping a fly in Inkaar. That foxy woman!

70's was also a time for different cinema, or I should say, not-totally-batshit-actionpacked-masala. Here's a screencap from Achanak, which I really need to rewatch because it's very short and is a poetic, interesting Gulzar movie about taking lives and the paradoxes of it. Young Farida Jalal as Vinod Khanna's nurse was suberbly adorable in this. For more on Gulzar, I refer you to Old is Gold's 70's week post about the director/lyricist.

This quote appears ahead of Mera Gaon Mera Desh, and reflects the change from the gentler films of the past to the more violent, action-filled masala of the 70's. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, what would you think about being quoted to fuel the career of Bollywood's He-man, Dharmendra?

Well, I'm sure greater crimes have been made citing Gandhi. Speaking of Dharam, check out DG's post about his 70's career.

And so we ride off into the sunset..

--but wait, you Hindi film-centric nuisance, you may yell! What about Tamil/Telugu/Malayalam etc films?

Sad to say I haven't seen a single 70's film in languages other than Hindi. I have seen one Tamil film from 1968 and one Telugu film from the early 80's but that's about it. The films are barely available with English subtitles, to find recommendations is difficult and as fascinated as I am with Sivaji Ganesan, I'm not ready to take the plunge and just buy a bunch of his movies...

2 comments:

Daddy's Girl said...

Really enjoyed your 70s week posts, and learned a lot as well. I definitely need to see 'Achanak' soon.

veracious said...

Thanks, I enjoyed yours as well! :)

Achanak is pretty interesting, and also really short. It's 98 minutes, length of a Hollywood film!