| L-R: Satish Kaushik, Anil Kapoor and Anupam Kher in ‘Jamai Raja’ |
As a young child you don’t have much of a choice in terms of what you watch. My time was spent lapping up whatever was there on Doordarshan and DD2 (the more entertaining of the two). There was also DD3 which I give credit for introducing me to the two of Gunmaster G9’s flicks. Getting to the point, I spent a couple of past nights catching up on some blasts from the past. And I have not laughed this hard in a while.
First in the list of movies was the Hema Malini, Anil Kapoor and Madhuri Dixit starrer ‘Jamai Raja’. While this one is not the classic that ‘Beta’ was it still had its moments. Durgeshwari Devi (Malini) vs Jamai Raja (Kapoor), how could it not be entertaining? Some of the promising breaks in the movie which add to the peals of laughter are:
Suhagraat: It’s fascinating how much the character talk about ‘Suhaagraat’. While Durgeshwari Devi (will call her DD for convenience), and her band of buffoons do silly things to stop it from happening, Jamaiji plays underhanded tricks to splash water on the plans. And if it was not enough then there are lengthy and very embarrassingly detailed (for the audience) conversations in the morning about the ‘night’. O stop it! Actually most of the time in the movie is spent talking about someone’s suhaagraat so we can quickly jump to the climax (pun not intended) after this one.
Climax:Suddenly DD finds herself in the middle of nowhere with speedboats and her only grandchild (who she doesn’t really recognize; could be some random child for all you know) hanging from a height ready to be dropped in the water. Oh no! Jamaiji appears from nowhere in a speedboat, catch the child, throwing bombs in all directions (literally). DD is not to be left behind. She jumps in the water, fighting goons with her left hand while the munna is safely in her right. All the while her two son are nowhere to be found and are never seen picking up even a rock. In the end DD finally realizes the faults of her way and Jamai Raja wins the war of the in-Laws. Awww… don’t I love happy endings.
There were a couple of more movies around this one. The most rememberable one being ‘Laadla’. You understand? You better understand. Sridevi’s eyes look like they are going to pop out of her eye sockets. But the one that took the cake in terms of insanity and entertainment was one starring the angry middle aged man. ‘MARD’…. Kyunki Mard ko Dard nahi hota!
Mard, starring Amitabh Bachchan, Amrita Singh and Dara Singh, is this mindboggling entertainer which have a series of event which will leave you desperately looking for some sanity. What else can you expect when the protagonist introduces himself as “Who hi jo har aurat ki zuban pe hota hain” … Mard Mard Mard! And still his long lost mother doesn’t recognize him. I ask you how many babies had Mard carved in on their chest?
Anyhu, the trysts of Mard tangewala and his Ruby tangewali (Amrita Singh) in the pre Independence times is like a big kichidi of bechde maa-baap, angrezi sarkar ka aatank and of course a love story with no sense. Why Ruby falls in love with Raju/Mard just when in the past scene she was torturing him with a whip and salt (yes salt) in a catwoman costume, remains a mystery to me. “She got attracted to his mardangi,” said the person sitting next to me. I had to agree since there was no other reasonable explanation. This is not a writeup to make fun of the movie. Instead I was saying to myself that you can’t find stuff like this anywhere else if you want to. Where else would you find someone holding back an airplane with a rope and a horse? Only Dara Singh could pull that off. No to mention Nirupa Roy hanging from cliff with one hand only a few days after her delivery. But then she is that sherni jisne Mard ko janam diya tha. Hilarious…
Sometimes we just don’t give credit to how outrageous Hindi movies are. Yes, not everything makes sense and why should it? It’s a movie not a documentary. And this is something that you don’t have in Hollywood. The writers just want everything to make sense. Logic should prevail. Why? Just let it be and let the songs roll… Its fun that way. Especially when you are drunk.
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