Disclaimer: these comments reflect only my own tastes, feelings and ignorance. I like watching Bollywood DVDs (among other reasons), for the option to play just the songs. They often (but not always!) make more sense in the context of the plot, but what I'm really interested in are the musical numbers. If I don't like the music, I probably won't like the film. As a United Statesian, I am pretty clueless about Indian culture, except that I like watching these films. I've enjoyed watching the films of the Kapoor dynasty; Raj is my fave, but little bro Shammi is fun, too. He has a reputation as the Indian Elvis. I think this is more evident in other films where he adopts a more western style. Here the music sounds more traditionally Indian (except for the "Spanish" number), with great playback singing by Mukesh, Rafi, Lata & her little sister Usha. I wonder who did the voice for Shammi's drag number?
As far as I know, Shammi is straight, a family man and all that, but the first time I saw him, perhaps in scenes from Teesri Manzil, he set off my gaydar. I immediately suspected my cultural ignorance, but his moves can be so fey that to these eyes he looked like a big queen. Hey, I'm not knocking it! Like Elvis, he is provocative, with strange twitches. So I was delighted in this film to find he had a musical number as female impersonator. He seems to be having fun. I think the person seated almost immediately behind him in this scene may also be a man dressed in woman's clothing.
But my favorite Shammi dance number in this film is when he joins a procession singing a song about Govinda. He gets to display his abandon in a "wet" scene, and then climb a human pyramid to reach a pot.
Pran, the eternal villain, gets to do a little dancing, and in the picnic number he even smiles like he might actually be having fun, rather than his usual sadistic leer. However, he has plenty of creepy smiles in a later song when he dances with Saira Banu in the "Spanish" number, she in a fabulous gown and Pran brandishing a whip. Throughout the film his character wipes his nose with his hand, perhaps to make him more disgusting, but he did it so often that I wondered if his character was cokey. (Again, cultural bias.)
I also like the accordion in the soundtrack.
Plus, Saira sure looks cute holding a sitar, her bare toe taping in the foreground.
As far as I know, Shammi is straight, a family man and all that, but the first time I saw him, perhaps in scenes from Teesri Manzil, he set off my gaydar. I immediately suspected my cultural ignorance, but his moves can be so fey that to these eyes he looked like a big queen. Hey, I'm not knocking it! Like Elvis, he is provocative, with strange twitches. So I was delighted in this film to find he had a musical number as female impersonator. He seems to be having fun. I think the person seated almost immediately behind him in this scene may also be a man dressed in woman's clothing.
But my favorite Shammi dance number in this film is when he joins a procession singing a song about Govinda. He gets to display his abandon in a "wet" scene, and then climb a human pyramid to reach a pot.
Pran, the eternal villain, gets to do a little dancing, and in the picnic number he even smiles like he might actually be having fun, rather than his usual sadistic leer. However, he has plenty of creepy smiles in a later song when he dances with Saira Banu in the "Spanish" number, she in a fabulous gown and Pran brandishing a whip. Throughout the film his character wipes his nose with his hand, perhaps to make him more disgusting, but he did it so often that I wondered if his character was cokey. (Again, cultural bias.)
I also like the accordion in the soundtrack.
Plus, Saira sure looks cute holding a sitar, her bare toe taping in the foreground.
