Monday 10 September 2012




REVIEWS OF AWARA &
TRISHUL


After a long time, yesterday i saw two back to back Hindi movies on TV.   The first one is a more than 60 years old AWARA (1951) and the other one more than 30 years old TRISHUL (1978).





                                                          
AWARA is a very absorbing and at its time a path breaking movie.   Both Raj Kapoor and Prithvi Raj Kapoor (the forefather of the blossoming Kapoor khandaan) were at their best.    Apart from the towering performance of these two, all others too were at their best viz., the magical Nargis-Raj Kapoor chemistry (how i wish our Emraan Hasmi and young crop of actors see this movie and learn how to emote romance on the silver screen without jumping violently on the heroin and smooching at drop of the hat), Shankar Jaikishan’s magical music – songs fantastically rendered by Mukesh and Lata (the all time hits like Awaara hoon, ek bewafase pyaar kiya, Hum tujse mohabat karke sanam, ghar aya mera pardesi, ab raat guzar ne wali hai)and background music  (famous for using 80 pieces live orchestra for the spell binding dream sequence), the great camera work (don’t know who it was) using dim lights, shadows and close ups of Prithvi and Raj Kapoors and extensive use of smoking in clubs and dens to depict the evil side with the great results).     Normally when father and son duo act, it is the father who dominates and hand holds the son who must be very shaky (like Amitabh-Abisek, NTR-Balakrishna, ANR-Nagarjuna, Shivaji Ganesan-Prabhu), but it was to the credit of Raj Kapoor that he held fort, not only stood against Prithvi Rajkapoor, but also stole thunder in many confrontation scenes.     Added to his acting, Raj kapoor, at a very young age,  produced and directed the movie.   The Central theme of movie is so powerful that it has been repeated many times in movies like Dharam karam, Paravarish, Zameer  etc.   Each song was a classic  and  is popular even today.     Apart from being big hit and a cult movie, it has been huge success in USSR and for many years the song `Awara hoon’ was like anthem and Raj Kapoor was the only popular Indian known to them.    When we talk of villain, K N Singh (whom most of the youngster may not be knowing) did a great job, though he could not sustain much after this movie.   


                                
The other film which I saw one more time and enjoyed (after a very long gap) was Amitabh-Sanjeev Kumar starrer Tirshul.    Amitabh was at his peak and on a roll and it is one of his biggest blockbusters and he along with Sanjeev Kumar really spelt magic.   Whereas in Awara,  Raj kapoor was a vagabond in Trushul Amitabh was orphan and both have issues with their respective fathers.      Trishul has a powerful storyline and scorching dialogues by the then undivided Salim-javed Jodi.       The famous confrontations and dialogue baji for which Hindi movies are famous were in full view in Trishul.    Both Amitabh and Sanjeev Kumar were at their best and not giving an inch to the other.      Their performance was unmatched till Shakti was released in which too the magic was re-created between Amitabh and Dilip Kumar (in which both powerful dialogues as well as silence was also used in scenes like when Amitabh comes to meet Dilip kumar after his mother gets killed – the entire scenes was essayed without a dialogue).   Then ofcourse after a long gap it was followed by Mohabatein this time it was a dual between Amitabh and Sharukh Khan.     When Shakti was released Amitabh was praised to skies for being able to stand before towering Dilip Kumar and match dialogue for dialogue and expression for expression.    And in Mohabatein, Sharukh too held his fort admirably especially in the scene where he ends the conversation saying `from where I am seeing you, I find a defeated father standing below the potrate  of his dead daughter)

Coming back to Trishul, the story writers have cleverly shown the hero taking revenge on his father by destroying his business empire through unethical mans and making him pauper since father ditches his mother to become rich.    Amitabh, who was already a `angry young man’ brand at that time, has spilled venom right through in a very polished way and Sanjeev Kumar, as usual, given another sterling performance, graying his hair, closely following Sholay.      Others like Rakhi, Hema Malini, Sacin and Poonam Dhillon are just ornamental.   Prem Chopra, as he has done in every movie, has a punch dialogue at the end, `lijiye sahib yeh raha bandook, woh raha apka vijay, bus aap ko nishana laga ke trigger dabaneka takleef uthani padegi (service at the best as he was engaged to kill Vijay/Amitabh).      With such masala ingredients, as can be expected, it was a huge hit, and one of the land mark movies of Amitabh following Zanjeer, Dweear, Sholay.  
It has that famour song GAPUCHI GAPUCHI GUM GUM ……..which I recently sang with my wife in a family get-together.  


S. PRABHAKAR
10.9.2012

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