Rather than jump straight into my review of Dillagi, I’m going to take a moment and talk about two of the actresses.
First, Zohra Sehgal. Zohra’s had a very long film career, spanning from 1946 to the present day. Since most of the BW movies I’ve seen have been fairly recent, I have up until today only seen her in character parts as an aged relative. Still, even with the bit pasts, she’s distinctive enough that I can recognize her; my Mother and I had been calling her “everybody’s Grandmother” up until now. She’s actually got a fairly big part in Dillagi, which prompted me to investigate further, and I find that she’s rather effortlessly crossed between Hindi and Western movies and back over a span of decades, from a Yul Brynner film in 1967 to the recent Bend It Like Beckham. And if that weren’t cool enough, she also appeared in Doctor Who way back in ‘63. She’s a neat lady, and I’ll be keeping her in mind should I ever play “Six Degrees of Shah Rukh Khan.”
Now on to the heroine of tonight’s film, Urmila Matondkar. The first Bollywood movie I ever saw was a film called Rangeela. I was transfixed, and a large part of the reason why was Urmila’s luminous performance as a young aspiring actress who suddenly gets her big break. If it weren’t for that performance, i don’t know if I would be here talking about Bollywood at all.
Anyway. On to tonight’s picture. I’m not going to spend a lot of time setting up the plot, since Dillagi’s plot is actually relatively simple. Real life brothers Sunny and Bobby Deol play brothers Ranvir and Rajvir (or ‘Rocky’) respectively. Ranvir is the responsible one. After the death of their mother, he’s been taking care of his brother, but still found time to open the first of what he hopes will be a chain of hotels. Rocky is spoiled and irresponsible; he drinks, smokes, gets into fights, and toys with the hearts of the lovely young women at his college.
One of these young women is Shalini, played by Urmila. Shalini falls hard for Rocky, despite the best efforts of her cousin and his band of friends. Rocky plays along with her infatuation, but there are hints that he’s developing deep feelings for her as well. It’s hard to tell, though, since he’s just a jerk.
Ranvir, meanwhile, catches a glimpse of a beautiful woman walking down the street during a rainstorm, and it’s love at first sight. Later he encounters her again while escorting his grandmother (Zohra Sehgal) to a sangeet ceremony, and he’s even more in love. Grandmother sees his lovesickness, makes a few calls, and locates the girl’s family. Soon Ranvir is on his way to meet the lovely . . . Shalini. Yes, that Shalini.
Rocky is another good example of the moral nature of the universe in Bollywood films. While you catch the occasional glimpse potential goodness, for most of the film he’s a jerk. Eventually he suffers, and it’s clear that his suffering is a direct result of his previous jerkiness; in the end, he reforms, and is rewarded for his reformation. Maybe rewarded a little too generously, if you ask me. But there’s no doubt that the reformation is genuine.
And there’s not much more to say. Dillagi is really standard Bollywood fare. The plot is obviously inspired by Sabrina, but for once it’s very different from the film that inspired it. (One of these days I need to do an article about Bollywood palgiarisms I’ve seen.) Preity Zinta, my personal favorite actress, makes a quick cameo appearance as the “consolation prize” for the brother who fails to win Shalini. And the songs are good, though this was my first exposure to Bollywood musical plagiarism; I caught chunks of melody lifted from “Mony Mony” and “I Can’t Take My Eyes Off You”, and there may have been others.
First, Zohra Sehgal. Zohra’s had a very long film career, spanning from 1946 to the present day. Since most of the BW movies I’ve seen have been fairly recent, I have up until today only seen her in character parts as an aged relative. Still, even with the bit pasts, she’s distinctive enough that I can recognize her; my Mother and I had been calling her “everybody’s Grandmother” up until now. She’s actually got a fairly big part in Dillagi, which prompted me to investigate further, and I find that she’s rather effortlessly crossed between Hindi and Western movies and back over a span of decades, from a Yul Brynner film in 1967 to the recent Bend It Like Beckham. And if that weren’t cool enough, she also appeared in Doctor Who way back in ‘63. She’s a neat lady, and I’ll be keeping her in mind should I ever play “Six Degrees of Shah Rukh Khan.”
Now on to the heroine of tonight’s film, Urmila Matondkar. The first Bollywood movie I ever saw was a film called Rangeela. I was transfixed, and a large part of the reason why was Urmila’s luminous performance as a young aspiring actress who suddenly gets her big break. If it weren’t for that performance, i don’t know if I would be here talking about Bollywood at all.
Anyway. On to tonight’s picture. I’m not going to spend a lot of time setting up the plot, since Dillagi’s plot is actually relatively simple. Real life brothers Sunny and Bobby Deol play brothers Ranvir and Rajvir (or ‘Rocky’) respectively. Ranvir is the responsible one. After the death of their mother, he’s been taking care of his brother, but still found time to open the first of what he hopes will be a chain of hotels. Rocky is spoiled and irresponsible; he drinks, smokes, gets into fights, and toys with the hearts of the lovely young women at his college.
One of these young women is Shalini, played by Urmila. Shalini falls hard for Rocky, despite the best efforts of her cousin and his band of friends. Rocky plays along with her infatuation, but there are hints that he’s developing deep feelings for her as well. It’s hard to tell, though, since he’s just a jerk.
Ranvir, meanwhile, catches a glimpse of a beautiful woman walking down the street during a rainstorm, and it’s love at first sight. Later he encounters her again while escorting his grandmother (Zohra Sehgal) to a sangeet ceremony, and he’s even more in love. Grandmother sees his lovesickness, makes a few calls, and locates the girl’s family. Soon Ranvir is on his way to meet the lovely . . . Shalini. Yes, that Shalini.
Rocky is another good example of the moral nature of the universe in Bollywood films. While you catch the occasional glimpse potential goodness, for most of the film he’s a jerk. Eventually he suffers, and it’s clear that his suffering is a direct result of his previous jerkiness; in the end, he reforms, and is rewarded for his reformation. Maybe rewarded a little too generously, if you ask me. But there’s no doubt that the reformation is genuine.
And there’s not much more to say. Dillagi is really standard Bollywood fare. The plot is obviously inspired by Sabrina, but for once it’s very different from the film that inspired it. (One of these days I need to do an article about Bollywood palgiarisms I’ve seen.) Preity Zinta, my personal favorite actress, makes a quick cameo appearance as the “consolation prize” for the brother who fails to win Shalini. And the songs are good, though this was my first exposure to Bollywood musical plagiarism; I caught chunks of melody lifted from “Mony Mony” and “I Can’t Take My Eyes Off You”, and there may have been others.
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