As Zamana Deewana (1995) opens, Bombay is a war zone.
Suraj (Shatughran Sinha) and Lala (Jeetendra), the city’s top crime
lords, were once close friends but are now sworn enemies, and their
respective gangs have been tearing the city apart. The authorities have
decided that, rather than do anything radical like try to arrest the
dangerous crime lords, it would be best to get Suraj and Lala to patch
things up. To help with this, the Chief Minister appoints Kamdev “K.D.”
Singh (Anupam Kher, with a bad comb-over and what looks like a picture
of Barbarella pasted to his briefcase.)
As K.D. explains to the skeptical Assistant Commissioner of Police (Prem Chopra), the solution is obvious. Suraj has a son, and Lala has a daughter; bring the kids together and they will naturally fall in love and reunite their feuding fathers in the process. And sure enough, Rahul (Shahrukh Khan) and Priya (Raveena Tandon) fall in love and start dancing around trees and quoting ghazals at one another right on schedule. When the young lovers discover that their fathers are mortal enemies, they become even more determined, and after a strange interlude during which K.D. dresses in drag and sings a medley of hit Bollywood songs in order to seduce the respective fathers for reasons that are best not contemplated, the pair threaten suicide unless their fathers agree to patch things up. The fathers promptly agree, and it’s at this point that you realize the movie has only been running for a half an hour.
It turns out we’ve been watching an elaborate fantasy sequence, as K.D. explains the finer points of his plan. (There’s some dialogue soon after to make this absolutely clear, just in case anyone didn’t get it.) The ACP is unimpressed, but with no other options he agrees to the plan and assigns a policewoman, Shalini (Kiran Juneja) to help. K.D. and Shalini track down the real Rahul (a cocky, unemployed layabout with a silly hat who spends his time making bets on random acts of bravado) and Priya (who is engaged to Bobby (Aashif Sheikh), son of her father’s brother-in-law Sundar (Tinnu Annand)). K.D. arranges a meeting, and the pair completely fail to fall in love.
Zamana Deewana isn’t as manic as Ishq, but it seems to be aimed at the same audience. This is not a subtle film. The humor is particularly broad, and much of it is provided by Anupam Kher. K.D. is a bit of a buffoon, especially during the early scenes. He’s also named after the god of love, and emulates his namesake by ogling Shalini throughout the film. In addition to the humor, Zamana Deewana features many of the typical masala ingredients, including young love, scheming relatives, saintly elders, enthusiastic but badly choreographed violence, and a dance number which lovingly focuses on Raveena pressing her cleavage against a glass wall.
Still, the movie isn’t as stupid as it pretends. There are moments of real cleverness, especially after Rahul and Priya finally fall in love and begin behaving like typical Bollywood lovers, forcing K.D. to drag them inside because he knows what dancing in the rain symbolizes. The romantic plotline playfully subverts filmi clichés, K.D.’s fantasy sequence is nicely stylized (despite the presence of Anupam in drag) and the “we can’t get the car started” song is a comic gem.
The DVD cover modestly claims that ”Zamana Deewana is an unqualified stroke of genius and one of the most entertaining movies in recent time.” I don’t know about genius, but it certainly is entertaining.
As K.D. explains to the skeptical Assistant Commissioner of Police (Prem Chopra), the solution is obvious. Suraj has a son, and Lala has a daughter; bring the kids together and they will naturally fall in love and reunite their feuding fathers in the process. And sure enough, Rahul (Shahrukh Khan) and Priya (Raveena Tandon) fall in love and start dancing around trees and quoting ghazals at one another right on schedule. When the young lovers discover that their fathers are mortal enemies, they become even more determined, and after a strange interlude during which K.D. dresses in drag and sings a medley of hit Bollywood songs in order to seduce the respective fathers for reasons that are best not contemplated, the pair threaten suicide unless their fathers agree to patch things up. The fathers promptly agree, and it’s at this point that you realize the movie has only been running for a half an hour.
It turns out we’ve been watching an elaborate fantasy sequence, as K.D. explains the finer points of his plan. (There’s some dialogue soon after to make this absolutely clear, just in case anyone didn’t get it.) The ACP is unimpressed, but with no other options he agrees to the plan and assigns a policewoman, Shalini (Kiran Juneja) to help. K.D. and Shalini track down the real Rahul (a cocky, unemployed layabout with a silly hat who spends his time making bets on random acts of bravado) and Priya (who is engaged to Bobby (Aashif Sheikh), son of her father’s brother-in-law Sundar (Tinnu Annand)). K.D. arranges a meeting, and the pair completely fail to fall in love.
Zamana Deewana isn’t as manic as Ishq, but it seems to be aimed at the same audience. This is not a subtle film. The humor is particularly broad, and much of it is provided by Anupam Kher. K.D. is a bit of a buffoon, especially during the early scenes. He’s also named after the god of love, and emulates his namesake by ogling Shalini throughout the film. In addition to the humor, Zamana Deewana features many of the typical masala ingredients, including young love, scheming relatives, saintly elders, enthusiastic but badly choreographed violence, and a dance number which lovingly focuses on Raveena pressing her cleavage against a glass wall.
Still, the movie isn’t as stupid as it pretends. There are moments of real cleverness, especially after Rahul and Priya finally fall in love and begin behaving like typical Bollywood lovers, forcing K.D. to drag them inside because he knows what dancing in the rain symbolizes. The romantic plotline playfully subverts filmi clichés, K.D.’s fantasy sequence is nicely stylized (despite the presence of Anupam in drag) and the “we can’t get the car started” song is a comic gem.
The DVD cover modestly claims that ”Zamana Deewana is an unqualified stroke of genius and one of the most entertaining movies in recent time.” I don’t know about genius, but it certainly is entertaining.
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