In classic Bollywood tradition, Jangal Mein Mangal (1972)
is too much movie to be confined to a single genre. The movie is really
two movies; one is a light-hearted, sunny romantic farce reminiscent of
Love’s Labours Lost, and the other is a groovy madcap mystery that owes a great deal to Scooby Doo.
The two sub-movies are deftly balanced and almost perfectly blended,
but there is a twist that spoils the otherwise irresistible good mood.
The first plot is very simple. Professor Laxmi (Sonia Sahni) and her eight students, accompanied by their chaperon, Sister Sophia (Meena Roy), arrive at a guest house in the forests of Kerala for a botanical study. Laxmi is pleased that there are no men in the immediate vicinity, apart from the servant, Totaram (Paintal), who explicitly doesn’t count. The girls, including the remarkably cute Leela (Reena Roy), tough girl Lata (Meena T.), and Saroj (Jayshree T.), the other one, are less pleased.
Before Laxmi and her students can get properly settled, the other guests arrive: botany professor and confirmed bachelor Retired Colonel M. K. Das (Pran), and his nine male students, most notably talented singer Rajesh (Kiran Kumar), effeminate hippy Raghu (Pran again), and Baldev (Narendra Nath), the other one. And that’s really all you need to know. Of course Das and Laxmi take an instant dislike to one another. Of course there are fights and misunderstandings and wacky schemes and cross dressing. Of course the movie ends with everyone neatly paired off.
The plotline unfolds at a pleasant, leisurely pace, though, and there are a few nice touches; while Das and Laxmi only overcome their differences because she’s a girl and girls are afraid of snakes (tee hee), Laxmi’s students trounce the boys at kabaddi, and then have the chance to sexually harass the boys in song, in a gleeful inversion of Bollywood gender norms.
The other plotline is more complex. A ruined temple has been discovered in the area. The local villagers are ecstatic, but the local Thakur claims that the land and everything on it belongs to him, and that there’s no temple there anyway. He’s perfectly capable of bribing any and all government officials to side with him, so the villagers are out of luck, at least until Rajesh, Raghu, and Baldev decide to get involved.
What the meddling kids don’t know is that the current Thakur’s late brother discovered a treasure trove of valuable statues along with the temple. He usurped his brother (with extreme prejudice!) and kidnapped his manager (and Sophia’s long lost father), Thomas (Balraj Sahni) in order to get his hands on the statues. Thomas refuses to tell him anything, so the Thakur employs a man dressed in an unconvincing ghost costume to scare away the villagers. Naturally, wacky hijinks ensue.
The “ghost” also kills four people; it’s as if Old Man Jenkins finally snapped. The deaths don’t advance the plot, and don’t even advance the Thakur’s evil schemes; it’s a sudden dose of reality in a movie which really doesn’t need it, and the effect is jarring. On the other hand, the characters do acknowledge that people have died before walking into the sunset hand in hand, which is refreshing.
Jangal Mein Mangal attempts to blend two very different stories, and is nearly completely successful. It would have gotten away with it if not for that meddling ghost!
The first plot is very simple. Professor Laxmi (Sonia Sahni) and her eight students, accompanied by their chaperon, Sister Sophia (Meena Roy), arrive at a guest house in the forests of Kerala for a botanical study. Laxmi is pleased that there are no men in the immediate vicinity, apart from the servant, Totaram (Paintal), who explicitly doesn’t count. The girls, including the remarkably cute Leela (Reena Roy), tough girl Lata (Meena T.), and Saroj (Jayshree T.), the other one, are less pleased.
Before Laxmi and her students can get properly settled, the other guests arrive: botany professor and confirmed bachelor Retired Colonel M. K. Das (Pran), and his nine male students, most notably talented singer Rajesh (Kiran Kumar), effeminate hippy Raghu (Pran again), and Baldev (Narendra Nath), the other one. And that’s really all you need to know. Of course Das and Laxmi take an instant dislike to one another. Of course there are fights and misunderstandings and wacky schemes and cross dressing. Of course the movie ends with everyone neatly paired off.
The plotline unfolds at a pleasant, leisurely pace, though, and there are a few nice touches; while Das and Laxmi only overcome their differences because she’s a girl and girls are afraid of snakes (tee hee), Laxmi’s students trounce the boys at kabaddi, and then have the chance to sexually harass the boys in song, in a gleeful inversion of Bollywood gender norms.
The other plotline is more complex. A ruined temple has been discovered in the area. The local villagers are ecstatic, but the local Thakur claims that the land and everything on it belongs to him, and that there’s no temple there anyway. He’s perfectly capable of bribing any and all government officials to side with him, so the villagers are out of luck, at least until Rajesh, Raghu, and Baldev decide to get involved.
What the meddling kids don’t know is that the current Thakur’s late brother discovered a treasure trove of valuable statues along with the temple. He usurped his brother (with extreme prejudice!) and kidnapped his manager (and Sophia’s long lost father), Thomas (Balraj Sahni) in order to get his hands on the statues. Thomas refuses to tell him anything, so the Thakur employs a man dressed in an unconvincing ghost costume to scare away the villagers. Naturally, wacky hijinks ensue.
The “ghost” also kills four people; it’s as if Old Man Jenkins finally snapped. The deaths don’t advance the plot, and don’t even advance the Thakur’s evil schemes; it’s a sudden dose of reality in a movie which really doesn’t need it, and the effect is jarring. On the other hand, the characters do acknowledge that people have died before walking into the sunset hand in hand, which is refreshing.
Jangal Mein Mangal attempts to blend two very different stories, and is nearly completely successful. It would have gotten away with it if not for that meddling ghost!
No comments:
Post a Comment