Deewana Mastana (1997)

Bollywood has seen many intense love triangle movies - Sangam, Silsila, Saagar, Ram Avtar, Chandni, etc. This is also a love triangle but since it’s a David Dhawan film, this feature alone carries it several notches above the run-of-the-mill love triangle - it’s a comedy.

FIRST HALF

Storyline

Raja and Gaffoor (Anil Kapoor and Johnny Lever) are minor league crooks who black-market railway tickets. They dream of living the sweet life, and come across an old colleague Inspector Mhatre (Avtar Gill) who despite being a policeman is a crook like them. The trio plan to rob 25 Lakhs in Mhatre’s custody. The plan is that if Raja and Gaffoor rob the 25 Lakhs then Mhatre can conduct the investigation on them and plant false information. During the robbery, Raja and Gaffoor double cross Mhatre and run away with all the booty.

Raja and Gaffoor move to Bombay, and Raja sees psychiatrist Dr Neha (Juhi Chawla). Love at first sight. Raja takes Gaffoor as a patient to Neha and through one conversation, Neha starts to see Raja in a good light. Gaffoor urges Raja to start friendship because if he starts love first, he will fall flat on his face.

At the same time, Bunnu (Govinda) is introduced. His dad Birju (Anupam Kher) is trying to convince him to jump in the swimming pool however Bunnu is too scared. Bunnu has an appointment booked with Dr Neha and is scared to go into the lift. In Bunnu and Neha’s appointment, we learn Bunnu has a phobia of multiple things; fire, water, running and heights. Due to Bunnu, Neha cancels a meeting with Raja - twice.

Neha’s uncle (Shakti Kapoor) has eloped with a girl (Upasna Singh) so Neha’s dad Nandkishore Sharma (Saeed Jaffrey) suggests they all go to Ooty to convince the girl’s parents to accept the union. Neha tells her secretary (Guddi Maruti) that she’s going on holiday and no one should find out where she’s going. Raja and Gaffoor dress up as police inspectors and force the secretary to divulge her whereabouts, whereas Bunnu disguises as a police commissioner and does the same thing.

Raja and Bunnu reach Ooty and Raja saves Bunnu’s life. Raja takes Bunnu to Neha’s house not realising he is Bunnu. The trio go to a disco where some goons attempt to tease Neha. Later, Raja beats them up in a bathroom and accidentally loses the chain he stole from Bunnu. The goons arrive at Neha’s house to apologise and return the chain. Neha ends up believing Bunnu smashed them and starts taking more of a liking to him whereas Raja vents his frustration in alcohol.

Gaffoor directs Bunnu to a den that’s about to be blasted by a bomb. Bunnu escapes and realises Gaffoor was trying to murder him so there’s no obstacle in Raja and Neha’s way.

Tracks and Songs

Despite the story sounding serious, the comedic track here is good. The initial scenes with Anil Kapoor and Johnny Lever are good. Johnny Lever advising Anil Kapoor is funny. Govinda’s entry scene is funny and Anupam Kher’s expressions make it all the more hilarious. The police disguise scene and Shakti Kapoor’s first scene is funny. The scene where Anil Kapoor gets drunk is hilarious.

The romantic track is merged with the comedic track, so there’s not that much romantic scenes except the way Juhi likes Anil and Govinda. The song "Yeh Gaya Woh Gaya" is pleasant to listen to and Anil and Juhi’s costumes blend well with the background. The song "Tere Bina Dil" is short but it’s really good. It has both leads dreaming about Juhi. The song "Oh Mummy Mummy Oh Daddy Daddy" sounds stupid but it’s a good song about Govinda dreaming about Juhi. The lyrics are also heartfelt for Govinda’s character. The dance steps are good, due to it being a Govinda song.

There’s no scope for the action but there’s two action scenes. The break-in to the police station with Anil and Johny taking on the police constables was awesome. The bathroom fight scene was brilliantly handled and I thought it was quite imaginative.   

Acting

Govinda’s character seemed quite serious to me because he seems to take his condition quite seriously and his parents seem genuinely worried for him. However he has his funny moments and as the film goes on, I started to find him quite funny because there wasn’t that much emphasis on his condition. As of now, he isn’t as funny as the others.

Juhi Chawla looks pretty and quite smart. Her costumes are good and she matches steps with both leads in the songs. Her acting doesn’t make her look like a slut stringing along the heroes, like nowadays. And that’s the best thing about her acting. 

Anil Kapoor is awesome. He carried out the two action scenes convincingly. He carries off his one liners in his fun fashion. His character is a good lair, and his expressions in those scenes are great. He gels well with the comedic setup.

Johnny Lever is too good. He’s not overly loud and isn’t forced in the film. His advice to Anil, his threatening Guddi Maruti or how he acts like a mental patient are all funny. If I’m not wrong, he won the Filmfare Best Comedian Award. 

Anupam Kher is funny. The scene where Govinda makes him walk 13 floors instead of going into the lift is hilarious. I like him in all the scenes he’s got so far.  

Avtar Gill is funny in the scenes and displays an affinity for the comic genre. Anil Kapoor beating him was funny.

Shakti Kapoor is funny. Saeed Jaffrey is alright. Reema Lagoo is as usual in her miniscule screentime.

Overall Opinion

In the second half, I’m expecting more comic scenes especially Govinda and more good songs.

SECOND HALF

Storyline

Raja finds out Bunnu is scared of water so he pushes him into a swimming pool. Gaffoor pushes a boulder into Bunnu and inadvertently cures his running phobia. Bunnu cuts the brakes of Raja’s motorbike and tries to hire Pappu Pager (Satish Kaushik) to kill Raja but that fails as well. Then both get their hands on a trump card to outwit each other. Raja hires a hooker Tina (Pratibha Sinha) to seduce Bunnu and she succeeds using some magic potion whereas Inspector Mhatre has returned to Bombay on the lookout for Raja and ends up asking his whereabouts from - Bunnu.

At the climax, Neha calls Raja and Bunnu to court, apparently with the purpose of marriage. Armed with rings and garlands, both arrive and are surprised to find the other there. Then they find out, Neha is getting married to someone else, Prem (Salman Khan) and Raja and Bunnu end up being witnesses to her marriage. Neha and Prem drive off in the sunset whilst Raja and Bunnu are left watching each other’s face.

In the last seconds, Raja and Bunnu see another girl (Raveena Tandon) and try to serenade her.

Tracks and Songs

There’s no action track here. The romantic track isn’t much given importance but it’s handled decent. The song "Dil Chahe Kisise Pyar Karoon" is a pleasure to listen to and is funny because Anil Kapoor and Johnny Lever are spying on Govinda and Juhi Chawla. The song "Head Ya Tail" is great because the lyrics are good, the picturisation is funny and the beats are awesome. The song "Tere Bina Dil" is reprised again and sounds better in the climax. The "Hungama Ho Gaya" song is a typical Suhaag Raat type song that can only be found in David Dhawan’s world. Govinda’s dancing in this song is tremendous.

The comedic track is better here. Anil Kapoor’s angry expressions at funny whether it’s the "Head Ya Tail" song or Juhi’s badminton match where he threatens Govinda. Govinda dancing in front of the boulder or crashing into his house’s wall was laugh-out-loud. The scene Anil and Govinda threaten each other using their titles of their film names. Overall I enjoyed the comedy scenes in the 2nd half.

Acting

Anil Kapoor is superb throughout. Whether he’s expressing love towards Juhi or losing his temper at Johnny Lever, he is at his best. The best thing is that he matches Govinda and Johnny Lever in their comic timing. He is in his comfort zone because he plays a Tapori.

Govinda delivers a fantastic performance. Whether he’s dancing in front of the boulder or running around his house, he is brilliant. He carries off the imitation of Dilip Kumar with ease. I must add, his dance steps in the songs are awesome, as usual.

Juhi Chawla looks even prettier than the first half. Her pink salwar khameez makes her look adorable and his looks in the climax are to kill for. She does well and compliments both characters well.  

Johnny Lever is hilarious. His actions in the "Dil Chahe Kisise Pyar Karoon" and the "Hungama Ho Gaya" song are fab.

Anupam Kher is top notch. His scenes with Govinda and Avtar Gill was funny.

Shakti Kapoor is funny in that one scene where Johnny Lever gets the chicken stuck in his mouth.

Pratibha Sinha is ok. Her expressions are decent, especially in the "Hungama Ho Gaya" song.

Satish Kaushik has a cameo. He totally owns those scene with his Tapori styled dialog.

Salman Khan has a friendly appearance towards the end. He looks decent and his role is a throwback to his Sooraj Barjatya characters.

Kader Khan has a friendly appearance towards the end, as expected of David Dhawan films. He is decent as the lawyer who gets Juhi Chawla and Salman Khan married.

Overall Opinion

All in all, I’d give 6.5 out of 10. The comic timing of the film is really good. It’s refreshing to see a love triangle that doesn’t have superficial sacrifices and one can tell, future films will follow the comedic love triangle established by Deewana Mastana. The film is watchable, even today. 

Pukar (1983)

There are loads of Amitabh Bachchan blockbusters released throughout the 70s and 80s when he was top of the industry. Pukar’s a watchable flick but if you have all of Amitji’s movies at your behest don’t pick this one.

FIRST HALF

Storyline

Purandare (Shreeram Lagoo), Narvekar (P. Jairaj) and Dinanath (Sudhir Dalvi) are part of a separatist group that aims to rid Goa’s territories of the Portuguese. In a shootout with the Portuguese police, Purandare and Dinanath are injured. Dinanath asks Purandare to shoot him because he doesn’t want to die by the hands of the Portuguese. Purandare kills him at Dinanath’s behest. This is witnessed by Dinanath’s son Ramdas who gets the wrong idea that Purandare killed him.

Ramdas runs away to Mr Dayanand (Om Shivpuri) who shelters him. Portuguese police arrive again and seemingly kill Dayanand and his wife for Ramdas’ whereabouts. In the next scene, Purandare arrives to Dayanand’s house in search for Ramdas. Ramdas takes one look at Purandare and runs away. I was a bit confused because the Portuguese police seemingly killed him by stomping their foot on his throat and in the next scene, he just has minor bruises. Even the background score made it look like he died. Anyway, I’m not that bothered about that yet.

Ramdas changes his name to Ronnie to avoid association with Indian revolutionaries. He is teased by a few kids about his name and the following fight fast forwards 2 decades. Ramdas/Ronnie grows up to be a lanky, career criminal (predictably Amitabh Bachchan) who has a babe girlfriend Julie (Zeenat Aman). Ronnie helps out another criminal Hasmok (Sujit Kumar) evade capture from Police Inspector Monteiro (Prem Chopra). The name Hasmok came from IMDB because I don’t remember Ronnie or anyone addressing him as Hasmok.  

Ronnie teams up with Hasmok to help smuggle gold. Ronnie steals gold from Monteiro in a hilarious scene. Later Hasmok betrays Ronnie to Monteiro’s gang leading to a car chase, a rape attempt on Julie by Hasmok and Ronnie killing Hasmok. Ronnie establishes himself as the boss of the smuggling syndicate and comes with a mustache, shades, a castle and helicopter.

Ronnie comes across Purandare once again - Purandare’s gang wants ammunition to help their revolution against the Portuguese. Ronnie betrays them to the police twice and in the second encounter, Purandare loses his life.

Also introduced in the first half yet kept aside is Shekhar (Randhir Kapoor), Dayanand’s son. Shekhar also has a girlfriend Usha (Tina Munim) and is prepared to go to London for further studies. Shekhar also has a cool relationship with Purandare and often questions why Purandare is a revolutionary, to which Purandare answers with a patriotic speech. It’s not a clichéd speech because it mentions patriotism being an adrenaline rush, nothing too holy or jingoistic. After witnessing Purandare’s death, Shekhar takes on the baton and becomes a revolutionary.

Tracks and Songs

The romance tracks have been rushed. Tina Munim is introduced in the same breath as Randhir Kapoor and they haven’t got a duet together. Even in the song "Jaane Jigar", it’s just Tina swooning in Randhir’s arms. No explanation is given as to how they know each other. Amitabh and Zeenat have two songs "Samundar Mein Naha Ke" and "Tu Maika Mat Jaiyo". "Samundar Mein Naha Ke" has Zeenat Aman predictably singing on a beach considering her sex symbol status. The latter is forced yet its notable because it’s sung by the Big B. The "Jaane Jigar" song is the best song of the first half because of the BGM and the chemistry between Kishore Kumar and R.D. Burman.

The action track is above average. Amitji’s warehouse fight and the car chase are excellently handled. The camera shots in the car chase are cool. 

Thankfully there are no annoying comedy subplots.

Acting

Amitabh Bachchan is boring in the scenes where he’s in discussion with Zeenat Aman or Sujit Kumar because his expressions look tired and the dialogues lack interest. Also his wardrobe isn’t that good. For the songs, he wears better clothes. On the other hand, his action is good as always and his character garners more interest when he becomes the boss because he exudes more confidence and his moustache looks cool. His song wardrobe is better than his film wardrobe and his dance steps in "Jaane Jigar" are good. The flashback to Shreeram Lagoo shooting his dad is good because it works as a driving force to his hate for the revolutionaries.

Zeenat Aman’s hair is just about ok. She looks decent in the songs and hasn’t got much scope to perform. Had I been the director, I would have told Zeenat to slap and kick Sujit Kumar when he attempts to rape her because it gives her character more gusto.

Randhir Kapoor isn’t give much importance but towards the end of the first half, you can tell his character will be pivotal to the second half. He’s good in the two or three scenes he gets and he’s decent in the "Jaane Jigar" song.

Tina Munim’s appearance is pretty short and I hope the 2nd half makes better use of her. She looks pretty and her wardrobe in the "Jaane Jigar" song is exotic.

Shreeram Lagoo is decent. I liked his getup in the rest of the movie. His character attracts interest and his death scene is slightly unexpected because I assumed he’d live long enough to tell Amitabh the truth.

Sujit Kumar and Om Shivpuri are just about ok. They’re not out of the world but the role’s been shaped like that.

Prem Chopra was great. His expressions when Amitabh robs him are hilarious. He plays a policeman who conducts deals with smugglers and kills revolutionaries. I assumed he’s a positive character because he was a policeman but the script defied my expectations.

Overall opinion

For now the film is watchable. Action is good, a few jokes are cracked here and there. In the second half I'll observe Ronnie, Shekhar, Usha and Monteiro more closely.

SECOND HALF

Storyline

Shekhar quickly gets involved into the action. He steals Ronnie’s gold, frees a rebel (Viju Khote) from hospital, assassinates the Portuguese police chief and is sentenced to be hanged, all while making Ronnie his number one enemy. The fact that everyone likes Shekhar than Ronnie makes Ronnie even angrier. He goes to kill Shekhar’s parents for whatever random reason and finds out they are the same people who sheltered him when the police was after him in childhood. This makes him understand why Purandare killed his father in childhood and he swears to save Shekhar from the death sentence. In a climactic battle, Ronnie and Shekhar succeed in killing the Portuguese.

Tracks and Songs

There is no comedic track and the pace is faster than the first half and much more serious. The action track is well handled. There’s a Shekhar vs police chase in the hospital, fist fight between Ronnie and Shekhar and the climax which features an aerial dogfight, shootout, swordfight as well as Ronnie and Shekhar avoiding bullets.

The romantic track isn’t heavily explored except for the song where Julie distracts Ronnie from going upstairs. Usha doesn’t enjoy any more presence than the first half, thus deleting any romanticism we could have expected from her and Shekhar. "Tu Mere Liye" is bearable because it gives a chance for Julie to prove useful. "Bachke Rehna Re Baba" is the best song of the 2nd half. The lyrics show how well placed the song is and we get to enjoy Kishore Ji-R.D. Burman Ji singing together with the added bonus of Asha Bhosle Ji. "Maarein Ge Ya Mar Jaayenge" is the last song and is there just to help Ronnie save Shekhar.

Acting

Randhir Kapoor enjoys much more screen time in the 2nd half and does a superb job. If it weren’t for him, the film would have dragged. His presence drives the story rather than his acting. However his scenes with Zeenat, his parents are an example of his talent.

Zeenat Aman gets three more songs and stands out in the scene where she confronts Ronnie for being an asshole and getting Shekhar arrested. Her character switches allegiance so she proves more of an asset to Shekhar’s revolution. On top of that, she provides glamour. She looks pretty and in a few scenes, she brings back her long hair that I like her for. 

Tina Munim is overall wasted. The scene where she arrives at Shekhar’s house to fulfil her duty of being a good daughter-in-law is just forced and unnecessary because it doesn’t give her the chance to do anything worthwhile. The only chance she gets to serve her purpose of being glamour is the song "Bachke Rehna Re Baba".

Prem Chopra doesn’t get that much screen time as I thought. All he does is chase Shekhar and deliver a few lines at Shekhar’s hanging. Nothing much. To some extent he isn’t the villain, it’s Amitabh!

Om Shivpuri gets a chance to shine in the scene where he praises Ronnie for getting his son captured. It’s a good scene because he’s not all melodramatic like the typical films.

Sharat Saxsena is likeable. He gets a few more lines of dialog, making him a cut above the usual filmi henchman.

And last but not least, Amitabh Bachchan! He is the villain for most of the film because he gets revolutionaries killed and arrested and all he cares about his name and wealth. Until his wakeup call, his character practically cares about nothing. He is at his usual ease with the action and dancing. The scene where he goes into his village’s house to search for Shekhar was an example of how his larger than life presence. The way he figured out Purandare’s real motive of shooting his dad lacked imagination because Purandare’s death doesn’t mean anything to him later on in the movie. His repentance seemed hollow and rushed probably because the filmmakers had to bring him on the good side otherwise the film’s collections may have suffered if he was the villain. His character switching sides almost harms Randhir Kapoor’s role because it just shows that Amitabh was enough to finish off the Portuguese and all the revolutionaries dying means nothing. I was a bit confused towards the end if he died or not because he was shot by 3 bullets yet he seemed alive.    

Overall opinion

I’d say about 5.5/10. What I liked about the film was Amitabh Bachchan’s and Randhir Kapoor’s effort at rising above the uneven script that makes the film boring in parts of the first half. What I didn’t like about the film was the underutilization of the heroines and some of the supporting characters. 

If remade in today’s times, the action scenes would be far more polished because the action scenes in this film were above average - for its time. Only because the 80s is best remembered for its South Indian-styled action. If remade in today’s times, the film would have been a love triangle with Ronnie, Julie and Shekhar and Ronnie’s change from bad to good would have been a more gradual transition.

All in all, a watchable time pass flick. Though don’t go with high expectations because you’re likely to be disappointed.