Review of the film 8*10 Tasveer

Review of the film 8*10 Tasveer.

Director Nagesh Kukunoor had experimented with an abstract subject in the film 8*10 Tasveer. Akshay Kumar used to be considered the safest actor of bollywood in 2008 after he gave hits after hits. But his film Chandni Chowk to China did not do great business and his fans expected a lot from 8*10 Tasveer.

The film opened with acrobatic stunts of Akshay Kumar, as he ran through a forest, jumped off a cliff, landed in water, stayed under it for sometime in reference to a bear trap. Akshay Kumar initially showed his inclination to become an environment warrior. But when his wealthy father (Benjamin Ghilani) fell off a boat in the presence of his wife played by Sharmila Tagore and died, Akshay Kumar became serious. In fact his father died even in front of his business partner played by Girish Karnad.

Javed Jaffery, the detective in the film convinced Akshay Kumar that his father had not died, but was murdered with previous planning and intelligent execution. Akshay Kumar studied and examined the last photograph of his father. He saw the picture of three of the business partners sitting with his father in the boat.

He tried to study four of them in the photo frame and realize what was there in their mind when they hatched up the plan of murder of his father. The rest of the film hovered around the solving of the murder mystery. Obviously the film had a number of romantic scenes with good locations as well.

The romantic performance of Ayesha Takia opposite Akshay Kumar is worth mentioning. After a long time Ayesha Takia got a prominent role opposite the leading star of bollywood. Even Javed Jaffery’ relief performance in respect of the hyderabadi spoken in the film was also impressive.

But the biggest problem with the film lied in the fact that it was too slow. Nagesh Kukunoor’s treatment relating to murder mystery could not shape in the manner crime thrillers like Race were made earlier by Abbas Mastan. The music of the film was also ordinary.

Inspite of all these factors if the film does good business then it will be the sheer box-office of Akshay Kumar which does not fail often in the recent times.

Jis Desh Me Ganga Behti Hai created a trend of dacoit-oriented films.

Jis Desh Me Ganga Behti Hai created a trend of dacoit-oriented films.

Raj Kapoor’s film Jis Desh Me Ganga Behti Hai created a trend in bollywood films to make movies on the subject related to dacoits. Radhu Karmakar the famous cameraman of Raj Kapoor directed the film while Raj Kapoor produced it in the early 60s.

Just like any other film of Raj Kapoor, his character Raju was full of innocence. He helped the leader of the dacoits of Central India (father of Padmini), who was shot by the Police. Raj Kapoor gave him food and water, and Pran with his men brought both Raj Kapoor and their leader back to their area. Most part of the film was shot at Bheraghat in Jabalpur near Narmada falls.

Raj Kapoor was initially convinced by Padmini that the dacoits rob the money from the dishonest moneylenders and distribute it to the poor people. Raj Kapoor agreed to help the dacoits on that count. But when he went with the dacoits to a marriage party and saw that most of the members of the party were killed by the dacoits, he went and reported the entire matter before Raj Mehra, the police officer and told him that he would convince the dacoits to surrender before the police. But he also asked Raj Mehra to award least amount of punishment to the dacoits. All the dacoits were convinced by Raj Kapoor at the end of the film.

The biggest asset of the film lied in the powerful music of Shankar Jaikishan. In this film SJ used mainly folk tunes with powerful orchestration. Most of the leading singers like Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, Geeta Dutt, Mukesh, Manna Dey, Mahendra Kapoor, etc, were used. The music was superhit with successful songs like “kya hua”, “o maine pyar kiya”, “hoton pe sachai rehti hai”, “hum bhi hai, tum bhi ho”, “aa aab laut chale”, to name a few.

Padmini, the brilliant dancer previously had a glorious career opposite Shivaji Ganeshan in South Indian films. She almost gave her lifetime performance in the film Jis Desh Me Ganga Behti Hai. Her dance performances were brilliant, innovative and unparallel. Pran also did extremely well in his character of the dacoit in the film. Nana Palsekar, Lalita Power and other character artists were also sublime in their respective roles.

Raj Kapoor won the film fare award for best actor for his performance in the film Jis Desh Me Ganga Behti Hai, while the film won a number of awards under other categories. The film also had lot of social message. The dishonest section of middlemen in the country who tortured the lower middle class compelled innocent people to turn into dacoits. In that context the film depicted the picture of Indian society in the late 50s and early 60s. From that time onwards a number of films were made on the life of dacoits. Significant among them include Sunil Dutt’s film Mujhe Jeene Do, Dilip Kumar’s Ganga Jumna, to name a few.

Raj Kapoor had always been a trend setter. Even in respect of films related to dacoits he created a trend which many directors had followed after that time. The film should be restored for those purposes.

Happy birthday to Jaya Prada.

Happy birthday to Jaya Prada.

The viewers of bollywood films wish happy birthday to Jaya Prada on 3rd April, 2009. Jaya Prada was considered as one of the most gifted actresses of bollywood films of the 80s. She shook the Indian audience with her dancing skills in the film Shankaravaranam.

In the late 70s her film Sargam opposite Rishi Kapoor became superhit with a brilliant story and excellent songs. She played the role of a deaf and dumb girl who had immense dancing callibre which was unearthed by Rishi Kapoor in the film.

The music composed by LP was brilliant by every musical standard and Lata and Rafi were sublime in the songs “dafliwale dafli baja”, “koel boli”, “ramjiki nikli sawari”, etc. In an age of action pact films of Big B, Vinod Khanna, Sargam being a romantic film with Rishi Kapoor and Jaya Prada did excellent business.

From that time Jaya Prada became the no. 1 bollywood actress and acted opposite all the leading stars of bollywood. Her other superhit films include Sharabi, opposite Big B, Akhree Rasta opposite Big B, Kamchor opposite Rakesh Roshan, to name a few.

She acted in a number of films opposite Jeetender as well and all of those films were successful. At that time she got stiff competition from Sri Devi, another South Indian actress who had both acting talent and dancing talent. The films where both of them acted together, the viewers were confused to choose between the two. In Akhree Rasta Jaya Prada did equally well like Sri Devi.

In the 90s, also Jay Prada’s films especially opposite Big B did good business, like Indrajeet or Aaj Ka Arjun. In those films while Big B concentrated on action sequences, Jaya Prada played the romantic part to perfection. With the emergence of new actresses in bollywood films in the 90s like Madhuri Dixit and Juhi Chawla, Jaya Prada faded away from the bollywood industry.

She joined politics and had been the parliamentarian for more than a decade. Besides she had played important roles in tamil films and other South Indian films over the years.

The viewers expect her to make a comeback in bollywood films in character roles as many of them feel that she still has a lot of acting left in her.