The difficulty of seducing the uninitiated…

I heard this song on the golden oldies program earlier this morning. I was transported back in time by more than half a century. The song is from an early 60s movie, Bezubaan. It has so many unique aspects that are worth a mention. The song is composed by one of the most talented (& fairly prolific) composers of Bollywood, who once again demonstrates his class, his distinct brand, his USP if you will, in the extremely pleasing melody but also underscores the sad fact that being good is not enough for the powers that be in Bollywood.

Let’s dive in at the deep end, straight into the song. https://youtu.be/4H56OrBjhg4

The wonderful lyrics are by Prem Dhawan and the song is sung so unforgettably beautifully by the legend Lata Mangeshkar. The music is composed by Chitragupt. One more flagbearer of the large number of truly talented hard working gems you come across in Bollywood often, you notice them, but don’t ever credit them with what they truly deserve. Like an Om Prakash, a Nasir Hussain who toiled hard, delivered the goods with leading men being pathetic duds who couldn’t act to save their thick skins. The movie has an unusual situation where real life siblings are portrayed as father and son: Ashok Kumar and Anoop Kumar. Nirupa Roy is the upright wife/mother who leaves her husband because she doesn’t like him working as a manager of a gambling den (albeit out of sheer desperation) and wants none of the resultant riches, she brings up her kids single handedly.  In due course of time she lands up needing money to pay the dowry for the daughter’s wedding. Now the son takes it upon himself to go to the big, bad city to earn big bucks. Guess what, (no surprise really, knowing the ways of Bollywood scriptwriters) he lands up face to face with his father for a job (& of course neither knows the other is related to him, this is Bollywood after all).

This song has Anoop Kumar showing exactly why he didn’t succeed as an actor. Faced with a fully clad danseuse who is trying to seduce him, (& the most famous danseuse wears more fabric than needed to clothe an average Bollywood leading lady throughout the movie and all its scenes: & we aren’t talking of the Sunny’s or Urfis : the Porn Queen or those who wannabe one who might not use up the fabric through their career) & the man wears the expression of a schoolkid who’s been promised an ice lolly. Throughout the song he appears to be waiting for the cold sweet relief from the heat of the moment. He doesn’t even look hot under the collar. I would surmise charitably that he really thinks what he will get will be at the very least a candy bar if not something more substantial. He should have taken lessons from the Masters of Lechery in Bollywood, K N Singh, Pran, Premnath, Prem Chopra, Manmohan, and of course Shotgun. Of course our articulate MP from the south who uses pages of Thesaurus for his morning ablutions hadn’t proven his worth when the movie was made. The mute marionette who allowed an alien remote control to dictate every move of his would have shown similar lack of a testosterone surge with the beauteous belle dancing so close to him.

An amazingly lovely song from an utterly forgettable movie. Have a wonderful Sunday, folks. Looks like the rains will pelt us once again this afternoon and evening. Stay safe

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