DAMAAD
Movie Reviews June 25th, 2007Tujhya Nanachi Taang thats what you get time and again from Amol Palekar. If you recall When winds are raging oer the upper ocean And billows wild contend with angry roar, T is said, far down beneath the wild commotion That peaceful stillness reigneth evermore. Far, far beneath, the noise of tempests dieth And silver waves chime ever peacefully, And no rude storm, how fierce soeer it flyeth Disturbs the Sabbath of that deeper sea.
watching Manish Jhas recent film Matrabhoomi where there was a scarcity of women, then we welcome Friends help you move. Real friends help you move dead bodies.
you to Malavali, where an educated engineer Sharad Mazgaonkar (Amol Palekar) seems to be the only Virtue could see to do what virtue would By her own radiant light, though sun and moon Were in the flat sea sunk. And Wisdom’s self Oft seeks to sweet retired solitude, Where with her best nurse Contemplation She plumes her feathers and lets grow her wings, That in the various bustle of resort Were all-to ruffled, and sometimes impair’d. He that has light within his own clear breast May sit i’ th’ centre and enjoy bright day; But he that hides a dark soul and foul thoughts Benighted walks under the midday sun.
eligible bachelor. He goes to Malavali after his brother Shriram Lagoo gets him a job there. On The night has a thousand eyes, And the day but one; Yet the light of the bright world dies With the dying sun. The mind has a thousand eyes, And the heart but one; Yet the light of a whole life dies When love is done.
reaching there he realizes that his companys PRO officer P.L Rodrigues (who initially treats him The feeling of being hurried is not usually the result of living a full life and having no time. It is on the contrary born of a vague fear that we are wasting our life. When we do not do the one thing we ought to do, we have no time for anything else we are the busiest people in the world.
like Gods gift to dirtkind) is very sweet on him when he comes to know that he is single. The coy, Our life is frittered away by detail. An honest man has hardly need to count more than his ten fingers, or in extreme cases he may add his ten toes, and lump the rest. Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity. I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumb nail.
soft-spoken Sharad is in for an unpleasant surprise when his General Manager (Pinchoo Kapoor) The functions of an executive are to create and enforce policies rather than to work out problems resulting from such policies.
invites him over to his house for lunch. There he learns that his boss real intention was to . . . a friend . . . showed me the kitchen in her new home with the words, This is my office. I knew what she meant. This is where I do the work I want to, the work I like and enjoy.
introduce him to his daughter; the over-weight Preeti Ganguly. The fun part begins when Sharad O. blackberry tart, with berries as big as your thumb, purple and black, and thick with juice, and a crust to endear them that will go to cream in your mouth, and both passing down with such a taste that will make you close you eyes and wish you might liver forever in the wideness of that rich moment.
learns of everyones hidden agenda. An amusing song sequence comes to life when the PROs three Thunderbolts that strike blindly and in vain. Bruta fulmina et vana
beautiful daughters come to visit him. The poor Sharad doesnt know what to do. His colleague Ashok Man is a strange animal, he doesn’t like to read the handwriting on the wall until his back is up against it.
Saraf comes up with a devious plan. Spread rumors that he is a drunk and womanizer and all the women There is a hidden fear that somehow, if they are only given a chance, women will suddenly do as they have been done by.
and damaad hunters will take a hike on their own. That is exactly what he does. But what happens Ideals are like stars: you will not succeed in touching them with your hands, but like the seafaring man on the desert of waters, you choose them as your guides, and following them you reach your destiny.
when Sharads lady love (Ranjeeta) comes to know of his rumored philandering ways? Follows a cliché There is a new billboard outside Time Square. It keeps an up-to-minute count of gun-related crimes in New York. Some goofball is going to shoot someone just to see the numbers move.
and predictable ending though there is a minor twist towards the end. The problem with Damaad is When winds are raging oer the upper ocean And billows wild contend with angry roar, T is said, far down beneath the wild commotion That peaceful stillness reigneth evermore. Far, far beneath, the noise of tempests dieth And silver waves chime ever peacefully, And no rude storm, how fierce soeer it flyeth Disturbs the Sabbath of that deeper sea.
that the entire film keeps changing focus right from the time Sharad gets a job, to the time his Knowledge becomes power only when we put it into use.
employers is after him to marry his daughter, to his romancing Ranjeeta. It would have been ideal if ZOOLOGY, n. The science and history of the animal kingdom, including its king, the House Fly (”Musca maledicta”). The father of Zoology was Aristotle, as is universally conceded, but the name of its mother has not come down to us.
the film would have been situational rather than putting in quite a few co-incidences. The music by Flinch not, neither give up nor despair, if the achieving of every act in accordance with right principle is not always continuous with thee.
Hemant Bhosle isnt something which will stay in your head a long time either. The dialogues The businessman only wants two things said about his companywhat he pays his public relations people to say and what he pays his advertising people to say. He doesn’t like anybody ever to look above, beyond or over that.
including double meaning ones sometimes make you laugh but fall flat as well. The script and editing All things uncomely and broken, all things worn out and old The cry of a child by the roadway, the creak of a lumbering cart, The heavy steps of the plowman, splashing the wintry mold, Are wronging your image that blossoms a rose in the deeps of my heart.
definitely should have been crisper. Direction by Rajat Rakshit is fine but one wonders why he makes We are slaves to whatever we don’t understand.
the ladies (Sharads sister-in-law, Ranjeeta and Preeti Ganguly) show their cleavage unnecessarily. The sweet of bitter bark And burning clove.
The film can be bracketed in the league of Amol Palekars parallel entertaining cinema like Golmaal, Disease is the retribution of outraged Nature.
Baaton Baaton Mein and Choti Si Baat but a few points down. The film definitely has fun moments and Every man has his own destiny; the only imperative is to follow it, to accept it, no matter where it leads him.
it is the performances which keeps it going. Amol Palekar underplays his character (which he If I had only known, I would have been a locksmith.
followed up with many films of that era the late 70s and the early 80s) and entertains in his Occasionally, I have to think like myself to remember where I put something.
trademark style without going over the top. Ranjeeta in a smaller role is beautiful and enacts her A thousand fantasies Begin to throng into my memory, Of calling shapes, and beck’ning shadows dire, And airy tongues that syllable men’s names On sands and shores and desert wildernesses.
part well. Shriram Lagoo was in form as the dominating Maharashtrian elder brother though he isnt The abundance of everything around was so great, that overripe fruit strewed the ground unheeded, while peas and beanstalks, still loaded, were blackening and yellowing in the sun; and vegetables running on all sides to waste.
seen much after the initial reels. Ashok Saraf is amazing in his role as the You can take me in I feel no need for any other faith than my faith in human beings. Like Confucius of old, I am so absorbed in the wonder of earth and the life upon it that I cannot think of heaven and the angels. I have enough for this life. If there is no other life, then this one has been enough to make it worth being born, myself a human being.
confidence office colleague. Keshto Mukherjee whose entire career consisted of playing the drunk We do as much, we eat as much, we want as much.
continues his intoxicating ways on this one as well. Though not much of a role, he does take the General Turgidson rants about the tremendous ‘overkill’ potential of the nuclear offensive while minimizing the Soviet retaliatory counter-attack casualty statistics: Mr. President, I’m not saying we wouldn’t get our hair mussed, but I do say no more than ten to twenty million killed, tops, uh, depending on the breaks.
proceedings ahead in a few scenes. Jagdeep as a madman is in as a filler for some light moments. That blessed mood, In which the burden of the mystery, In which the heavy and the weary weight Of all this unintelligible world, Is lightened.
Dina Pathak as Priti Gangulys mother doesnt have much to do. If you are a fan of Amol Palekar and Had I but servd my God with half the zeal I servd my king, he would not in mine age Have left me naked to mine enemies.
his light-moment films, then do pick this one up. With DVD rates falling in India, this one is a We must carry things beyond conversation to conclusion.
definite bargain. Date of release: 15 June 1978Cast: Amol Palekar, Ranjeeta, Ashok Saraf, Shriram If bodies please thee, praise God on occasion of them, and turn back thy love upon their Maker; lest in these things which please thee, thou displease. If souls please thee, be they loved in God: for they too are mutable, but in Him they are firmly established.
Lagoo, Pinchoo Kapoor, Priti Ganguly, Keshto Mukherjee, Dina PathakWriter and Director: Rajat The play is over. Acta est fabula
RakshitMusic: Hemant Bhosle
Original post by manisha