tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-79723819638700739.post1349512034463845203..comments2023-12-19T08:12:59.428-08:00Comments on Post-Punk Cinema Club: Immaan Dharam (1977)a ppcc representativehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03533616493105736109noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-79723819638700739.post-34147565663405224472010-11-25T04:24:53.870-08:002010-11-25T04:24:53.870-08:00Thanks for the review of my father Desh Mukerji...Thanks for the review of my father Desh Mukerji's film, Imaan Dharam. I have given a link to your site from our webpage. http://www.subcontinent.com/misc/desh_mukerji/desh.htmladitehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01448676130309984577noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-79723819638700739.post-29223268542679346012008-08-22T23:43:00.000-07:002008-08-22T23:43:00.000-07:00Wah, wah, wah !You have taken far greater pains an...Wah, wah, wah !<BR/><BR/>You have taken far greater pains analysing this movie that what the makers of this movie took.<BR/><BR/>I could not stand watching "Masoom" a second time, that is how moving I found that movie.<BR/><BR/>I cannot stand to watch "Imaan Dharam". I guess that makes it somewhat like "Masoom" for those who are into reading between lines.<BR/><BR/>Great review. I hope you have posted reviews on movies like "Do aur Do panch", " Solah shukrawar" etc too here.squarecut.atulhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10259468372249503153noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-79723819638700739.post-26408644397555902262007-12-02T21:47:00.000-08:002007-12-02T21:47:00.000-08:00Forgot how good this movie was but like abhi said ...Forgot how good this movie was but like abhi said - I never forgot how good 'Deewaar' was ;) Amitji in moustached roles was something I never got quite used to. The major actors merely play roles (like Beth said) that showcase the demographics of India - unless you count the period pieces of course. <BR/><BR/>Off the top of my head Amitabh played Muslims in several movies in addition to this one - Coolie, Andhaa Kaanoon & Naseeb (where he was all three!). I really do enjoy it when a Muslim character is in a movie and wonder how the Muslims in India & Pakistan feel about it. The friends I have spoken to say while they obviously relate more when that occurs it really doesn't make much of an impact in their Bollywood watching.Sanket Vyashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00410998671085464946noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-79723819638700739.post-31171113854408439472007-12-02T12:49:00.000-08:002007-12-02T12:49:00.000-08:00A couple, a pairing. Interesting re: religion/char...A couple, a pairing. <BR/><BR/>Interesting re: religion/character. It certainly worked in <I>The Nanny</I>.<BR/><BR/>Whenever *insert color*face comes up, I have to point out the Hindi version of <I>Khushi</I>, in which there is both blackface and, for lack of a better word, Latinoface.Beth Loves Bollywoodhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05540154833326987567noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-79723819638700739.post-57238626583581743852007-12-02T11:32:00.000-08:002007-12-02T11:32:00.000-08:00Ooh, everyone makes interesting comments about thi...Ooh, everyone makes interesting comments about things the PPCC thought about but lazily did not acknowledge! Namely:<BR/><BR/>Beth: YES, Amrish Puri! And he was so young! And his voice, which I always enjoy hearing as it has that somewhat frantic note to it, was so high and so calm! <BR/><BR/>Re: AB and SRK rarely playing Muslims, I'm most keen to see SRK play a Muslim because (1) he is Muslim (though he also practices Hinduism) and especially (2) he's so much more lovable playing humble, down-to-earth characters rather than the endless Raj/Rahul prince of wealth. Amitabh may have rarely played Muslims, but he certainly played a lot of poor types! Anyway, a friend accurately captured what the PPCC always thought as well: that the Hinduism in Karan Johar's flicks is more about representing the empowered majority, whereas Islam (a bit like Judaism in the States?) gets relegated to "having more character" and, well, poverty. <A HREF="http://www.lehigh.edu/~amsp/2004/07/maqbool-vs-macbeth-or-shakespeares.html" REL="nofollow">Amardeep Singh also made some really interesting comments in his review of Maqbool about how Islam is also equated with the criminal underworld.</A><BR/><BR/>What's jodi? *PPCC is ashamed*<BR/><BR/>Nina: aaargghhh, yes! The brownface! I too noticed this and went, "What? But Rekha's southern anyway? What is this madness?" Perhaps it's because Rekha's image was always as the Muslim courtesan (see Umrao Jaan, Muqaddar ka Sikandar, Suhaag), usually from Lucknow or some other northern city. So southern she may be, but her cinematic ego was northern?<BR/><BR/>Also, *insert color*face is always a bit cringe-worthy, though I suppose it's not any worse than putting on a fake accent. Apropos, is she putting on a really thick accent or anything? I know she's interjecting with a lot of Tamil (hence the segue into the gloriousness of Koncam Koncam!).<BR/><BR/>Abhi - arrgrhh, yes, please try to convert the PPCC to Deewaar, because even the PPCC recognizes that it is quite good and we're being philistines about it. Especially after reading those interesting reviews by Iowa and others, about it's Cain and Abel-esque warring brothers and all the emotional intricacies. The PPCC actually re-watched it the other day in an attempt to like it (I mean, we reeeally sat down and focused and went, "Like it! Like it! Like it!") and we have come to the conclusion that the reason it has never moved us very much is our lack of identification with Amitabh's character. Cruel this may be, but I just don't care what happens to Vijay and hence, with the whole tragic dennouement, I'm thinking more about why Shashi has such short hair than why Ravi is such a terrifying creature of mixed-up motivations and how life's so ironic and hard for Vijay.<BR/><BR/>Moving on, the note about socialism vs. a loving embrace of capitalism and the growth of the middle class is interesting! That makes perfect sense, hence why DDLJ is also such a turning point, no? The diaspora finally gets its say! And this may actually be as class-centric as it is ethnocentric to call India "an exotic, colorful land full of meditating gurus", but the PPCC, bourgeoise as it is (!), has a thing for poverty on film. We just think it's got more character than Yash Chopra's/Karan Johar's palaces. Though we admit there's nothing intrinsically more appealing than one or the other.<BR/>(And comparing K3G with Immaan Dharam?! *dies*) <BR/><BR/>Angry letters demanding one of our members' resignation are always welcome! Though we don't have a president, we have a hereditary dictatorship. But we expected it by admitting we prefer Immaan Dharam (or Kaala Patthar... or Suhaag...) to Deewaar which is, suffice to say, a pretty unpopular opinion.a ppcc representativehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03533616493105736109noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-79723819638700739.post-82729865648427595692007-12-02T05:54:00.000-08:002007-12-02T05:54:00.000-08:00I think PPCC is taking the forgotten gem obsession...I think PPCC is taking the forgotten gem obsession too far with comparison of 'Deewar' and 'Imaan Dharam'. "Imaan Dharam" is forgotten precisely because it was not a classic. Now if only i could make PPCC members watch Deewar until they get it.<BR/> I had written a 500 word rant demanding the resignation of the PPCC president before remembering that thing called 'Freedom of expression'. needless to say,I hate it. :( <BR/> Imaan Dharam is from an era when socialism was the buzz word. Everything was under govt. control. big expenditure was actively discouraged. The general thought being that only those involved in illegal activities were the big spenders. The trasnition from Yash Chopra to Karan johar also shows the transition of the Indian society's mindset. PPCC may dislike wet dreams of wealth but the indian middle class, for the first time, had that high lifestyle within its reach in the late 90's. Karan johar showed their dreams on the big screen as Yash Chopra did by putting the affluent business man as the villain. So in that i would compare K3G with 'Imaan Dharam' (if only in term of pattern). I console myself with the thought that some decades later a club would compare DDLJ with K3G and declare the latter to be free of pretensions or 'classic' label and thus prefer it over the former. :D<BR/><BR/>p.s: I admire PPCC and its views, the above notwithstanding.Abhihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11398101753086147000noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-79723819638700739.post-37799481056651855312007-12-01T15:30:00.000-08:002007-12-01T15:30:00.000-08:00The construction site scene looks pretty awesome!I...The construction site scene looks pretty awesome!<BR/><BR/>It also looks like they put Rekha in brownface for this film, to play a Tamil character, which made me do a double take. In a country where perceptions of skin tone carry a lot of value judgements, I really wonder at the sub-text when they purposefully darken an actress's face. Well, the sub-text seems obvious: "All Tamils/construction workers are dark!". I wonder more about what the audience makes of this, and whether the film's makers felt the audience would require such make-up on her to buy her role.<BR/><BR/>It seems a particularly strange thing for Rekha to go along with if it's a perpetuation of a stereotype, since she's South Indian herself. The audience knows what Rekha's real face looks like, and knows that she's a Southern Indian -- yet they need to see her in brownface to accept her as a Tamil character? How ironic. <BR/><BR/>The only other example I can think of is the red face paint Sunil Dutt wore in Mother India to show what a rough country boy he wasNinahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08585813103107878881noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-79723819638700739.post-12243614065855162542007-12-01T10:01:00.000-08:002007-12-01T10:01:00.000-08:00I'm treating this article like it's in National Ge...I'm treating this article like it's in <I>National Geographic</I>: pictures first, text later. <BR/><BR/>1) That's some damn fine Shashi. <BR/>2) That's Amrish Puri!<BR/>3) Both Bollywood kings - AB and SRK, that is - rarely play Muslims, it appears. Someone needs to analyze this (and I'm sure has). Are their Muslim roles in keeping with demographic statistics for the country? Are they often in movies where there are no major characters who are Muslims? What's going on? V v interesting.<BR/>4) Let's do a Amitabh/Shashi jodi project. Let's poll people and find out where they like them best.Beth Loves Bollywoodhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05540154833326987567noreply@blogger.com