A Great Movie for Unemployed People With Bachelor’s Degrees (and anyone trying to live in this world with a conscience)

To procrastinate in my job search yesterday afternoon, I walked over to 74h Street in Jackson Heights and bought a movie at the Golden Hits Bollywood store.  The movie is Shree 420…  And what a perfect movie it was for me to see!

The movie opens with the main character, Raj (played by Raj Kapoor), heading to Bombay to look for a job, dressed in ragged clothes with his possessions in a sack that he’s carrying over his shoulder on a stick.  During his futile search for work, he sometimes takes his Bachelor’s degree out of his jacket pocket, to show people that he’s educated.  But it doesn’t do him much good.

Unable to afford a place to stay, he joins a homeless community sleeping on the pavement in front of the mansion of a crooked rich businessman.  Eventually, Raj gets a job in a laundromat and also meets a schoolteacher with whom he falls in love.  But he is still plagued by poverty, as is his beloved schoolteacher.  (She is not as poor as he is, but she is struggling quite a bit, as is the school.)  And when Raj thinks of his condition, he ponders how much he simply cannot afford to get married and raise a family.

But then his luck changes.  Through some trick that he’s good at (which I won’t reveal here), he happens to fall in with the crowd of the crooked rich businessman – a fate that seems to provide his long-sought exit out of poverty…

Here’s a great scene that occurs when he visits the homeless community later and feels a tugging at his heart for the love and friendship of the honest people whom he’s abandoned:       

P.S.  I guess I should mention that Smarnika in my Prodigies post was playing a song from this movie too.  Actually, I wanted to let a lot of people recognize that.  I was very familiar with the soundtrack and song and dance clips too; the music comes from the fine team of Shankar Jaikishan.  But this was the first time I had a chance to sit and watch the whole movie through, with subtitles. 

P.P.S.  There was a very nice review of this movie written last year by the Filmi Geek.

Whatever Lola Wants

Should I actually go to a movie that isn’t from India?  I’m thinking of it.  The movie (which I think originated in France?) is called Whatever Lola Wants, and it’s playing at the Tribeca Film Festival this weekend…  It’s about a struggling dancer in New York who gets interested in belly dancing and some legendary belly dancer and at the same time gets involved with an Egyptian business student and ends up in Cairo…  Well, that all might be interesting, or not.  But what interests me is that the music is by Natacha Atlas!

P.S. I don’t know who that kid is doing the belly dancing, but to be honest, it would be more incentive for me if I knew that we’d get to see Natacha doing a little of her own famous belly dancing in this flick. 

Loop Guru – Paradigm Shuffle

Jai Maa Kaali

I stayed up well into the morning watching a 1995 movie called Karan and Arjun (available with subtitles at Daily Motion).  The scene below is fantastic, and the music to me sounds like pretty good Indian-folk-techno-rock fusion – hard-driving, especially near the end.  (I love the guy’s vocals at the end of this clip – so goth.)  The music and dance scenes were the best parts of the movie, and the story was kind of touching (as those Indian reincarnation-for-justice/revenge movies often are).  It gets a bit too silly near the end with the drawn out martial arts cowboy action scenes, but I foresaw that potential problem right from the beginning, and it’s not a big deal.  But meanwhile, those scenes in the temple…wow!  Hail mother Kali!     

Nagin – Another Scene

I couldn’t resist – thought this was quite incredible. (And notice how it’s suddenly in color too!)

Time for the Snakes to Come Out!

Ah, spring, time for all kinds of creatures to come out – including the snakes?

I’ve seen quite a few snake movies in my time, but I was mesmerized by this scene from a 1954 movie called Nagin (not to be confused with so many later movies called Nagin or Nagina or Nihagen: Nagina Part II, which might be completely different, though they  often return to the same snake-charming music).  Of course, one big reason why this was so mesmerising to me was that it starred that other great bharatanatyam-trained actress-dancer, Vyjayanthimala.

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P.S. I found this clip first at Papy Potage, a blog that seems to have a similar strange combination and proportion of ingredients to what this one has right now – which is why I like it so much – so it’s getting added to the blogroll.

P.P.S. [5/24] – Substituted another copy, with subtitles!

Prodigies?

(That’s Smarnika – learned about her while passing by on a tag at Ek Musafir.)

(DJ Sara and DJ Ryusei… I’ve known about them for a few months. I think they’re sem-famous now.)

Hey, I’ve Had An Outsourcing Fantasy Just Like That!

I’m sure this one’s making its way all over the Internet, but what the hell.  Thanks to BollySpace 2.0 for tipping me off to this:

From Darren Lurie:

“An office comedy about two co-workers and their concern over all the outsourcing at their company.”

That, by the way, was inspired by a film clip found here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRmqZRPgK1w

Actually, I’ve had a bigger work-in-India fantasy, involving construction work.  It was inspired by a clip for the song “Kattadathuku Manai Porutham Avasiyam,” from the film Deivapiravi.  Rinkster disabled embedding for this one (of course), but here’s a still:

And here’s the URL for the clip:

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQN3gpNIN9g

Padmini and Ragini Tear The Dancefloor Up

If anybody is still baffled by my Padmini mania, this clip should clarify everything. 

That clip, of the song, “Tali lo Dil Tana,” from the movie Amar Deep, is courtesy of someone called Subhashanurag, who is apparently a big fan of the actor Dev Anand.

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P.S.  For those returning to this post after a while, yes, I’ve edited it a lot.  Mostly, it’s because some other stuff that I referred to on YouTube disappeared.  And also, I felt like deleting some of the stuff that I said.  Let’s keep the comments here simple :) ; the clip speaks for itself.  Really, one of my absolute favorite dance clips that I’ve ever seen or posted.

This Must Be Where M.I.A. Got Her Fashion Tips!

When you get to around 2:20…  Look at the hat and the pants.  It’s uncanny.  I think M.I.A. might have gotten a few dancing tips from this movie too…

That’s “Meri Saheliyon,” from the 1994 film Balmaa…and a delightful clip, too.  (And a nice follow-up to the last one…because of the pigeons.)