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.
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.
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.
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.
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!