Saturday, 2 June 2012

Movie Recommendation - Angoor


Cast: Sanjeev Kumar, Deven Verma, Moushmi Chatterjee, Aruna Irani, Deepti Naval, Utpal Dutt.

Release Year: 1972.

Director: Gulzar.


If I had to name some evergreen comedy films, the list would definitely contain Angoor. Gulzar’s tale based on Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors, Angoor is a laugh riot that does full justice to the original story.

Raj Tilak (Utpal Dutt) and his wife (Shammi) are on a trip with their twin sons. The boys are so alike that even their mother is unable to differentiate between them. Both of them are called Ashok since Mr. Tilak feels that if they look the same, their names should also be the same! The couple adopts another set of twins that are found abandoned near the temple, and name both the boys Bahadur. The couple is travelling on a ship when the ship meets with a mishap. The husband and wife end up separated with one kid from the two pairs each, and assume the other spouse to be dead.

Many years later, Ashok (Sanjeev Kumar) is married to Sudha (Moushmi Chatterjee) and Bahadur (Deven Verma) is married to Prema (Aruna Irani). They all stay in the same house along with Ashok’s sister-in-law, Tanu (Deepti Naval). Troubles begin when the other pair of Ashok and Bahadur also comes to the same city. The events that follow thereafter are uproarious.

Sanjeev Kumar is tremendous as usual. He portrays both the Ashoks in a way that you can tell them apart. The native Ashok is angry and mad while the other Ashok is always shocked and suspicious by nature. His reactions to Tanu holding his hand, or the other Bahadur acting strange are priceless.  Deven Verma excels as the sidekick and his confused expressions will have you in splits. A scene to watch out is the one where he asks the shopkeeper to give him a sturdy rope for committing suicide. Moushmi Chatterjee, Deepti Naval and Aruna Irani are the perfect supporting cast.

This is one film where I feel songs could have been avoided. Nonetheless, the two-three tracks by R.D.Burman are memorable. The dialogues are witty and typical Gulzar (read: brilliant!). I wonder why such films aren’t made anymore, where the situations are simple and the script is the real hero. No dancing around trees, no phoren locations, no NRI stuff, and where a star’s image cannot overshadow his character. The golden 70’s and 80’s. Sigh.  

A movie not to be missed. Don’t wait for its remake to come out. I’m sure it’ll be crappy as all the other remakes!

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