Neighborly LOVE

My Mum and my Brother are VACATIONING!

Yes, they have left me, my sister and my Appa here in this scorching heat to fend for ourselves and gone off to India to have FUN, enjoy the Monsoon rains, lounge the whole day, listen to my maternal Granny ranting all day and put up with my maternal Grandpa's attention seeking tactics and bear the brunt of his 'Oh so famous' Silent treatment. ( Who says growing Vacationing is easy??)

To say I miss them is putting it very very mildly. There is a deep and unfathomable void since the day they left, and it has been 1,382,400 seconds since... Yes I can be eccentric at times.

Since the day they have left, we have another entity that has risen above its prior irrelevant status and jumped up a few notches to become our comrade and partner in crime in battling our loneliness and missing phase! It is none other than the TV!

While combating the above mentioned aloneness and finding something to do this Weekend, myself and my Appa stumbled upon the delightful and rib tickling comedy PADOSAN. I can't remember the number of times I have seen this movie or how I adore and relieve this movie's scenes over and over again just by listening to its fantastic songs. It's a must watch for all ages and is most certainly a collector's item because of the amazing crew this film has to boast of!! 

                                               

I, for one, am not very fond of neighbors! For me there are voluntary spies! Then of course we do have the "Love thy neighbor" concept...Of course I don't have any qualms doing so if he happens to be tall, debonair and devastating good looking... Then it will be that much easier. :P 

These type of neighbors are always welcome...  And they were welcomed in our Hindi film industry as early as 1968. This Padosan (Neighbor) is indeed someone who all would envy and will equally envy the village boy who finally brings about her love!!

The premise of the film is very simple. An uneducated, simpleton from village comes to town to his aunt's house and finds himself next door to a beautiful lady who looks like the moon and has complexion as clear as the blue sky and eyes where you can drown yourself!! Bhola, Sunil Dutt lands himself next door to Bindu, Saira Banu and promptly falls in love with her!! She is a high society girl who gives Bhola the first glimpse of her beauty wrapped in a towel no less, singing the ever green song, "Bhai battur bhai battur...".  The facial expressions of Bhola with his heart going all wonky is so palpable!! Imagine those expressions with a choti flying all over the place... hilarious!! 

Bhola runs to his Guru , the guru who he believes is the ultimate where women are concerned and ultimate in providing solutions for love!! Kishoreda in a snow white kurta and red paan dribble at the corner of his mouth creates ripples of laughter at his appearance itself!! I am in splits every time I see this actually rolling in laughter at the lyrics, the tune and the histrionics of Kishoreda with his cronies!! As if these were not sufficient, Guru advises Bhola, "Meri pyaaari Bindu, meri bholi Bindu, meri matheri Bindu, meri sindoori bindu.... meri prem ki naiyya beech bhanwar mein gud gud gote khaye, jahtpat paar laga de..... " ... Where have you heard such meaningfully, comic lyrics that have made you laugh and cry at the same time?? The song is supposedly penned by none other than Mehmood himself in about 20 mins. Timeless beauties I tell you!!  I have been singing this songs for as long as I can remember, thanks to my Appa singing this one for my Ma... Oh didnt i mention, my Ma's name is BINDU as well! :D

Moving further, this gang of boys decide on Bhola’s insistence that this padosan is not so easy to woo... So they gather at Bhola’s residence and look through the window which sets us viewers up for a delightfully naughty and hummable , "Mere saamne wali khidki mein, ek chaand sa tukda rehta hain,...". The monkeying of Bhola around his window deliberately chiding Bindu is so rib tickling.

Enter Masterji, Mehmood!!

This is the masterji who is teaching the lovely Bindu how to dance!! And then ensues a series of jealous bouts and then a challenge!! Thrown by Bhola to Masterji... the outcome is the song of the century, "Ek chatur naar...", Lyrics simply awesome!!  When this jugalbandi, musical duet between the two maestros Kishoreda and Manna Dey saab is a work that is cherished as you hear the two go at each other, all classical, all funny and they just spin a web of hypnotic melody that takes you to a crescendo and Mehmood going all haywire, in his antics and energy, on the window.... over the window and upside down with a hand trying to give some semblance to the lungi,  that is seemingly coming apart!! Its unforgettable and so in your face that you have no option but to clutch your sides in sheer laughter!!

The beauty of the film lies in its simple story and the characters who just revolve around the script that there is no need for the director to innovate and do any other magic except watch his actors move expertly around the story and fit like a hand in glove!! The songs are of great value to the script because they are very situation based and the selection of Kishoreda and Manna Dey saab is so justified that you cannot imagine anybody else doing the jugalbandi at all... They are necessary to convey the emotions felt and they do it with aplomb!! 

Kudos to the star cast of Sunil Dutt, Saira Banu, Kishoreda, Om Prakash, Mehmood, Mukhri etc... I have no words to describe their class in acting!

Nostalgia at its best!! From the beginning to the end , it was a laugh riot, a film for me, which can be seen and enjoyed infinitely. This film HAS to be seen and enjoyed.

Sighh... Coming back... I have to wait 1,382,400 seconds more to be able to hug my adorable baby brother and talk endlessly to my Mum about the various events, incidents and stories that have transpired in her absence. Until then it's the house chores and MOVIES to my Rescue!