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Saathi Hara is a very entertaining film with Mala Sinha and Uttam Kumar in lead roles. Mala Sinha as Rupa, a gypsy girl gave a wonderful performance specially her song and dance sequences. It is a love story between two members of a gypsy troop who make living by singing and playing with monkeys and other shows. She was very lively and perfectly matched the character with her free flowing performance. Uttam Kumar as Kundan, her partner also gave a good performance with supporting actors Tarun Kumar and Kajari Guha. The songs are memorable with Hemanta Mukherjee as music director and the songs by Geeta Dutta were wonderful.Overall it a very nice film to enjoy and I gave it a eight out of ten.

I myself was a victim of Hindu Muslim riot while living in Dhaka and this film reminded me in vivid details of what happens in real life during a communal riot. The film is a masterpiece in a sense that conflict between and muslims in India is so prevalent and common occurrence and for all these years with hundreds of movies made I have finally found one that dealt with this issue in real terms. The story is about Shekhar Mishra ( Arvind Swamy ) falling in love with Shaila Bano ( Monisha Koirala ) a Muslim girl and eventually marrying her without the blessing of their parents on both sides. They settle in Bombay where Shekhar works as reporter and have twin boys. The story is written in the backdrop of the Auyodha mosque attack during the 1990's and a communal riots breaks out. The director Mani Ratnam has handled the story very well with realistic scenes of the riot with the burning of vehicles and rampant killing on the streets as well as the chaos and confusion of the people and the government. Both Arvind Swamy and Monisha Koirala gave commendable performance in the two leading roles with good support from the others. The music and cinematography is above average. This is a good film to watch . I gave it a nine out of ten.

This is a classic. The story is so unusual , but also very realistic and magnificently played by both Sridevi and Kamal Hassan. The entire movie is Sridevi and Kamal Hassan,who rescues Nehalata, aka Reshmi from a brothel where she ended up after being injured in an auto accident and losing her memory and adult senses. The script is very nicely written and Balu Mahendra did a spectacular job in presenting the story. The viewer's gets glued to the screen watching the conversation and the events surrounding Sridevi's childlike tantrums and how patiently Shomu ( Kamal Hassan ) tries to maintain his cool and tries to bring her to a normal human being. As we watch the progress of the film, we become very supportive of Shomu and kind of become passionately in love with him for all his acts of help and support for Sridevi. One of the many memorable scenes that touches your heart is where Sridevi while talking with Kamal Hassan, lies down on his lap and slowly falls asleep showing the bond of love that has gradually developed between them. The end of the film is tragic and comes to you has a big surprise as well as a great pain seeing how all that help and support went down and Sridevi even could not recognize Kamal. I give it a ten out of ten.

Suhaagan is a film about two sisters , where the elder one played by Sridevi leaves her husband (Jeetendra) and their child because he could not provide her with the comforts of modern day world. In their earlier romance there are a couple of songs ( Bappi Lahilri MD) which are average with the usual Jeetendra Sridevi dances. The real story begins when Sridevi leaves Jeetendra and her baby and goes to live with Murli, her preferred boyfriend and the person she wanted to marry. The dialogues describe with great depth, the agony and the torments Janaki ( Sridevi ) went through when she realized that leaving Ramu was a big mistake and she has no way to get back her old life with Ramu and her child. Sridevi showed her usual acting prowess and she really looked beautiful in the death scene. It is social drama with strong emphasis on the Indian culture of women's plight specially when they are married and comes in close contact with anyone other than her husband. The best part of the movie what I liked was that the director made Sridevi emphasize her chastity and pureness and then let her disappear from this world after she knew that Ramu has forgiven her for her mistake of her life. The tragic end of the movie was one of the best part.Good support roles provided by Padmini Kohlapure as the younger sister and Pran and Tanuja as their elderly parents. I gave it a seven out of ten.

This is a story about a party of pilgrims on a voyage to worship at the Shiv Sagar temple during the annual festival. With a party consisting of many diverse pilgrims with different objectives to accomplish. In the party there is "Chagan" the small time thief ( Dev Anand ) and Roopa, the dancer ( Waheeda Rehman ) who is going there to perform before the lord shiva before she starts dancing professionally. The story moves pretty well with Chagan and Roopa falling in love which is not approved by her mother. There is one pilgrim who will donate an expensive piece of diamond in the waters in the name of lord shiva but there are a couple of crooks going after the diamond. The film has some very good songs with the music of Shankar Jaikishan. All in all it is entertaining movie with the two popular stars like Dev Anand and Waheeda Rehman. I gave it a seven out of ten.

What a wonderful movie to watch. This is a masterpiece and I cannot describe in words how much I liked this movie. Gouri Shinde has given a superb demonstration of how a good piece of entertainment can be created out of a simple story with a good script. The story revolves around a middle class housewife with a husband, two children and mother-in-law who is an expert in cooking and running a household but deficient in knowledge of English. This causes a tremendous amount of frustration and sadness because her qualities are not recognized by her husband and children and she does get the respect she deserves. The director kept a strong and single focus on the main theme of the story and never allowed any distraction or unnecessary scenes and dialogues. The entire film is Sridevi and she gave a stellar performance as the housewife and the mother of her two children. The first part of the story is based in Pune, India and the second (major) part is based in Manhattan New York where she was invited by her sister to attend her niece's wedding. The scenes and the incidents she faces were so natural that I myself being an immigrant and one time had the very similar experiences. I remember Merv Griffin, the late talk show host asking one of the foreign born actors that what was the most significant thing he noticed in America when he arrived here. The actor ( I forgot the name ) said that "Here they ask too many questions when ordering food". When I saw the scene, where Shashi ( Sridevi ) trying to order a snack and coffee what she had to go through and immediately it came to my mind that how much correct that actor was when he said this. The movie did not have anything beyond normal and practical situations which everyday people faces in New York or USA as a whole. The classroom scene was hilarious with a very subtle message behind. It was nice to see how the entire class consisting of people many different countries came together around Shashi and it was very pleasant see they were enjoying the party where they were invited by Shashi's niece as a surprise. I have seen quite a few of Sridevi's movies but here in this one she demonstrated her acting skills with a superb performance. She is just one of the best actors of Hindi cinema and so refreshing to see her on the screen. If this is her first movie after fifteen years of hiatus, I guarantee she is going to please us with many more magnificent films in the future. The music was excellent and the roles played by other players were commendable. But this movie is all about Sridevi and she has shouldered the whole film by herself. I gave it a 9 out of ten.

Aulad is a story of conflict between the biological mother of child and the person who brought him up giving all the love of a mother but he was not his child. I have seen another movie with Rajendra Kumar and Meena Kumari made in the late fifties with the title "Chirag Kahan Roshni Kahan" with the same story line. In fact I heard one line of the song "Mere Ghore Tik Tik Tik" in Aulad also. Under special circumstances where his wife died suddenly or presumed dead, the father Anand ( Jeetendra ) gives up his child to Yashoda ( Jayaprada ) because his own wife Devki ( Sridevi ) is presumed dead in a train accident and Yashoda's child did not survive the complications during child birth. Both Sridevi and Jayapada give commendable performances as the two mothers claiming the only surviving child who was brought up by Yashoda and was claimed by Devki as her own. Saeed Jaffrey as the uncle of Anand acted well. I have seen him before in Gandhi as Sardar Patel. He definitely looked a lot slimmer than he was in Gandhi, probably because Gandhi told him in the movie to slim down. Jeetendra was fine in the role of the father and also did well with his antics in the first part of the movie which was more of a comedy. The movie turned into serious melodrama after the train accident but moved very well with a very good script. The music was average and so was the cinematography. Sridevi's street dance sequence was very enjoyable and she just excelled in it. If you are a Jeetendra Sridevi pair fan – watch this movie. You will like it. I gave it a seven out of ten.

This is a good movie. Very good acting by veterans like Ashok Kumar, Hema Malini, Jeeendra, Shashikala and Ajit. This is the story of a zaminder family led by Ashok Kumar who has two sons played by Vijayendra Ghatge ( Niranjan ) and Jeetendra ( Govind ) Govind is physically handicapped and is constantly abused by the younger brother Niranjan. Jyoti ( Hema Malini ) is the daughter of the village Vaidya ( doctor ) played by Om Shivpuri. Jyoti gets married to Govind at the behest of the zamindar and she takes a strong stand against Niranjan's abuses and also cures Govind from his senility. Hema Malini gave a superb performance as the village girl eventually becoming the wife of the zamindar's son. The movie is very well scripted by Sachin Bhowmick and cinematography and directions are very good. Bappi Lahiri provided some good songs specially the one titled "Angrai leke prem Jawani " and the murja "Thoda rasham lagta hai". There have quite a few movies by the same players during the late 70's and early 80's and this is one is one of the better ones. I gave it a eight out of ten.

A remarkable film with Sridevi as the winner. She is just amazing. This movie showed her acting skills at its paramount. Be it a village belle, a westernized dancing girl, a assertive young women handling opponents as a matured adult, she took the film acting at a different level. This is a movie about three people, Chandni ( Sridevi), Rohit ( Rishi Kapoor ) and Lalit ( Vonod Khanna ) entangled in a triangular love story. Yash Chopra, famous film maker and younger brother of the legendary B.R. Chopra created a masterpiece of a love story surrounding these three human beings. Both Chandni and Rohit's encounter at the beginning of the movie kept us entertained with some good songs and frolics of two young lovers, the story took the turn to more serious situations with Rohits accident and eventual separation from Chandni. Sridevi showed some magnificent dance performance specially the one in white clothing in the open field without any song. That was a super show. The movie has quite a few songs but they were all very well placed in the story and performed very well both in playback and actual playing. Rishi Kapoor showed a lot of enthusiasm and zeal in portraying young Rohit as also Vinod Khanna in his more serious role. Sridevi expressed her self so well in all the different moods specially when she meets Rishi Kapoor at the door of her house first time after their separation, she expressed her surprise and emotions extremely well. It was a special surprise to see Waheeda Rehman as the mother of Vinod Khanna in a very well deserved role. Overall this a great movie of the late eighties Bollywood and it is a must see for all Sridevi fans. I gave it a nine out of ten.

This is a blockbuster. This movie has everything from stellar acting, enchanting music with a very entertaining qawali type song with dance, family feud and some gorgeous acting by Rajendra Kumar, Raaj Kumar, Shubha Khote, Agha and Lalita Power. Lalita Power is amazing – from a banana vendor in Shri 420, a Christian house keeper in Sharada to this cantankerous mother of the house in Gharana , she demonstrated her acting skills to its pinnacle. She was just awesome in her role as the mother of the house and beating up on everyone without any reason or so ever. Asha Parekh as the younger bohu of the house did very well though she did not have a very serious role in the movie. Vijaylakhsmi as the elder bohu was very reserved and did a wonderful job portraying the ideal housewife and taking all the abuse from her mother-in-law, sister-in-law and even her husband but never loosing the faith that every Indian women have in her khandan. The dance sequences were well presented and cinematography was better than average. I gave it a nine out of ten.

This is one of Meena Kumari's best acted films. She plays a widow with a young child which actually not her own because her own child died at the time of birth but the Dr. delivering the child replaced the baby with his own who was born few hours earlier. This is also her first pairing with Rajendra Kumar with whom she did three or four more films. Rajendra Kumar did a very commendable job as the compassionate doctor and a loving father to the child. The child actor Honey Irani who played Raju had a great chemistry with Meena Kumari and the pair did a great job as a mother and child. Meena Kumari generally does excellent work with children as she did in others like Bhabi Ki Chudiya, though she never had children of her own in real life. Madan Puri was respectable as the senior doctor and Minoo Mumtaz did act very well as the villainous wife of Dr. Anand (Rajendra Kumar). The movie has some very good songs and Devendra Goel's direction was above average. I graded it as being eight out of ten and recommend to Meena Kumari as worth watching.

Chandan Ka Palna is one of Meena Kumari's later years films when she lost a bit of her simplistic charm and looked a little heavier because of alcohol abuse and other personal problems. However, she still shines as one of the best female actors of Hindi films without a question. This film is all about Meena Kumari, first as Shobha ( Meena Kumari ) a happy wife in a wealthy family being married to Ajit (Dharmendra ) after a brief courtship. Everything was going pretty well until it became evident that she cannot bear a child with no future possibility of being a mother as determined by the doctor. First she became a little unstable with a binge for dressing western and alcohol but was severely reprimanded by her husband and ultimately thrown out of the house and divorced. Ajit married again and Shobha prayed to god for his wife to have a child and which finally happened but the new mother dies at child birth. Meena Kumari did a splendid piece acting in her second role as a tormented woman with a lot of pain because of the circumstances. Dharemendra as her husband did very well as well as strong support from veterans like Dhumal, Durga Khote, Nasir Hussain and Mehmood. This film is not a classic but it is a well-directed good movie to watch with good music by RD Burman. I gave it a seven out of ten.

Gomoti Ki Kinare directed by Swaan Kumar Tak is Meena Kumari's last film, in fact the film was released after her death on March 31, 1972. She gave a spectacular performance as loving mother to a child and with the help of a very good friend Nekiram played by Agha brought the boy up to become the chief engineer of a construction firm headed by Gopal Das played by Rehman. The movie has a string social theme, which is whether the son of a courtesan can be the son-in-law of a reputed business man in our society. It is a good movie to watch specially for Meena Kumari who can master such roles with her sober beauty and a very matured actor as the "tragedy queen". Good support was provided by some veteran actors like Agha, Rehman, I.S. Johar, Mumtaz and Shyama who played their individual roles admireabley. As I understand from reading Meena Kumari's bio that she was very sick near the end of her life, I was amazed by her acting prowess and bravery of playing this role at a time so much near to her death. She has my long salute. I rated the movie as eight out of ten.

Sanam is another Dev Anand and Suraiya movie made late 1940's and early 1950's when Dev Anand was an upcoming star and Suraiya was already an established actress. Meena Kumari plays a very insignificant role, in fact this is one of the movies where she was breaking into general acting role from her mythological characters. Sanam is about a love story where Jogin ( Dev Anand ) a very poor unemployed young man comes across Sadhana ( Suraiya ) in a chance encounter in a book shop. Under desperate conditions Jogin had to rob some money for his mother's treatment and got involved in an accidental homicide for which he was jailed by the court where the Judge ( K.N. Singh ) is the father of Sadhana. The story takes many twists and turn with a few very melodious songs and a dance number and eventually Jogin and Sadhana fall for each other but their proposed marriage is vehemently opposed by the father of the bride. Suraiya provided with a solid performance as the independent minded daughter and did not hesitate to argue with her father about social justice for the poor and under privileged. Gope provided good supporting role with his antics. Overall it was a good movie to watch specially Suraiya's great performance both as an actor and for singing some melodious songs with the direction of Husanlal Bhagatram. The movie was directed by Nandalal Jaswantal who also gave us the block busters like Nagin and Anarkali. I graded the movie as a seven out of ten.

Dastan is one of Suraiya's films where she is not a begum or a princess but a humble orphan girl living with a wealthy family. Here in this film she played suitor to three possible persons and one of them is no other than Raj Kapoor. The movie is well directed by A.R. Kardar with some melodious music by Naushad assisted by Golam Muhammed. Suraiya displayed great acting skill as well as she sang a couple of very nice songs. This was the period when Suraiya was at her peak of her career and made a few hits acting opposite some of the big names. The dialogue was well written and Veena as the strict disciplinarian acted very well. Raj Kapoor's antics were a bit excessive but still was enjoyable. I graded it as a seven out of ten.

Vidya is a story of a shoe-repairer's son Chandu(Dev Anand) and the daughter of a wealthy family Vidya ( Suraiya ). They knew each other from childhood and Vidya encouraged and supported Chandu to go to school and get higher education. As they grew up they also developed an affection to each and decided to marry. But Vidya's father vehemently opposed the proposal and kind of locked up Vidya in their house. The story has many side acts which though are not critical but provided some of the elements to build the entire movie. This is one of Dev Anand's half a dozen films with Suraiya and though he looked pretty young and immature did play his part very well. Suraiya as the educated daughter of a wealthy family played with good reserve and integrity. She looked very well in simple Indian woman's dress without the weight of many ornaments which she is normally seen. An unknown actress ( to me ) named Maya Banerjee played the role of a kind of villain girl Leela and Amirbai Karnataki gave a very good performance both in acting and singing as the revered mother of Vidya. Overall the movie was good entertainment but it lacked the cohesion of a general theme and all the pieces did not fit very well together. Cuckoo gave a nice dance performance with a good song. The songs were all very melodious specially the one in the lake with Chandu and Vidya on a canoe. The gave it a grade of six out of ten.

This is a wonderful movie to watch. Suraiya and a very young Dev Anand gave a magnificent performance as an assertive educated village woman as Jeet and Vijay. They are in love with other and has plans of their own to build the youth of the country with labor and education. I read in one of the articles about Suraiya that she matched very well as a medieval queen or begum but to be honest she just looked gorgeous and beautiful in a plain simple sari and without any ornaments. Young Madan Puri and veteran Kanhaiya Lal gave commendable performance. This film was released in 1949 which is a banner year for some blockbuster Hindi releases like Andaaz, Barsaat, Dulari, Dillagi and I will say Jeet stands very well with a very popular post independence theme and a good consortium of actors. Anil Biswas's music was extraordinary and some of the songs are memorable specially the duet "Chahe Kitni Kathin Dagar Ho". There were a couple of patriotic songs which also were very well presented. I was amazed at Suraiya's performance in this movie and changed my whole idea about her being the royal girl or lady to a completely matured actress. I gave this movie a nine out of ten.

With actors like Ashok Kumar, Sunil Dutta and Waheeda Rahman and Tapan Sinha one of the most famous directors of the Bengali screen I expecting a lot from this movie but was little bit disappointed with the result. I saw Dil Ek Mandir with Rajendra Kumar,Meena Kumari and Raj Kumar with a very similar story but the two movies are miles apart. The problem with Zindagi Zindagi was that I could not find a main theme of this movies. Whether it was the past romance, or the doctor's valiant attempt to cure the child's leg or the political violence of the village, the director Tapan Sinha though tried his best to present the scenes, it just did not strike me as an attractive presentation. The acting of Sunil Dutta and Waheeda Rahman was a masterpiece along with the bouts of Ashok Kumar and Anward Hussain and the music was about average. I wont rate it as a failure but I expected a lot more. I graded it as six out of ten.

I liked the movie. After watching Agreement and Aanchal both directed by Anil Ganguly, Jhutha Saach has all the ingredients of a very entertaining movie. Dharmendra is in a dual role but in the role of the criminal he excelled. While the plot may sound a bit out of the world where a newly wed wife goes out to hire a temporary look alike of her dead husband to make her children not miss their dad, Ganguly maintained the theme pretty consistent and gave the two kids the enough screen time to keep their story the focus of the movie. Rekha as usual gave a commendable performance so as Amrsh Puri, Lalita Power, Irani and Asrani. The movie moved fast and the cinematography was of a very high standard.The songs were melodious and Rekha provided some extraordinary dance sequences to match the tunes. I gave it a nine out of ten.

Chadni Chowk is a love story played by Meena Kumari and Sekhar in primary roles. This is one of Meena Kumari's earlier films and she is portrayed very nicely as the young daughter of the Nawab Safdarjung played by Kumar. The story is mediocre and there is not much of romantic scenes involving the two characters. It is more of a story of Shekhar, the young Nawab who is married to Meena Kumari and his plight after his true identity was exposed. The film has some beautiful songs composed by music director Roshan. This is also a very early film made by renowned director B.R. Chopra who will come up with many memorable films in later years. I enjoyed Chadni Chowk very much as one of Meena Kumari's films and will give it a eight out of ten.

Agreement is a very entertaining comedy film with Rekha, Utpal Dutta and Shailendra Singh in the primary roles. It is a fast moving film with a lot of events going around the lives of Mala Mathur( Rekha ) and Shekhar ( Shailendra Singh ). Mala is foreign educated, accomplished and holds a modernistic view of womens role in marriage and challenges elderly uncle Mr. Mathur ( Utpal Dutta ) to prove her point. The point was that she will select a husband who will be like a servant and cook to her and she will find plenty of candidates to take this job. Director Anil Ganguly did a commendable job in creating the hilarious circumstances surrounding the clauses of the agreement signed by Mala and Shekhar. Eventually both Mala and Shekhar develops a romantic relationship and things end up as expected. The entire movie is about Rekha who demonstrated her acting skills very well specially as a foreign trained moder woman wearing western dresses and hairstyle. It is hard to imagine that the same Rekha played the immortal role of courtesan Umrao Jaan. She is just a marvellous actor. The movie will keep you glued to the events and it is definitely an entertainer. I gave it an eight out of ten.

It is monumental task to write a review of a movie made seventy seven years earlier when there was no Raj Kapoor, Dilip Kumar, Madhubala and so on. But when I put myself in that age when Madhubala was probably four years old, I find Achyut Kanya a classic of a movie. The story based on India's famed caste system where Pratap(Ashok Kumar) and Kasturi ( Devika Rani) comes from the two ends of the society and fall in love. Both Ashok Kumar and Rani acted very well and their dialogues are very well written. The story has a very strong foundation and the uproar due to this uncommon courtship between Pratap and Kasturi was very well depicted. This was Ashok Kumar's first film and set the stage for a very long career with hundreds of films to his credit. Devika Rani was the first actress to play a part and was responsible for making careers for stars like Dilip Kumar and Madhubala. Overall I was very pleased with the movies and gave it a nine out of ten considering the fact that this was made in the year 1936.

Naya Andaz is a good movie of its times and known to be one of the box office hits in 1956 when a whole bunch of block busters were released. This is a wonderfully acted with some some memorable music provided by the master no other than O.P. Nayar. This is one of the movies where Kishore Kumar has a very sober role, Meenakumari as a proficient dancer and not a tragedy queen and Pran did not have to fight any one. Both Kishore Kumar and Meena Kumar played their parts very well specially I was very surprised to see Meena Kumari's dancing skills at a high level. Kishore Kumar sang his own songs and it was excellent. The story line is interesting and Johnny Walker and Kum Kum provided a very good side kick to keep the movie going very well. While this is not in one of the classic categories, I give this movie a eight out ten as a well acted film with good music and story line.

If you would like to see a Hindi movie where Pran is not a villain and Padmini does not have a dance sequence, go an enjoy this two and a half hour long Gemini family drama with some excellent piece of acting by Padmini, Pran and young and up coming Rajesh Khanna. This is a story of Parvati ( Padmini ) who is the sole bread winner of six siblings including a grown up Suresh ( Rajesh Khanna ) who she is determined to support his higher education with her humble income working as a household maid for a very compassionate family. The movie is all about Parvati played magnificently by Padmini who has demonstrated her acting skills as a loving elder sister of her siblings, a wife devoted to her husband Manharilal ( Pran ) inspite of his animal like instincts and also providing a motherly love of her husband's children. Also Rajesh Khanna, Nazima ( as Asha) and Lalita Pawar provided good acting in their support roles. The song sequence in the river was very well depicted with some excellent photography. The music is commendable and has some melodious numbers. Overall it is an enjoyable movie about a woman's struggle to survive in this world with special focus on how far a family can go to support higher education to make a meaningful life for one of their members.

Shri Ganesh Mahima ( Shri Krishna Vivah ) is a mythological story with Shri Krishna ( Vishnu ) played by Mahipal and Satyabhama played by Meenakumari. This film was made in 1950 when Meena Kumari was only eighteen years old but she gave a very promising performance as Satyabhama. She had a couple of musical scores in the movie which she did very well and also displayed her dancing talent. I managed to get a vcd disc to see this movie. The quality of the video was not very good but the story, the song and the dance sequences were very well depicted. I enjoyed the movie specially for its melodious songs and the dance sequences.