Aanchal (1980)

Confession: I have a soft spot for this one - I first "saw these songs" on a friend's videotapes back in the '90's as part of many Dubai TV compilation programmes. I hope you're behaving yourself nowadays Ritaji! The music was uniformly marvellous and I've been tracking down some of those full length films ever since.

Aanchal itself though, um… The IMDb plot summary contains everything you need to know about the plot except the unexpectedly swift ending and that R. D. Burman's 6 songs also make the plot worth sitting through. However there were some nice pungent colours and atmospheric rustic or pastoral backgrounds enhancing what was a very honest simple tale with plenty of slapstick moments; and the usual romantic traumas and bone-crunching fight scenes. Entertaining the non-cynical is an artform that Hollywood started to lose sight of decades ago. There's the mesmerising song Paise Ka Kaajal at the fairground sung by Asha Bhosle and Kishore Kumar, but it's really the wondrous Jaane De Gaadi Teri that takes the biscuit for me – such an astounding twisting and turning melody pouted by Rekha (and playfully sung by Asha) about the rather staid Rajesh Khanna's tractor! I defy anyone with a musical ear to rid their head of the tune afterwards. It's the main reason I like this film; unfortunately the soundtrack quality has been allowed to deteriorate since 1980 – I've never heard a clean version in any format.

It's probably not the best introduction to Indian cinema for Westerners, but then again neither is Pather Panchali. Overall this is an enjoyable 2 hours, with nothing heavier to ponder on than the vanity of love, how many times you've seen it before, and will you ever be free of that damn tune!