peanutz454 Reviews

Troy (2004)

Watch this as Wolfgang Petersen's Troy and not as Homer's Iliad to appreciate it

[8/10 · 8 April 2006]

Troy has had no critical acclaim. A lot of critics hated it (& I believe) for all the wrong reasons. They were looking for Homer's Iliad and Wolfgang Petersen's Das Boot, and that too in the same movie!! Critics expected to see a movie spanning 10 years of the war of Troy staying true to the story by Homer, even wanting the interference of the plethora of Greek Gods. Now which was the last movie to show a God, Christian or Greek or Zulu? I've seen exactly zero number of movies featuring a God character in a serious role, even prophet movies are few. Who wants to see Apollo and Zeus in a movie or Jupiter and Mars as TV program characters? The maximum TV/Cinema presence that God has got in western media is probably in The Simpsons of all things. God is acceptable only in comic movies like Bruce almighty. No heroic, or for that matter mischievous and deceiving or scheming Gods are acceptable in Cinema. Troy is not a stage production, it is a movie (Greek stage productions regularly had God magically appear save the day).

Great mythological stories do not translate into great movies. Troy is made more like a fictional account of a mythological story and not a historical event (all historical research on Troy is disputed.) I have never read Homer's Iliad and do not intend to. But I have read abridged versions of the story, even in Hindi (my mother tongue.) I knew about Achilles' heels, about the decision of Paris (not in movie), about Helen of Troy, and about the Wooden Horse. I knew almost enough to know most of the movie. The movie changed the story quite a bit and it must have offended those who wanted to see Homer's Iliad, this on the other hand was Wolfgang Petersen's Troy. If you have the ability to differentiate between the two you will love this movie.

Some complained about the way the movies made everything grandiose. About the lack of tension and the emphasis on heroics. About the lack of a feeling of a war, about computer generated soldiers. In many ways Troy was like Lord of the Rings in those respects. Ebert wanted this movie to be more like "The Alamo" a movie that has a rating of 5.9 on IMDb. If critics understand what fictionalised accounts of a mythological story are supposed to be like they would understand that we are not expected to look for reality in such a movie. Characters of such a movie are not supposed to be afraid of war, they are not realists they are romantics. Romanticism allows for married women to fall in love with a stranger, for Greek heroes to act like action figures, for men to go to war over women, for heroes to not kill princes early in the day. If you want to see a true war movie see Das Boot or Platoon, nothing to see here, move on. Troy is supposed to be about misplaced heroics like every mythological story. We love and accept mythological stories in there own universe due in part to their absurdities. This is a screen version of one such great story, minus (thankfully) the Gods.

So does this mean a mega budget movie like Troy can do no wrong. Yes it can, but this movie did not. Especially by not doing what critics wanted from it - exploration of human psychology inside a war zone. This was just an epic re-telling of beautiful story, and it succeeded in that.

Aandhi (1975)

The story of Indira Gandhi?

[8/10 · 8 November 2005]

They say Aandhi is based on the life of India's first woman Prime Minister, India's Iron Lady - Indira Gandhi. Maybe it is true, maybe it is not. If it is, then Indira Gandhi should have been happy about the way she has been presented.

Indira Priyadarshani Gandhi was daughter of India's first Prime Minister, Nehru. She fell in love with Feroze Gandhi (a young politician born as Feroze Sopariwala) and they had two children (the younger of which went on the become the third Prime minister from the family). Their married life was not very successful, was it because of Indira's father's political ambitions (that Feroze a respected and righteous politicians interfered with) or because of some personal reasons is hard to guess, though several speculations do exist (especially from pro RSS historians who use any means to tarnish the name of the politically influential Gandhi family), and Feroze & Indira started living separately. Before he died Feroze had a heart attack, and Indira and he were re-united till his death a short time later.

There are parallels with Indira Gandhi's life in Aandhi. But mostly the story is very different. It is hard to imagine how Gulzar came out with a movie like Aandhi when Indira Gandhi had imposed an emergency in India during that time. If my memory serves me right I even heard it was banned for sometime.

The female protagonist Aarti Devi (Suchitrra Sen) is daughter of a politician and she falls in love with a Hotel Manager (Sanjeev Kumar). She does have a strong personality. There marriage is broken but that is about it (with respect to similarities).

I love the movie because of the strong performances by Sanjeev Kumar and Suchitra Sen and the direction of Gulzar. Gulzar's recent movies have been very politically opinionated but Aandhi even though it is set in a political setting is not much about about politics itself. Primarily it is about re-discovery of love in a broken marriage.

We travel back and forth in time to find about the past and present of the couple, we even find that they still have feeling for each other but it is the dirty political games and the interventionist attitude of the public and the press that forces them to face and brings out the truth about there lives.

Anniyan (2005)

One word... Crap

[2/10 · 30 June 2005]

I have never written a comment for a movie that I rate bad. Mostly there is nothing to say. I could not help writing my comments on this one though. It is such a bad movie that you wonder if you can ask the 'Anniyan' thing to kill the director for waisting you time. Afterall the director's premise about the movie is that life is so cheap that it is perfectly fine to kill for small mistakes because collective mistakes by the society lead to the downfall of a culture.

The movie borrows a lot from Sidney Sheldon's 'Tell me your Dreams'. Imagine you had Multiple Personality Disorder and one of your alternate personalities was Hanibal Lector with the capability to fight like Neo from Matrix - you have Anniyan.

No, I wont waste any more words in telling you about it.. watch it if you want to laugh at its absurdities.

Nayakan (1987)

The best Tamil movie I have ever seen

[8/10 · 30 June 2005]

I have lived most of my life in North India watching both Bollywood and Hollywood cinema. The first Tamil movie I saw was Roja (dubbed in Hindi) by director Mani Ratnam. The director's class was apart from any other Indian director. Clearly Ratnam was able to mix two genres of Indian Cinema that are the opposite ends of each other. Roja was both Art and Commercial (some would say neither.) I saw two more Ratnam movies and a lot of other Tamil movies before I saw Ratnam's Nayakan.

Before I saw it, Nayakan was the kind of movie you hear people talk about with a certain air of sophistry. My Tamil friends showed me a lot of Tamil movies and then we would judge them. Mostly they tried to convince me the movie I just saw was good even though according to me it was not by any standard. I was beginning to feel Tamil cinema is about as bad as Hindi cinema. Hindi Cinema at least had a golden period; Tamil movies seemed to get worse as you went back in time. I blamed it on my lack of understanding of both Tamil language and Tamil culture. Ratnam I was starting to believe was a Hindi director.

Nayakan was the first Mani Ratnam movie I saw in Tamil (subtitles.) By the end I was convinced that Nayakan is probably the best Tamil movie I have ever seen. It is impossible not to notice how much this movie is inspired from Godfather. The theme is similar, the movie follows the life of Velunayakan as he rises on to become an influential smuggler and fighter of people's cause in the slums of Dharavi (Bombay.) Nayakan is Indian version of Godfather both in its setting and its message (emphasis on Indianess). Though I am told that it is based on someone's real life. So mostly Ratnam is paying homage to The Godfather. Nayakan suffers from the cheesiness of most Indian movies, it suffers from what is called the item number - the rain dance, featuring a supposedly sexy dancer. How someone does anything but laugh at a dancing obese woman is only for Tamil movie buffs to explain. Since they explained it to me I will explain it here: the context that this mediocrity should be seen in is this - Tamil audience wants everything from a movie action, laughter, morality, and sex - but not really, sex is taboo. So they end up tantalizing themselves with glimpses of it in a dance. But as soon as you fast forward through this one song, Nayakan comes back to showing its strength again - and this time with a vengeance. What I saw of Nayakan in the first half was an average movie, if only you sit through till the end do you realize how strong the movie is. The direction the acting and the story all begin to mature in the second half of the movie.

Nayakan is a very Indian movie and that too very Tamil. If you have never seen a Tamil movie you will not be able to appreciate Nayakan in one viewing. What will stand out will be the differences from the kind of movie you have seen. Those differences will over shadow the qualities that Nayakan has.

I have said a lot of things about Tamil movies that paints a shoddy picture of Tamil cinema. But my views may suffer from a skew introduced by the small sample size. There probably are many good Tamil movies that I have not seen.

**By the way, Nayakan was in Time Magazine's list of 100 best movies. May 2005 Issue I think.**

Jewel Thief (1967)

Vijay Anand's best crime thriller

[8/10 · 21 February 2005]

Jewel Thief is *THE* crime thriller of Bollywood, and why should it not be? It is directed by the biggest exponent of the crime thriller art in Indian Cinema Vijay Anand ('Johny Mera Naam' and 'Teesri Manzil.) I could watch this movie for any of the following reasons (in order of importance):

1 Vijay Anand's direction 2 R D Burman's music 3 Dev Anand 4 Vyjayanthimala 5 Ashok Kumar 6 Majrooh Sultanpuri's lyrics

Even if Jewel Thief is not a Bond Movie it definitely has bond babes. Helen, Tanuja, and the mysterious Vyajanthimala (and some cameos.) But our sauvé Vinay (Dev Anand) is anything but Bond. He is out of control for most of the story and goes where the story takes him almost always as confused as we are. He even flirts with Anju (Tanuja) trying to hit her romantic nerve, just so that he can get employed in her father's shop.

Dev Anand might be in a double role - well I don't want to spoil your movie or else I would have told you. That is what most of the mystery is about. Dev Anand works in a Jewelry shop and there is a robbery when he is supposed to be at work - though is not, or at least has a perfect alibi. We wonder who did it, is it Dev Anand as 'Vijay' the person he claims to be or is it 'Amar' someone we have not yet seen but many people claim is his look alike. Comes 'Shalu' (Vyjayanthimala) who even claims that he is her fiancé, in a tense situation Dev Anand has to prove that he is Vinay and not Amar. While everyone wonders if Dev Anand is Vinay or Amar he is asked to remove his socks. Amar we are told has 6 digits on one of his foot. While we watch with bated breath the events that are about to unfold Dev Anand even finds time to joke.

The real life brothers Director Vijay Anand and Actor Dev Anand have many movies between them this is not the best of them but definitely the best in Crime Thriller.

There are moments of Hitchcock's North By Northwest, but the movies are very different. Except for the confusion about who is who, a treacherous female lead and lot of traveling there isn't a lot of similarity. Dev Anand could very well be Amar in addition to being Vijay. People have seen him, they identify him where ever he goes. There are too many of those people for this to be a fraud. Finally Vinay thinks it is better to carry along with being Amar to find out what is the truth, and it is a sad mistake. He gets too deep into it, only to be saved by the twists of Cinema.

When I watched the movie as a kid I was definitely not amused, the ending confused me completely. Even now there are parts about the ending that I do not like, but I'd recommend this movie anyway.

Even as a kid I enjoyed the songs this movie has to offer. 'Yeh dil ...' - a definite loafers song in Kishor Kumar's voice. I could hear 'Rulake gaya ...' whole day long. Ditto for 'Aasmaan ke neeche' which is set 'under the skies' of Gangtok (at least the story line suggests that). 'Raat akeli hai' among the sexiest song to come out of Hindi cinema featuring Tanuja as the seductress. 'Meri taraf dekho' - Helen's cabaret and we 'look at her'. 'Hothon pe ...' - now, could there be any better thriller of a song than this. As the song progresses we are more tensed than we ever were and the words 'hidden in Shalu's lips' add to it.

Guide (1965)

Vijay Anand's Best movie

[9/10 · 30 August 2004]

I watched Guide around eight years ago and my memory fails me a bit. But so strong is the movie that it has left a strong impression on me. Some events of this comment might be a little off the mark but overall it is a true attempt.

Guide is popular director Vijay Anad's best remembered movie. The movie won both critical acclaim and good box office sales. Based on acclaimed Indian novelist (of Malgudi Days fame) K R Narayan's book "The Guide", Guide is the story of two people Raju (Dev Anand) and Rosy (Waheeda Rehman) and there flaws. While Raju is a enthusiastic young tourist guide, Rosy is the cheerless, forlorn wife of an architect Marco. The setting is the scenic city of Udaipur (known for the lake palace). Marco is much older than Rosi and it is quite evident that the married life is not going smooth. Marco is more interested in the motionless wall sculptures of the caves he is studying with Raju's help, than in his wife.

At heart Rosy is a girl. When she meets Raju the guide she blossoms into her true self (thanks to a suicide attempt Raju saved her from). Raju encourages her to develop her individuality - live her own life independent of Marco (who to add to his evil outlook is shown as a heavy drinker). The song "Aaj fir Jine Ki Tamanna Hai" based on Rosi (sung by Lata Mangeshkar) roughly translates to "(Today) I want to live again.." The songs effectively portrays both Rosi's suppressed energy and her quest for freedom. Rosi is interested in dancing something her husband wont allow her to do. Thanks to all the support she gets from Raju, she falls in love with him.

In 1960's Hindu society such a relationship was definitely unacceptable - Even in Cinema. To show a relationship outside the sanctity of married life was a bold move. It required Director Vijay Anand's abilities to portray it and still win acclaim and viewer ship. It also required Waheeda Rehman's abilities at acting to be sanctimonious in spite of living outside her marriage.

Raju and Rosie marry and now starts "..sadly ever after.."

Rosi can now freely realize her dream as a dancer from Raju's support. During the classical music influenced "Piya tau see naina laage re" we see Rosi's rise in fame as a dancer. As Rosi becomes a popular dancer, Raju get more irresponsible. Acrimony creeps into their relationship because of Raju's jealousy and his sudden habit of drinking and signs a fraudulent cheque.

The guide looses his own track.. only to seek it again as a hermit..

The movie starts with "Wahan Kaun hai Tera, Musafir, Jayega Kahan?" sung by SD Burman (where will you go, oh traveler, you know no one there.) The song sets us up for the movie's philosophical tone. Guide has no heroes or blacks and whites every character has a spectrum of good and bad sides. The last and final song of the movie is a duel song "Mohse chhal kiye jaye" sung by Rosi and "Kya se kya ho gaya bewafa" by Raju present both there arguments. It is only near the end that Raju becomes a chance hero. Some villagers assume he is a saint and Raju forgets who he is and probably because he wants to pay penance for his mistakes, he starts to believe in his new life.

Vijay Anand went on to see more success at box office with his thrillers. But Guide remains his best movie. A Classic, Guide swept the Filmfare awards - winning 7 Filmfares, best Movie, Director, Actor, Actress, Story, Dialogue and Cinematography. I wonder how on earth did it miss the Filmfares for its music.

**spoiler warning** 'Guide' is a celebration of a "flawed" character who seeks love, pain, redemption and death. ******

C.I.D. (1956)

A wonderful crime-suspense

[8/10 · 20 August 2004]

Director Khosla's debut movie CID is regarded as one of Bollywood's best crime thriller. Khosla who was assistant director under Guru Dutt learned from his mentor the film-noir (Bombay-noir in Indian context) style and thus directed this 'must see' movie. CID is a crime-suspense movie and the Hollywood influence is showing. The movie is also remembered for songs like "Yeh Hai Bombay Meri Jaan" featuring Johny Walker. The songs is about the city of Bombay and its crooked life. Other hits include "Kahin Pe Nigahen Kahin Pe Nishana" "Aankhon Hi Aankhon Mein Ishaara Ho Gaya" "Bujh Mera Kya Naam Re Nadi Kinare Gaam Re".

The hugely successful movie will always be remembered as Dev Anand's greatest hits. I recommend it to any fan of Dev Anand or anyone interested in the history of Bollywood. Khosla went on to direct some more hits for the Navketan banner. Including Kalaa Pani and Bambai Ka Babu.

8/10 for the movie's Historical Significance in Bollywood.

Khakee (2004)

Nice movie

[6/10 · 7 March 2004]

Short of it:

*Enjoyable

*Better then most Bollywood movies (and Hollywood movies for that matter)

*Good performance _BY ALL_

*Thrilling (leaves you with your mouth open at times) lots of twists

*Drags near the end (God!! When will the movie end?) _BUT_ the ending is WOW

*One complete hour without any song

*Ajay Devgan has matured (You have to be good more then once before someone says you have matured as an actor)

*Has the obvious minor problems with continuity and weakness of plot at times.

As the cliché goes 'last but not the least' *Aisa Jadoo ;-)

If you can tell the story of a Hindi movie one hour into the future because you have seen a lot of then there is not spoiler here otherwise --A lil Spoiler--

I liked the fact that Minister Deodhar alludes to Modi the CM of Gujrat. The story in essence has some mild truth to it about a real minister trying to use communal riots to his own advantage. What is amusing is the movie starts with the "... entirely fictional story and resemblance is incidental..." kind of line. Needless to say that the director is talking about politicians in general and the comparison with Modi that I've put here is from own hate for the man. Another good was the good light in which Muslims are shown.

About the ending - The character of Sub Inspector Ashwin Gupte is worth following. He starts out as an enthusiastic young man of strict principles. Stays a man of principles when he says he will quit the job after this assignment - but has lost his enthusiasm. In the end while he arguably still is with the good side he has lost his sense of strict principles too. The entire movie is against taking law into your own hands but what about the ending? The message changes to - you are justified to give your own judgement if you are absolutely sure of it. Fine with me, but is it not the start of path towards breaking the law... I loved the ending anyway.

6/10 I'd say.

Anand (1971)

Hrishikesh Mukherjee's best work...

[10/10 · 31 January 2004]

Hrishikesh Mukherjee has enriched Hindi cinema with such masterpieces as Gol Maal, Chupke Chupke, Mili, Abhimaan, Bawarchi, Khubsoorat. All of them relatively low on budget and high in quality. To think of it that he was directing at the breakneck speed of more than two movies a year. Mukherjee's movies were light hearted comic dramas, Anand too is comical at times. His other movies featured people struggling to keep a job, or fancying a marriage to film star, or struggling to keep up with a practical joke, Anand on the other hand is about struggling to live the short life you have.

Anand is without doubt the best (and most popular) of Mukherjee's works. Rajesh Khanna's role as Anand, a patient with 'Lymphosarcoma (cancer) of the intestine' is probably his best acting ever. How Anand fights cancer brings tears to your eyes, even if you see this movie for the umpteenth. You laugh with Anand, you cry with him, you sing with him, you live the life he lives. Amitabh Bachchan's (Dr Banerjee) role of his square faced Bengali doctor, in a role so different from the roles that made him a superstar, (Bachchan was voted the greatest actor ever in the online BBC pole, though he played it down saying - this proves Indians do not have much to do on Internet) Amitabh does a wonderful job. Being a Bollywood movie that it is, there are some beautiful songs. I wonder - a Hollywood movie with songs is called a musical and all Bollywood movies are characterised as song and dance sequences. This is a stereotype that a lot of Hindi Movies won't fit into (then there are a lot that will). Anand for one has no dance sequence. Lot of beautiful songs though, that help the narrative and in character development like acting can't.

For example you never see Anand unhappy for a second. You think he has no sorrows. Even the name of his illness is something to enjoy. Lymphosarcoma of the intestine is quite a name to have for a disease, Anand says in his ever cheerful voice (the word Anand means pleasure btw). Deep inside Anand knows he has limited time in the world and he wants to fill every life that he touches with happiness. In the process he starts growing closer to you. He talks to a complete stranger on the street like he knew him forever. He shares the sorrows of people he meets, gives them reason to smile. But never will let you into his own sad past. It is only through a song (a sort of soliloquy) he sings that you get a bit of information about his sad past - he himself wont share it with you.

The movie won the 1972 Filmfare Award. One of the best works to come out of Bollywood.

Border (I) (1997)

Another stupid Indian war film

[5/10 · 1 January 2004]

Border is about a small military confrontation between India and Pakistan. The facts have been mutilated and heroes have been made larger then life. It was the Indian air force that made a real difference to the outcome. In the movie it is a handful of soldiers that do the job. Even the cook has to take up arms. Apart from an incorrect plot there is hopeless acting and stupid stunts. Take for example a soldier who carries an anti tank mine to a tank after being shot around 20 times all over the body. You can count on more such scenes in the movie. The movie was a big hit in India and the director won acclaims for his direction. Every major characters has a love life and the romance side of their stories makes the movie agonizingly long. Aside from all this junk the movie has some brilliant songs exploring the soldiers life far from his family. "Sandeshe aaten hain" is about soldiers waiting for a message from home, letters ask them . "Jaaten hue lamhon" is about a soldier asking the time to stop because he wants to spend a little more time with his newly wed wife.

Do Bigha Zamin (1953)

Your character is the only thing your own.

[8/10 · 30 November 2003]

Bimalda's Do Bigha Zameen is considered a gem in Indian movies. The movie has a slight socialist theme as did most movies of that time. If the younger generation of Chinese, Eastern Europeans and Russians wonder why they saw so many Indian movies this socialist theme, probably is the answer. Do Bigha Zameen won the first ever Filmfare award. The movie got a special mention at the Cannes film festival. The movie is about a farmer Shambhu (Balraj Sahni), who has been hit badly by a famine in Bengal. The real reason of his sorrow is that the Zamindaar (land owner) wants to acquire his land on the pretext that Shambhu had taken some loan from him. Shambhu has to pay back and hence he moves to the city.

The movie paints a very true picture of pre-independence (and early post independence) India. The society is agrarian yet the farmers are poor mainly because of the fact that they have very small land holdings and they are unlettered. The farmers were gullible while the land owner, money lender and the Brahmins were guile. A lot of people moved to the cities either in the anticipation of turning there fortunes or because they could not survive the atrocities of power holders. The movie has a theme that can be found in works of notable Indian authors Munshi Premchand or Sarat Chandra Chaterjee.

The most memorable scene from the movie is when Shambhu pushes himself to his limits pulling a hand pulled rikshaw. The rider on the riksha offers Shambhu more and more money to pull faster because he is chasing (probably) his girlfriend in another rikshaw. Note Shambhu's emotions, his smile in anticipation of getting more. Compare this with the rich class which is not worried the least about the lower class' plight. The lower class is no more then a machine that can be operated by putting in quarters. The rikshaw looses a wheel and Shambhu is injured.

This is the kind of movie that can not be spoilt even if I were to write the entire story down for you. This is art not suspense thriller. You must watch this movie not for the story but the direction and the acting abilities of Balraj Sahni and Nirupa Roy (Shambhu's wife).

In all these hardships Shambhu does not loose his righteousness which is the moral of the movie. Shambhu's son steals money to help his father only to be reproached by his father. Shambhu's morality is the only thing that remains his own till the end.

The movie is notable for Balraj Sahni's performance and since it is another of Bimal Roy's movies you can expect only the best. Personally I recommend any of the Bimal Roy movies. Like other movies by him, art and commercial form of cinema are merged to produce a movie that is still looked upon as a benchmark.

Finally the name of the movie means Two Bigha of Land. Bigha is a unit of measuring land. Bigha varies from state to state. In Bengal where the movie is based 3 Bigha is one Acre. So Shambhu owns only 2.7 sq. kilometres.

Bandini (1963)

... a classic Indian Movie by Bimal Roy

[9/10 · 23 November 2003]

Directed and produced by Bimal Roy, the genius who brought out such masterpieces as Do bigha zameen and Devdas, Bandini explores the human conflicts of love and hate intertwined in the mind of Kalyani (Nutan). The movie tells the story of Kalyani, the all suffering, selfless, sacrificing, and strong yet week Indian woman. She must make a choice between two very different men.

A female role centric movie, Bandini revolves around Kalyani or Bandini (meaning imprisoned). How could she commit a crime? We learn the circumstances in flashback. Kalyani falls in love with a freedom fighter/anarchist - Bikash (Ashok Kumar) during the British Raj, who latter leaves her in the village promising to come back but never does. The society treats them the best way it could in the situation, the family is the butt of mockery. Broken by her father's misery and that of her own, Kalyani moves to the city, to the singing of the "O jaanewale ho sake to laut ke aana". In the city she works as a caretaker of an almost insane woman, who is also the wife of Bikash. When Kalyani is told her father came to the city looking for her and died in an accident she decides to poison her lover's wife, identifying her as the cause of her miseries. Bimalda captures her emotions with light and darkness falling on her face due to a welder's torch and the thumping of Iron in the background.

In the jail Deven (Dharmandra) the jail doctor falls in love with her. Kalyani is not ready for it and starts to stay away from him. They are always shown with a partition in between after Deven proposes her. Another symbolism used in the movie is the occasional shouting of "All is well" by the prison guard when nothing in the movie is.

The lines "Main Bandini Hoon Piya ki, Main Sangini Hoon Saajan ki" in the end score of the movie tells us that Kalyani is imprisoned by her love. "Mere saajan hain us paar" is sung by the musician S D Burman himself. The climactic song, it beautifully expresses Kalyani's dilemma of having to choose between Bikash & Deven. Though the movie features excellent songs they all depict the situation like nothing else could. This should not be looked upon as the traditional dance and sing Indian style of cinema. Without wanting to add more spoilers in my comments I will give some little details.

The character of Kalyani gets lifted from that of a woman who is a prisoner of destiny to one who defines her own freedom

Nutan is considered the finest actor in Indian Cinema. Nutan is strongly supported by Ashok Kumar, whose flawless performance matches Nutan scene for scene and Dharmendra, just beginning to make an impact in the film industry. Bimal Roy is another one of the best. He won eight filmfare awards in his career the last one for Bandini and the first one for "Do Bigha Zameen" (which incedently was the first filmfair award). S D Burman is another one of the best. The songs are sung by Mukesh, Lata Mangeshkar, Asha bhosle, Manna Dey and S D Burman again all of them are either the best or one of the best singers. Bandini is brilliantly photographed by Kamal Bose with its rich tonal quality and evocative framing.