The night is still young

The most daft movies made by Bollywood are sometimes made watchable only by the addition of a wonderful musical score. Many B grade movies actually have gems strewn amongst the most atrocious storylines and acting. A movie made with Dev Anand and Mala Sinha, should actually have had a better storyline and believable plot. Love Marriage did not have a plausible plot, I am afraid. Produced and Directed by Subodh Mukherjee, who was Sashadhar Mukherjee’s younger brother, it had music by Shankar Jaikishan and had a cast with Dev Anand, Mala Sinha, Helen and Abhi Bhattacharya. The songs were written by Shailendra and Hasrat Jaipuri.

Starting off with Dev Anand as the star Cricketer at Jhansi (!!) who migrates to Mumbai to join big brother Abhi Bhattacharya’s friend’s company, he does so, falls in love with Mala Sinha between getting a job, a PG accommodation and playing cricket, getting in and out of misunderstandings galore with her, marries her and comes home to Jhansi (without telling his beloved Bhabhi or Big Bro) and then abruptly gets into a long affair with Bacchus. Why is a recurring question asked by the audience repeatedly, but goes abegging, unanswered.

The rest of the storyline is too painful to recount. Two songs stand out from the musical score: One a duet : Dheere dheere chal chand gagan mein (Rafisaab and Latadidi) and the other one is this fabulous solo by Latadidi :

Those were the days of rather strict moral policing. Necking and smooching was a strict taboo, so the cinematographer and director used mechanisms like flowers rubbing against one other, birds pecking at flowers or locking beaks…. and all this from the country that gave the world Kama Sutra and a certain guy who wrote “My Experiments with truth” giving lurid and abhorrent details of his sleeping in the nude with a sundry selection of young nieces, an assortment of female followers and what have you, and a certain unGentlemanly skirt chaser who sat at the feet of the Gorie Mem who took pride in Cuckolding her decorated sailor husband who hailed from the Royalty, no less. And yet the testosterone charged public accepted and watched with vicarious and voyeuristic pleasure as the flowers swayed in the artificially created stiff breeze and rubbed against one other. Mala Sinha looks lovely, her heavy lidded eyes and intoxicating gaze does Dev Anand in, I wonder why he needed the bottle to get sozzled. I mean, her gaze was heady enough. Dev Anand was just halfway into his rag doll mannerisms that sadly got the better of his acting prowess. The song is just fabulous, vintage Latadidi vocal magic. She was in full throat (pun intended). Typical Shankar Jaikishan composition: accordions, bongos and violins. Just heavenly effect. She must have smitten two generations of Indian males who sat transfixed to the screen, willing to stomach the rest of the tripe. Despite the cast and the music, the movie didn’t quite make a huge splash, but like the skilled springboard diver, sank with only a slight ripple.

Stay safe, folks, stay happy and healthy. Stay away from the Chinese malice and take the jab

By abchandorkar

Consultant Interventional Cardiologist, Pune, India

6 replies on “The night is still young”

My very very favourite musical score👌
Yess funny ways to show intimacy 😅😅
I always felt in the last song you posted the word should have been😅👍
वही कल की अधूरी ( रसीली) कहानी….!!!
Would have given better impact 👍

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