All Talk and No Action

Hum Dono Rangeen released on the 4th of February and my father had been excited about catching up with some good, old world cinema.

So, yesterday we caught up with the movie and my father's childhood.

I will not outline the story for you. However, I will put in a word for the music composer Jaidev.

Hum Dono has some of the best written and composed songs of Indian Cinema.

Main Zindagi ka saath nibhata ta chala gaya, Allah tero naam, abhi na jaao chodkar... each is a musical and visual masterpiece.

Also, I found the leading ladies - Nanda and Sadhna very graceful and delicate. Dev Anand, almost devoid of his usual mannerisms, has come up with a commendable dual role act. His breakdown scene with Lalita Pawar caught me off-guard. Yeah, it was that poignant.

While I did spot some errors in the plot and the actual film making process, I choose not to bring them up. Given the era Hum Dono released in, it managed to be technically superior to other contemporaries, especially the dual act scenes. Infact, strong scripts with soulful music had always been a distinguishing feature of Navketan Films - Dev and Vijay Anand's production house.

Here, I must mention, I have always found Indian cinema of the 1950's and 60's very liberal. Most movies then, refrained from passing any moral judgments on their protagonists' personal beliefs. While I sat watching Hum Dono, I couldn't help noticing the unrestrained use of cigars and cigarettes by Dev Anand AND he being an atheist AND the display of physical (sexual) yearning of Nanda AND a very pretty Sadhna gifting her boyfriend Dev Anand a cigarette lighter. This said, each character is still referred to as brave, selfless and chaste.

Something was horribly wrong with the censor board then OR with our society now.