Age no bar (Professor)

It's a close match. Suave and sexy Preetam is pitted against wobbly but clever Prof Khanna. The wages are high, the competition is tight...
Preetam has to quickly find a job to send his ageing mother to a sanatorium. For that, he has to hoodwink a dictatorial woman and glib his way to her house posing as an old professor. He then has to learn the ABC of Sanskrit to teach two giggly young girls and handle the tantrums of two small boys.
All this, as the old Prof Khanna! Yes, young Preetam, struggling to get a job, charades as an ageing bachelor and enters the household of the martinet Sita Verma, and in the process, sets off a series of hilarious incidents. Rankled initially by the strict regulations set by his employer, Prof Khanna unconsciously breaks all those rules and even manages to make Sita Verma fall in love with him!
So, who wins?

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Why old films?

I have to tell what I felt when I saw Shammi Kapoor lipsyncing to Tumsa Nahin Dekha. What I felt when he as Anil Kumar Sona said, "My my, too many things for a little girl like you." This scene from the thrilling Teesri Manzil, featuring the coolest Kapoor, curvaceous Asha Parekh and a hilarious fat somebody, is a definite rewind when I play the cult classic. It's like I roll my eyes, and my tongue, when the protagonists bombard against each other, a definitive foreplay to two and a half hours of cinematic pleasure. Catchy story, compelling performances and mindblowing music from Panchamda, this Vijay Anand classic is one reminder why I love old films. Because, they are lovable and they remind me of my father: the umpteen hours both of us spent watching classics and later discussing them and tch-tching on how they don't make films like that anymore.
Yes, they don't. Where have all the Mary Poppins gone? Where are films like Gene Kelly's Singing in the Rain? Or maybe, The Sound of Music? Why doesn't anyone look oh-so-romantic like Yul Brenner in The King & I? Where have all of them gone?
No, Shammi Kapoor is not my only favourite. And, Asha Parekh is just one of them who I love smiling at. There is a whole gamut of actors, lyricists, directors and musicians. The constellation that made old films such a spectacular universe. But yes, Shammi Kapoor, the dancing prince, has yahooed his way in my heart! But my heart is quite roomy and there is place for more talents.
There is a joy, a connect I have with old films-both Hindi and English. Something that makes me feel with them, for them. Something that draws me to them. It's too small a life, I feel, to fit all those great films that were made during the golden years of the Hindi and English film industry. But till there's time, I'm here to see and love them all. Well, love not maybe, but watch. And watch well. Therefore, read on then...