Before Bharat beckoned (Banarasi thug)

When Manoj Kumar started toying with the idea of portraying severely patriotic roles, someone should have held him by the ears, sat him down and given him a thorough brainwash. For, he not only skewed his own career prospects and popularity doing those utterly inane portrayals, but also fobbed us off with those nonsense characters uselessly steeped in excess doses of nationality. Before the Bharat mania gripped him, he was every bit the hero that girls would fall for, romancing pretty ladies, singing some lovely songs and doing pretty charming and naughty things, too. With a handsome face, an attractive smile and tall debonair looks, he really could have done a whole lot for himself if he had not succumbed to the patriotic fever! What a loss...

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All for a sari (Phagun)

Even if you are watching Rajinder Singh Bedi's Phagun with a sensitive eye, it is impossible to evade the very inane premise that takes the story forward. An expensive sari soiled during the season of colours! Yes, nothing but that. That single pink sari is the cause of much heartburn and costs Gopal and Shanta their happiness and years of togetherness. Surely, this much-promised saga of complex human emotions could have had a more solid pretext!

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Adventure gone wrong (Azaad)

Sometimes I wonder whether films that became blockbusters during their times would do as well if released today? Not if the treatment is as shoddy and half-hearted as I discovered in SMS Naidu's Azaad. His romantic adventure flick, I read, was the highest grossing entertainer in 1955. A watch after I am yet to decipher whether the records are indeed indicative of how good a film is. For, apart from a few mushy moments between the lead pair, some melodious songs by C Ramchanda, a gorgeous Meena Kumari and a dishy Dilip Kumar, this film lacks the punch of say maybe, Kohinoor or even Aan. Patchy in parts and disjointed throughout, the film suffers from bad editing and a tediously stretched comic subplot starring Om Prakash and Raj Mehra. Wish the director concentrated more on the love angle than attempting to make his caper a well-rounded adventure film...

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