Movies of the '80s - an appraisal
allan....@gmail.com
But were there really so many "bad apples" in that lot.
Granted the fact that many commerical Hindi films of the
80's followed a formulaic routine: in terms of script, music,
comedy etc. In fact, there would be a comedy routine in such
run-of-the-mill films mostly involving Asrani, Kader Khan
and/or Aruna Irani which appeared as if it was forcibly added
into the film. Also music in Hindi films plumbed to new depths
especially in the mid-to-late 80's. In fact, only QSQT and MPK
actually breathed life into Hindi film music.
But there were a few gems in that era. For instance, Dilip
Kumar made a spectacular comeback with movies like
Vidhaata, Karma, Mashaal and Shakti. In fact, Shakti(1982)
saw Amitabh and Dilip Kumar, arguably the two finest actors
of that era, lock horns. Also other good movies like Arth,
Masoom, Saaransh, Mr.India belonged to this decade.
Parallel cinema didn't do too badly either. Ardh Satya by
Govind Nihalani and Ankush by N. Chandra were fabulous
movies. In fact, Ardh Satya is the best parallel Hindi film I
have seen till date.
Finally, the end of the 80s saw the resurgence of love stories
once again due to the success of Qayamat Se Qayamat
Tak(1988) and Maine Pyar Kiya(1989). Of course, the 80s
would be remembered as the "video casette" boom decade,
when family audiences prefered to pay Rs.10 and watch the
latest Hindi film on VCR, rather than go to cinema theatres.
Dwindling audiences meant that a lot of cinema halls were
actually in danger of shutting down.
It is a marvel that many of these theatres actually managed
to survive inspite of this hostile environment. The credit
should probably go to Hum Aapke Hain Kaun (1994)
- a family oriented film that actually lured family audiences
towards theatres.
I would like to know the thoughts of RAMLI regulars on the
above.
Arjun Pandit
> above.
Nice post Allan. 80s was the decade I got into movies and I think I
must have seen a good percentage of all of the Bollywood movies since
then :).
Amongst the 80s movies, my favorite has been Shakti. In fact it is a
movie I enjoy everytime I see. Amongst the other 80s movies I liked:
- Ardh Satya
- Naam
- Thikana
- Arth (I didn't see it till in the late 90s)
- Falak
- Kaash (except for the special effects song)
- Satte pe Satta
- Satyamev Jayate
- Kabza
- Sai Paranjpe movies like Katha, Chashme Buddoor
- Meri Jung (Nutan and AK are personal favorites and this movie has
them both at their very best)
- Jaanbaaz
- Duniya
- Mashaal
So yes, while there was an overdose of remakes starring Jeetendra,
Sridevi and Jaya Prada in this period, there were also some nice
movies. I think the top commercial directors of 80s must have been Raj
Sippy (the RGV of the 70s, 80s) and Mahesh Bhatt (many of his movies
are in the above list) and Subhash Ghai (he was alright in 80s with
movies like Karz, Meri Jung etc)
Champak Bhumiya
Incidently I thought many of the 80's hit movies/blockbursters such as
Ram Lakhan, Tezaab, QSQT, maine pyar kiya, tridev etc were completely
rotten and thankfully I have not watched them after 80's.
Here is a my favorite movies of 80's in no particular order:
(*ing sanjeev kumar)
Biwi o Biwi
Hero
Qatl
Baat Ban Jaye
Shriman Shrimati
(*ing Farooque shaikh)
Yahan Wahan, Lakhon ki baat, kisse ne kehne, ab aayega mazaa, peecha
karon, Rang Birangi
(*ing Anil Kapoor)
Eeshwar (I think this is Anil Kapoor's best performance)
Chameli ki shaadi
Aap ke saath (utpal Dutt in a very good serious role)
Saaheb
Love marriage
Woh saat din
Amitabh
Pukar (I think this was in 80's but could be wrong)
Rishi Kapoor
Karz
Khoj
Bade dilwala
zamane ko dikha hain
yeh vaada raha
Champak
nanhaf...@yahoo.co.in
Champak Bhumiya wrote:
> Bade dilwala
Not this one. It was a poorly crafted copy of Kati Patang. Good songs,
hopeless direction and use of technology.
> yeh vaada raha
This is another one I don't see much to talk about except for the "ye
waadaa rahaa" song.
Arjun Pandit
>
> > - Jaanbaaz
>
> Oh comeon. Jaanbaaz had very stylish photography (the introduction of
> Sridevi was mind boggling), but the movie was utter crap.
>
It was a very stylish movie for the 80s :-)
>
> Some more movies you might have missed as an oversight.
>
> Saaransh.
> Dacait (it was good till about 3/4 and then became routine vendetta. But
> the rural India was shown very well).
> Parinda
> Saaz-e-Maut (Vidhu Vinod Chopra's first movie)
> Jaane Bhee Do Yaaron
> Ankush (Nana Patekar was excellent in that)
> AitBaar (of course scene-to-scene copy of Dial M for Murder)
Agree with the above. You seem to have missed Arjun.
> Avtaar (probably the only time I really liked Rajesh Khanna. Story
> similar to recent Bhagbaan)
> Chaalbaaz
>
I didn't like the above two movies.
> ps: I am intentionally keeping out 'art' movies as it is given that some
> of them were good. Hopefully this shudn't irritate our resident art movie
> basher - Arun Simha
He is a basher of art movies?
asla...@yahoo.co.in
> Champak Bhumiya wrote:
>
> > Biwi o Biwi
>
> Oh yes.
>
> Also that Sanjeev Kumar-Deven Verma's comedy
> film where they are twins and everyone gets confused.
Angoor. A classic comedy. I just loved the master-servant
pair of Sanjeev Kumar - Deven Verma. IIRC, Deven Verma
won the Filmfare award for "Best Actor in a comedy role"
for this movie. BTW where is Deven Verma?? Nowadays
we have an overdose of Boman Irani and Johnny Lever in
Hindi movies. In the 80s and 90's we had too much of
Asrani and Kader Khan. I prefer Deven Verma to all the
above actors. He doesn't overact and his comic timing
is very good.
> > Hero
>
> OK. This was one of the more tolerable movies of Subash Ghai.
After Karz, another superhit from Subhash Ghai. This
was the movie that launched Jackie Shroff's career.
> >Eeshwar (I think this is Anil Kapoor's best performance)
>
> I hated AK in it and also KamalHassan in the original.
Eeshwar was a pretty watchable movie. It wasn't AK's
best performance though.
RB
> But were there really so many "bad apples" in that lot.
I don't think people slam the movies of the 80's in general. What most
people diss is the music. In general most people felt that the music took a
downturn in the late seventies and reached it's nadir in the mid eighties.
There was some sort of renaissance in the late 80's and early nineties ( not
a whole lot IMO )
RB (who also grew up watching movies in the 80's)
ltusenet
asla...@yahoo.co.in wrote:
>
> Angoor. A classic comedy. I just loved the master-servant
> pair of Sanjeev Kumar - Deven Verma. IIRC, Deven Verma
> won the Filmfare award for "Best Actor in a comedy role"
> for this movie. BTW where is Deven Verma?? Nowadays
> we have an overdose of Boman Irani and Johnny Lever in
> Hindi movies. In the 80s and 90's we had too much of
> Asrani and Kader Khan. I prefer Deven Verma to all the
> above actors. He doesn't overact and his comic timing
> is very good.
I dont know if you have watched "Priyatama" starring Jeetendra, Neetu
Singh, but that too has Deven Verma in a fabulous role. He is Neetu
Singh's jeeja and funny as hell. The movie also has a song I like a
lot, " koi roko naa..deewane ko..man machal raha.. kuchh gaane ko.."
(music is by Rajesh Roshan)
>
> > >Eeshwar (I think this is Anil Kapoor's best performance)
> >
> > I hated AK in it and also KamalHassan in the original.
>
> Eeshwar was a pretty watchable movie. It wasn't AK's
> best performance though.
I found Anil Kapoor very irritating in this one.
ltusenet
Some more, that I enjoyed (in addition to several mentioned in the
thread)
- Pasand Apni Apni (Mithun, Rati, Utpal Dutt)
- Shaukeen (Mithun, Rati and the three buddhas)
- Nadiya ke Paar (Sachin)
- Apne Paraye (Amol Palekar, Shabana Azmi)
- Naram Garam (Amol Palekar, Swarup Sampat)
- Damaad (Amol Palekar)
- Main Azaad Hoon
- Ijaazat
- Shart
- Pestonjee (I like this movie quite a lot for some strange reason)
- Khamosh
- Masoom
and there are many more...
Who said the 80s were dull?
Champak Bhumiya
rkusenet wrote:
> Champak Bhumiya wrote:
>
> > Biwi o Biwi
>
> Oh yes.
>
> Also that Sanjeev Kumar-Deven Verma's comedy
> film where they are twins and everyone gets confused.
>
>
> OK. This was one of the more tolerable movies of Subash Ghai.
>
>
>
>
> Yes.
>
> > Amitabh
> > Pukar (I think this was in 80's but could be wrong)
>
>
> Frankly what did you see in that movie to like it.
Well this is the only Indian (Hindi or Marathi) movie which I have
watched(though there
probably are more ) in which the Goan freedom struggle against
Portuguese is shown
and in it was nice to watch it for that . (there have been so many
movies about British Raj)
Amitabh was good in it and so was Randhir Kapoor.
I also liked the following movies for time-pass
1) Maalamaal (*ing Naseeruddin Shah)
2) Tere bina kya jeena ( I think I mentioned this once. it *ed Shekhar
suman and moon moon
sen)
Also some more which no has mentioned.
Yeh to Kamal ho gaya (*ing Kamal Hassan in a double role.)
Bees Saal Baad(Supposedly a horror movie but I enjoyed it for the
comedy *ing
Mithun and Dimple)
Saaya( a Ramsay horror)
> It is a 1990 movie.
>
> > Bade dilwala
> > zamane ko dikha hain
> > yeh vaada raha
>
> Is this a troll or what. All 3 are unwatchable.
Well they were ok. I actually liked Rishi Kapoor a lot in 80's and 70's
movies. His acting would make Raddi movies tolerable. Also I liked all
the songs in these movies. Of the
3 YVR was very good before the accident happens, after which it was
horrendous.
Champak
Champak Bhumiya
> > film where they are twins and everyone gets confused.
>
> Angoor. A classic comedy. I just loved the master-servant
> pair of Sanjeev Kumar - Deven Verma. IIRC, Deven Verma
> won the Filmfare award for "Best Actor in a comedy role"
> for this movie. BTW where is Deven Verma??
probably even before)
Incidently he is Ashok Kumar's son-in-law.
> Nowadays
> we have an overdose of Boman Irani and Johnny Lever in
> Hindi movies. In the 80s and 90's we had too much of
> Asrani and Kader Khan. I prefer Deven Verma to all the
> above actors. He doesn't overact and his comic timing
> is very good.
Champak
Champak Bhumiya
> - Pasand Apni Apni (Mithun, Rati, Utpal Dutt)
Yes it's too good. Incidently Atul agnihotri (who came as a hero in a
few mahesh bhatt
movies of the 90's plays a child artist in this.)
> - Shaukeen (Mithun, Rati and the three buddhas)
Yes very good.
> - Nadiya ke Paar (Sachin)
Wasn't this in 70s?
> - Apne Paraye (Amol Palekar, Shabana Azmi)
haven't seen it.
> - Naram Garam (Amol Palekar, Swarup Sampat)
again I think it was 70s.
> - Damaad (Amol Palekar)
Same as above.
> - Main Azaad Hoon
Cut and pasted from Meet John Doe. but still good.
> - Ijaazat
yes.
> - Shart
who stars in it?
> - Pestonjee (I like this movie quite a lot for some strange reason)
yes.
> - Khamosh
> - Masoom
I think already mentioned.
> and there are many more...
>
> Who said the 80s were dull?
Agreed.
Champak
ltusenet
Champak Bhumiya wrote:
> > - Pasand Apni Apni (Mithun, Rati, Utpal Dutt)
> Yes it's too good. Incidently Atul agnihotri (who came as a hero in a
> few mahesh bhatt
> movies of the 90's plays a child artist in this.)
> > - Shaukeen (Mithun, Rati and the three buddhas)
> Yes very good.
> > - Nadiya ke Paar (Sachin)
> Wasn't this in 70s?
> > - Apne Paraye (Amol Palekar, Shabana Azmi)
> haven't seen it.
> > - Naram Garam (Amol Palekar, Swarup Sampat)
> again I think it was 70s.
This was in 1981.
> > - Damaad (Amol Palekar)
> Same as above
You are correct. I was not sure of the year and checked with IMDB which
lists the wrong year. I verified that it was a 1978 movie after your
post.
.
> > - Main Azaad Hoon
> Cut and pasted from Meet John Doe. but still good.
> > - Ijaazat
> yes.
> > - Shart
> who stars in it?
Kanwaljeet, Naseer, Shabana. It is a suspense thriller, pretty good
when I saw it then. I think this is a remake of some English movie.
> > - Pestonjee (I like this movie quite a lot for some strange reason)
> yes.
They have been showing this on some cable channel recently. Naseer is
awesome in this one. A very stark sequence involves various scenes of
Naseer and Anupam Kher in a Parsi Club (Rippon Club, its called). When
they are young, they see a lot of people in the Club and the club seems
very busy and active...and as they age the membership is shown to
dwindle too to finally show just the two of them in the club. Probably
an indicator of not dwindling Parsi numbers and the general apathy. I
thought this was one of the very well made movies.
> >
> > Who said the 80s were dull?
> Agreed.
I think Bachchan's Sharabi and Namak Halaal were also during this
period and I enjoyed both of them. In fact I enjoy Namak Halaal even
now.
> Champak
ltusenet
Champak Bhumiya wrote:
> > - Apne Paraye (Amol Palekar, Shabana Azmi)
> haven't seen it.
A family type movie, Utpal Dutt the eldest brother and Amol Palekar is
the youngest. He is also the black sheep with no amdani but musically
inclined. The family tensions, issues, bhai-chara is all there but
shown more realistic and in a rustic setting as opposed to the Suraj
Barjatya variety. A very nice feel good movie. A very simple story that
is told very well.
ltusenet
Champak Bhumiya wrote:
> >
> > Frankly what did you see in that movie to like it.
> Well this is the only Indian (Hindi or Marathi) movie which I have
> watched(though there
> probably are more ) in which the Goan freedom struggle against
> Portuguese is shown
> and in it was nice to watch it for that . (there have been so many
> movies about British Raj)
Johar Mehmood in Goa is on the same lines. It is about independence
from Goa. Also, Saat Hindustani (AB's first movie) is about Goan
Independence.
Baradwaj Rangan
allan....@gmail.com
> > - Pasand Apni Apni (Mithun, Rati, Utpal Dutt)
> Yes it's too good. Incidently Atul agnihotri (who came as a hero in a
> few mahesh bhatt
> movies of the 90's plays a child artist in this.)
Interesting. I never knew that Atul Agnihotri also played a child
artist in Hindi movies.
> > - Shaukeen (Mithun, Rati and the three buddhas)
> Yes very good.
> > - Nadiya ke Paar (Sachin)
> Wasn't this in 70s?
Enjoyed both the above movies.
> > - Ijaazat
> yes.
I haven't seen Ijaazat, although I have heard the songs on
radio. My favourite song from this film is "mera kuchh
saaman..."
> > and there are many more...
Yes, I forgot to mention the following.
New Delhi Times - Shashi Kapoor, Om Puri, Sharmila Tagore
Mirch Masala - Smitha Patil, Naseerudin Shah.
Parinda - Jackie Shroff, Nana Patekar, Anil Kapoor, Madhuri.
Jackie and Nana delivered fabulous performances in Parinda.
Parinda is one of Vidhu Vinod Chopra's finest movies and
there is a lot of existential angst shown in that movie.
In fact, Parinda was the granddaddy of so-called gangster
movies like "Satya", "Company", "D" etc.
Was Aakrosh (1980) a great movie? I haven't seen the film.
It is a Govind Nihalani film, and has a fantastic review on
the IMDB site. What do you guys say, is it worth watching??
> > Who said the 80s were dull?
> Agreed.
> Champak
They weren't dull. But as I mentioned in my OP, music
standards in Hindi films fell badly and almost reached
their nadir in mid-to-late 80's. Also, there were too
many southern remakes mainly starring Jeetendra,
Sridevi and Jayaprada.
ltusenet
allan....@gmail.com wrote:
> Champak Bhumiya wrote:
> > > - Pasand Apni Apni (Mithun, Rati, Utpal Dutt)
> > Yes it's too good. Incidently Atul agnihotri (who came as a hero in a
> > few mahesh bhatt
> > movies of the 90's plays a child artist in this.)
>
> Interesting. I never knew that Atul Agnihotri also played a child
> artist in Hindi movies.
Recommendation candidate, freebie. Rati and Atul are related (cousins,
I think).
>
> Was Aakrosh (1980) a great movie? I haven't seen the film.
> It is a Govind Nihalani film, and has a fantastic review on
> the IMDB site. What do you guys say, is it worth watching??
Yes it is definitely worth watching.
yeskay
Very true. Here are some good to great movies.
- Karz, SG's last good movie
- Khubsoorat (Rekha) - Not as good as HM's other movies of 70s
- The Burning Train - not a great one , but Bollywood's last disaster
movie.
- Qurbani - Very stylish.
- Chasme Buddoor, Katha, Angoor - evergreen comedies
- Do Aur Do Paanch, Shakti and Satte Pe Satta.
- Saath Saath - great music by Jagjit SIngh
- Masoom
- Woh Saat Din and Saaheb - AK's pre-star movies
- Saaransh.
- Hip Hip Hurray (Jha)
- Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron
- Arjun -
- Yateem - Great backdrop of Rajasthan and Sujata Mehta :)
- Naam
- Ankush, Nana Patekar's debut.
- Jaanbaaz
- Nayakan
- Insaf, Satyamev Jayate - Vinod Khanna's return to acting
- Parinda
Some very good 'Art' movies:
- Aakrosh - Govind Nihalani directorial debut with NShah, Om Puri and
Smita Patil.
- Ardh Satya, Vijeta
- Bazaar - Smita Patil and Nshah, besides Farookh. Great music.
- Kalyug - A modern day 'Mahabharat', directed by Shyam Benegal.
- Arth and Mandi Shabana and Smita
- Aaghaat - Nihlani's movie about trade unions. I think it had
Malayalam actor
Gopi
- New Delhi Times
- Sparsh - Naseer and Shabana Azmi.
- Raakh
Dhurandhar Bhatwadekar
Rang Birangi
Jalwa - Pankaj Parasher's stylish debut
Mr.India
Pushpak
Teri kasam (great music by RDB)
Ek Duje ke liye
Sanam Teri Kasam
Zamane ko dikhana hai
Junoon (Shyam Benegal)
Silsila
Umrao Jaan
Vijeta( first Sikh hero in HF)
Baaton Baaton Mein
Champak Bhumiya
> Interesting. I never knew that Atul Agnihotri also played a child
> artist in Hindi movies.
I can;t recall seeing him in any other movie besides this one.
> > > - Shaukeen (Mithun, Rati and the three buddhas)
> > Yes very good.
> > > - Nadiya ke Paar (Sachin)
> > Wasn't this in 70s?
> Enjoyed both the above movies.
>
> > > - Ijaazat
> > yes.
>
> I haven't seen Ijaazat, although I have heard the songs on
> radio. My favourite song from this film is "mera kuchh
> saaman..."
>
> > > and there are many more...
>
> Yes, I forgot to mention the following.
> New Delhi Times - Shashi Kapoor, Om Puri, Sharmila Tagore
> Mirch Masala - Smitha Patil, Naseerudin Shah.
> Parinda - Jackie Shroff, Nana Patekar, Anil Kapoor, Madhuri.
>
> Jackie and Nana delivered fabulous performances in Parinda.
> Parinda is one of Vidhu Vinod Chopra's finest movies and
> there is a lot of existential angst shown in that movie.
> In fact, Parinda was the granddaddy of so-called gangster
> movies like "Satya", "Company", "D" etc.
>
> Was Aakrosh (1980) a great movie? I haven't seen the film.
> It is a Govind Nihalani film, and has a fantastic review on
> the IMDB site. What do you guys say, is it worth watching??
Yes it is a great one.
Some more good "art " movies are:
Albert Pinto ko gussa kyon aata hain (~1982 Nasiruddin Shah)
Ek Baar Phir(may have been 1979) (Dipti Naval and Suresh Oberoi . Hee
Hee Hee)
(probably Dipti Naval's first movie.)
Main Zinda Hoon (I don't know if this was ever released.)
some others which I liked:
Paap ki duniya (*Sunny Deol )
Hathyar (*ing Rishi Kapoor, Sanjay Dutt)
> > > Who said the 80s were dull?
> > Agreed.
> > Champak
>
> They weren't dull. But as I mentioned in my OP, music
> standards in Hindi films fell badly and almost reached
> their nadir in mid-to-late 80's. Also, there were too
> many southern remakes mainly starring Jeetendra,
> Sridevi and Jayaprada.
I would say first half of 80's was good. second half of dull. May have
been due to the fact that
mid-80's marked a sort of a transition in that many good actors such as
Amol Palekar, Utpal
Dutt, Farooque shaikh, Sanjeev Kumar stopping acting/appeared less
somewhere in mid-80s.
Champak
dp
Dhurandhar Bhatwadekar wrote:
> some more:
For me it is simple. Only 80s hindi movies I have seen in theater:
Ek Duje ke liye
Gandhi (yes, saw both English and Hindi versions in theater)
Betaab
Arth
Ardh Satya
Ankush
Mr. India
Tezaab
Except Ek Duje ke liye, I liked the rest.
dp
Champak Bhumiya
> some more:
>
> Rang Birangi
> Jalwa - Pankaj Parasher's stylish debut
> Mr.India
> Pushpak
> Teri kasam (great music by RDB)
A somewhat better Kumar Gaurav-Poonam Dhillon flick is "Romance"
(note , it's not really a "great " movie, but just about ok.)
> Ek Duje ke liye
I actually didn't like this movie.
> Sanam Teri Kasam
> Zamane ko dikhana hai
> Junoon (Shyam Benegal)
> Silsila
yes.
> Umrao Jaan
yes.
> Vijeta( first Sikh hero in HF)
> Baaton Baaton Mein
I think this was 1979.
Here are some more which some may like , some may not but I did.
Nikaah (* Raj babbar)
Sutradhaar (*ing Nana Patekar, Smita Patil)
Qatil (suspense. Aditya Pancholi, Sangeeta Bijlani)
Dhuaan (Mithun, Raakhi)
also to check the timelessness of some of these 80'smovies, just last
week I saw
"kisse na kehna" to check if I still ike it yes and thes answer is
yes.
Utpal dutt, Farooque Shiakh, Deepti Naval were just too good. So was
Saeed Jaffrey
especially once when he tried to imitate Utpal Dutt.
Champak