Comments on: Red Rose 1980

By: sunheriyaadein

sunheriyaadein — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 07:51:43 +0000

Both of these are so well written! I wish this movie had done better at the box-office.
Down south, all genres of movies have equal fan-following. Romance, Action, Thrillers are accepted whole-heartedly and when the likes of Kamal Hassan or Rajnikath do these movies, they are bound to rock the box-office.
But in Bollywood, we associate tags with actors…like we expect the likes of Rajesh and Shammi to always do romantic roles. And when they experiment something different, it’s not appreciated much, no matter how well the movie is made or how brilliantly the actors have performed.
During those days, for someone with an image of a superstar, it must have been quite a bold decision to do a role like this. But I’m glad he took it up as a challenge and did it .
If I have loved Rajesh Khanna as the romantic hero earlier, my love and respect for him has increased all the more after watching this movie.

By: Suhan

Suhan — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 07:05:18 +0000

Here are a couple of other reviews on the film. One’s from a couple of years back in the Economic Times. It makes some very interesting points and linkages. Here’s the link to it.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Business_of_Bollywood/A_rose_by_any_name/articleshow/2547342.cms

The other’s from the March 1 to 15, 1982 issue of Filmfare by Basab Sinha called “Rajesh Khanna: Breaking the Shackles of His Own Image”.

“The last couple of years have witnessed Rajesh breaking the shackles of his image and showing remarkable versatility in handling different roles, roles which were a distinct about turn as far as his image went.

The film which deserves special mention is “RED ROSE”. This film had Rajesh in a negative role where his underplaying brought alive the complexities of the character – mental instability, obsession with sex and sufferings because of traumatic childhood experiences. In every scene Rajesh was positively brilliant, like the one in which his newly married wife repeatedly questions him about his office affairs and he bursts out and replied “NOTHING, NOTHING…………………” Further the last scene where he becomes abnormal his expressions of eyes and face were simply classic. It is doubtful if any other Indian actor would have been able to handle the role so effectively. Truly this is one of the finest performances of the recent years.

Rajesh simply lives the roles. His detailed studies of the characters come across in the little but deft touches in his performances which make the characters so natural and life like and lent it what a certain critic rightly called ‘PSYCHOLOGICAL CREDIBILITY’. One sincerely hopes that Rajesh khanna continues to show the same courage in choosing his future roles. “

By: sunheriyaadein

sunheriyaadein — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 20:15:35 +0000

Well, his arrogance helped him somewhere at least! I felt his performance was amazing in this one. I have only heard goody goody things about him – my main source of filmy information over the years being Vividh Bharati and All India Radio.
I think I should get hold of those filmy magazines and read them. It would be fun and interesting to read all such gossip

By: PIYUSH A DAVE-AHMEDABAD

PIYUSH A DAVE-AHMEDABAD — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 19:01:25 +0000

I had seen this movie when I was studying in college and it was almost the end of RK’s superstar era. I went to see this movie after reading the review in Screen -film weekly discribing it as zarahatke kind of the film *ing RK in lead with negative shades. I must say that he could portray this role in excellent manner because of his real life arrogant style which shifted to the movie directly. In those days we used to read about his arrogancy in the filmy magazine. This helped him a lot -especially for this movie. Rajesh Khanna -an actor with par excellence but at the same time a man of mood. One can never afford to forget him.

By: sunheriyaadein

sunheriyaadein — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 19:15:37 +0000

Well, I am not very fond of the story as such but it’s the execution and treatment of the subject that I really liked. And not to forget, amazing performance by Kaka. Please do check it out and let me know how you find it.
Zara hatke means little out of the ordinary/off the beaten track/offbeat/one of a kind

By: sunheriyaadein

sunheriyaadein — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 19:03:40 +0000

Honestly speaking this isn’t my kind of a movie. I prefer watching happy-happy movies, I don’t mind even if they don’t make much sense as long as they are fun-filled and not too depressing.
Not that I don’t watch other movies, that’s what I generally prefer. But I do like collecting movies of different genre.
I spotted this in a video store and it being a Rajesh Khanna movie, I just couldn’t stop myself from buying it. But I somehow couldn’t gather enough courage to watch it. Had heard quite a lot about it esp. about Rajesh’s character. Having almost idolized him ever since I was a kid, I couldn’t imagine him doing such a role. But this particular week I was left with no other RK movies (thanks to my friends who had taken other DVDs and hadn’t returned them back).
But now looking back, I’m glad they didn’t. And I’m so happy that I saw this movie. I got to see the other side of Rajesh Khanna as an actor and hats off to the director and producers and script-writers – it was very bold of them to experiment with a subject like this, especially in those days.

I never knew it was a remake of a Tamil movie, I would love to see that!

But this did inspire me to explore the movies that I hadn’t seen earlier. And that’s how I ended up watching Aavishkar, which was another treat.

And I have to confess that Om Shivpuri’s rat killing spree did give me shivers too, and that too not just once – first while watching the movie and next when I was taking the screen caps! Another scene which really scared me was that hand in the garden, suddenly shooting up with the fountain. I watched the movie in the afternoon so didn’t give it much thought then. But it was around 2 AM while I was taking the screencaps, and GOD it really scared the wits out of me.

By: bollywoodeewana

bollywoodeewana — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 07:34:56 +0000

you give this quite a balanced review, as all the others i’ve read seem to say its really really bad, i’ll check it out. By the way whats the meaning of zara hatke

By: Suhan

Suhan — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 06:05:42 +0000

I’ve a great fondness for this film. It’s different, eerie, and both RK and Poonam are very good and believable in what they set out to do as are the cameos by Shammi, Aruna, etc. Om Shivpuri gave me the shivers especially with that rat killing spree in the garden The music by RD Burman is truly great, the background score and the two songs; love Kiski Sadayen, the music as well as the picturization.

This movie had a very strange feel to it overall. Quite, quite different from the standard Bollywood fare of the day. You asked about its Box Office performance and unfortunately it bombed. However, even so, the few people that managed to see it then kept talking about it and it’s become quite a cult film now by word of mouth. That genre hasn’t been explored in Hindi films much (not at all at the time it released I believe) and it’s considered to be the best of its kind. It was a remake of the hugely popular Tamil version with Kamalhasan and a very young Sridevi in the leading roles. I’ve seen that too but I think Bhartiraaja did an equally, if not better job in the Hindi remake. I’m probably in the minority though but I think, in general, most people think that the originals are better and I’ve never quite agreed (I speak from having seen quite a few Bengali films remade in Hindi, where most of the latter were much better).

In any event, thanks for this week of RK specials It’s a huge treat for Kaka’s fans. Look forward to your other reviews. Best wishes for a very happy new year by the way.

By: sunheriyaadein

sunheriyaadein — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 09:04:47 +0000

Wow, that was a great list!!!! Very true, he’s an amazing actor.
I’m writing about Agar Tum Na Hote at the moment. And have Dushman, Ittefaq and Palkon Ke Chaon Mein lined up for tomorrow and day after. I only hope I get to complete them.
Oh, how I adore him in all his movies!!! Cheers to Kaka and all his fans

By: ALOK

ALOK — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 08:38:50 +0000

excellent effort. I always say that Rajesh Khanna deserves more than what he has got. I find him an extremely talented actor with a lot of understanding of human being and cinematic perfection. Rajesh Khanna as he himself says is an actor first and in the process somewhere he became the superstar. Since he was an actor, he has acted in offbeat movies like Aavishkar, palkon ki chaon mein, Red rose, Naukri at the peak of his career and never bothered to live in an image.His sensative portrayals in Anand, Itefaq,Safar, Namak haraam, Souten, Agar tum na hote. Offbeat characters like Aaj ka mla, Avatar,Romantic leads in Kati Patang, Amar Prem, Daag- Hero of commercial cinema- Saccha Jhootha, Roti, Hathi Mere Sathi, Dushmun etc. are all time greats and have a great repeat value. It is bad luck of today’s youth that they cannot see his performance as he has called it a day…….

Long live Kaka and his fans.