Jeene Ki Raah (1969)

I have always loved this film’s music. Laxmikant-Pyarelal had won Best Music Director filmfare award and Lata, the Best Playback Singer  for Aap mujhe achhe lagne lage. I had only two Jeetendra movies – this and Palkon Ki Chhaon Mein, so I decided to watch this first on the occasion of his birthday.

After completing his post graduation (M.Sc) in first class, Mohan (Jeetendra) returns back to his village.

He boards a bullock-cart at the station to go home, but then sees an old lady looking for a conveyance to go to some other village with little kids, so he leaves the cart for them and walks home singing Aane se uski aaye bahaar on the way.

His sister Sudha (Meena T) spots him first and runs to the house to give the news of his arrival to Shobha bhabhi (Anjali Kadam).

Mohan is married to Shobha and has a daughter, Guddi (Baby Gayatri).

Apart from Sudha, he has three little sibblings – Raju, Birju and Bindu. When he doesn’t see them around he enquires about them and his mother, Janki (Durga Khote) and soon learns that they have been toiling to sustain the family - mother in a rice mill and his siblings in a tobacco factory.

He also finds that the ancestral house is heavily mortgaged and his greedy cousin Durga (Bela Bose ) holds Janki responsible for all the problems. Durga, her husband, Ram Das (Roopesh Kumar) and their son, Munna (Master Ripple) also live with them.

He feels ashamed of himself – with a jawaan and educated beta at home, his old widowed mother is working and so are his tiny brothers and sister. He feels it’s his responsibility to support his extended family and decides to go to Bombay in search of a job. But is very frustrated when nobody takes him, inspite of his first class degree in M.Sc – they need recommendations, not degrees.

Exhausted and full of despair, he wanders aimlessly along the street and is almost run over by an ambulance. Out comes Dr. Manohar (Sanjeev Kumar) and scolds him for being so careless, only to recognize the person as Mohan, his friend. He takes him home and gets him introduced to his brother, Naren (Sudhir Kumar…isn’t this guy Naren the guy who played Mohan, the blind guy in Dosti? imdb lists him as Karan Dewan who I feel played Dr. Shekhar and not Naren), a sculptor, who’s deaf and dumb by birth.

He grooms a village boy Mohan to a suited-booted Mohan. Manohar himself decides to go abroad to do a research on a cardiac problem but before that he gets Mohan introduced to his circle of friends in the city during his farewell party.

Mr. Rai (Manmohan Krishna), one of Manohar’s guests is impressed with Mohan and invites him to his house one evening. Mr. Rai is looking for a Personal Secretary but given the nature of work (which according to him is going to be 24X7)needs someone who’s single. Desparate as he is to get a job, Mohan lies to him that he’s single and gets employed.

He soon proves to be an ideal employee and a personal favourite of Mr. Rai as well, much to the dismay of his business partner, Sunder (Jagdeep) and his associate, Ranjan (Ram Mohan).

Dr. Shekhar informs Mr. Rai that his daughter, Radha (Tanuja) is coming from Switzerland.

Mr. Rai is worried that her coming back to India may not be a great idea. He loves his daughter but is worried for her….she’s still in a state of shock, ever since her  mother’s death an year ago - has a heart problem and is bound to wheel chair. At the mention of her mother, she gets an attack and turns blue. But Dr. Shekhar assures him that she’ll be fine provided she’s kept happy.

It’s her birthday the following day. One of the guests mentions her mother in front of Radha and she gets an attack. Mohan sings Aane se uske aaye bahaar to cheer her up. And by the end of the song she even makes an attempt to leave her wheelchair behind and stand on her own feet (literally).

Mohan sends money home but Durga keeps it for herself and doesn’t give it to the family. When the rest of the family learn this, they decide to leave Ram Nagar and go to Bombay to Mohan. They don’t even have his address, they just set out – this was so foolish of them! And yes, as expected, they end up on the streets searching for Mohan.

Dr. Shekhar and Mr. Rai are glad with the progress in Radha’s condition. Dr. Shekhar suggests that Radha be taken to some hill-station for a few days - the change in atmosphere will do her good.

She’s also happy about it and says she’ll complete her painting there. Her friends also come along. They go sight-seeing during the day, where Radha also makes her painting. Her friends tease her and she goes running behind them. Mohan tries to stop her from running - she is just recovering and has started walking, he’s scared running too much might take a toll on her health but she doesn’t listen and after a while, exhausted she almost falls and he goes to give her a support – her friends click a pic of Radha in Mohan’s arms.

The natives invite them for a program in the night and they dance to Aa meri humjoli aa, where Radha imagines herself and Mohan in the act. By the end of the song, she’s dancing herself and Mr. Rai is delighted that his daughter is finally coming back to normal.

They come back to Bombay and Radha is head over heels in love with Mohan. He, being  a married man, tries to keep distance from her. One evening she comes to him and asks him to take her out but he refuses. She throws tantrums but he doesn’t give much attention.

Just then he hears some children sing Chanda ko dhoondne on the road (since that’s his family song – as in he used to sing it to his siblings, daughter and nephew), he rushes down to who’s singing it (he has no clue that they have come to the city) but Radha assumes that he has left his work and come to take her out. When this dawns on him, he just tells her that it’s such a beautiful song and goes back to work, tries looking down from his office window, but doesn’t see anybody.

Sudha falls ill and when Janki goes out in search of a vehicle in the night to take her to a hospital, Mohan spots her on the road. The family is finally reunited. He takes them to Manohar’s house. Durga and Ramdas, along with Munna are forced to leave the house in Ram Nagar and they end up in Bombay as well. They first land in Sundar’s house but later Ram Das plays a trick to make Durga realize her faults and also manages to convince her to work hard and earn a living. Mohan sees them working as labourers at a construction site and brings them home too.

There’s a party on the 25th Anniversary of Mr. Rai’s business. And Mohan is requested to sing a song –  Ek banjara gaye.

Shobha takes Guddi and goes shopping. At the store, Guddi asks Shobha to buy her a dress but the one that Guddi wants is too expensive for Shobha to afford and she explains it to her. After a while she settles down for something else. Radha, who witnesses all these feels bad for Guddi and offers to buy her few dresses. Though Shobha refuses, Radha buys lots of stuff for Guddi. They soon become friends and Shobha takes her home to meet her family.

Mohan sees Radha come to his house with Shobha just in time and manages to hide this time but is tired of leading a double life – hididng the truth about Radha to his family and vice versa.

Raghunandan (Vijay Khote) and his father Dubey ( C.S Dubey) come to ask for Sudha’s hand. Janki is more than happy at the thought of getting her young daughter married. Mohan tries to oppose this relation when they ask for dowry but Janki doesn’t listen to him and fixes the wedding.

Mohan’s well aware of Radha’s feelings for him but he can’t even reveal the truth to her for the fear that she might get back into a depression again. On the eve of her birthday she sings Aap mujhe achche lagne lage and Mr. Rai confides in him that he’s going to announce his engagement with Radha at her birthday party. He tries to tell the truth to Mr. Rai but he just doesn’t let Mohan speak. Mr. Rai even gives 2 Lakh rupees to Mohan to deposit in his account so that he doesnt have an excuse to refuse this relationship on the account of him being a poor man.

Mohan is in a dilemma…he doesn’t know what to do – if he accepts the money and agrees to get married to Radha, his family’s financial problems will be solved, but if he decides to tell Mr. Rai the truth he might not only lose his job but it might also drive Radha into a depression.

What will he choose? Will Janki ever see the scheme that cunning Dubey is plotting by getting Raghunandan married to Sudha? Will Sunder ever be able to convey his feelings for Radha? What happens to Manohar and Naren?

Music is definitely great but I found the movie on the whole just average.

Sanjeev Kumar with shayarana andaaz was dashing -

Tanuja, gorgeous as always, not at the beginning as she makes her entry though -

And Jeetu looked so cute and innocent -

Few parts were irritating and emotional toture but on the whole quite an entertaining movie - I would rate it 5/10.

Red Rose 1980

Anand (Rajesh Khanna) lives a wealthy lifestyle in his palatial house in Bombay.  He has two man servants – Shera (Om Shivpuri), the mali who is a very mysterious character and Chotu (actually nobody calls him by any name, so I just gave it for convinience) – the 16 year old bawarchi (whom Anand sends back to his village with some money for his education).

Every year on 12th October, which happens to be Anand’s birthday, he goes to the jail and distributes sweets and fruits to the inmates there.

On being asked by Jailor Bhushan (Roopesh Kumar) he says he comes there for humanity. There are so many people outside who are greater criminals than the ones in prison but just because they are not caught, they are termed innocent. And it’s not necessary that all those arrested are always guilty. Proofs and wintesses are not always true. Also says that his father was arrested and punished for no fault of his and he comes to meet the inmates out his his empathy for them.

Must say a pretty good-looking jailor. And the other guy is one of the prisoners who Bhushan gets introduced to Anand. Anand has a problem of remembering names. In a short conversation with Bhushan he calls him Roshan once and then Gulshan. He goes on to explain that in his line of business he comes across so many people with so many different names that he just can’t keep track of it but however he remembers people’s faces.

Anand owns and runs a business “Export India”. He’s in need of a Stenographer in office. There’s a  group of girls who have turned up for the itnerview. After interviewing them all he finally selects Chitra (Snehlata) for the post.

One fine day he accidentally bumps into Sharda (Poonam Dhillon) who works in Roop Saagar Clothing store. He goes to the store following her and finally buys a hand kerchief from her counter once he locates her.

He goes to the store everyday and buys a handkerchief from Sharda’s store.  And the looks he gives her….I had only seen the likes of Prem Chopra and Ranjeet eyeing the heriones this way. Sheila (Aruna Irani), Sharda’s friend is jealous of Sharda because she has such a good-looking customer coming to her counter everyday.

One day he comes to the store again but totally ignores Sharda  and goes to buy a vest from Sheila’s counter.  But on his way out he sees a book on Sharda’s counter, flips through the pages and sees Sheila written on the first page.

He calls the store and asks for Sheila (that’s what he thinks Poonam’s name is) and calls her to meet him at a park. When she says she doesn’t know who he is, he says he’ll be wearing a White suit with a Red Rose pinned to it. He waits for her at the park but is surprised to see Aruna there instead of Poonam.

Sheila is surprised as to who had called her there. She doesn’t come to work the following day and the Store Manager (Shammi) is worried. Since it’s her brithday Sharda says she will go to Sheila’s place and find out what happened to her.

Anand calls the the Store Manager (Shammi) to find out what time the store closes. He comes and waits outside the store just before it’s closing time and follows Sharda.

On her way to Sheila’s house, Sharda is almost hit by Anand’s car. He then offers her a lift and finds out that her name’s Sharda. She lives in Mahatma Gandhi Road working girl’s hostel. And then he proposes to her (must say in quite a strange way) :

Anand : Raat ke sannate mein driver ke paas baithkar is tarah chup rahengi toh accident hone ka darr hai (If you sit so quiet, there’s a chance we might meet with an accident)
Sharda : Ji, main kya bolun (Hmmm….what do I say?)
Anand : Achha hum sawaal karte hian aap jawaab dijiye, thik hai? (I see. In that case I’ll ask some questions and you just answer them, ok?)
She nods her head
Anand : Hum baar baar aapke dukaan pe aate rahe, aapko bura toh nahin laga? (I kept coming to you store, didn’t you feel bad about it?)
Sharda : Ji nahin (No)
Anand : Dukaan par aane ke baad hum aaphi ke counter pe aate, rahe aapko bura toh nahin laga (I always come to your counter, don’t you feel bad about it?)
Sharda : Ji nahin (No)
Anand : Us din jaan pehchaan ke bager hi humne aapko tohfe mein rumaal diya, aapko bura toh nahin laga (That day I gifted you a hand-kerchief, didn’t you feel bad about it?)
Sharda : ji nahin (No)
Anand : Agar hum is waqt aap se yeh kehde ke hum aapse pyaar karte hai, aap ko bura toh nahin lagega? (Now if I say I love you, will you mind?)
Sharda : Ji nahin (No) It’s after she says that she realizes what he had said.
Anand : Sharda, I LOVE YOU (the tone in which he says that and the way he looks at her, I dont know what made her fall for him)

A song follows this conversation – Tere bin jeena kya

Sheila has disappeared but Sharda doesn’t seemed worried about it. She’s happy in her newly found love. When Anand is in a club one night, he thinks of how he had killed Sheila.

They go out pretty often after that and this song is in bits and pieces everytime they go out. One day while driving he’s unusually quiet and Sharda is surprised and asks him if everything is ok.

Anand : Jab insaan ki zindagi mein naya mod aata hai toh kadam uthane se pehle usse achhi tarah se soch lena chahiye (When there’s something new happening in a person’s life, he needs to think seriously about it)
Sharda : Zaroor soch lena chahiye (Definitely, one has to think)
Anand : Kisi naye kaam se pehle experience ka hona bhi zaroori hai (It’s necessary to have an experience before you start something new)
Sharda : Bahut Zaroori hai. Agar experience na ho toh bahut mushkil ho sakti hai (Ofcourse,it gets difficult without an experience)
Anand : Toh phir kahan chale. Samundar ke kinare, club, hotel ya kisi hill station (So, where do we go – Beach, club, hotel or some hill station?)
Sharda: Kya matlab? (What do you mean?)
Anand : Agle mahine hum dono shaadi kar rahe hai. Abhi se kuch experience ho jaye toh kya bura hai? (we are getting married next month. What’s wrong in it if we decide to have some experience?)
Sharda : Ji? (What?)
Anand : Nahin samjhi? (You didn’t get it?)
Sharda : Nahin (No). (Then after a while) Chheeeeeeeee….(love the way she says that) Jab dekho bas ek hi baat. Aur kuch nahin aata aapko? (Chhhhhhhhhheeeeeeeeee…That’s the only thing in your mind, don’t you know anything else?)
Anand : Aata toh bahut kuch hai lekin aap mauka de tab ta. Ek baat batao Sharda tum itne angrezi films dekhti ho, novels padhti ho, tumhe in baaton mein, mera matlab hai ke sex ki baaton mein zara sa bhi dilchasbi nahin hai?
(I do but you never give me a chance. Tell me one thing, you watch english movies, you read novels, aren’t you interested in sex at all?)

Chitra has also disappeared and her brother calls up Export India to check . But the Manager (Ram Sethi) informs that she hasn’t come to work for days now.

Anand and Sharda get married at the Registrar of Marriages and he takes her home.

On the way he says :

Anand : Aaj hume jo naam pasand hai woh ek hi hai -Sharda (Today, there’s only one name that I like and that’s Sharda)
Sharda : Bhool toh nahin jayenge aap is naam ko? (Won’t you forget this name?)
Anand : Arey hum aapko bhool sakte hai, aapke naam ko nahin bhool sakte (I can forget you, but not your name)

And this dialogue hold quite a significance at the end of the movie

Once home, he gets her introduced to Shera and Ghasitaram (the new Bawarchi). Then he shows her his father’s photo.

Sharda : Such a huge house and you have only 2 servants?
Anand : Socha toh yehi tha lekin baad mein irada badal diya. Jyada log honge toh bheed hogi aur mauka nahin milega (I felt the same but on a second note I felt with too many people in the house, it’ll get crowded and we wont get an opportunity)
Sharda : Kis baat ka mauka? (Opportunity for what?)
Anand : Ek hi toh baat reh gayi hai zindagi mein. Shaadi ke baad pati ka jo farz banta hai ussse fohren poora karlena chahiye (There’s only one thing left in life. After marriage, I have to immediately fulfill my duty as a husband)
Sharda : Ji nahin. Aap ka farz banta hai daftar ke kaam mein dil lagaye aur mera farz banta hai ke aapka dil lagane ke liye main bhi daftar mein aapka saath doon (Your duty is that you concentrate on your work at office and my duty is to help you do that)
Anand : Hum dono ka farz banta hai ke daftar mein double bistar lagaye (It’s our duty to put a double bed in office)
Sharda : Aapko bistar ke siwa aur bhi kuch soojhta hai ya nahin (Can’t you think of anything other than the bed?)
Anand : Thik hai agar aapko bistar pasand nahin hai toh aapke liye sofa laga denge (Ok, if you don’t want a bed, I’ll arrange for a sofa for you)
Sharda, I love you, isi liye hum tumhe jaldi se jaldi bistar wale kamre mein le chalenge (I love you, so I will take you to my bedroom first)

But she remains adamant about seeing the rest of the house. So  he takes her to his librabry.

Sharda : Baapre itni saari kitabein? Lagta hai aapko kitabe padhne ka bahut shauk hai (So many books??? Looks like you love reading)
Anand : Padne ka shauk toh pehle tha. Ab toh jo padhliya usse aazmane ka shauk hai (I liked reading, but now I prefer using all my knowledge in practice)
Sharda : Kya matlab? (Again after a pause)  Chee…yeh sab kya waisi kitabein hai? (So all these are that kind of books?)
Anand : Nahin sab ke sab waisi kitabein nahin hai, 2-4 doosri bhi hai (Not all, there are 2-4 other books as well)

Next he takes her to his games room. She sees a chessboard laid out, a carrom board, TT table. She’s surprised that he plays all thses games alone and challenges that she’ll beat him at them.
Sharda : What’s the fun if there’s no one to win or lose?
Anand : I can tolerate everything in life, but I cant tolerate someone else winning me
Sharda : Then you’ll have to lose for the first time in your life
Anand : Lose? With who?
Sharda : Me. I challenge you
Anand : Wait until dark. Shaam dhalne do, tumhe bhi pata chal jayega hamara khel. (Wait until dark then you will understand my game).

He takes her to a window and shows a room below saying that his dad lives in that room. Long ago he had gone to jail for no fault of his. He’s gone insane after that. And he always shuts himself in that room and lives like a prisoner.

Finally he reaches his destination, takes her to his bedroom and says nothing can stop him now. He’s even got the license to cross the lakshman rekha.

But the phone rings and he has to go to office because Chitra’s brother has come to see him. Chitra’s brother says that his friend, a waiter at a night club, had seen her with a boyfriend before she disappeared. And since he feels that the boyfriend may be from office, he has brought his friend along for identification. Anand tells his manager to help Chitra’s brother and show all the employees in the office but the waiter doesn’t find Chitra’s boyfriend.

Anand, peeps from his cabin door and sees the waiter.

In a series of flashback Anand recollects seeing the waiter when he had gone out for dinner with Chitra.

That night Anand goes to the same club in search of the waiter. He offers him some money and asks him to keep his mouth shut but when he starts increasing his demands and threatens to expose Anand, he kills him.

Back home Sharda cooks dinner for Anand and waits for him (all decked up) to come back home. She sings  Kiski sadayen mujhko bulaye.

Tired of waiting and hungry herself , she cuts an apple but cuts her finger in the process. The moment Anand’s cat smells blood, it pounces on Sharda and she runs around the house with the cat behind her heels.

When she finally manages to put the cat off her trail, she goes and stands by the window. It’s raining heavily outside. She sees water oozing out from one point in the garden forming a fountain and feels the water pipe must have bursted. Suddenly she sees a human hand shoot out from the base of the fountain. Scared to death she goes running and reaches a room where she finds skeletons.

She also discovers that Anand had killed Sheila. In a series of flashback, Anand’s history is revealed.

A picture flashes through Anand’s mind everytime he sees a girl – A face and a pair of feet wearing payals.

Who is this girl? What does she have to do with Anand’s past? And why is Anand such a maniac?

This is Munna (Mayur Verma), Anand when he was young.

Why did Anand marry Sharda? Will Sharda be spared? Or does Anand kill her too? What had happened to Anand’s father? Was he  an innocent victim or was he really guilty?

I loved Rajesh Khanna’s performance – his portrayal as an arrogant, wealthy, short-tempered maniac who hates women. Neither it’s a big mystery nor a great love story. I have no idea how successful this movie was at box-office. It’s a zara hatke movie and that’s what I liked the most about it. I also liked the way movie ended.

Had I seen this movie as a teenager when I was totally crazy about Rajesh Khanna and almost treated him like a god, when everything he did was more than perfect to me,  I don’t think I would have liked this movie. But today,  though I am still extremely fond of RK, I’m more matured as a person and can differentiate the on-screen role from off-screen, I appreiciate good performance irrespective of what kind of a role it is (good or bad) – I really liked this film!

Most of the story doesn’t make much sense or may be it does, quite silly at times, and our hero is such a psycho, Poonam is good in the little space and time that she has. I am surprised to see  a mainstream superstar (though this was after his reign as a superstar was over) doing a role like this. But I was more surprised to see him talk so openly about sex! (such talks are usually censored even to this day or should I say till Dev D and Dil Kabbadi).