Do Aur Do Paanch (1980)

Today's review is another joint venture with our friend Beth over at Beth Loves Bollywood. 'Do Aur Do Paanch' is a favorite of mine from 1980 and pure Bollywood comedic gold. The plot is convoluted to say the least and the movie is a typical masala one. In food masala generally refers to a hodge-podge of elements mixed together to add spice to the final product and in movies masala refers to a film with comedy, action and drama - something for everyone.

What I remember on my first (of many) viewings of this movie is that it marked the first time I had heard cursing in Hindi - music to my adolescent ears since it was mostly being done by my hero, Amitabh Bachchan. The competition between the two main actors (AB & Shashi Kapoor) and the way they set each other up for humiliation was a fresh break from the melodramas that were so prevalent during that time. My favorite part remains the food scene (you will know it when you see it) where Amitabh breaks the third wall between him and the audience - just a wink to let you know that he gets it and to not take all this so seriously. As an aside, I met the Kader Khan (who plays the mob boss) at Bombay's Sahar Airport a few years ago and asked him for an autograph. I didn't have any paper on me so I asked him to sign a 1 rupee note that I had - he declined politely saying that it was against his religion to write on money. The things you learn because of Bollywood... For some more thoughts & pictures on this movie check out this post from our friend Maja.

The most famous song from the movie also happens to be my favorite, Tu Ne Abhi Dekha sung by Kishore Kumar (the voice of Amitabh for most of his career). My mama (uncle) who is generally a big critic of Bollywood and decries most of what comes out of there musically as 'crap' told me this song was extremely difficult to sing as it is made up of so many different melodies. Go see it at Jaman which is a new South Asian portal for world cinema. The setup for the song involves AB sabotaging Shashi's attempt to impress everyone with his singing and then singing the song himself. Starring as AB's love interest is my favorite heroine of the time (as well as crush) - Parveen Babi (whose sad life story was recently picturised in another Hindi film but that's for another post).