“Zindagi Ek Juaa” Madhuri as drug fiend!

In honor of Maduri Dixit’s birthday, first I’d like to wish her one:Ardent Madhuri Dixit fan, Gaja Gamini, from Bollywood-ish Blog, declared it Magic of Madhuri Week.  My little contributions are some shocking images of Maduri from Zindagi Ek Juaa  (1992) (Life is a Gamble)

The first image of the film is of  ye olde Central Jail, so right off you know there’s trouble. Maybe one day I’ll make it Film City or whatever movie studio houses Central Jail.

Now a bit about the film:

After saving the life of his employer, Jagjit Singh alias JJ (Anupam Kher), Harikishan (Anil Kapoor) is promoted with a wage increase that he had only dreamt of.  Anxious to please his employer Harikishan agrees to have his name changed to Harry, and does anything that he is instructed to do.  Soon Harry realises that he has been aiding his employer in illegal activities.  When he tries to break away, he is told that his mom (Asha Sharma) is and will be held captive to guarantee his cooperation.  Harry must now come up with a scheme that will guarantee his safety as well as the freedom of his mom, and at the same time save himself from being arrested by the police. (source)

But there’s so much more, and that’s the part about Madhuri’s character Juhi, called Baby by family and friends. Anil Kapoor’s  Harikishan ends up falling for the boss’s daughter when she comes back from Europe and dazzles him with her carefree performance at her birthday party.

 

Very soon after her first meeting with Harikishan, Baby/Juhi becomes the aggressor and makes her lustful feelings very clear:Harikishan is puzzled by her romantic overtures, so the Bollywood cure of the tight slap to the face is used to bring him to understanding:Enjoy Maduhuri’s dance of seduction in  Dil To Dil Hai  featuring the music by Bappi Lahiri and playback singer Ahsa Bhosle:

One thing leads to another, Juhi ends up pregnant, they get married against her father’s wishes, but Harikishan has to handle some of the illegal drug business in Hong Kong, see  you can tell he’s in Hong Kong by the room itself, all oriental in its styling, with the bonus of the awesome cordless phone:Hari’s best friend (Shakti Kapoor) tries his best to watch over Juhi while Hari’s away, but please take special note of the Whitney Houston poster on the wall, as it serves as an ominous warning to what could happen to Juhi. In case you haven’t heard, Houston has fallen on the path of drug abuse, which is the same fate that awaits Madhuri’s Juhi. Eventually she finds out about Hari’s business dealings in illegal drugs, and sends him packing right after she gives birth to their son.  Of course after telling him off she has a huge headache and at that moment, she’ s offered some medicine by an evil friend, Mr. Lal:And just like THAT she’s hooked!

So Juhi has sent her husband packing and quickly becomes addicted to her nose candy.  A police inspector  played by Suresh Oberoi goes to Juhi to find out more about what she knows about Harikishan and  notices Juhi’s addiction, meanwhile, I ignored most of that scene and just noticed this great subtitle ripe for a screen capture:

Harikishan realizes his estranged biwi has pushed him out of her life, and decides to soothe his anguish with music, but he’s shocked even more when a drugged up Juhi makes an appearance.  Staggering and stoned Juhi plays the trumpet stopping only to smoke. What an entrance!  Watch Kabhi Kuchh Khoya with playback singer Kumar Sanu,who incidently I saw in concert with Akla Yagnick  a few yers back when I was too new of a Hindi cinema fan to fully appreciate.

Watch here and at about 1:40 the drug fiend Madhuri enters.  Pay special attention for her crazy drugged trumpet playing while smoking at 2:09. When Anil’s Harikishan sees that it’s a COMPLETE buzz kill and he realizes, “I married a drug whore! My dealing of drugs brought this all about! The mother of my son uses coke!”

I’d like to bring up Whitney Houston again, who just this week was banned from Prince concerts due to her drug using antics and trying to get on stage with Prince in her altered state. Houston  has since gone into rehab.  This makes me wonder if that’s how Harikishan felt when Juhi trid to play trumptet while he was jamming with his friend in  Kabhi Kuchh Khoya. Poor Juhi did not make it into rehab. She realized her problem, made arrangements to have her son cared for: Then she goes down the self-destructive path of drug abuse.But then there’s a knock at the door!Harikishan pleads with Juhi to stop her drug use.

He leaves, only to return another time…

to find an overdosing Juhi.

What happened to Juhi?  Watch the movie if you dare to see, or ask me in the comments and I’ll tell you.  Let this be a warning to you, don’t do drugs!  Thank you for reading this post, but now, with all due respect, all I have to say is…

 Report to  Bollywood-ish blog  for Magic of Madhuri Week‘s  FULL LIST BLOG POSTS.

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Chocolate (2007) & Malayalam subtitle fun

Dosto, with the help of my seasoned VCR, I traveled down south to the tip of mother India to watch a Malayalam film titled Chocolate (2007).  I love the description here, which must have come from some review:

Chocolateis a Malayalam movie released in 2007, directed by Shafi. This is a campus story entertainer. Main actors are Prithviraj, Jayasurya, Roma, Samvrutha Sunil, and Remya Nabeeshan. Music by Alex Paul and lyrics by Vayalar Sarath Chandra Varma and Singers are M.G. Sreekumar and Rimi Tomy. With Prithviraj playing the Casanova, director Shafi’s new offering Chocolate — with its sweet smelling aroma is indeed delicious. Easy on the eyes, soft on the ears, this pure comedy entertainer, which centers on a gallivanting gadabout, being the lone male in an all women’s college, is chock-a-block with hilarity as Prithiviraj plays protagonist Shyam to the hilt. Playing perfect foil to him are Roma, Samvritha Sunil and Remya Nabeeshan as Ann, Nandana and Susanna – the trio who are against a male entering into their kingdom. Debutants Sachi and Sethu’s screenplay sparkles with laugh-a-minute scenes. (source)

You get the idea now of the whimsical plot: lone male student at an all women’s college. Wacky! Also HOT!  Now I know some people assume that south Indian films are a tad bit violent and perhaps misogynistic. I think that’s a stereotype about Mollywood, right?

Damn!

Also, of course all the men had moustaches since this was a Southie film.  Now that I think of it, I don’t recall ever seeing a man without the moustache in the film. Now to the subtitle fun.  There were quite a few times that I saw some great nonsensical subtitles.  Here are a few from one on the dance numbers:

Other times I saw subtitles that on the surface made no sense, but for some reason, I really understood what they were trying to say, since I now understand that I lived in Kochi in a previous life.  Like these…perfectly sensible to me:

As in many movies, in Chocolate there are a lot of misunderstanding stacked upon misunderstanding which drive the plot.

Now take a look at this series regarding the “improper behavior”  news that even made the paper and I will translate the translations:

The message above means that since there was only information given over the phone, it can’t be confirmed as reliable…

Yes, this means even in India there are haters, just jealous of carefree youth and their masti.

This means so what if a young man and women were in a room together unchaperoned for a short time, it doesn’t mean they had relations of a sexual nature.  If this was true, Prithviraj’s character is trying to say that it would follow that 2 men in a room together unchaperoned would then be guilty of homosexuality.

I really liked Roma Asrani and Prithviraj, first time seeing them both and they were adorable.  OK, Prithviraj was HOT, but I don’t feel right saying that since he’s so my junior, hai na?  The supporting costars Samvrutha Sunil and Jayasurya also did a nice job and I’d like to see more of their work.  Well let’s see all four actors in a song from the film, shall we? This isn’t a flashy song, but I did like the simple dancing, since I think I could easily join them if I were an understudy suddenly called to action. “Where’s that gori?  Roma broke her ankle! Find the gori extra, stat! We need her to fill in for the item number now!” I also thought that Briyanshu would enjoy the first 20 seconds of this scene and the song  Ishtamalle Ishtamalle:

Lyrics in Malayalam, but I don’t know what they mean.

Ultimately the film has a happy ending:  the hero carrying off his love interest, in caveman style:

and uplifting message of equality:

Plus, I love seeing the word enemity used in subtitles:

If you’re interested in watching the movie,  it has been uploaded at Daily Motion in several segments with English subtitles HERE.

Now, I wonder why the movie was titled Chocolate, and also wonder what the term “chocolate boy” means in India?  I’ve both heard and read “chocolate boy” and don’t know what it means.  Chocolate boy matlab? Is it like a metrosexual? Could that have something to then do with the film’s title?

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