Gumnaam

It's rather unusual seeing a Bollywood musical that features a thriller story in it. On the one hand it's also a real ridicules movies but it does work out in its own kind of way. It manages to create a likable, light, atmosphere, with a mystery story weaved into it, that keeps things going at all time.

I'm not even a big fan of 'normal' musical, let alone Bollywood musicals. However the songs in this movie are actually quite good to listen to and besides, some of them actually do serve a purpose for the movie its story.

It's a movie with a pretty good premise in it, that I'm sure some big Hollywood producers would had been jealous off. Thriller and mystery wise it really is a great concept, even though the movie really always doesn't put that much emphasize on its thriller and mystery elements.

Also in the end, the story itself really doesn't make much sense. It leaves far too many questions and the concept suddenly actually seems pretty far fetched. Besides, even though this is a mystery movie, I can't really say that the movie has lots of surprises in it. It was pretty obvious who the killer was from the start on, due to the incredible unconvincing 'disguise' that he is wearing. The only mystery of the movie is why the other characters in this didn't noticed this.

It's also quite ridicules how all of the characters aren't busy trying to find the killer, even though they know the are all going to get killed one by one, or try to find a way of the island. No. they are all just to busy swimming, eating, falling in love and singing and dancing to songs. But when you watch a Bollywood movie you know that you have to take all these things for granted. I did just that and was quite taken by the overall movie experience.

Once you surrender yourself to this movie, you'll find it a quite pleasant movie experience. Its basically a great mixture of some cheerful fun and a bit of a darker story. But did it really needed to be so long? None of these Bollywood movies should be so long really but that is what happens when you show a reaction shot of every character every time that something happened. And there are 9 main characters in this movies...

Yes, it really is a quite clumsily made movie at times, with its directing, camera-work and editing but also this does quite often add to the charm and movie experience of this movie. So even the bad things about this movie can work out as something positive, which says something about the effective this movie has on you while you are watching it. I think it's fair to say that you really don't have to be into Bollywood movies to watch and enjoy this one.

It's also a movie that uses some nice settings. It's in no way a cheap looking movie, with fake looking sets in it, even though the movie probably didn't cost an awful lot to make. It shows that is pays off to shoot your movie mostly on location, rather than somewhere on the back of a studio lot.

Despite of all my criticism, I really did surprisingly enjoy this movie!

8/10

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Gumnaam (1965) : Brief Review -

Christie's novel "And Then There Were None" was brought to full screen in American cinema in 1945, and after 2 decades, Bollywood woke up with the idea of making it a commercial blockbuster. Yes, we did it. Raja Nawathe gathered an ensemble cast of Manoj Kumar, Nanda, Mehmood, Pran, Helen, Madan Puri, Tarun Bose, Dhumal, and Manmohan. The script remains mostly unchanged, with a few changes here and there. In the novel, the 10 people are invited together, while here they are brought there by a conspiracy. The murder spree is the same, but Gumnaam powers itself with a proper commercial angle and some great musical numbers. "Gumnaam Hai Koi" is an iconic song, and it runs for like throughout the film. "Hum Kaale Hai To" is an evergreen chartbuster, and what a freaking grand setup it has. We have Mehmood nailing his characters and steps, and we have Helen nailing her looks and dance moves in the same song. What a great art design and fantastic choreography! Helen adds her sex appeal to the film, especially in "Gham Chhodke Manaao Rang" and that drunk song, which I didn't like much. Nanda is as gorgeous as ever, and her chemistry with Manoj Kumar is indeed beautiful. How sexy she looks in that rain song! These are the things that Hollywood couldn't have. That's the only way Bollywood got ahead of Hollywood, and I'm glad that we did. However, Gumnaam isn't as pacy as the American adaptation of the novel. Still, we have some great moments here. Who would have imagined that an eerie murder mystery could have been transformed into an audience friendly box office hit? Raja Nawathe and team Gunmaan did it. Today's filmmakers need to learn from old Bollywood how to make Hollywood adaptations in Hindi cinema.

RATING - 7/10*

By - #samthebestest.

Gumnaam advertises itself as a horror thriller. Well. It's not. There are about 2 minutes that were really thrilling. Most of the time the movie was not as scary as it would have liked to be. But who cares?! I found it entertaining and I think if you understand all that is said and don't have to rely on subtitles you might even find it more funny, especially every time Mehboob as the butler is on screen. My favorites in this film were Helen and Pran. In many films they get only short roles, it was great to see them on the screen for so long - and even flirting :-) Of course Helen having several song-and-dance scenes is a BIG plus for Gumnaam. And the other songs are good as well. No need to add anything about Jan Paheehan Ho....!

Don't watch this film if you are against smoking and drinking... I've never seen so many people smoking in a film! And even the girls are "corrupted" into drinking alcohol. How shocking! ;-) But hey, if it results in a cool song, that's fine with me!

Gumnaam may not be the best film ever produced ever in Mumbai but it's definitely entertaining and has great music!

About ten years ago, my brother and I were sick with the flu and surfing the endless satalite channels when we came across this movie and could not change the channel. We laughed all day and days to come: imitating the dance with the masked men and the lady in the obnoxious gold dress. And I was laughing again when I saw it again a few months ago in Ghost World. You think the abstract direction of the sixties was bazaare and silly- check out what was going on in India.

7 Stars only because it's a 1964 flick, so not as advance as it has to be. All culprits in the lonely mansion are enjoying, eating and having fun, although they have been made aware that each one of them will be killed!

Except for last 15-20 minutes, grip of this so-called thriller movie is poor. Mehmood's role and comedy are totally insignificant, and boring at times!

Motto of the serial murders is not very convincing. Overall plot and opening sequences are good.

Unlike in today's movies, detailing is very poor, script succums at many places. When secret of the murders us being revealed, it's not at all shown, how all these murders were done!! Each victim was carrying a wrapon or poison! For what?? They were anyway on a sponsored foreign pleasure trip!!

May be it was a novelty movie then, so went on becoming superhit! Music by Shanker Jaikishan is always fabulous, superb here, especially the title song ... mind blowing, suits perfectly to the theme of the movie!👌👍 And yeah, at times, you start wondering, who is the real heroine of this movie, Nanda or Helen?! And, who is hero, Manoj Kumar or Pran??!!😷