Padosan

Excellent performances by complete cast. Unusually funny theme. Cute actress Saira Bano. Jolly Mehamood and last but not the least a superb singing and acting performance by the great Kishore Kumar. He dominates comedy like no one else. Nobody could ever regret watching this movie.

Songs to watch out for :

"Mere saamne wali khidki me . . "

"Meri Pyari Bindu . . "

"Tum hi to layi ho jeevan me mere pyar . ."

...yet Kishore Kumar rules. Sunil Dutt holds his own as the straight man, and the best things about Saira are her figure and her clothes. The rest of the cast is good, too, but for me the main interest was to see a film where the actors (Mehmood & Kumar) do their own playback singing, which I believe became fairly uncommon after the 1940s. These guys deliver, and steal the show whenever they are on screen. Then on top of that, Kishore's character, Guru, after Bhola (Dutt) hilariously demonstrates that he can't learn to sing, pulls a Cyrano and provides the voice for Bhola's picturizing. Then song duel with Masterji, too much, Guru working Bhola like puppet. Guru's troupe (including Bhola) are a gang of 5, working like a chorus, double-takes timed to the music. The scene where they go to Bhola's uncle to change his mind about his engagement is structured as a pretty much a cappella song. I love that. I chose this film to see Kishore work, and I feel like I picked a good one, plus I learned about Mehmood, I'm looking forward to seeing more of both of them.

The most delightful thing to me about this light comedy is the "invention" of playback singing as a seduction strategy for Sunil Dutt. His Guru in the movie is a director of what appears to be neighborhood Mahabharat dramas, with pan juice usually dripping toward his chin, played by Kishore Kumar.

Sunil wants to be able to sing to impress the sexy neighbor girl -- but he can't -- so Kishore comes up with the brilliant idea that HE will sing out of sight, and Sunil will -- well, picturise the singing! Fantastic idea!! Which generates wonderful scenes of Sunil picturising seductively while we also see Kishore hopping around behind him singing the songs. (I imagine Kishore is actually playbacking himself here, so it's a great Bollywood-y hall of musical mirrors.)

Kishore also sings and dances a number in which I believe he is doing a ladies' dance, playing the part of the beloved, as part of the enterprise of coaching Sunil in his love quest. His comic talent and body language are spectacular. I''ll probably buy this one just to watch this scene 1000 times. ~Virginia in New York

ETA: Nov. 16, 2006 - I just read an interview in which Shah Rukh Khan names this as his favorite movie comic scene. (Current Film Fare Magazine.)

This is a hilarious and fantastic plot and producer Mahmood has truly justified the quote below the film title 'The first ambitious Motion Picture'. It is a splendid performance by one and all concerned with this film.

Rather than the film's heroine Saira Banu, the film focuses on the duel of wits between her two suitors Mehmood and Sunil Dutt, who is helped by his Guruji Kishore Kumar (doing an imitation of Popol, a famous Bengali artiste) with a floppy middle-partitioned hairstyle and paan stained mouth. Mehmood has excelled as the South-Indian music and dance teacher, with mannerisms such as clutching the hems of his dhoti and the oft-repeated 'aiyo'... One of the high points of this film is the 'Ek Chatur Naar...' during which Mehmood's harmonium gets stuck, making him mumble, 'ennaiya idu... (in Tamil) (meaning, 'what is this') Buy this DVD and have a good laugh!!!!!

I have watched this movie quite a few times, but I think its one of the rare movies I tend to watch with equal enthusiasm every time. Although, it was a remake of a Tamil film "Adhutha Vittu Penn", I thought the Hindi version was EQUALLY amazing and not to mention immensely entertaining =) I thought performance-wise Kishore, STOLE THE SHOW! I cannot imagine the movie without him. The guy is incredible at comedy. Sunil Dutt was fabulous, I just adore him to bits, he is so underrated...he put in a stupendous performance! ROFL gotta love the scene where he attempts to learn music from Kishore...he had me in splits. As for Mehmood, he simply rocked. 'Daaaaaai' bhola . I liked his unique accent. haha. I think its imitated by plenty of actors till date and yes, its annoying to the core. Saira, well I usually find her very irritating in most of her films, I thought she was passable. The soundtrack was amazing. Ahhh...man I can just listen to them all day long. My personal favorites include kehna hai, mera samne wali ladki ne and main chali is one of best female duets sung by Asha and Lata. The movie is a must watch, it's a classic in every sense. Highly recommended! 9/10