पड़ोसन

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 . ."

Padosan, who hasn't heard of it? Well if you are one of those unfortunate souls who hasn't, I feel terribly saddened for your state. You my friend, need a good lesson in Indian Cinema. I suggest you start by watching this film.

Padosan, which means 'Neighbor' is the story of Bhola (Sunil Dutt) who li ke his name is a very naive and innocent soul who happens to see Bindu(Saira Banu) and falls in love with her. He later finds out that she is his neighbor. We find out that Bindu is enamored with music and into the picture comes her music teacher, Masterji (Mehmood) who aside from being a bumbling fool who speaks in Tamil accented Hindi, is also in love with Bindu. So back to our Bhola bala hero. He tries to woo her but to no avail until he enlists the help of his friend and mentor Guru (Kishore Kumar) who owns an acting troupe of which Bhola is a part of.

After much investigation, Guru and his friends discover that Bindu's soft spot is music. But unfortunately our Bhola is quite the novice when it comes to singing, sounding more like a braying donkey than a singing suitor. And so begins one of the whackiest cons in cinema. Guru sings, and Bhola lip-syncs. Guru's (Kishore Kumar's) voice being what it is, bewitches Bindu and she starts falling for Bhola. This development thwarts Masterji's master plan of marrying Bindu. So now begins a jugal-bandi between Masterji and Guru (ahem Bhola) for Bindu's affections.

With such a whacky plot, there are laughs aplenty. Add master comedians Mehmood and Kishore Kumar and a funny looking Sunil Dutt, you have the perfect recipe for a hilariously whacky romantic comedy. Saira Banu, oozing of charm is quite good as the spoilt Bindu. Music is also excellent. R.D. Burman masterfully comes up with songs fit for the situations. The most famous of all being "Mere samnewali khidki mein" which is hummed even today. "Meri chatur naar" is extremely fun to watch and kishore kumar's vocals are excellent. All this making Padosan an exquisite classic that MUST NOT BE MISSED!!

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.)

...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.

Really this was an awesome movie, a way ahead of its time and yet refreshing.

After watching this movie yesterday i get to consider myself a fool not to watch this one till now. This was a real Indian gem and needs to be watched by every person being an Indian movies fan by heart.The most amazing character of this movie is that of Kishore Kumar playing a role of Love guru leading his guy to the ultimate goal of his love.Talking about "Saira Bano" she was looking so beautiful and gorgeous as always. Sunil Dutt was good playing a character a typical Indian by heart. In nutshell a really fantastic movie with amazing leading characters.