Gumnaam

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!

Interested in all things related to Ghost World after seeing that great unhyped movie last summer, I recently stumbled across Gumnaam which was available via Indiaweekly.com at a very reasonable price. It arrived yesterday, and I had intended to pop it in the DVD player just to check it out for a minute or two -- instead I was drawn in, and watched the entire 2 1/2 hours straight through.

This colorful movie is basically a routine thriller in which each member of a group of strangers is mysteriously murdered, one after another, until we find out who is ultimately responsible and why. What makes this movie stand out are the very unusual musical numbers, especially the first one entitled "Jaan Pehechaan Ho" which was featured prominently in the opening sequence of Ghost World. I can't recommend this movie overall, but that one particular bizarre Sixties Hindu rock dance number is worthy of praise. Thank you, Ghost World!

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 review :

Loosely inspired from Agatha Christie's novel 'And Then There Were None', Raja Nawathe's Gumnaam was a well executed suspense thriller with right blend of other bollywood elements like comedy and songs. A group of people are stranded on an island and discover a mansion there which has a comic butler (Mehmood) who is already aware about them. One by one, the guys are bumped off and they keep suspecting each other till only two remain...

Manoj Kumar played an air purser who gets stranded with this ill fated group. Nanda as his love interest is supposedly the film's heroine but the lady who stole the show was Helen looking drop dead gorgeous as Kitty who quite a few men take fancy to. Note her sizzling 'Kitty Kelly' song on the beach. Pran was great as her alcoholic suitor while Manmohan was his usual slimy self.

Gumnaam is more famous for Shankar Jaikishen's music particularly the 'Hum Kaale Hain Toh Kya Hua Dilwale Hain' picturised on the legendary Mehmood Saahab in his Hyderabadi avatar. Mehmood literally owned the character with his typical mannerisms and it became a rage so much than even Amitabh Bachchan emulated it in Manmohan Desai's Desh Premee (1982). No doubt, Mehmood hogged the limelight in every scene he appeared and there were rumors that lead actor Manoj Kumar was not too happy with it and even tried convincing Raja Nawathe to delete the "Hum Kaale hain.." song from the film..

Another super hit song by Shankar Jaikishen 'Jaan Pehchaan Ho Jeena Aasan Ho" is my personal favorite despite its Beatles hangover.

Interestingly, the films climax makes use of Russian roulette game a decade before Salim Javed immortalized it in Sholay (1975).

Gumnaam makes for a good one time watch with family. Incidentally, I saw it first with my parivaar in mid 80s on DD National. The film still retains its charm like before..

Regards, Sumeet Nadkarni

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??!!😷