अंगूर (१९८२)

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निदेशक : गुज़ार
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A couple has twins who are so much alike that even the mother is not able to make out who is who. To add to it, the father (a cameo by Utpal Dutt) has named both of them Ashok. The logic is “Naming them with different names will not make it any easier for anyone to differentiate between them.” On a trip, which involves a journey by ship also, he comes across another set of twins who have been abandoned by on the stairs of a temple. He graciously takes them in his fold (egged on by his tanga driver) and starts on his ship voyage.
The ship meets with a mishap and the husband and wife are seperated, each taking the other for dead, and each having one kid each from the 2 pairs.
Years later, one of them is happily married with a nagging wife and a cute sister in law. He is one of the well known business in his town and his servant also is married happily.
The trouble starts when one day, the other pair also comes to the same town with some business reated work and is surprised to see that so many people in the town seem to know them. Add to that the fact that the master in this pair has fed on detective novels for a long time and you can very well imagine his reaction to these things.
They are in the town for a couple of days and how these 2 pairs wreck havoc in each other’s lives; without ever realising what actually is going on. The happenings of these 2 days is something you have got to see. No amount of praises that I put here can do justice to what has been portrayed :)

Sanjeev Kumar is excellent as always as Ashok (the master), especially the Ashok who has come from out of town. Since the native Ashok does not too many chances to get shocked (he gets more chances to get angry at people) you wouldn’t really feel he is the one making you laugh. But the other Ashok is brilliant to say the least. His reaction when Sudha (the nagging wife of the native Ashok, played ably by Mousumi Chatterjee) asks him to undress is priceless. I cannot help but think of what all Sanjeev Kumar would have achieved had he not died a premature death. Hats off to the man.
Deven Verma is one of the best comedians of Hindi cinema…and he is also the one who has never been given his due. Very rarely did I see him in roles which resorted to cheap gimmicks in the name of comedy (there were some in the 90s but I guess they had more to do with him earning his bread). He was as good as usual in this movie also. If you see the good and clean comedies of 70s and early 80s, Deven Verma has invariably been a part of it. This movie is no exception. He is calm and subdued as the native Bahadur, and witty and confused as the other one. The loyalty towards the respective Ashoks is common to both of them.
Mousumi Chatterjee,Deepti Naval and Aruna Irani are adequate. The supporting cast has all done justice to their roles, no one seems out of place.

It is when you see movies like these that you realize what people mean when they say that scripts are the real heroes of movies. There could have been so many places where the director could have messed up this movie. The happenings are pretty simple, nothing extravagant or out of this world. It is within these simple premises that the director makes us laugh and enjoy.

Personally I think that with the times Gulzaar’s work has somewhat deteriorated. He used to make movies that were enjoyed by everyone and pretty simple. Now-a-days sometimes I am not able to make sense of some of his lyrics also. But he still keeps coming with lyrical gems also…the man is a contradiction. I would love to see a contemporary comedy from him.

3 Response to "अंगूर (१९८२)"

  1. Aradhana John Says:
    May 19, 2011 at 5:48:00 PM GMT+5:30

    khatta meetha...hilarious.....

  2. Aradhana John Says:
    May 19, 2011 at 5:49:00 PM GMT+5:30

    hilarious.....ha ha ha...

  3. Rachel Trupti Uttangi Says:
    May 19, 2011 at 8:27:00 PM GMT+5:30

    a true fun movie

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