Scandalous Notes on Amar Prem

The only reason a movie like Amar Prem ended up on my Netflix list was because it had Sharmila looking like the goddess Durga. Needless to say, I was watching it with the same mindset as I would watch a reality show on baboons on Animal Planet - to mock what unfurled on the screen. This is probably why I was pleasantly surprised by the director Shakti Samanta (who is a family friend I am told) and more by Rajesh Khanna.

The only movie I had liked Khanna in before this was Namak Haram, and maybe his communist character had subconsciously appealed to my genes. Who knows!? While most critics rate his performance in Anand as one of his best, I thought he was annoyingly loud and bugging in the movie. Yeah, I know the character was like that, but I think he took it a tad too far. Having said all that, I think it was fantastic casting him as the perpetually drunk Anand Babu in Amar Prem. His nuances looked cool suddenly, so much so that, I started respecting him! The line that steals it for me is "Arrey Dost, Aadmi poora di kaam karke ghar waapas aata hai to woh kuch chahta hai, aur agar use woh ghar mein nahin milta, toh woh use baahar dhoondta hai."

PS: I was also very impressed with Om Prakash telling a supposedly conservative middle class Indian audience of 1972 that it is OK to indulge in ménage à trois, and here I was giving Austin Powers all the credit along with his Japanese companions. If Om Prakash was around before Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Devdas was made, he could have given Jaggu Dada some useful tips on Bangla pronunciation as well.