It’s Friday!
It’s been a while since we dipped into the deep Bollywood well for something refreshingly groovy. This week, I’m pulling up three delightful clips to send you off on your weekend.
The first is from the 1972 film “Apna Desh” and it’s wild even by Bollywood standards. I direct your attention to 01:30 where the male singer starts playing the sax and flying around the room. It’s really cool. This film is actually a drama about a sincerely honest man who discovers that he is surrounded by profoundly corrupt people who eventually try to frame his brother for a crime he didn’t commit.
It has six musical numbers.
If Bollywood made a version of “The Godfather” (which it probably has) it would feature musical numbers. That’s what makes Bollywood so great.
This next clip comes from the 1966 film “Phool Aur Patthar,” a melodrama that also features six musical numbers. I would have used this as a stand alone post, but the resolution is crappy and I wouldn’t do that to you. Nonetheless, it’s grooviness is clear and needs to be appreciated.
Finally, it’s the clip that introduced me to the unique craziness of Bollywood. I stumbled across this years ago. Since then, I’ve been soaking up Bollywood musical numbers like the Bounty lumberjack soaks up spills. I’ve never actually watched a complete Bollywood film, but through musical clips, I believe I’ve detected certain trends. One of those trends, two characters who look alike, pops up all the time. In this case, it’s Bollywood legend Shashi Kapoor playing two guys who are on opposite ends of the groovy scale. There is no troupe of dancers here, but everything else is groovy.
Even though the patrons look like they’re bored out of their minds, I still want to go to this nightclub.
Have a groovy weekend!
Groovy Friday Bollywood extra!
Not groovy as we define it here, but a great Bollywood clip that you can send to your friends on their next birthday. They’ll love it.
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