Do aur Do Paanch

I can't believe this came out the same year as Shaan, which is the only other movie I've seen Shashi Kapoor in. He has so much more oomph here, whereas in Shaan I felt he was usually overshadowed by Amitabh. Do aur Do Paanch is darn good fun, though as is too often the case the female characters weren't given anything particularly interesting to do. My only other quibble with this movie is with the scuffles at the end: they ramble over three separate settings, go on at least ten minutes too long (or maybe it just felt like ten minutes!), and involve too many scenes of children being dragged into that strange movie-world hero-defined sense of justice against the bad guys.

Other than that, though, I loved it. As the other reviewers have pointed out, Shashi and Amitabh are great together, and I was very much taken by the sense of friendship they develop and portray. Stories about friendship, rather than family- or romance-based love, are far too rare in popular culture, in my opinion, and I am always delighted to find another title to add to my stack of favorites of this story type (Dil Chahta Hai is at the top of the Bollywood list, of course!). Here we get to see people who seem at first to be too alike to be close to each other; when they finally learn they can be friends, they also realize that they should be conspiring over a different goal rather than the shady one they start out with. I also think Shahsi, Amitabh, and the children generally did a good job at acting together, particularly in the group scenes (classrooms, the campfire), as opposed to the adults acting around the children, which can so often happen. The kidnapping plot was superfluous; any old reason for the two crooks to come together in wacky schemes would have done just as well, but this one did the job admirably and provided some sweet little faces to boot.

The title song also deserves special mention - it's even more fun here than it is in Bluffmaster, and coming from me that's quite a compliment! And for more on the music, go over to Desi Music Club.

Comments

filmyink said…
Actually in SHAAN, shashi didnt get much of a role (screen space)to do his bit. that just shows how much of a non fussy actor he is; a lot of actors cry for maximum screen space.amitabh is a very high profile actor in India.He was associated with the Gandhi family so as a result he is such a big phenomenon here; there r much better actors who have more bigger hits then he has; the whole family is very good at self promoting even if there is nothing much to promote about!!!

Popular Posts