Friday, January 30, 2009

Arun Verma we need you...

Listen, say what you will about Anil Kapoor in Slumdog Millionaire, for me AK will always be about Mr. India, and to an extent Tezaab, though I did have a soft spot for Ram Lakhan also. I don't pretend to be an obnoxious snob who hates Hindi movies, I just do not most contemporary Hindi movies unless they have Shah Rukh Khan whose movies I watch thanks to inbred loyalty to support people who've made it big from my school as well as the fact that I really liked the TV series Fauji when I was a kid.
Back to Mr India, last year or 2007, I don't quite remember when when I met Shekhar Kapur at a hotel lobby puffing away on a smoke, I made it a point to thank him for making the movie. Amazing when you see the talentless prats who produce, act in and make movies in Bollywood nowadays that sometimes something decent can still come out. But they are too few and far between - instead we see incredibly stupid Kill Bill rip-off's being pranced about as dance numbers. maybe there are some nice movies on their way, if they can get this man to like their music, maybe there is hope for Bollywood yet, though I was hoping that RS' mid-life crisis would be caused by a cranky man rather than Bollywood music.
Anyway, thanks to The Comic Project - there is now a comic book form of Mr India (see in Picasa). And you know what? At this point of time, surrounded by inept murderers as politicians, corrupt defenders, armymen who plot against their countrymen and all, maybe India needs Arun Verma to come back. We have our Mugambo state - Pakistan - though neither Geelani or Zardari or Kayani would do Amrish Puri's Mugambo any justice. Anyway, this is my afternoon rant, I'm bored of cars, electronics, planes and random tycoons. I need a drink. Enjoy the Mugambo video below ('Zahil Hindustaniyon apne history, apne itihaas se kuch nahin seekha' Heh, prescient!) and what was your favourite Bollywood movie of the late eighties?

EDIT: Talking about Ponytail Chaudhari who gave a long speech at the Star Screen Awards for something or the other (IIPM ads in the Express now?) - just see this. Classic!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Fab movie wasn't it? I could go on watching the scene where a drunk Sridevi does her Chaplin imitation and the one where Mr India forces one of the villains to eat all the spurious grub in the restaurant!
But what's this story floating around that Shah Rukh Khan is going to star as the new Mogambo. What's he going to say "k-k-k-k-k-k- kill him"? SRK as Mogambo is beyond my comprehension, just as SRK as Don was! For posterity's sake some things are best left untouched, otherwise they become a pain in the posterior.

The Comic Project said...

@anon: More like Mogambo k.k.k.khush hua :-)
@presstalk: Thanks for linking Mr.India :-) And this is a great scene, one of my favourites. Although I did not include the Sridevi-Chaplin scene as it was breaking my comic's story.