03 September 2008

Guide

I have no profound statements about this movie, sorry. I just have two things to say about it.

1. The first thing I ever heard about Guide was that Waheeda Rehman had recreated one of her dances from it years later in a different movie (I can't remember which movie; whatever it was, I haven't seen it), so I figured the dance must be good as well as extremely famous. When I finally sought out Guide, it wasn't particularly because of the dancing--I just wanted to see a classic movie starring two actors whom I wanted to learn more about. It should have been because of the dancing, though. I didn't know what I was missing before this movie. So far in my Bollywatching career I haven't seen a lot of movies with classical-type dancing in them like I saw in Guide, but I'm really hoping I can find some more. The songs don't have to have any singing; just dancing will do.

2. Recently Beth Loves Bollywood did a review of Guide, which I didn't read past the first paragraph at the time, because she posted a "vague spoiler warning" that stopped me from reading further. (Why a spoiler warning should suddenly stop me from reading a movie review, when I've been all over the internet reading reviews of movies I haven't seen yet and which give away all sorts of plot points, is beyond me.) While the main part of Beth's review was full of deep and meaningful discussions, the very first thing she said she had to get out of the way about the movie was how much Dev Anand's hair distracted her from watching properly. I mention this because of what happened when I saw the movie this weekend. 

My mom watched part of it with me, not because she wanted to, but because it was there and she was there. (The only other Bollywood movies my mother has seen are Kal Ho Naa Ho, which she liked; Om Shanti Om, which she saw under duress [I think she liked it, really. She was just being stubborn because I made her watch it; like, all-day-hounded-her-about-it-made-her-watch-it]; and Chak De! India, which she didn't see from the very beginning but which she was into by the end.) She was mostly napping while I watched Guide but every once in a while she would wake up and try to make sense out of a random scene before going back to sleep.

But her one comment during the few parts of the movie she did see was,  "What's with his hair?"

8 comments:

  1. Heehee! Tell your mom I am with her 100%. Argh, the hair!

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  2. I've got to see this movie; I love me some Waheeda.

    Hey, I'm reading "Reconciliation" right now, as a matter of fact!

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  3. Dev's hair has always been a big thing! You are distracted by his puff while most of us brought up on songs of Guide and his B&W classics are bothered by his flat hair in his later movies. lol

    And if you are looking for some classical dancing in B'wood you can try Jhanak Jhanak Paayal Baje or some of Vijayantimala's early movies (for e.g. Kathputli) and some of Hema Malini's early movies as well. You'll get good songs with the dances though, whether you want it or not!

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  4. In Hema's bio, she says her dance in "Tere Mere Sapne" is, "after Guide...Goldie saab's best classical dance." So that's one to check out. And believe it or not: Netflix has. Even more believe it: it stars...Dev Anand!

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  5. The song you are looking for is "Kaanton se kheench ke" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kpwNopLv-c) that Waheeda Rehman repeated in the medley of old songs from Lamhe (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ibSmp2OpZA).

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  6. This post made no sense. Not much content whatsoever.

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