In the 80-s when there was no cable tv, re-runs of popular Hindi movies were a common thing in most north Indian cities(also read my review on Insaniyat(old)).So as a kid I went with my family to watch ’Manoranjan’.We enjoyed the first half very much and I also clapped in the light sequnce, however after the interval the elders felt that the second half was for adults and kids(I was hardly 4) would not enjoy the latter part.As a matter of fact even though I was a kid I had started feeling uncomfortable and asked my mother to take me out of
the theatre.Many years later when the video cassette was brought in our
home I was surprised to see the rating Adults only on the movie.I had thought
that Manoranjan was a comedy and had enjoyed the first half so again watched the first half and did not watch the later scenes.Now after the satellite boom when I watched Manoranjan recently I very well understood that it was a very bold movie and it did deserve the tag of adults only.
The red-light area of the city has a new police constable(Sanjeev Kumar)
who is very honest.On entering the ’famous’ street he relaises that all is not well there.He sees a whole gang which comprises of a petty pimp(Paintal), a big strong man Balram(Dev Kumar) and many young guys and gals.He meets one of the girls(Zeenat Aman) and thinks that she is a nice girl.However later he realises that she is also part of the gang.The members of the gang sit and drink at hotel Dhoop Chaon whose owner(Shammi Kapoor) is a very colourful character.On finding that there are many customers with the prostitudes in another hotel the constable conducts a police raid.Among the people caught is the police inspector(Madan Puri).Balram and the police inspector join hands to prove that the constable has
taken money and hets him suspended.
After losing his job our hero visits the hotel Dhoop Chaon daily and become friends with the owner and eventually falls in love with the prostitude who has a heart of gold(Zeenat).After kicking Balram out of her life he realises that all this is not good.He explain her to leave all this but she is reluctant.Then with the hotel owner he hatches a plan to masquerade as a wealthy Nawaab and becomes her sole customer.However things go for a twist when people are made to believe that
the Nawaab(who was never there) has been killed and the blame falls on our
hero.After a series of events the movie finally ends.
There have been numerous Hindi movies which are inspired by English movies.Out of them very few retain the class of the original and are still entertaining.Manoranjan based on Billy Wilder’s ’Irma la dounce’ is a gem of a movie.the plot as already told is anything Hindi movie had ever seen.The showing of a prostitude as an independent modern woman who is not appologetic about her profession and does not give never ending stories of forced prostitution was unimaginable in the 70’s.Veteransuperstar turned director Shammi Kapoor deserves specail applause to chose such a subject as his directorial debut after a successful carrier as a leading man.The script although has Indain flavour but regains the essence of the original.
The movie breaks many stereotypes and shows everything about prostitution in a very light and stylish way.No tear jerking ugly looking ladies, no shabby brothels and no superheros.Manoranjanis a bold movie even 30 years after its release.It is generally seen that in a topic like this the movie out of choice becomes cheap and vulgar but still Shammi makes Manoranjan an amazingly entertaining movie.The producers F.C.Mehra had made some great movies earlier with Shammi Kapoor in the leadlike ’Professor’ and ’Singapore’.Now when Shammi’s carrier as a leading man was almost over(Thanks to the arrival of superstars Rajesh Khanna and Amitabh Bachchan) Mehra did a big gamble by chosing such a story and giving the directorial duties to Shammi.The direction is almost flawless.The relationship between Sanjeev Kumar and Zeenat Aman is developed very beautifully.The director does not thrust typical hindi film ingredients just for the heck of it and that is one of the major reasons that Manoranjan does not lose the charm of its original.Since the movie is set in India so the showing of Bombay as the city where all the action takes place instead of Paris(where the original movie was set) also goes very well with the audience.
Every aspect of the movie be it screenplay, dailogues or editing are excellent.The music by R.D.Burman is amazing.All the songs ’Suno Ji Suno’, ’Goya Ki Chunanche’ and ’Aaya Hun Main’ are very well composed and sung.The choreography and song picturisation make these songs even more pouplar.
Sanjeev Kumar gives an amazing performance in the movie.His comic timing, expression and famous dailogue delivery are excellent.He is comfortable in the scenes where he is shown as the timid man opposite a rather independent and commanding Zeenat Aman.But my favourite scene is when he has an outburst and blasts Zeenat thus showing that it is only natural for men to behave this way even if he was enjoying taking orders from the lady.I guess Manoranjan is Zeenat Aman finest performance.She actually showed that being bold just did not mean body exposure but acting in movies which are bold in their content also.Her performance is the highlight if the movie.Unfortunately except for B.R.Chopra who took out an excellent perforamnce from her in ’Insaaf Ka Taraazu’, no-one could extract a performance the way Shammi did in this movie(not even the overhyped Raj kapoor in Satyam Shivam Sundaram).Shammi kapoor had put on a lot of weight and although he hammed for most of the portion he still shows his class in some scenes.Dev Kumar as the strong villain suited the role to T(Shammi again signed him as a giant in his other directorial dud Bundalbaaz).Paintal, Madan puri and Agha are adequate.
When released in 1974 Manoranjan did not do well at the box-office, probably because it was very bold.However over the years it has formed the position of a classic.On the whole Manoranjan is an excellent movie which though very bold and could still raise eyebrows if seen at home.