Monday, September 22, 2008

1, 2, 9 or 10?

Poor Suzi in 'The Evening in Paris', the heroine Deepa's twin sister, lost in childhood. Not only does the hero, Sam detest her for smoking, drinking, and asking for a kiss, her long-lost father rejects her too because she dances in a night club. As if it was her fault she was kidnapped when she was a kid by a drunkard villain. Even at the end, hit by bullets, she is passed on by Sam to his friend, Rajendra Nath to take care of her, and that's the last we see of her. Did she recover, did she die? Who cares, as long as Deepa is fine.

Not my favourite double role. Though Sharmila Tagore looks delectable. Dhanno says she is the prettiest heroine she has ever seen.

My favourites in some sort of order are 'Seeta Aur Geeta', 'Ram aur Shyam' and 'Sharmilee'. The first and the last, not least, I guess because both Hema Malini and Raakhee are at their most gorgeous best. 'Ram aur Shyam' because Dilip Kumar is astounding.

Amitabh Bachchan does not do that well in 'The Great Gambler', both Jai and Vijay look and behave in the same way. Shahrukh Khan does much more with his double role in 'Om Shanti Om'.

Somehow I can't seem to remember that many double roles in Hollywood films, except the twins in 'Parent Trap' and of course, the roles were played by twins. Though I love Baby Sonia in the Hindi take-off 'Do Kaliyan' better.

I suppose The Star loves himself so much, and we love The Star so much, what could be better than 2 of him in the same film? 9 or 10 of him?

 
* Drawing from 'The Star' series by Teja 
Most of these links will take you to 2 of my favourite blogs, Beth loves Bollywood and Filmi GeekMy other favourite, Memsaab Story has not written about any of these movies. How come, Memsaab? Anyway, this triumvirate of women between them have an impressive list of Hindi films that they have reviewed. 
 

20 comments:

Space Bar said...

Nice one! (But no three? Mahaan?)

Banno said...

Oh, I haven't seen 'Mahaan'. And I forgot AB in 'Adaalat'.

Beth Loves Bollywood said...

Oooh fun question! I'm drawing a blank on Hollywood double roles too (and even when I google it, tons of articles about Bollywood crop up).

And thank you for the compliment!

Anonymous said...

Actually, the first version of The Parent Trap in the 1960s starred Hayley Mills (sister of Juliet Mills) as the twins, in a double role :-) But offhand I can't think of others...although I will try.

I haven't written about the above fillums because Beth and Carla have, so there's nothing clever left to say! I will write about Evening in Paris some day though, because Shammi belongs to ME, but I too hated that poor Suzi got short shrift at the end.

Banno said...

Beth, I thought of 'Multiplicity' with Bruce Willis. But nothing else. And you are welcome.

Memsaab, Oh, I must watch the original 'Parent Trap' then, or Dhanno must. She's watched the new version 7-8 times. I'm sure Shammi is honoured.

Anonymous said...

Gosh! I have not come across a bigger movie buff than you!

I love it! :-D

Banno said...

Flattered, Aparna. But I do know bigger 'sher-khans' than me.

SUR NOTES said...

do you get inspired by the star series ? or does teja read your post and begins sketching furiosly?

just asking ... wanting to crack the code of this best seller team.

and its nice that jai and vijay are more or less the less- even in mahaan thats pretty much the case- except that the father wears specs and has grey hair.

its nice because you are on your toes constantly figuring out the story- since the characters give no clue.

Banno said...

Sur, Teja draws, and I write around that. He is too ferocious a person to draw anything based on my directions. :)

Yes, strange, isn't it, that AB is so bad at double roles? Even Jeetendra, for that matter. They don't seem to have got the point of it at all.

SUR NOTES said...

typo detected:
more or less the same- not more or less the less.

and teja, the gentle soul, is ferocious? come come. hard to believe.

Banno said...

sur, 'ghar me geedad bhi sher hota hai'.

Also, more important, when do you get back to writing on your blog, old or revised version? Get back, girl. Miss you.

Anonymous said...

Thought I could remember a lot of Hollywood double roles but the only one I can recall now is the two versions of Prisoner of Zenda. The 1937 version had Ronald Colman and the 1952 version had Stewart Granger essaying a double role. It does seem like our Bollywood stars like themselves a lot more than their peers!

Shweta Mehrotra Gahlawat said...

How about "Duplicate"? Maybe that doesnt really qualify, since the 2 SRKs werent really related in any way...the same could also be said of "Hum Dono."

Banno said...

Bollyviewer, I haven't seen either of the versions. So, I guess, something to watch. I guess double roles or multiple roles make actors feel as if they have achieved some feat in acting, what with all the costume and make-up changes :)

Shweta, Yes, SK was good in 'Duplicate' too. He just does 'bad' with so much pleasure that he makes the double role exercise worth it. Devsaab in 'Hum Dono', just hated his mustache and army officer caricature. But not bad.

Anonymous said...

Ooh, how about Dilip Kumar in Bairaag in a triple role? :-P a PARTIALLY BLIND threesome?

ps Teja needs his own blog about his drawings. Not that you don't do them justice, but we need more of them.

Banno said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Banno said...

Memsaab, I've seen 'Bairaag' only in parts. I think Dilip Kumar is one of the best leading actors we've ever had. We were watching him yesterday again in 'Mughal-e-Azam'. And he is so controlled, does so much with so little apparent effort.

Teja will be flattered. I did suggest his own blog to him, but he wants to avoid the pressure :) And of course, it's comfortable for him to have me do all his work for him. Plus, plus, his drawings do so much for my posts, so do I want to be all self-sacrificing and give them up. No!

Anonymous said...

I completely understand re: Teja and his blog.

Gemma doesn't want her own either, and I don't want to give up her guest haiku posts :-)

SUNITI JOSHI said...

If you want multiplicity, watch Peter Seller movies. One I loved was- a hilarious movie called Mouse that Roared. Sellers must have played at least 6 roles in it, and one of them the duchess ( a woman)
Among my fav double roles is Dodooni chaar ( Kishor doing Comedy of errors) Also Sanjeev and Deven in Angoor( for the same Error :)

Banno said...

Oh I haven't seen the Peter Sellers one, Suniti. But sounds hilarious. Will get it.

Yes, yes, Angoor is great, with 2 double roles, Sanjeev Kumar and Asit Sen. I just caught bits of Do Dooni Chaar the other day.

banno at wordpress

I'm moving to wordpress. I'll miss blogger, especially the fab blogroll feature. But my blog has been virtually impossible to open o...