reviewman Reviews

Ajooba (1990)

One of the worst all-time Hindi movies ever...

[1/10 · 27 October 2002]

A complete zero out of four. One worst sums up Ajooba: awful. Actually, more words come to mind: ridiculous, third-rate, and terrible. This is one of Amitabh's worst movies ever, he prances around in a cheap leather jacket and equally cheap tinsel foil Zorro-style mask with what appears to be wings on the sides.

The movie is set in ancient Persia or Arabia and is characteristically un-historical for an Indian movie. As stated above, a leather jacket from K-Mart with velcro straps did not exist 400 years ago, unless all my history teachers were wrong.

Rishi also does his patented cross-dressing in this movie. Far from being funny, it is very embarassing to watch. What could possess the son of the legendary Raj Kapoor to flay the memory of his house like this on screen?

On the plus side, if you want a real laugh, go ahead and watch this film. The glaring inconsistencies in the plot and costumes are no match for the awful dialogues and shoddy acting.

Deewaar (1975)

An Amazing Movie

[27 October 2002]

One of Amitabh's finest work. The raging emotion contained just underneath his skin is kept quietly hidden from the world, with bits boiling over at key moments in the film. He also has great one-liners which became main-stays in the Indian cinema for decades afterward.

Shashi was a complete clown in this movie, and you have to ask yourself; what brother would take up arms against his own brother to uphold 'justice', especially in India, the land of corruption and nepotism? Still, accepting the lanky Amitabh beating up 20 goondas with scissor kicks and an old dented shovel means accepting the rest of the premise. In my eyes, however, it would have been much more realistic and cool if Shashi the cop and Amitabh the criminal joined forces to gyp everyone out of their cash, and to live out the rest of their natural lives in Hong Kong or London. It doesn't work out that way though, and Shashi betrays his brother for a 30 cent scrap of copper attached to a ribbon and called a medal.

The mom in the movie annoyed me big-time though, her idealistic rantings and ravings made me yawn and ask myself if any old Indian woman could be so naive and stupid. I mean, if your son bought you the building you used to drag bricks to during it's construction 20 years ago, would you throw that all away just because the son bought it with drug and smuggling money? Come on.

The climax scene is arguably the best ending in any Indian movie of the 70's, 80's and 90's, far surpassing Sholay's. If you get a chance, run, don't walk to watch this movie.