Love in Tokyo (1966) User Reviews

Joy romances with Asha in Tokyo

[jmathur_swayamprabha · 6/10 · 11 March 2012]

oy Mukherjee passed away on 09.03.2012. He was the first Bengali hero to have played a more than one decade long successful innings in Bollywood as a romantic hero with his clean-shaven chocolaty looks (Biswajeet followed suit). Joy was so beautiful that it might have been pretty difficult for the young Indian girls during that period to control themselves whenever he smiled romantically. Joy gave many hits during the sixties. He made a successful on-screen pair with Asha Parekh with three hits to its credit - Phir Wohi Dil Laaya Hoon (1963), Ziddi (1964) and Love In Tokyo (1966).

Love In Tokyo is a formula-based movie produced and directed by Pramod Chakravarty. Joy Mukherjee's mother - Lalita Pawar sends him off to Japan to bring his nephew and her grandson who is an orphan now because both his father, i.e., Joy's elder brother and his mother who was a Japanese woman, are no more. But Joy finds it difficult because the child loves Japan and not willing to shift to India. Joy happens to come across Asha Parekh who has her own problem of a marriage being forced on her by her greedy uncle. The groom decided for her is Pran who is a criminal-minded person and he has cooked up a plan with her uncle to usurp her inheritance through that marriage. Asha runs away from her home and crosses path with Joy and his nephew. One side track of Joy's friend - Mehmood also runs in parallel who has been sent by Joy's mother to Japan to bring both Joy and the child to India but he has his own axe to grind, i.e., marrying his sweetheart, Shubha Khote who is in Japan. The story reaches its expected happy finale after many romantic and comic scenes and twists in the tale.

It's a good rom-com with highly popular songs composed by Shankar-Jaikishan and very good photography capturing the scenic beauty of Japan. The movie had been shot in Japan just after the Tokyo Olympics were over in 1964. However it's too long (168 minutes duration) and the side track of Mehmood though entertains, has been dragged just too much. In those days, the Indian audience was not habitual to watch movies having a duration lesser than two and a half hours. Hence long movies of 150-170 minutes duration were made so that the audience would feel to have got it's money's worth. However had the director and the editor trimmed this movie by 18-20 minutes, it would have become more engrossing and entertaining. Due to this excessive length, the movie actually starts boring at some places.

However, overall, it renders an entertaining experience to the spectator. It's a coloured movie and it's a visual treat to watch the colourful beauty of Japan (and the Japanese women) on the screen as well. Guru Dutt's close associate - V.K. Moorthy has used his camera with a high degree of proficiency. Even the titles at the beginning of the movie, appear on handmade beautiful paintings in a highly aesthetic manner. Action and thrills are also up-to-the-mark from the standards of that time.

Besides being a visual treat, Love in Tokyo is a musical treat too because of the efforts of Hasrat-Shailendra (the lyricists), Shankar-Jaikishan (the composers) and Rafi-Lata (the singers). Songs like Le Gayi Dil Gudiya Japan Ki (which is the title track), O Mere Shah-e-Khubaan, Saayonara, Mujhe Tum Mil Gaye Humdum, Koi Matwala Aaya Mere Dwaare, Aaja Re Aa Zara etc. are all melodious and memorable. Manna Dey has, like always, given his playback for Mehmood for the song - Main Tere Pyar Ka Beemaar Hoon, Kya Arz Karoon.

The dialogues of Agha Jaani Kashmeri are impressive, especially the romantic lines of Joy. And with the help of them (and his own lady-killer personality), Joy has delivered a touching romantic performance. His on-screen chemistry with Asha has always been admirable and hence Asha also, with her limited talent, done satisfactorily. Her dancing talent has also been used in the song - Koi Matwala Aaya Mere Dwaare. Mehmood had earned a lot of fame as a comedian during the sixties. He is in full form with his permanent on-screen heroine - Shubha Khote and permanent on-screen (would-be) father-in-law - Dhumal. Pran is a hateable baddie as he always was in that time. The child artist - Master Shaahid has also delivered a lovely performance. Lalita Pawar is perfect as the old-fashioned mother.

All in all, Love In Tokyo is an entertaining movie filled with romance, music and comedy and renders a nice timepass in the style of the sixties. I pay my tribute to late Joy Mukherjee through this

Watch it for the love of Mehmood!!!

[laishramrastogee · 6/10 · 14 October 2017]

Any oldie classic movie will always be my favorite no matter how bad the editing is or the acting otherwise. Inspite of all that LIT comes in my list of the movies that i can watch anytime for its perky songs to random story line and of course JAPAN then. The movie has got everything romance(actually 3 romantic background), fantasy(remember Mehmood flying) and of course D-Drama(Lalitha Pavar). About the random plot twist, its a roller coaster in short it had everything that a any blockbuster movie wanted but bit too much. The movie survives through beautiful locations to amazing songs and the world class actor Mehmood.If you understand the era and old fairy tale romance and OH of course comedy, it is worth a watch!

Fantastic movie filmed in Tokyo with an excellent soundtrack

[MisterZZZ · 9/10 · 22 January 2005]

Love in Tokyo was shot on location in Japan shortly after the 1964 Olympics. The story starts off in India where Ashok (Joy Mukherji) is being pressured to marry a woman he doesn't love. His elderly mother asks him to travel to Tokyo to pick up his eight year old nephew, a recently orphaned boy named Chikoo whom Ashok has never met because his family disowned his older brother after he married a Japanese woman.

Ashok arrives in Tokyo only to discover that Chikoo has no intention of going to India, a country he has never seen before. Ashok hopes to win his nephew over by taking him on an expensive shopping trip, but the boy escapes when his attention is diverted by a beautiful woman named Asha (Asha Parekh), whom he sees performing a traditional Indian dance on television. Asha was also orphaned as a child and raised by her uncle in the Indian community of Tokyo. Asha's uncle wants her to marry a man she despises, a boorish, chain smoking airline pilot named Pran. Asha runs away after she discovers that the two men have cooked up a fiendish plot to get their hands on her sizable inheritance.

Chikoo and Asha both end up in the same hiding place and form an alliance against their uncles. Asha protects the boy by posing as a bearded Sikh until she realizes that she has fallen in love with Ashok. She later pretends to be Chikoo's Japanese aunt in order to win Ashok's heart without being discovered. The movie has subplot involving a friend of Ashok's named Mahesh (popular comedian Mehmood) who comes to Tokyo to marry a woman from a higher class. There's a hilarious scene where Mehmood fools his potential father-in-law by posing as an "international geisha" who just happens to speak Hindi fluently.

Love in Tokyo contains the fast paced witty dialog found in many Spencer Tracy/Katherine Hepburn romantic comedies. It would have made an excellent 90 minute film but the actual length is almost twice that. The second half contains enough melodrama to fill a season of General Hospital and the ending is straight out of a James Bond movie. However it's important to remember that Bollywood is not Hollywood and moviegoers in each country have different expectations.

The film contains two of the most beloved songs from Indian cinema: "Love in Tokyo" by Rafi Mohamed and "Sayonara" by Lata Mangeshkar. The latter is the reason that Japanese tourists in India are often greeted with a cheery "sayonara sayonara".

REALLY LOVE IT

[relossaki · 10/10 · 3 June 2023]

A young man Ashok's (Joy Mukherjee) mother makes him go to Tokyo, Japan in search of his deceased elder brother's and his wife (also dead)'s son Ashok's nephew Chikoo. He is unhappy because he is in a loveless relationship with his fiancée Sarita. Chikoo is in an orphanage and taken in by Ashok, his uncle. Ashok tries to convince Chikoo to come back to India with him, but Chikoo refuses and runs away. Meanwhile, Mahesh (Mehmood) Ashok's friend is in love with Sheela (Shubha Khote) but her dad finds out and has goons (this is what the opening scene is) chase Mahesh, Sheela's father then takes her to Tokyo where Mahesh follows them and ends up at their shop "Indian Art Emporium", and pretends to dress up as a Sadhu Ascetic. He also falsely says to clear his sins that he needs to go to a river and he must say "i befriend mahesh". Mahesh calls the police and tells them Sheela's father is committing suicide which is not true, the police. Mahesh then Pursues Sheela and sings a song "Maine Tera Pyar Ka Bimar" while chasing her at a theme park, he then reveals his identity to her while singing the song, Chikoo meets (Asha Asha Parekh) who's on the run from Pran and her uncle (who later turns out to be her biological father) Her father's apparent "last Wish" was for her to marry Pran (played by Pran but she doesn't and this is why she runs away, Pran only wants her for her money. Asha and Chikoo go to a tea house for food but two women quickly recognize her as her uncle and Pran had a reward of 5,000 dollars for the person who finds her first. They run away and Pran finds Asha trying to climb a roof to escape, Chikoo saves her by pretending to be hit by Pran's car when he tries to bring Asha back to her uncle's home. The pair escape and disguise themselves. Asha pretends to be a Sardar Sikh man) and Chikoo pretends to be a girl, they then head to a restaurant. Ashok sees through their disguise and Chikoo falls from the window and goes to the hospital. Meanwhile, Pran & Sheela's father are at the same geisha house, Pran quickly goes and Mahesh disguises himself as geisha and calls himself an "international geisha" and drugs Sheela's father with sake and quickly leaves to Sheela. Meanwhile, Chikoo recovers and is sent back home while Asha maintains her disguise as a Sardar and pretends to be Chikoo's Biological Aunt (his mother's sister) and calls herself Chizuru. Ashok finds himself falling in love with Asha and she sings "Sayonara Sayonara". He goes back home where Asha is again disguised as Sardar Ji. She cuts her finger and Ashok puts a bandage on it. Asha disguised as Chikoo's Aunt goes to meet Ashok again and falls in love with him too, when they are about to kiss, she puts her hand on his face to stop him and Ashok finds out who she really is from the bandage as he himself tied it. The next day a mailman comes to Asha's hotel room and gives her a letter from Ashok, in the letter it says that He and Chikoo have gone on the 5 p.m. Flight to Mumbai, India. She jumps into a taxi and heads for the airport but is too late, or so it seems. She ends up missing the "supposed flight" where Chikoo and Ashok are on. Devastated she goes to The Tokyo Shrine, that when she was disguised told Ashok that you pray there for lost love. She goes there and Ashok Follows her. In disbelief, Asha realizes Ashok and Chikoo didn't actually leave and Ashok sings " Mere Shah e Khuba". Mahesh (disguised) meets them and asks them for their help in marrying Sheela, as her father is getting her married to Chatterjee, an ugly man. Sheela pretends to be mute and Mahesh arrives dressing as an Arab doctor Aziz Mahamood. Sheela's father sees through his disguise and kicks him out. Mahesh goes to a costume store and gets a wig and toupee to look like Chatterjee. He then goes through the marriage ceremony and they become married, at the end The real Chatterjee shows up, realizing it's Mahesh. It is too late. They end up spending their honeymoon at a traditional onsen Mahesh runs away realizing its Sheela's dad and runs away, on the way he bumps into a scientists table and mixes the chemicals on his shoes giving him the ability to fly,on the way he saves a woman's child from getting run over by a train and holds onto a helicopter. Asha is then found by Pran and is imprisoned in her uncle's home. Mahesh, Sheela, and Chikoo show up as a Muslim couple looking for their child named Ghulfam and barge into the house. They hand Asha a tape with Chikoo's Voice and Sheela and Mahesh sing to "find him" and call the police. Asha pretends to tie him up and Chikoo tells the police that Asha's uncle had kidnapped him and took him in his car. Asha manages to escape and the group is almost caught so Asha slips into Sheela's Burqa and Pretends to be Mahesh's wife. Mahesh tells Pran that his father left a fortune for him when he died. They escape ad Sheela's father arrive with the police. Meanwhile, Asha and Ashok fall in love. Ashok's "fiancée" Sarita and her father along with Ashok's mother Gayatri Devi come to Japan. Asha and Ashok attend a party and Ashok sings "Aa Ja Re Aa Zara". When leaving for a tour of tokyo Ashoks Mother catches them hugging and screams, and throws insults at Asha when she didn't even know Ashok had a fiancée, Chikoo, mad pelts Raisaheb, (Sarita's father) and Sarita slaps him he goes to Asha and explains why he did that. Asha says to forgive his grandmother and hold Raisahebs feet and apologize to him for pelting him in the eye. Asha leaves to commit suicide and goes to the Tokyo shrine once again. Singing "mere shah e khuba" Ashok finds Asha and as he Chases her, she runs away and Pran's car hits Ashok causing him to have an accident. Sarita, Ashok's fiancée and the rest of Ashok's family find out that Ashok may be blind after the operation. Sarita not wanting to be with a blind man all her life and backs out from the marriage. Raisaheb finds it to be a good thing because they can take advantage of Ashok's family and spend their money Chikoo hears this and exposes their plan to his grandmother to make her understand how greedy they are. Asha ready to give Ashok her eyes. Ashok's Mother finds that Ashok and Asha are meant to be,thankfully Ashok turns out to not be blind and still has his eyesight. Asha's uncle and Pran are at their engagement party and say that Pran and Asha were in love and had a child in wedlock and need to marry to avoid public scorn. Ashok's mother so crushed by that she shuns her again. Asha's uncle holds Chikoo hostage and threatens to kill him he also says that unless she marries Pran her life and Ashok will be destroyed. Doing so she goes and Ashok finds her breaks in and rescues her from Pran's clutches they get their happily ever after and the movie ends with everyone happy.