Leena Chandavarkar

Thakur Chandrabhan lives a wealthy lifestyle in a small village in India. He is widowed and lives with his sister; a widowed daughter-in-law, Saraswati; and a grand-daughter, Tara, who is of marriageable age. Also living in this household is Bholanath, who is blind since birth, and helps with household chores. Tara's marriage is arranged with a young man, Pratap Singh, from a noble family, who approves of Tara, but demands a dowry of 3 Lakh Rupees. Chandrabhan does not have this much money, but Bholanath has been stashing away cash, that is guarded by a snake, and offers all of it to Pratap, who accepts it and absconds. Blind Bhola is unable to pursue him, but is instead bitten by the snake, regains his vision and sets forth to Bombay to locate Pratap. Several weeks later, Bholanath returns home, just in time to be told that he must marry Tara, as she refuses to marry anyone else. Tara notices something very odd about Bholanath as he calls her "Tara', not as "Little Mistress" as he used to; he is terrified of snakes; and seems more cultured and educated. The family decides to get the two engaged, however, the ceremony is interrupted by the arrival of the police, who have an arrest warrant for Bholanath for Theft, and Murder of a young woman named Lucy. The question remains, what was Bholanath up to in Bombay, whose money did he steal, and why did he end up killing Lucy? —rAjOo (gunwanti@hotmail.com)

Vishal is a poet and lives a middle-class lifestyle with his widowed and wheelchair-bound mom. He is in love with Aruna, who works with a publishing company. Due to his forthrightness, Vishal is unable to keep a job, and Aruna attempts in vain to get him to work at her firm. Then she stops meeting him altogether, and a few days later he gets an invitation to attend her marriage with her boss, Anand Kumar Sahegal. This turn of events devastates Vishal to such an extent that he takes to alcohol, visits prostitutes, gambles, and hates all women especially Aruna. Vishal gains fame selling his poems to Ramu Makhichandani, but does not improve his lifestyle. Then one day a young woman named Sonia enters his life and both of them fall in love with each other. Vishal proposes to Sonia and she accepts, however, fate has some other plans for them - for Sonia is none other than the step-daughter of Aruna - and neither Vishal nor Aruna may want this marriage alliance to succeed. —rAjOo (gunwanti@hotmail.com)

Sudhakar secretly marries Padma, the pampered daughter of a wealthy businessman. But, when they move in with his widowed mother, Padma's spoiled behaviour could split them apart. After his business partner embezzles money and leaves him penniless, Parvati's husband passes away, leaving behind two sons, Prabhakar and Sudhakar, & a dumb daughter, Gauri, virtually on the verge of destitution, When Prabhakar grows up, he marries Pooja and moves out. Years pass by, Sudhakar has grown up, has managed to complete schooling, gets a job out of town and re-locates. He is summoned home when his sister kills himself as she is not permitted to marry Murli, who also kills himself. Then Sudhakar gets married to wealthy Padma and brings her home. Padma wants to be pampered and does not like playing second fiddle even to Parvati, which leads to disagreements in the household. Padma's pregnancy does not resolve any of the problems, and as a result the couple leave an ailing Parvati on her own and re-locate to Padma's palatial house in the city. Weeks turn into months, months turn into years, Parvati is all by herself - with the question remaining who will bid adieu (Bidaai) to her?

Chor Chor ( 1974) is a crime thriller with Vijay Anand and Leena Chandravarkar in lead roles.Produced by Vijay Anand, the film was directed by his long time associate Prem Prakash. It is a two hour suspense thriller without any songs in it, which is surprising because one always expects the Vijay Anand films to have a number of melodious and artistically filmed songs. The only thing close to a song in Chor Chor is that Goldie himself sings two or three lines of the House Number 44 song- Phaili Hui Hai Sapno Ki Rahe- in a party, and his voice is used by the villain to frame him in an act of bank robbery. Aakash ( Goldie) is a bank manager, and his father (played by Iftekhar) is a retired police officer who tells his son one day that he saw a criminal named Chandan he thought had died twenty years ago. The same evening, the criminal attacks and kills Iftekhar who, before he dies, manages to tear a piece of the criminal's shirt collar. It is seen that the collar has the label of Stylo Tailor of Panchgani. Goldie gets himself transferred to the Panchgani branch of the bank so that he can investigate about the murder. There, he meets the beautiful girl Hema (Leena Chadravarkar) who , with her mother, runs a guest house. Goldie stays in this guest house as a paying guest which reminds the viewers of the film Kala Pani in which Dev Anand stays in a similar guest house in Hyderabad. Right from the beginning, the viewer knows the killer(played by Trilok Kapoor, brother of Prithvi Raj Kapoor, and known mostly for his role as Lord Shiva in the religious films) .The killer also knows that the hero is looking for him. So the suspense is how would the hero figure out who the killer is .There are two sub plots and about half a dozen red herrings to keep the hero confused. The first sub plot is that the killer has a dual identity. He was a criminal Chandan, accused of five murders, but he is also seen as Dr. Dharam Veer of Panchgani who has secret plans to rob forty lac rupees from the local bank . It is the same bank where the hero Aakash has joined as a replacement to the regular bank manager (played by Jairaj) who is faking illness because he is blackmailed by the killer which brings us to the second sub plot. The killer knows that Jairaj is the biological father of the heroine as he was in love with the heroine's mother Kamala whose parents arranged her marriage with someone else. As Kamala was pregnant with Jairaj's child, her husband had a fight with Jairaj in which the latter unintentionally killed the former . This knowledge gives the killer doctor Dharam Veer leverage over Jairaj to make him confine himself to his house pretending to be a heart patient, for one month , so that the killer can rob the bank and put the blame on the hero Aakash( Goldie) . There ensues a battle of wits between the hero and the killer and some interesting incidents take place like a threat letter typed from a typewriter with a defective key, and a letter shabbily written by a blind woman. The killer also manages that Aakash comes across a number of red herring suspects like an unknown lover of the heroine, a retired army colonel, the perpetual sharabi Keshto Mukherji, and the philanderer showroom owner, Vibhuti Bhushan (played by Mohan Sherry). The break through is when the hero comes to know that the killer , in spite of knowing who the hero is, doesn't kill him though he gets more than one opportunities to do so. He realizes that the killer wants to use him for some purpose before eliminating him. The hero changes his strategy and is able to outwit the killer in the end. The best part of the movie is the divinely beautiful heroine Leena Chandravarkar, and the way the director has shown her courtship with the hero Goldie. It has been presented in an absolutely natural and decent manner, without any flamboyance or aggression on hero's part and without any coyness or nakhra( attitude) on heroine's part and without any nok jhonk or ladai jhagda( lovers' tiff) between them. Their first two meetings are when the hero is driving his car and the heroine wants to cross the road and they very politely signal- you go first. The heroine conveys that she is attracted to the hero by cooking the vegetables that he likes which she comes to know when he orders from a menu in a restaurant .Their relationship develops in a very smooth and mature fashion, and the way the hero makes a marriage proposal and the way the heroine accepts it is absolutely unique. It was totally devoid of the usual romantic trappings, yet it was absolutely engaging. Maybe this reflects Goldie's idea of an ideal woman, and the ideal format of man -woman relationship which should be based on respect, mutual understanding, and commitment. Highly recommended.

Sundar, a waiter, is in love with Radha but does not have the courage to tell her. When he becomes a successful comedian, he confesses his feelings to her, only to find that she loves someone else. Plain-looking, buck-toothed Sundar works as a waiter in the Rasraj Hotel. One day he meets with Radha, the daughter of the hotel owner and falls in love with her. She indicates that she likes him, and he builds a palace of dreams, but lacks the confidence to approach her. When his friend, Amar, returns from abroad he assists him in making a career as a Bollywood comedian and singer, and improving his self-worth. Sundar gets popularity virtually overnight, and musters up enough courage to propose to Radha, only to find out that she loves someone else, and that person is none other than - Amar. —rAjOo (gunwanti@hotmail.com)

Lala Balwant Rai, affectionately known as Lalaji, is a big business magnate of Calcutta having business establishments at various places, including the picturesque hill station of Darjeeling and its adjoining areas. His grand daughter Aarti, who is an apple of his eye, studies at Darjeeling. Aarti meets a young villager, Somu, in a train while coming home during vacation, when the latter accidentally enters into the compartment occupied by her and her friends. Finding the boy to be a simpleton, Aarti and her friends make fun of him to their hearts content. . Aarti arrives at home accompanied by her friend Sushma and escorted by her relative Pran who had designs to marry her but whom she actually detests. Lalaji proposes two boys of his choice to Aarti for marriage but she declines to arrive at any decision unless she had met and studied them for herself. Lalaji permits her to do so and Aarti meets the two boys with the help of her cousin Murli, in disguise, and comes to the conclusion that both of them were absolutely unsuitable for her . When Aarti arrives back home after testing there boys she is informed that Lalaji had left for Darjeeling and soon after she receives a news that he has had an heart attack. Aarti rushes to Darjeeling accompanied by Pran, Sushma and the family doctor. And on her arrival over there Lalaji informs her that the cause of his ailment was the shock that he had received form his relatives Gyan, Jeevan, Paro and Lajwanti all of whom were mercilessly trying to swindle him. Lalaji tells her that if she wanted to see him cured she should get married without any further delay and suggests that Pran would not be a bad choice for her. Aarti shivers with the thought of Pran, therefore, speaks hurriedly that she had already selected a boy for herself. Lalaji gets relieved to hear is and asks her to bring the boy to him without a moments delay. Aarti and Susma set out in search of the 'boy. As luck would have it, they meet the same boy, Somu, in a street whom they had met in the train. They beg of him to help them by acting as Aarti's lover, and the latter agrees to do so after finding form his mother that there was nothing wrong in speaking a lie if it was for a good cause. . Aarti presents the boy to Lalaji as a modern young man belonging to a very rich family and Lalaji gets fully convinced about him. But Pran with his wicked intelligence finds out the truth about Somu and gets him exposed on the day of the engagement ceremony and gets his mother so much humiliated that she finally dies of the shock. Aarti now becomes sympathetic towards Somu and declares openly that she could not live without him. Lalaji gets infuriated to hear that but gradually realizes that Somu, though poor, was not a bad boy for her. And to remove the gulf of status between Somu and them, he declares that he would give all his wealth and property to some charitable institutions. The declaration causes a stir in the family and they decide to declare Lalaji as a mentally deranged person and consequently hatch a plot for the same.Pran goes to Lalaji with a loaded revolver. Lalaji with his clever gets possession of the revolver and shoots at him. —alex.mjacko@gmail.com