Because you all deserve some funky 60s screencaps, please enjoy this old 2008 review of Night in London taken from my old blog. The film stars Mala Sinha and the recently departed Biswajeet. RIP Biswajeet - may you have just as snazzy red turtlenecks in your next life...
The spunky and stylish Mala Sinha stars in Night in London, which belongs in the top tier of nonsensical 1960s masala fluff. Directed by Brij, Mala suffers the same disappearing fate that Saira Banu does in his later film Victoria No. 203 - apparently a Brij heroine can be a tough cookie until the last 20 minutes when cut-rate hero has to jump in to save the day. I'll give him this, though, thankfully Biswajeet is not as terrible as Navin Nischol AND he has the comedy relief stylings of one Mr. Johnny Walker to save us from total boredom when Biswajeet and his groovy red turtlenecks are on screen.
So, Night in London skips the extended set-up so beloved of certain individuals in the viewing audience of one in my living room this afternoon and heads right into deep masala plot nonsense. Mala Sinha plays a young lady by the name of Renu. Renu's father is kidnapped by some "Chinese" goons!
The head "Chinaman" tells her that he's kidnapped her father (!) and will kill him if she doesn't pose as a princess in order to steal a necklace from some British Lord in London. A necklace that her father's shop made 100 years ago and which contains - written on the back of the gems - a TOP SECRET formula for world destruction. And if she doesn't go along with their plans...
...her father will be impaled on these hot pokers of DOOM.
What else can a girl do? She goes along with it, gets the necklace, and is immediately set upon by ANOTHER gang of goons. Jeez! She's "rescued" by this sleeze in a red turtleneck (Biswajeet) who claims to love her and insists on getting married just twenty minutes into the film! Our girl is suspicious but prefers the devil she knows to the unknown thugs lurking around.
Before anything too terrible can happen - like the awful wedding - Johnny Walker struts in as Biswajeet's older (and more charismatic) step-brother!
He plans a "British" wedding ceremony! But before Renu can go through with the self-arranged marriage twenty-five minutes in the film, she's kidnapped (!) by the other gang of criminals after the jewels. These guys are so high-tech that they try to hypnotize her into giving up the secret of the jewels in easily the best sequence of any 1960s masala spy film.
[When Shetty talks, people listen...]
"Ommmmm Shannnnnti Ooooooooommmmm!"
As Biswajeet and Johnny Walker try to "rescue" her (again), Renu has been given a sedative and slugs them both! A cheer rose up in my living room! Then we get an excellent drunk song - and, yes, I'm keeping a list of excellent drunken songs.
Renu asks a bunch of silly questions and the two guys keep telling her that they didn't make up the rules. Classic!
Now that Renu is free - for the moment - in glamorous Beirut (when was the last time you heard that?), she takes her chance to double-cross Biswajeet, whom she suspected was up to no good!
Zing! Having been tricked by a girl, Biswajeet skulks off for about 20 minutes.
He turns up again (for reasons I couldn't figure out) and ends up handcuffed to Renu (for some reason unknown to me) and THEN he tries to play it all like, "Renu, babe, you're a criminal...I'm a criminal...let's just be bad together." But Renu is having none of it and tells him her sob story, at which point Biswajeet senses an opening and uses reverse psychology to get Renu to trust him!
Then they sing a romancey song which features that adorable dress.
But he double-crosses her!! So, she double-crosses him back by using Johnny Walker!!
And then... Biswajeet double-crosses everybody... and there is a chase... and some other stuff and maybe he secretly was working for the police and.... and... I give up!
So, along with that totally and utterly pointless plot, there are some great jokes featuring Johnny Walker and a couple of fabulous item numbers!
"Night in London...." with Madhumati!
And one with the half-naked men and Helen...
And the one with Johnny Walker...
So, while the plot was extremely silly and Biswajeet is a real dud of a hero - I still highly recommend this for a couple of reasons - it's highly satisfying to watch Mala Sinha outsmart Biswajeet again and again and Johnny Walker is really funny! (Also, Helen is a total babe, as usual!)
The spunky and stylish Mala Sinha stars in Night in London, which belongs in the top tier of nonsensical 1960s masala fluff. Directed by Brij, Mala suffers the same disappearing fate that Saira Banu does in his later film Victoria No. 203 - apparently a Brij heroine can be a tough cookie until the last 20 minutes when cut-rate hero has to jump in to save the day. I'll give him this, though, thankfully Biswajeet is not as terrible as Navin Nischol AND he has the comedy relief stylings of one Mr. Johnny Walker to save us from total boredom when Biswajeet and his groovy red turtlenecks are on screen.
So, Night in London skips the extended set-up so beloved of certain individuals in the viewing audience of one in my living room this afternoon and heads right into deep masala plot nonsense. Mala Sinha plays a young lady by the name of Renu. Renu's father is kidnapped by some "Chinese" goons!
The head "Chinaman" tells her that he's kidnapped her father (!) and will kill him if she doesn't pose as a princess in order to steal a necklace from some British Lord in London. A necklace that her father's shop made 100 years ago and which contains - written on the back of the gems - a TOP SECRET formula for world destruction. And if she doesn't go along with their plans...
...her father will be impaled on these hot pokers of DOOM.
What else can a girl do? She goes along with it, gets the necklace, and is immediately set upon by ANOTHER gang of goons. Jeez! She's "rescued" by this sleeze in a red turtleneck (Biswajeet) who claims to love her and insists on getting married just twenty minutes into the film! Our girl is suspicious but prefers the devil she knows to the unknown thugs lurking around.
Before anything too terrible can happen - like the awful wedding - Johnny Walker struts in as Biswajeet's older (and more charismatic) step-brother!
He plans a "British" wedding ceremony! But before Renu can go through with the self-arranged marriage twenty-five minutes in the film, she's kidnapped (!) by the other gang of criminals after the jewels. These guys are so high-tech that they try to hypnotize her into giving up the secret of the jewels in easily the best sequence of any 1960s masala spy film.
[When Shetty talks, people listen...]
"Ommmmm Shannnnnti Ooooooooommmmm!"
As Biswajeet and Johnny Walker try to "rescue" her (again), Renu has been given a sedative and slugs them both! A cheer rose up in my living room! Then we get an excellent drunk song - and, yes, I'm keeping a list of excellent drunken songs.
Renu asks a bunch of silly questions and the two guys keep telling her that they didn't make up the rules. Classic!
Now that Renu is free - for the moment - in glamorous Beirut (when was the last time you heard that?), she takes her chance to double-cross Biswajeet, whom she suspected was up to no good!
Zing! Having been tricked by a girl, Biswajeet skulks off for about 20 minutes.
He turns up again (for reasons I couldn't figure out) and ends up handcuffed to Renu (for some reason unknown to me) and THEN he tries to play it all like, "Renu, babe, you're a criminal...I'm a criminal...let's just be bad together." But Renu is having none of it and tells him her sob story, at which point Biswajeet senses an opening and uses reverse psychology to get Renu to trust him!
Then they sing a romancey song which features that adorable dress.
But he double-crosses her!! So, she double-crosses him back by using Johnny Walker!!
And then... Biswajeet double-crosses everybody... and there is a chase... and some other stuff and maybe he secretly was working for the police and.... and... I give up!
So, along with that totally and utterly pointless plot, there are some great jokes featuring Johnny Walker and a couple of fabulous item numbers!
"Night in London...." with Madhumati!
And one with the half-naked men and Helen...
And the one with Johnny Walker...
So, while the plot was extremely silly and Biswajeet is a real dud of a hero - I still highly recommend this for a couple of reasons - it's highly satisfying to watch Mala Sinha outsmart Biswajeet again and again and Johnny Walker is really funny! (Also, Helen is a total babe, as usual!)
Posts
1 comment:
AAAAAAA I just heard about this movie and am pretty sure I absolutely have to see it! Sounds/looks most hilarious indeed.
Post a Comment