Pyaar Kiya To Darna Kya

I've had Pyaar Kiya To Darna Kya to watch for some time, the poor film quality put me off for a while but I finally saw it tonight. I'm glad I persevered because although I'm not the biggest fan of Shammi Kapoor I thought this was generally a fine performance from him. The title was yet another cash-in of the famous song from Mughal-E-Azam.

The opening song by Shammi, Jab Tak Hum Hain, sets the scene – he's as vivacious as ever perched on the bonnet of the moving car driven by his friends. It's the usual fiendish plot of love thwarted and arranged across the vast social chasms: the main plot has Shammi playing rich Rajesh and B. Saroja Devi playing the poorer Savita and all the heartache this brings to their families and friends. There are further complications, some serious involving a man who'd got the hots for Savita and the hates for Rajesh and some slapstick involving another couple's affair, but I was mainly interested in the watching and listening to the lovely music and singing anyway. The songs were by Ravi and Shakeel Badayuni the singing by Rafi and Asha - especial favourite being the jaunty duet Mohabbat Ka Naghma Zubaan Par with a romantic backdrop. I've not seen many of her films and I don't know much about Saroja Devi, except she was the leading lady in over 150 consecutive movies in 30 years - some record! Shammi acted like Elvis as usual but in here looked more like the late Irish comedian Dave Allen, only stouter and more expressive. Self-sacrifice and denial are the watchwords, Savita's father says at one point "If he's proud of his wealth I'm proud of my poverty" and of course errors of judgement, jealousy, violence and redemption by many are the result. I thought the plot messy, the acting patchy, the sets excellent, and worth watching because the music and lyrics are beautiful.