Now-a-days the Indians cinegoers have become habituated to see short movies (though long movies are still made). However a few decades back, contrary to Hollywood movies having a duration of one and a half hours or so, Indian cine-lovers wanted to watch movies consuming a duration of at least two and a half hours as they wanted to spend at least that much time in the theatre. That was the time when more than three hours long movies were also made in India and the great showman of Bollywood, Raj Kapoor had made even almost four hours long movies like Sangam (1964) and Mera Naam Joker (1970). But what could the script-writers do when the storyline was not that lengthy ? To fill the time gap and also to give some comic relief to the spectators during the tense drama of the story, a comedy side track was added to the script which hardly had anything to do with the main story. Specialist comedians were there in Bollywood who used to play the roles involved in that track and comic situations were created to make the audience laugh. Such track used to run parallelly to the main track. While watching certain old Bollywood movies, I found that the comedy side track in the concerned movie was even lengthier than the main track and the comedian (or the comedians) got more footage than the main leads. I found this phenomena as undesirable and irksome but the thing is that the audience of that period enjoyed it. Mehmood was the star comedian of Bollywood movies during the sixties and I happened to watch a movie in which his comic track has been given more footage than the main story. This movie is Humjoli (1970).
Humjoli (friend or companion of the same age group) is a fun movie. It is the story of Pran who loves Shashikala but marries Poornima for the sake of her father's wealth. After the death of his father-in-law, he discards Poornima and her baby and with the understanding that they are dead, marries Shashikala. However when his baby daughter survives and is brought to him, he arranges her fostering and education by keeping her separate from him and leads his life with Shashikala. However being a loving father, he keeps on meeting his daughter from time to time as she grows-up and studies in boarding. She is Leena Chandavarkar. Once her education is complete and she expresses her desire to live with her father, he gives her the job of his secretary in his office. She come across Jeetendra who is the brother of Aruna Irani, her roommate and friend during her boarding days. A spat with their father forces Jeetendra and Aruna Irani to leave their parental house. They come across Mehmood who befriends Jeetendra and falls in love with Aruna Irani. Jeetendra and Mehmood too get jobs in Pran's office (courtesy his daughter Leena Chandavarkar). Jeetendra marries his sister off to Mehmood who lives with his father and grandpa (both these roles too have been performed by Mehmood himself). A wicked relative of Shashikala, Manmohan comes to live with herself and her husband (Pran) and starts working in the same office. He wants to marry Leena but as she is romantically involved with Jeetendra, she tells her father that she won't marry anybody else. Manmohan gets a blackmailing tool when he comes to know that Pran was responsible for his first wife's death and pressurizes Pran on that basis to marry Leena with him. As usual, everything is set right in the end. Side-by-side this story, a comic track also runs involving Mehmood, Aruna Irani and an actress (her name is given in Imdb as Geeta Banker) titled as Lily in the movie.
I fail to understand why this movie has been titled as Humjoli. May be because of the camaraderie of Jeetendra and Mehmood as they are (alongside Leena and Aruna) really the Humjoli or friends in the movie. Else, the title has nothing to do with the story of the movie.
Though renowned story writer of Bollywood during the fifties and the sixties, Pandit Mukhram Sharma has penned the story of Humjoli, he could not write a script of proper length to meet the norm of making at least a two and a half hours long movie. Hence Mehmood's track has been inserted into the story. He has been given a triple role and he has got more footage than the hero and the heroine of the movie. In the role of playing his father, he has copied Raj Kapoor's mannerism. Routine songs and dances are also there in this movie to entertain the audience and fill the time duration. It's a fun movie despite the story appearing to be a dramatic one on paper.
Laxmikant Pyarelaal have composed good music for the movie. Art direction, cinematography and background music are also good. Actors have performed routinely. Mainly the movie rests on Mehmood's shoulders who has got ample support from Aruna Irani and Geeta Banker (!).
For today's generation, it may be difficult to sit through this movie because of the dated story and the comic side track which overstays its welcome. But those who are fond of watching golden oldies and fun movies will find this movie as an entertaining one.
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