Gumnaam

HOW could anyone not love GUMNAAM? The most sensational dance number ever to open a serial killer movie "Jan Pennechaan Ho" and the fabulous Glomesh Ganesh in a gold Lame dress, Zorro boys and India's answer to Little Richard kick start GUMNAAM off to a musical start start unmatched in movie history. There even seems to be the wives and aunties of the producers as chorus girls, all out of step in their purple frilly dresses - and Zorro masks. Not even the superb 1955 plaster nightclub decor (made in 1965) or the (laughing bird) Kookaburra sounds (often heard in Tarzan films) clutter this most exuberant of nightclub dance numbers. The lead singer even throws himself on the floor and convulses - all in tune! The "Anything Goes" opening of INDIANA JONES TEMPLE OF DOOM can't even match this for 'out of your seat' shocko bizarro, because from then on GUMNAAM busies itself with a literally 'and then there were none' plot. There is a haunted mansion, ghosts and nooses from nowhere. The Mantan Moreland style kitchen hand Mamood, has the other major dance number, a tiki-himialyan Esther Williams inspired heavenly fantasy of meeting dancing virgins atop a spearmint plaster stairway held up with dancing plaster fish. All to tikka tikka boo bongo music Just beyond belief. What about the Two drunk girls who decide to sing about how funny it is to be drunk in a haunted house with a killer on the loose! Imagine THE GIRL CAN'T HELP IT meets 'TEN LITTLE INDIANS' via MURDER ON THE ORIENT-NILE-GANGES and you might get slightly close. Find GUMNAAM. Show it to all your friends. IF only Hollywood was this much fun. Well it was, once wasn't it. This gets a 10 out of 10 just for the two dance numbers alone. The other 145 minutes are a bonus.

The movie starts out simple enough. A man stands at a balcony and smokes a cigarette while watching a drunk man (coming out of a nightclub/bar) getting run over with a car. This is all intentional. The man on the balcony goes inside, pays someone for the death of the man on the street and then proceeds to call a whole bunch of people to let them know the man has died. In the middle of the phone call to the dead man's niece, a strange man in a trench coat, hat and gloves comes in and shoots the man.

After this we get the most famous scene of this movie : the dance scene that was shown in Ghost World. Its a crazy 60's rock n' roll dance number, complete with a girl dressed in a gold dress with frills, male dancers dressed in black suits with white frill shirts, female backup dancers in pink dresses with frills and a lounge singer dressed in a white suit with black tie. They are all wearing black masks. The song is quite catchy and makes you wanna get up and dance (or if you prefer, dance in your seat).

After the dance number (for the silver anniversary of the club), seven people are "randomly" chosen to go on an exclusive holiday abroad. On the way to the location, the plane has to land for repairs (it lands in the middle of a field somewhere). When the plane unexpectedly leaves, the seven "castaways" (8 if you count the Ray Romano looking steward) look around. They discover a mansion in the middle of nowhere, where a butler/cook awaits their arrival (and knows all theirs names except for the steward).

I would classify this movie as a Bollywood version of an Agatha Christie type suspense mystery. In typical Bollywood fashion this would include several dance and musical numbers. This is a very enjoyable twist on the whole mystery genre. It is true that the music and dancing does distract one from the mystery and reduces the tension. At the same time, I was enjoying the dance/musical numbers too much too care. By far my favorite dance/musical number (other than the opening one) would be the drunken singing scene between Miss Kitty and Nanda. I also loved the product placement of the movie. It is quite evident how much "Hollywood" items are used as items of social stature in other cultures. For example, the Cool cigarettes and the Long John whiskey. It is also quite comical to witness the amount of tobacco smoked in this movie (several black lung's worth). This is a very enjoyable movie and the 180 minutes rush by. I highly recommend this movie.

-Celluloid Rehab

Interested in all things related to Ghost World after seeing that great unhyped movie last summer, I recently stumbled across Gumnaam which was available via Indiaweekly.com at a very reasonable price. It arrived yesterday, and I had intended to pop it in the DVD player just to check it out for a minute or two -- instead I was drawn in, and watched the entire 2 1/2 hours straight through.

This colorful movie is basically a routine thriller in which each member of a group of strangers is mysteriously murdered, one after another, until we find out who is ultimately responsible and why. What makes this movie stand out are the very unusual musical numbers, especially the first one entitled "Jaan Pehechaan Ho" which was featured prominently in the opening sequence of Ghost World. I can't recommend this movie overall, but that one particular bizarre Sixties Hindu rock dance number is worthy of praise. Thank you, Ghost World!

About ten years ago, my brother and I were sick with the flu and surfing the endless satalite channels when we came across this movie and could not change the channel. We laughed all day and days to come: imitating the dance with the masked men and the lady in the obnoxious gold dress. And I was laughing again when I saw it again a few months ago in Ghost World. You think the abstract direction of the sixties was bazaare and silly- check out what was going on in India.

Gumnaam review :

Loosely inspired from Agatha Christie's novel 'And Then There Were None', Raja Nawathe's Gumnaam was a well executed suspense thriller with right blend of other bollywood elements like comedy and songs. A group of people are stranded on an island and discover a mansion there which has a comic butler (Mehmood) who is already aware about them. One by one, the guys are bumped off and they keep suspecting each other till only two remain...

Manoj Kumar played an air purser who gets stranded with this ill fated group. Nanda as his love interest is supposedly the film's heroine but the lady who stole the show was Helen looking drop dead gorgeous as Kitty who quite a few men take fancy to. Note her sizzling 'Kitty Kelly' song on the beach. Pran was great as her alcoholic suitor while Manmohan was his usual slimy self.

Gumnaam is more famous for Shankar Jaikishen's music particularly the 'Hum Kaale Hain Toh Kya Hua Dilwale Hain' picturised on the legendary Mehmood Saahab in his Hyderabadi avatar. Mehmood literally owned the character with his typical mannerisms and it became a rage so much than even Amitabh Bachchan emulated it in Manmohan Desai's Desh Premee (1982). No doubt, Mehmood hogged the limelight in every scene he appeared and there were rumors that lead actor Manoj Kumar was not too happy with it and even tried convincing Raja Nawathe to delete the "Hum Kaale hain.." song from the film..

Another super hit song by Shankar Jaikishen 'Jaan Pehchaan Ho Jeena Aasan Ho" is my personal favorite despite its Beatles hangover.

Interestingly, the films climax makes use of Russian roulette game a decade before Salim Javed immortalized it in Sholay (1975).

Gumnaam makes for a good one time watch with family. Incidentally, I saw it first with my parivaar in mid 80s on DD National. The film still retains its charm like before..

Regards, Sumeet Nadkarni