Gumnaam (1965)

Eight people are trapped on an island when their plane abandons them. They find a large mansion whose butler is expecting them. Then one by one, they die...

Director:

Raja Nawathe

Writers:

Dhruva Chatterjee (screenplay), Charandas Shokh (dialogue)

Stars:

Nanda, Manoj Kumar, Pran

1 win & 2 nominations.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Nanda	...	Asha
Manoj Kumar	...	Anand (as Manoj)
Pran	...	Barrister Rakesh
Helen	...	Miss Kitty
Mehmood	...	The Butler
Dhumal	...	Mister Dharamdas
Madan Puri	...	Dr. Acharya
Tarun Bose	...	Madhusudan Sharma
Manmohan	...	Mr. Kishan
Naina
Laxmi Chhaya	...	Masked Dancer

Storyline

At a night club 7 seven people win a lucky draw where the get an holiday package.The plane they are traveling develops a snag and makes emergency landing in the jungle.The plane dumps luggage of all the members including a co pilot and flies back leaving everyone stranded in the jungle.While trying to make way out of the jungle they hear a female singing mysteriously .The members follow the voice and reach a mansion where the butler welcomes them saying he was waiting fro them.He hands over a letter to them which says that they were all part of a crime and one by one will be killed.

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Plot Keywords:

island | mansion | mysterious woman | serial killer | corpse | 

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Genres:

Drama | Mystery | Thriller | Musical

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

India

Language:

Hindi

Release Date:

6 February 1965 (India)

Also Known As:

Мистерия

Filming Locations:

K. Asif Studios, Andheri, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

Company Credits

Production Co:

Prithvi Pictures

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The Titty Twister Orchestra did a cover version of Jaan Pehchan Ho.

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Goofs

When the Butler writes on the chalkboard in the kitchen, the writing repeatedly changes between shots.

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Connections

Spoofed in Housefull (2010)

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Soundtracks

Gumnaam Hai Koi
Lyrics by Hasrat Jaipuri
Music by Shankarsingh Raghuwanshi and Jaikishan Dayabhai Panchal (as Shanker and Jaikishan)
Sung by Lata Mangeshkar

User Reviews

A musical thriller...only in Bollywood!

It's rather unusual seeing a Bollywood musical that features a thriller story in it. On the one hand it's also a real ridicules movies but it does work out in its own kind of way. It manages to create a likable, light, atmosphere, with a mystery story weaved into it, that keeps things going at all time.

I'm not even a big fan of 'normal' musical, let alone Bollywood musicals. However the songs in this movie are actually quite good to listen to and besides, some of them actually do serve a purpose for the movie its story.

It's a movie with a pretty good premise in it, that I'm sure some big Hollywood producers would had been jealous off. Thriller and mystery wise it really is a great concept, even though the movie really always doesn't put that much emphasize on its thriller and mystery elements.

Also in the end, the story itself really doesn't make much sense. It leaves far too many questions and the concept suddenly actually seems pretty far fetched. Besides, even though this is a mystery movie, I can't really say that the movie has lots of surprises in it. It was pretty obvious who the killer was from the start on, due to the incredible unconvincing 'disguise' that he is wearing. The only mystery of the movie is why the other characters in this didn't noticed this.

It's also quite ridicules how all of the characters aren't busy trying to find the killer, even though they know the are all going to get killed one by one, or try to find a way of the island. No. they are all just to busy swimming, eating, falling in love and singing and dancing to songs. But when you watch a Bollywood movie you know that you have to take all these things for granted. I did just that and was quite taken by the overall movie experience.

Once you surrender yourself to this movie, you'll find it a quite pleasant movie experience. Its basically a great mixture of some cheerful fun and a bit of a darker story. But did it really needed to be so long? None of these Bollywood movies should be so long really but that is what happens when you show a reaction shot of every character every time that something happened. And there are 9 main characters in this movies...

Yes, it really is a quite clumsily made movie at times, with its directing, camera-work and editing but also this does quite often add to the charm and movie experience of this movie. So even the bad things about this movie can work out as something positive, which says something about the effective this movie has on you while you are watching it. I think it's fair to say that you really don't have to be into Bollywood movies to watch and enjoy this one.

It's also a movie that uses some nice settings. It's in no way a cheap looking movie, with fake looking sets in it, even though the movie probably didn't cost an awful lot to make. It shows that is pays off to shoot your movie mostly on location, rather than somewhere on the back of a studio lot.

Despite of all my criticism, I really did surprisingly enjoy this movie!

8/10

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