Random Movies I Like: 100 Days

I just love when Hindi films give 'scientific' gyan!
For example, in Mr India, when Ashok Kumar is explaining the 'Theory of Invisibility' to his class, the blackboard behind says Boney's Law. What a cool tribute to the the producer of the film! Or in Ramsay Bros films when they explain the cause behind most chudails, the Theory of Unrequited Love almost sounds as scientific as Bernoulli's Theorem!

And 100 Days, which was about ESP - extra sensory perception - had lots of such gyan.

It was directed by one gentleman by the name of Partho Ghosh. True to his name, agey parto kintu ekhon parey na! Bongs, stop laughing! Rest of you, excuse the joke since it can't be translated.

He made landmark films like Agnisakshi (the n-th remake of Sleeping with the Enemy, starring Manisha Koirala, Nana Patekar and Jackie Shroff), Dalaal (one of Mithun's earliest super-duper successes of the 90s, which started the trend of double-meaning lyrics), Teesra Kaun (a murder mystery starring Mithun and Rituparna Sengupta) and Geet (Divya Bharti's last - and posthmous - release).

Anyway, to get back to 100 Days - it was about Madhuri Dixit who had ESP. She also had a sister by way of Moonmoon Sen but the opening sequence had Ms Sen killed, dragged and sealed in a brick wall. She, being the second person to meet this fate after Anarkali.

Madhuri Dixit gets visions of the door, the wall and the wall-hanging (where her sister was being sealed) in her ESP-fuelled stupor (much more hallucinatory than LSD-fuelled ones!) but pressing matters like singing songs with Javed Jafferi beckon and all is forgotten.

Very soon, Jackie Shroff - in floral shirts, with moustache-sealed dialogues - appears on the scene and after romantic interludes involving conches, hammocks and SP Balasubrahmanyam, they get married.

In the ensuing 3-months-10-days that pass, Madhuri realises that Jackie Shroff's moustache is not the only complicated thing in his life and gets flashes of ESP-powered hallucinations. Just when it was becoming apparent that Jackies may have been her sister's murderer, a convenient ESP-burst and a violent villain appear and all is settled in a suitably ceremonial ending.

Why do I like this movie? Several reasons.

* It had SP Bala singing in a Punjabi accent. After the super-success of Maine Pyar Kiya, SPB was the King of Bollywood and he aimed to please. The same Tamil twang which sounded so natural on a Goanese fisherman (as long as it was played by Kamal Haasan on screen) was now replaced by a Bhangra roll. Who can forget the song which ruled Superhit Muqabla in those days... Sun belliaaaaaaaaa, Shukkkhhhriyaa, Meherbaaaaaaannne / Thoo kahein toh naam they-rey, khar dhoon saari jawaaaaaaani...

* Moonmoon Sen had a 5-minute role, in which her (bare) legs were the only thing visible for 4 minutes. Her 'friendly appearance' had her blow-drying her hair in a camisole, get shot dead and then we only got to see her legs as the brutal killer dragged her away. Full timepass!

* Apart from ESP, Madhuri Dixit had bad skin, bad hair and super-jhataak sarees. But when she smiled, she made every paisa of the ticket worth it.

Damn, that reminds me... I must catch that dance show she is supposed to be judging.

* Jackie Shroff's moustache started looking like Hercule Poirot's and somehow in that, all the dialogues got lost. The strength of the screenplay was that nobody lost track of the story despite this audio loss.

* One of the most durable villains I have ever seen in Bollywood. He looked exactly like the main zombie from Michael Jackson's Thriller. He chewed up lit cigarettes, went from bearded to skin-headed, thrown off the top diving board of a swimming pool, was run over by a car, was stabbed, was shot at, was made to listen to the full soundtrack of Radio before he died.

Unfortunately, he did not last beyond that one film!

* And a song which - a brilliantly inspired non sequitur by the lyricist - made fun of people who get scared easily. Gabbar Singh yeh keh kar gaya / Jo dar gaya woh mar gaya / Nadaan bachcha hansi khel mein / Kaudi ghazab ki dekar gaya...