Tuesday 31 August 2010

Army (1996)

The last film in our Sridevipalooza is Army, one where Sridevi gets to kick some ass, as most of the readers of this blog will know i have a love for female ass kicking flicks, this one is not right up there with my favourites though. Also this is the only film where Sharukh and Sridevi ever worked together on as a jodi (couple), such was Sridevi's iconic status that every young 'un wanted to be paired opposite her, Sharukh finally got his wish in this one

Lovers and parents to be Geeta (Sridevi) and Arjun ( Sharukh Khan) are torn apart when Evil Tyrant Nagraj (Danny Denzongpa) murders Arjun



Geeta who's a lawyer tries getting Justice for her husband's death in the court of Justice but her allegations are dismissed and Nagraj walks away free, before leaving the court Geeta is sure to tell him know he'll die in no other hands but her's


Determined and hungry to avenge, she employs the help of 5 men kabir ( Mohnish Behl), Khan (Sudesh Berry), Kishan (Harish), Kartar ( Ravi Kishan) & Gavin (Ronit Roy) who have also suffered injustice (going by all the K's seems Geeta knew there was success in numerology)

i love the side profile shots her Army were repeatedly given

Together they all form army, they even have their own theme song and are eager to take Nagraj down (how very flattering to his ego isn't it, if i knew six people from various walks of life came to take me down, i'd be very flattered )


Nagraj definitely has to be one of the most fashion conscious villains, from the draping of fabrics in his attire


to his golden engraved cuffs


and snake cinched in belt


and pearl studs


he definitely oozes style

Look at his chair, you better be afraid, be very afraid

So will Geeta and her Army succeed in taking down Nagraj, watch Army if you dare to find out


Unlike othe female revenge sagas bollywood dished out like Phool Bane Angaray, Khoon Bhari Maang, kudrat ka kanoon, Nagin, Zakmi Aurat etc. Sridevi's character as Geeta is not central enough for my liking, the fact that she needed to employ 5 other army's to join her in her quest makes me feel Sridevi's star power had waned and not enough faith could be placed on her to carry the film on her shoulder's, unlike the women in the afore mentioned revenge sagas's, they carried the film on their padded shoulders a la Rekha in Khoon Bhari Maang.



I couldn't help but feel Army would have been A LOT more fantastic had it been made in the 80's when Sridevi was at her prime, and of course if the script and a whole other things were handled much better , still though if a gun toting Sridevi is your idea of entertainment or if you're a die hard Sridevi fan by all means check Army out


And as for Sita-ji she's definitely right about Srk being the best mouth bleeder in her post on Ram Jaane, it is indeed something he does better than any other actor, since you're collecting screencaps for a post on Sharukh bleeding from the mouth i've added this for you ;0)


Hmm, Mujhe khoon bahut accha lagta hai


Ok music from Anand Milind, highlights are the upbeat prison number 'De Taali', 'Achiku bachiku' a rip-off of Harry Belafonte's Banana Boat song, a cute love song 'dil mein kuch hone laga' my favourites though are 'teri meri dushmani' (Amaluu add this to your list of bad guy lair songs)


and the superb 'Main to hoon pagal' one of my all time favourite SRK numbers

Paisa Vasool rating: 4/10

A big thanks to all who contributed to my Sridevipalooza and to Amaluu who organized it, looks like Sridevi will be on a long holiday from this blog for a while ;0)

11 comments:

Sharmi Adhikary said...

I saw this film long time back and was very disappointed. SRK had an itsy role, Sridevi was past her prime and Harish was irksome. Have you seen Sadma? That is one great Sridevi flick :) Chamatkar is quite entertaining, too. It is the remake of Seeta aur Geeta.

Rum said...

Oooh this looks fun again for Danny being a super fly baddie! I just loved his style in Agneepath with all those blazers and flaunting his bod in a speedo! But here he seems to be getting his metrosexual fashion on with the very flattering belt and golden cuffs! This looks like a fun film to see Sridevi aiming guns at people and looking fierce too!

"THE BARD WHO DOESNT HAVE TO TRY TOO HARD" said...

Danny luks like more than a south indian zamindar ;)..else whn i watched it,found it kinda drag..but even now just luv d song "main to hu pagal munda..." :)

Nasir said...

Sharmi, it was Chalbaaz and not Chamatkar that was hashed from Seeta Aur Geeta which was inspired by Ram Aur Shyam. But I'm sure that word was a typo.

sunheriyaadein said...

I have only seen a part of it, so never knew what the movie was all about. Now that I know, I actually want to watch it, at least once.
I was pleasantly surprised to see Ravi Kissen here. I like SRK but he hardly has a role here. More than Sri Devi I would like to watch it for all these guys - the Army! And Danny, of course!
He's indeed very stylish.

kal ho na ho said...

I watched (Army) when I was 16 "only" two times :)
Actually I used to love Sridevi in comedy style with little drama Specially in Psychodramatic things such as what she did in hawa hawai *_0

in whole movie, I liked shahrukh's mustache.. also his emotional short part .. but I liked the (Mustache) more :)

not bad movie ..
but I didn't like it that much..


ودمتم

Anonymous said...

Haven't seen this one, but I remember seeing the posters when it was released. Sridevi looks rather striking in some of the screen caps you've put - frankly, I think she looks better in later films than in the very early ones. But then, very few women onscreen during the 80's could survive those frightful 'Western dresses' and awful hairstyles! ;-)

bollywooddeewana said...

@ Sharmi Thanks for recommending Sadma, truth is i haven't bought any dvds ina while hence i had to amke use of random Sri movies, Sadma is definitely on my list

@ Thanks for that tip off Rum Agneepath has been lying around waiting to be watched i'll get to it soon

@ The Bard You're reight the movie definitely drags on far too much and Main tu pagal is one of the best things about this film

@ Nasir Thanks for figuring that out

@ Sunehri Oh yes there's a lot of the guys in here,in fact they almost get more screen time tahn Sri herself

@ Kal ho na ho Thanks for stopping by and commenting, i didn't like it much as well and i wish Srk ahd a larger part to play

@ Dusted off Indeed surprisingly Sridevi seems to be looking better as she ages, surely it should be the other way round isn't it, hence why i've started referring to this mystery as 'The curious case of Sridevi' ;0)

Amaluu said...

Looks like Danny borrowed that throne from Cobra-ji in Jaani Dost, eh BollywoodDeewana? ;-)

Thanks so much for your contributions! They are AWESOME.

bollywooddeewana said...

Amaluu it does indeed look like it :0) thanks a lot for your kind words, it was a pleasure getting involved

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