Because I'm dimwitted and half asleep today, it's possible that Beth did *not* want to see Govinda in his day-glo orange suit. It's possible she wanted a Crappy Screen Cap (TM) of the booties Sanjay Dutt was wearing:
I mean, both he and Govinda wear those stupid, loose, sleeveless shirt things that look good on Absolutely, Definitively No One on Earth, but at least Sanjay Dutt is wearing jeans and a leather jacket and cool goggles, as befits his cool police dude look.
But those booties? Gack. I wondered if the cuffs were separate at first, but I don't think they are, because we all wore those things back in the day. Okay, not me. I knew they were stupid. It was hard enough being a geek back then, I didn't need booties to make things worse.
I'm going to be averting my eyes for much of the film, because I bet at some point Govinda is going to be wearing white shoes (along with his pants that are A. too tight and B. too high waisted and C. leather or D. maybe plether. E. The mind, as well as the eye, boggles).
You know, I'd always meant to take a look at the David Dhawan/Govinda filmography, but I figured I'd do it *after* the SRK series, and *after* looking at the entire Govinda filmography.
But it had completely slipped my mind that this year represents 20 years they've been working together, through 18 films (if you count the upcoming release "Do Knot Disturb").
So I figured, it's time to seize that moment. I've been doing some research, made a list of the films, seen who has what (and it looks like only 2 of the 18 are without subtitles, thank goodness) and today, because I'm procrastinating about a few things, I decided to poke around on the YouTubes just to get a feel for things.
I started watching "Taaqatwar", the first film they did together (yes, bad podcaster, watching illegal video, but rest assured, I will be ordering the DVD for *all* the films I don't currently own), and I can't believe that no one has actually put up a clip of the first song that Govinda appears in.
We've just been introduced to his character, John Di Mello, who seems to be a bit of a petty thief, a self-styled "ding dong walla". Please someone put me out of my misery and explain that, willya?
Note: the YouTube version has no subtitles, so I'm relying on my limited understanding of Hindi and my greater understanding of storytelling to follow this.
But he's wandering around after just getting out of jail, he goes to a hotel, he flashes some money (and that winning smile) at the desk clerk, she asks his name, he asks her to guess...
and -- I love this -- she guesses, "Tony" and "Anthony" and "Macaroni". I'm amazed she didn't say Gino (see my previous Ode to Govinda post for this).
"No!" he sings. Well, the playback singer sings. "No! Not Tony or Anthony or Macaroni!"
Then follows a little yodelling (I'm not kidding), she asks, "Then who are you?"
And then this:
I swear. He comes out of the drum to the words, "I'm John Di Mella". Much gyrating and hip-thrusting ensues. Now, Saroj Khan is listed as one of the dance directors for the film, so you know, I'm wondering, is this her handiwork?
Fortunately, shortly after this he meets Neelam, and they are so absolutely, completely, and utterly adorable together that I can almost forget that image of the orange striped suit burned into my retinas.
The only thing worse? The costumes the two dancers with him are wearing. And the more I think about it, the more I think this character is inspired by Anthony Gonsalves, and the jumping out of a drum at a Christmas party (yes, Father Christmas makes an appearance) is an homage to "My Name is Anthony Gonsalves" from "Amar, Akbar, Anthony".
BTW? You can thank Beth for this post. I tweeted about this, and she insisted on seeing pictures. But seriously, I can't wait to start ordering the DVDs, because I am going to have So Much Freaking Fun with David Dhawan and Govinda.
Edited to add: I found it! Of course, I was spelling it incorrectly! The clip, in all its mind-bending glory:
In January of 2009, Newsweek magazine included Shahrukh Khan as one of 50 people on its list of the Global Elite, the only actor to make the list. I mean, I love him, and I know lots of Bollywood fans who do, too, but his inclusion in the list made me curious, and that got me thinking.
Which led to the start of what will be a recurring series on the podcast: Riding With The King (of Bollywood). I'm going to watch every one of his films (okay, there are a few I can't find yet, but I'll get to most of them) and I'm going to try to figure out at the very least how I went from someone who rather likes him to someone who won't miss a single film he's in.
Special Thanks:
This episode wouldn't be what it is without the participation of three people:
First, John Meadows of the On The Log podcast, who not only offers up moral support for the podcast on a regular basis, he also contributes enthusiastically to it, as he did for this episode. I'm starting to think of him as Totally Filmi's MacGyver, the guy who, when I need something a little different, is prepared to MacGyver it.
Bruce Murray of The Zedcast and The Running Shoe podcast. Think of him as the SRK of the podcasting world. I am honoured he agreed to be part of this episode.
Finally, my Tech Guy. He never speaks, he never takes off his helmet, but the podcast wouldn't be what it is without him. Think of him as the Stig.
So. I've been doing some research for future episodes of the podcast. Amongst the things I want to do at some point is a series on the films of Govinda.
Wait! Don't leave yet! I promise, it's not what you think!
Okay, maybe it is what you think. I know, I know, Govinda. What can I say?
Well, not much, because I don't really understand it myself. So I thought, okay, what I'll do, I'll watch Govinda's films from the very beginning and see if I can figure out why I have this huge crush on him.
Which, you know, is proving rather more difficult than I thought it was going to be, because I'm finding it really hard finding the films, especially the earlier ones.
But something happened last night that gave me a first glimpse into what all this was about. I was poking around on the YouTubes, and found a short clip from the 1988 film "Shiva Shakti", a film I can tell you nothing about, because I couldn't find one thing out about it.
(I take this as a sign that someone should be writing a definitive guide to Govinda's films. But with what's coming next in this post, I also think the signs are all pointing in my direction. I wish. But I digress -- back to the post.)
It's pretty clear to me that 80s Govinda is the reason I developed a crush on him. Because 80s Govinda? Is totally like a guy from my neighbourhood that I would have dated in the 1980s. I mean, look at this picture: cute hair, cute smile (okay you can't see that from the crappy screen cap, but it's a YouTube clip, quality screen caps are not on the menu), tight pants, great jacket:
Note the Canadian Flags on the right arm. See? Govinda is So Totally a guy from my neighbourhood. Okay, okay, in my neighbourhood he would have had some gold chains around his neck, and his name would have been Tony or Gino (seriously -- tho' the Gino I'm thinking of wore a red jacket and had much bigger hair), but. Cute? Cute?
If that weren't enough to make me go squee!, then the camera panned around to show this:
Hello! Squee! Squee!
But wait! There's more!
Captain! 99! GOVINDA IS WEARING A FREAKING GRETZKY JACKET!
(You know, I went and looked up Gretzky's bio on Wikipedia, just to see if there was some piece of trivia I could use to make some kind of conclusion here, and darned if I didn't find out that Gretzky was a judge on something called "Dance Fever", which Wikipedia assures me "was a syndicated musical variety series in which three celebrities judged amateur dancers to hottest disco hits of the day". Disco. Disco.)
Govinda -- Gretzky -- Disco
So, you know I've just got to post this clip, now, right? (No, it's not from "Shiva Shakti", it's from 1987's "Mera Lahoo"):
We love you, Govinda. Of course, when I write "we", I mean "me", because I know the rest of you out there are thinking WTF?
But seriously -- don't you think a guy who survived that costume and those boots deserves a definitive guide to his films?
"Akh Mastani"
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