Mere Apne- a review

Yesterday was the second death anniversary of one of my very favourite actors- Vinod Khanna. Which seemed reason enough to look up one of his earlier movies and fall for him all over again!

The film ‘Mere Apne’ released in 1971 and was Gulzar’s directorial debut (yeah, yeah, I’m a huge fan of Gulzar too, so deal with it). It also marked the first time that Vinod Khanna made the on-screen transition from villain to hero. I must mention that in all the films that he played the bad guy, I disliked the good guy and thought the heroine was a real wuss to have spurned him. Vinod Khanna was tall, dark and handsome, his performances had the brooding intensity that came through even in those ridiculous multi-starrers he acted in, and he walked with an easy, swaggering gait that no other actor possessed. (Oops, major fan girl moment there!)

Back to ‘Mere Apne’, which also starred Meena Kumari in her last role before she passed away 4 months later. She was said to be ailing then and it added even more depth to her performance as the widowed, lonely old ‘Buaji’ who was eking out her days in a ramshackle house, with only her memories to support her.

She is visited by a smarmy young man who claims to be a distant relative and whisks her off to the ‘sheher’ saying that he can’t let her live alone like this. What he actually wants is an uupaid ayah for his child, so he and wifey can go to work, eat out and generally have a life.

Buaji finds herself in a city and is bewildered by the changes she sees all around- women in short hair, dressed in trousers, working in offices,the unscrupulous manner in which her so-called relatives exploit her and the stray incidents of gang violence to which she is a horrified witness.

Enter Shyam (Vinod Khanna) leader of one of the groups, whose members are other educated but unemployed youths like himself. Their opponents are led by Chainnu (a scruffy and menacing Shatrughan Sinha) and his motley crew. Shyam befriends Buaji when she walks out of the house of her relatives, after being insulted and humiliated. He and his group kind of adopt her and call her ‘Nani Maa’ while she showers all her affection on them.

As in inevitable when there are unemployed, rebellious young men on the streets, the local politicians rope them in for election work. The rivalry and violence gets out of hand and in an ensuing street battle, Nani Maa is accidentally shot. The film ends with the battered and sorrowful youths being led away in a police jeep, while an ambulance takes away the body of their ‘Nani Maa’, the only person who had given them her unconditional love and acceptance.

I especially liked the young, smooth-faced Danny Denzongpa whose smile was so infectious that you wonder how and why he ended up as a villain in Bollywood. The film also stars comedians of the future- Paintal and Asrani, in roles that were anything but funny and you wonder again why they got slotted when they were capable of so much more.

My favourite part in the film (apart from ALL the scenes which have V.K in them) is the bond that forms between Nani Maa and these jobless youngsters, seething with suppressed anger and revolt. They listen to stories of her youth, laugh with her while she only ever sees the good in them and dotes on them. There’s one scene in which they are out campaigning in a jeep and shouting ‘Vote for …’ When she asks them what they are doing, they all stop and yell cheerfully ‘Vote for…Nani Maa’

V.K towers over them all (literally and figuratively). I mean, the guy looks hot even when he’s riding a cycle. ( Yikes, another fan girl moment). The song ‘Koi hota jisko apna’ is the story of his heartbreak and loneliness and that’s when you see the vulnerability behind the angsty exterior.

Because isn’t that something we all want- someone we can call our own?

कोई तो ग़म अपनाता
कोई तो साथी होता…
कोई होता जिसको अपना
हम अपना कह लेते यारों

कोई दिलासा होता
कोई तो अपना होता….