Showing posts with label zeenat aman. Show all posts
Showing posts with label zeenat aman. Show all posts

Friday 6 September 2019

Before ‘Hare Rama Hare Krishna’, Dev Anand and Zeenat Aman actually appeared together in a Hollywood Film


The die-hard fans of the Evergreen Dev Anand might know about this rare fact but for many young friends here,that Dev Anand also featured in an American film along with Zeenat Aman and Kieu Chinh, a leading lady from Vietnem in the year 1970. In fact, Zeenat Aman was signed for ‘Hare Rama Hare Krishna’ 1971), after Dev Anand chose her to feature in this English film as one of his leading ladies. So before the cult movie ‘Hare Rama Hare Krishna’, Dev Anand and Zeenat Aman actually appeared together on the screen in this Hollywood venture "The Evil Within".

The full movie is uploaded in this blog,you can watch this movie by visiting my blog.
The movie’s cast and crew includes several other familiar Indian faces, including Prem Nath, Iftekhar, MB Shetty and even Jagdish Raaj. Renowned cinematographer Fali Mistry, who lensed such Indian classics as ‘Amrapali’, ‘Nagin’ and ‘Guide’, shot ‘The Evil Within’.

Dev Anand plays special agent Dev Varma, who teams up with Rod Stevens (American actor Rod Perry) to finish off an opium syndicate. In the opening scenes, an assassin called Fat Man (enthusiastically played by Allen Fitzpatrick) slays the enemies of the syndicate’s head, the grandly named Princess Kamar Souria, played by Vietnamese actress Kieu Chinh.
Other gang members, especially Hanif (played by Iftekhar), want to wrest control from the princess. The roster of shady characters includes the India-hating Rita (Zeenat Aman), who is on Hanif’s payroll, and who is the daughter of a judge named Krishna (Prem Nath).
Karan Johar’s father, Yash Johar, who later set up Dharma Productions, served as a production controller for The Evil Within.The Cinematography was done by Fali Mistry who was the cinematographer of Guide and many Navketan's films.Major portions of the movie were shot in and around Udaipur
The film is not released in India,it was dubbed in phlilpino got released in Philippines
Below I  am giving the Link for this movie

https://youtu.be/vJCfjGqfUas

Sunday 10 March 2019

How the film Hare Rama Hare Krishna was Concieved ?


Hare Rama Hare Krishna is a 1971 Indian film directed by Dev Anand starring himself, Mumtaz and Zeenat Aman. The film was a hit and a star-making vehicle for Zeenat Aman, who played a westernized hippie and won the Filmfare Best Supporting Actress Award, The movie dealt with the decadence of the Hippie culture. 
The story for Hare Rama Hare Krishna actually came to Dev Anand's mind when he was in Kathmandu Nepal on a visit after protests against his previous film Prem Pujari in Calcutta. He was low in spirits because his film had been opposed and some communists had burnt Prem Pujari's posters.
Those days society was undergoing changes, the churning encompassing all, rich and poor, old and youth, boys and girls. The hippie culture had made inroads and the drug culture had grown into a huge menace. In Nepal, many such young people from all over the world used to come as drugs were easily available there.
The story idea was born out of a chance encounter Dev Anand had with an Indian girl puffing a Chilam. She was born in Canada whose name was Janice, the original name was Jasbeer Kaur. She was among a group of young foreigners.  She narrated her story, which laid the foundation for the making of HRHK, a subject that he described in his autobiography as a “movie that represents a new world phenomenon, the young, reckless people.” Young and reckless was how the jean-clad and pot-smoking youth had come to be signified in a still-growing but conservative Indian society.
The most compelling of all characters in the film was, obviously, Janice/Jasbir, certainly, because someone like her had not been too commonly seen on Indian screens. At a time when actresses were either gold-hearted or vamps, Janice was a refreshing change. It’s difficult to think of too many women characters before Janice that asked the audience to ‘Dum Maro Dum’ (Smoke up).
Dev Anand was keen that Mumtaz played his sister’s role in HRHK but she declined, preferring the romantic lady. Mumtaz did not want to play the role of Dev Anand's sister and insisted she play the role opposite Dev Anand. Everyone kept telling her that the film was about a brother and sister. Zeenat ended up with the better role causing Mumtaz to be bitter.
His first meeting with Zeenat, at a party hosted by filmmaker Amarjeet, was momentous. As Zeenat smoked and displayed a “devil-may-care attitude” in the presence of Dev Saab, he was convinced she would be his “sister”. Dev auditioned Zeenat Aman for the role and the rest is history. A star was born as Zeenat slipped into the role with the finesse of a seasoned actor.

 Dev Anand wrote in his biography, Zeenat was comfortable in the company of the “real” hippies, who played their role so well in different shots in HRHK, living their self when swinging and dancing, with Zeenat as the cheerleader.
Dev Anand wanted his children Suneil and Devina to play the younger roles of Prashant and Janice. They were too shy and told their father they were not going to do that.
One interesting thing is that the title Hare Rama Hare Krishna was patented by Manoj Kumar, Dev Saab wanted this title only, so Manoj Kumar gave him. Another interesting thing for the readers is that Usha Uthup was to sing the song Dum Maaro Dum but lost it due to political reasons. She ended up singing in the chorus.
This film was the second film Dev Anand had directed and it was a big hit and 48 years now since released and the film still is wanted forever. It's an evergreen movie.


Song of Hare Rama Hare Krishna 1971



Song of Hare Rama Hare Krishna 1971



Song of Hare Rama Hare Krishna 1971



Song of Hare Rama Hare Krishna 1971



Song of Hare Rama Hare Krishna 1971


Song of Hare Rama Hare Krishna 1971



Song of Hare Rama Hare Krishna 1971