Mithun Da Day!

I whiled away part of my Saturday engrossed in my latest book purchase (Nightmare USA: The Untold Story of the Exploitation Independents, which weighs about twenty pounds, and discusses low-budget horror films in encylopedic but hilarious detail, including some familiar obscurities like Death Bed and Let's Scare Jessica to Death, and some truly obscure obscurities, like a disco Dracula's daughter film called Nocturna. I'll be hitting eBay later).

And speaking of disco, the other occupation for my lazy Saturday was finally watching the Mithun Chakraborty song compilation Everybody Dance With Jimmy. The first important factoid is that it contains no songs from Disco Dancer. I don't know if there was a rights issue, or if it just reflects the fact that DD is a Mithun's Greatest Hits collection all by itself. The other factoid is that about a half dozen of the fifty songs don't have any music (which meant I got it super-cheap, and I figure someday I'll watch those songs with some random Bappi music playing on the stereo, and it'll all be good).

For your edification, here are the top craziest numbers of on the DVD:

The fourth craziest is "Naa Main Hoon Tera" from Wardat. This would be a pretty standard love duet frolic among the mountaintops, except for the fact that the lovers appear to be tripping. Not only is there a great deal of stumbling around, but there are a lot of "psychedelic" color effects, which generally means one thing. I haven't seen the movie yet, but Memsaab has described it very delightfully here, thankfully cluing me in to the presence of "aphrodisiac-infested rice." Well, thank goodness there's an explanation!

The third strangest song, which I can only hope makes more sense in context, is "Pehle Rock and Roll," from a movie called Main Balwan. Needless to say, this went straight to the top of my Netflix queue. (There's another song on the disc where Mithun seems to be enticing a group of nuns into a dance-off, so that's also a selling point). Netflix makes it sound like a very straightforward crime drama, with Mithun as an "upstanding Inspector," but it wouldn't be the first time their descriptions were completely misleading. Based on this clip, I suspect he's the cop investigating the crimes that took place in mid-80s Michael Jackson videos. Between all the gang members in "Beat It" and "Bad," that must have kept him busy.

The second weirdest is "Wanted Koi Ludera" from Wanted. There are some movie clips available on YouTube, but tragically, none of this song, which seems to be taking place in India's most popular cowboy disco. A girl in shiny boots gyrates to a disco tune, in front of a disco ball, for an appreciative crowd of cowboys in a Wild West-looking Saloon. Eventually Mithun bursts through the swinging doors, drinks some whiskey, smokes a cigar, and generally looks like the sullen, unshaven Sheriff in town. Then Shammi Kapoor walks in, sits down, and the two trade meaningful looks. All while Shammi is apparently nibbling a large root vegetable of some kind. Fortunately, Nehaflix has this, so there may be eventual updates.

And finally, the craziest song on the DVD, and that's frankly saying a lot: "Aankhon Se Peele 362436," from the movie Roti Kee Keemat. It is not often that I am rendered speechless, but this'll do it!

The movie is described thusly on the IMDB: "This is the story of Shankur, a kind generous man who's path in life is to help those who are less fortunate and need food...Will Shankur ever fulfill his dreams of ridding his town of child hunger?" If you can square that plotline with the sight of Mithun beaming in spangly Mae West drag .... I don't even know how to finish this sentence.

Possibly the best $3 I ever spent!