Caravan has more than "Piya Tu Ap Tu Aja" to recommend it - like about 10 other awesome song picturizations, a plethora of spunky ladies, and a nice moral ending where Happiness is more important than Money.



The basic premise of the film is that Rajan is a jerk. He murder's Asha Parekh's father, convinces everyone around her that her grief is really maddness, and then smooth talks Asha into marrying him to fulfil her father's wishes all in the first 10 minutes of the film - he's a fast operator. When he takes Asha on their honeymoon, however, things start to go further south for our heroine. (Just wait and see how things get worse than the hair-don't she has in the first part of the movie. Grief = no visits to the salon with Sadhana to chit chat and get a permanent.) ( More Caravan excellence under here... )

There are two reasons to watch Caravan: wonderful song picturizations and a very charming Aruna Irani in a huge supporting role as a gypsy girl.



On her first meeting with Jeetendra, she threatens to stab him. *approves* Aruna's character has a nice development from selfish, immature brat to mature lady and plenty of wonderful dance numbers, including an excellent "drunk" number. ( Screeeeeencaps and more discussion under here! )

So, yes - if you love song picturizations and Aruna Irani like I love song picturizations and Aruna Irani please watch Caravan!

Before I get all swoony over Kishore Kumar and Madhubala and their tragic marriage, let me first complain about the shoddy quality of the DVD. It makes me so sad to see classics like Half Ticket treated so poorly. While American, European, and films from places like Japan get painstaking restoration, beloved Hindi films get poor sound quality, washed out (or seriously trippy - I'm looking at you colorized Mughal-e-Azam) pictures, and worst of all - MISSING REELS!

So, anyways, Half Ticket is the story of a rabble rousing younger son of a business tycoon who angers his father so much that his father wants to get him married off to calm him down! ( The plot is just an excuse for Kishore Kumar to run around and act silly! YES! )

In conclusion, Pran was really good looking as a young man.



Also, I want to see films like this treated better. There were a few missing reels on the DVD that ruined a number of joke set-ups. Even for just a timepass comedy, there were a number of wonderful scenes and plot threads - like Kishore Kumar's forcing the household help to go on strike and the Pran/Kishore duet dance number.

(And no mention of Half Ticket would be complete without the roller skating number.)

I started watching this last night, although I didn't have time to finish due to the fact that I had to make pasta salad for our office "Holiday Party" today. The big joke of the day, yesterday, at the office was that our boss just couldn't find anything vegetarian at CostCo when he went over the weekend. I was reminded of the time Michael Scott insisted on buying a mint chocolate chip ice cream cake for Meredith's birthday, despite the fact that she is allergic to dairy.

At least it wasn't as bad as my sister's holiday party, to which she and her office mate were not invited. Ha ha!

But, on to more exciting things, like about how I'm going to start watching every single movie of Manorama's.

(Here she is with Hema Malini.)


( Seeeeeta aur Geeeeeeta, but don't spoil me for the second half of the movie if you comment! Also, more pictures! )