The Mighty Ping-pong
This is probably something you have seen but not noticed. In Seeta Aur Geeta (1972), Hema Malini’s Geeta (a runaway street acrobat) takes on the evil Ranjeet with a ping-pong racket. What is actually spell-binding is the number of times she bounces the ball on it, without dropping it even once, all the while mouthing fiery dialogues, walking around Ranjeet, eyes flashing anger and loathing. At last count, she had bounced the ball 17 times at a stretch.
And then, of course, there was that entirely fake roller-skating with Sanjeev Kapoor in ‘Hawa ke saath saath’.
But let’s focus on the better things, like the time she was actually sitting on a ceiling fan.
Two-wheel Tricks
The early 1990s was when the Hindi film industry was bingeing on high school/college films—Phool aur Kaante (1991), Khiladi (1992), Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar (1992)—no matter how tenuous the link was between the plot and the classroom. Jo Jeeta… added its own two bits of innovation to the plot by including a marathon bicycle race. Keeping aside the scenes of the races, it can be said that Aamir Khan is definitely comfortable on two wheels. In the song ‘Nahin samjhe hain woh hamein’, he is out cavorting with his buddies when he lets go of the pedals and even stands up on the seat of his moving cycle. Still later, while mouthing ‘Yeh galia apne, yeh raste apni’ he lets go of the handle bars for an extended time.
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(This story appears in the 25 December, 2015 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)
Khazanchi [1941], Hum Sab Chor Hain [1956], Ek Hi Raasta [1956], Paying Guest [1957], Agra Road [1957], Paigham [1959], Aas Ka Panchhi [1961],Pyase Panchhi [1961], Baat Ek Raat Ki [1962] and Padosan [1968] are some of the films where the lead on whom the songs were picturised while riding a bicycle. Aamir Khan is not a pioneer but an extension of the bicycle song which is a sub genre of sorts in Bollywood.
on Dec 29, 2015