Monday 7 December 2009

Meri Jung - one man army


I usually blog about films in my other blog, but this film is special in that it has so many non-filmi implications. It is the kind of film that you dont chance upon through the regular medium of tv, theatres, hoardings.. this one is a gem that can only be discovered in a tourist bus.
Last weekend Jatin and I visited Puri for a dear friends wedding. After the wedding, we were DEAD tired, and the plan was to sleep during the journey of our tour around Puri/Bhubaneshwar. But fate had other plans. The travel guide made it abundantly clear in the 'niyams' of the tour that 'humari company ne hume ek hi CD di hai, isliye aap movie ki farmaish nahi kar sakte'. Naturally I felt upset when I first saw the titles of this seemingly unknown film. How wrong could I have been?
The film stars Nagarjuna, whose name in the film is.. wait for it... MASS. Yeah, thats a name :). Mass is new to the city and asks an auto wala for accommodation. Auto-wala sees this as an opportunity to make an extra buck, and offers to share his room. Mass is thrilled. In the society (which really seems out-of-place for an auto-wala to be living in, since there is a police inspector staying there as well), mass is knocked down by local goons. To this mass responds by... wait for it.. STRIPPING OFF HIS SHIRT. Yeah, thats what is the right thing to do :). Oh yeah, he also follows that up with (lame) jokes and a smile. The local beauty (I forget her name, so lets call her) chammiya falls hopelessly in love with mass after he beats up another set of goons who were after the local goons for whom mass had previously stripped. Now local goons respect mass. There is a holi song, and lots of colours fly, and chammiya dances and Mass tries to. I doze off.. (in hindsight, how could i??) When I wake up the global goon (I forget his name so lets call him) bhayanak is terrorizing the town, and kills off the police officer who was supposed to give gawahi against him. Mass plans to take revenge and calls up Bhayanak's son (I forget his name, so lets call him ) Bhayankar, also a goon, and tells him that MASS is going to kill him on the 1st of next month. Mass also mentions other things he would be doing by the 15th and 20th of the current month. And he does them. Chammiya is loving mass more and more now. Finally mass reveals to her his ulterior motives behind killing bhayankar and bhayanak - they are the brother and father respectively of MASS's LAUVE played by Jyotika, (i forget her name so lets call her ) chammak challo. Flashback reveals their lauve story - chammak challo falls in lauve with mass when he beats himself up in front of her. Oh yes, and there is Adi, mass's landlords son, who is damn chummy with mass. And right there you know what his role in the film is - to get killed by bhayankar. That coupled with bhayankar's disapproval of mass as brother-in-law, is the motivating factor behind this ONE MAN ARMY!! :)
Lots of (lame) jokes, and (hilarious) touching moments later chammak challo is under house arrest, and Mass is fast approaching his deadline to kill of bhayankar. By now, bhayankar has figured out who 'mass' is, and abducts chammiya and police inspectors pregnant wife. He tells chammak challo (his sister) about this very proudly, saying that mass will now come begging to him.. BUT mass knows about this abduction trick from films, so he has a neat trick planned himself - he has abducted bhayanak!!! Yeah, this is the only film where hero has abducted the villain! :)
This is followed by a fight between mass and bhayankar, where bhayankar dies (on the 1st that too). Bhayanak announces that this is the first time he has met a true man, and shoots himself. w00t!
If you have read upto this para - awe-the-some! You should probably watch the film too!!!! :)
And what are the non-filmi implications you ask me - meeting deadlines (mass met every deadline he had set for himself) and exceeding expectations (not only did mass kill bhayankar, as promised, he also managed to get bhayanak killed; not only did mass romance chammak challo, he also danced around with chammiya, what with his limited dancing abilities). Yes, thats right, this one is a parable, not a film.
And yes, another thing it teaches you is to sit as far away from the tv in a tourist bus, as possible.

P.S. Due to a variety of thoughts going on in my mind as I watched the film, I may have missed out parts of the story that the director wanted to convey. You could refer to other reviews of the film to get the directors version like this one.

6 comments:

Niklaus Wirth said...

When you watch south indian movies, please switch off your brain and don't search for any logic. If you do, you will plunge yourself into a while loop. If you watch a balakrishna's movie, you will appreciate mass better :))

The stripping(as you put it) was met with a huge uproar in the theaters.

Confi said...

For you information, it was a hit movie in those days... Few things to remember with telugu movies
- Sad endings rarely fly.
- More unrealistic the fights are, more the people enjoy.
- Sentiment, a must component for the movie to be success.
Try watching "Chennakesava Reddy" Movie, i bet you be rolling on the floor laughing endlessly throughout the movie if you try finding any logic in the things (An ultra super duper action movie starring Balakrishana)

naga (a.k.a Supratim) said...

Nice.
btw. the chamiya's name is jyothika

Prajakta Kalekar said...

@Niklaus seriously, the stripping scene is the best one ever.
@satya i can imagine why it was such a hit. its hilarious :)
btw - is it an unsaid requirement for telugu films that the hero shud sport a moustache? :)
@supratim yes, later realized she is nagma's sis.

Meghana Kshirsagar said...

This sounds like a horrible Telugu movie, that too coming from Nagarjuna!
Hilarious post!

Anonymous said...

Great writing! I wish you could follow up to this topic?!?