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Bobby

1973 168’ col Hindi pc R.K. Films d/p Raj Kapoor st/co-sc K.A. Abbas co-sc V.P. Sathe dial Jainendra Jain lyr Anand Bakshi, Vithalbhai Patel, Inderjit Singh Tulsi c Radhu Karmakar m Laxmikant-Pyarelal lp Rishi Kapoor, Dimple Kapadia, Pran, Premnath, Sonia Sahni, Durga Khote, Shashi Kiran, Pinchoo Kapoor, Jagdish Raj, Prem Chopra, Aruna Irani, Farida Jalal

Very successful kitschy teenage love story deploying the urban ‘pop’ iconography of mid- 60s middle-class teenage fashions and Annette Funicello beach movies (including the display of a variety of bathing suits). The 18-year-old Raj Nath (Rishi Kapoor), son of a wealthy businessman (Pran) and a rough but prosperous Goan fisherman’s (Premnath) 16- year-old daughter, Bobby Braganza (Kapadia), have a romance despite their respective fathers feuding over class status. The numerous love songs include the famous Hum tum ek kamre mein band ho (sung by Shailendra Singh and Lata Mangeshkar). Although the original script required a tragic ending confirming its Romeo and Juliet model, the distributors insisted on a happy one. Their wishes were met by a manifestly fake conclusion in which celebrated screen villain Chopra appears as himself, and kidnaps the heroine so that the hero may rescue her and unite the two families through his heroism. Raj Kapoor includes many references to his own famous love scenes with Nargis, casting his son Rishi (fresh from his appearance in Mera Naam Joker, 1970) in the lead opposite the debuting Dimple. Apparently Dimple was chosen because of her resemblance to Nargis. The couple’s first meeting in the film recreates Kapoor’s often- recounted first meeting with Nargis: Dimple comes through the kitchen door with dough on her hands which she absentmindedly rubs into her hair. Hit songs by the new singer Shailendra Singh include Main shayar to nahin and his duets with Lata Mangeshkar, Mujhe kuch kehna hai and Jhoot bole kauva kaate. Rishi Kapoor and Dimple, who had been absent from the screen for a while, starred together again in Ramesh Sippy’s Sagar (1985).

Film