jawaan laDkee bhee jaaydaad kee tarah hotee hai...donoN kaa ek ek rakhwaalaa honaa chaahiye

Film: Man ka Meet
Year of release : 1968
Spoken by : Lala ji (Om Prakash)
Spoken to : Aarti (Leena Chandavarkar)

The claim to fame of this film is that this was the debut film of two people - one was Som Datt (Sunil Dutt's brother as hero, who was never heard of again) and Vinod Khanna (as villain and who later became a hero and then a sanyasi and then an MP).

Vinod Khanna really started looking his macho self from movies like Achanak. So here, he reminds you of Dharmendra in Dil Bhi Tera Hum Bhi Tere. In fact there is a dialogue in the film where the heroine Aarti (Leena Chandavarkar) tells him that he should not try to be a hero because he has a face more suited to being a villain.

Coming back to the dialogue, the 60s and 70s had a lot of these sexist dialogues, which seemed quite acceptable in that era. Today, I feel most people would take umbrage at such lines. But I am a sucker for metaphors and analogies and proverbs and what have you. This seemed to fit at least one of the above bills and hence I am featuring this line here.

Lala ji (Om Prakash), is a rich man and is the guardian of Aarti. He is worried about her marriage, whereas Aarti mouths the typical dialogue of that era - 'mujhe shaadi naheeN karnee' or ' abhii itnee jaldee kyaa hai'. And when Lala Ji tries to get her to consider marriage, he says

"jawaan laDkee bhee jaaydaad kee tarah hotee hai beTii...donoN kaa ek ek rakhwaalaa honaa zaroori hai"
"जवान लड़की भी जायदाद की तरह होती है बेटी...दोनों का एक एक रखवाला होना ज़रूरी है"

Bhaiyye geetaa haath me leke jang nahee laRee jaa saktee

Gulzar's 1975 opus Aandhi. Of course the movie was controversial at that time due to the backdrop of emergency. And hence it is a seminal work for movies on politics and politicians. Very well written characters of Aarti Devi (Suchitra Sen) and JK (Sanjeev Kumar). This particular line is mouthed by Lalloo Laal (Om Prakash). The local newspaper of the town publishes the headline "Aarti's nights for hotel manager". I do wonder why did Gulzar have a newspaper titled "Zamaanaa" publish itself in English in a small town and worse - why did it have English in such atrocious language. But then I have a lot of grouse with Gulzar for this movie, which I shall refrain from getting into. Aarti is separated from her husband JK and they accidentally meet at the hotel after 9 years. Aarti has gone there for campaigning. The opposition sees it as an opportunity for mudraking and hence get this published along with photos. When Lalloo Laal (who is Aarti's chief campaign organiser) reads this, he goes berserk. He says the campaign is over for Aarti. The public will no longer vote for her. When another associate points out that it is Aarti's personal life and why should people agonise over it, Lalloo comes up with this masterpiece

भैय्ये गीता हाथ मे लेके जंग नहीं लड़ी जा सकती. भगवान किशन नहीं लड़ सके तो ये क्या लड़ेंगी.

Life is a continuous battle. Too much accent on morals is often misplaced. And whenever you find someone placing too much accent on morals and ethics, you could use this line

भैय्ये गीता हाथ मे लेके जंग नहीं लड़ी जा सकती.

Bhaiyye geetaa haath me leke jang nahee laRee jaa saktee