Nagin
Director: Rajkumar Kohli
Music: Laxmikant Pyarelali Lyrics: Verma Mallik
Year: 1976
Duration: 144 minutes
Love is in the air and hormones and glands
are raging. Tonight is the night and these love birds are finally ready to
consummate their relationship after a very long wait. As the male romantically
says “tonight we copulate” and the two merrily dance and undulate across an
open field of grass. The two of them are dressed in rather odd revealing anachronistic
fashions and stare at each other passionately, yearning for this evening
to quickly come. Love is all around us. Of course these are snakes (cobra’s
to be exact), but even so love is a fine thing. These are “miraculous” snakes
that have lived for over 100 years and have gained the ability to take on
human form – any human form. The female snake (Nagin) has had the good taste
to take on the features of actress Reena Roy with her well-placed curves
and shattering green eyes, while the male snake transforms into the manly
shape of Jeetendra. Perhaps both are Bollywood fans and taking on the looks
of their idols.
Snakes have a mythical place in Asian culture and religion and many films
have depicted legends of snakes transforming into humans – generally female
snakes transforming into beautiful seductive women. Hong Kong has a slew
of films around this theme that include classics like “Green Snake”, “Love
of the White Snake” and the fairly recent cult classic “Phantom of Snake”,
while Bollywood too has eaten up this subject with this film, Nagina with
Sridevi in 1986 and “Jaani Dushman – Ek Anokhi Kahani” in 2002 to name a
few. The snake woman theme is especially perfect for Bollywood of course
because snakes are great dancers and there have been some classic dance numbers
performed by these snake women – in particular by Sridevi whose famous number
in Nagina was parodied in “Bride and Prejudice”. Hollywood has ventured
down this path at least once that I know of with the terrific B film “Cult
of the Cobra” in 1955 but even the genesis of that plot begins in India.
The thing to remember is that snakes are like people too – or at least they
are imbued with many of the same emotions that we pride ourselves in having
– love, looking good and revenge. All three play pivotal roles in this film
– especially revenge – the lesson learned here is to not piss off a female
snake on copulation night.
But that’s exactly what a group of six men do. During the day Vijay (Sunil
Dutt) comes across a posse of ungainly stuffed vultures on strings attacking
a man in the jungle and he saves his life. Vijay explains to the man that
he is looking for the “miraculous” snake in the jungle and co-incidentally
it turns out that this man is one of them! As a gesture of his thanks, the
man (Jeetendra) takes snake form and tells Vijay that he will be meeting
his love in the moonlight later on and he is welcome to watch. Ooh cool –
snake porno. Vijay invites five of his male friends to come watch the show
and to bring beer and popcorn and though they don’t believe a word he has
told them when they hear the eerie moody singing of the now classic tune
“tere sang pyar” they venture out and witness a stunning woman dancing sensuously
in the jungle moonlight like a vision out of a Sabu movie. When suddenly
a snake leaps out at her, one of the men Kiran (Anil Dhawan) pulls out his
pistol and shoots it to protect her. Big mistake. It is a little known fact,
but the final images that a snake captures in its two beady eyes as it dies
are retained and can be used as evidence in a trial or used by a vengeful
female snake to track down the killers and this snake sees all six men before
it gasps its final hissss. His last words to his love could break your heart,
“Our night of copulation has turned into a night of mourning”. The stuff
that tragedy is made of. I wonder if they took that line from Shakespeare?
Again the men don’t worry too much about this legend – not even when Nagin
appears in Reena Roy form at the house of Kiran and tells him a woeful story
about being a snake charmer and being held prisoner by the male snake. He
sympathizes and leers at the same time and invites her in for a hoped for
night of fun – a few love bites later and he lays dead and deformed with
venom coursing through his body as she laughs maniacally into the night.
The other men hope that with the killer dead that perhaps this will end it
– not likely as the Nagin is nearly mad with grief and anger. You can imagine
how pissed off you would be if you could not get laid for another 100 years.
Rajesh (Vinod Mehra) and his full figured girlfriend Rita (Yogita Bali) –
director Kohli seems to appreciate big hipped women in tight slacks – are
cavorting around in his hotel room and Rajesh doesn’t find it suspicious
that his chaste girlfriend is suddenly so randy and willing to jump into
the sack – and after a neat modern dance number (with the wonderful Aruna
Irani participating) – he doesn’t find it odd that she goes under the bed
and stays there. When he peeks underneath he finds something very different
than his willing girlfriend waiting for him.
The men now get the assistance of a religious man – a fakir – similar of
course to the Hong Kong films where a Taoist priest is usually brought in
to unmask the snake in human form – but the killings continue – this is basically
a snake serial killer movie after all and Uday (Kabir Bedi), Suraj (Sanjay
Khan), Raj (Feroz Khan) and Vijay await their fates. Plenty of other stars
make an appearance in this very star studded affair. Mumtaz (billed as her
final appearance in the credits) appears at Raj’s doorstep with a book on
Indian snakes in hand and gives every indication of snakely charms in her
tight pants and shrouded eyes – but is she or not? Rekha all glammed up is
Vijay’s girlfriend and one of the many highlights of the film is her kung
fu catfight with the Nagin. But the best is left for the end – picture this
– our hero is forced onto a rope crossing between two high rises, his hands
bloody and a little girl hanging from his legs hundreds of feet in the air
– and a slithering snake slowly making its way towards them on the rope –
a totally unintentionally hilariously wonderful moment in a film full of
them. There are little pleasures to be derived within the film from a snake
duel to a bear rug on a wall to the amazingly wonderful fashion sense of
a female snake who seems to subscribe to Vogue magazine.
There are not a lot of songs – though “tere sang pyar” plays often, but the
playback singers are the best – Lata, Asha, Mohd. Rafi and Kishore Kumar.
The film though somewhat creaky by today’s standards and with special effects
that look like they are from the 1920’s has a terrific cast, a couple wriggly
snake dances from Reena and a terrifically silly one from Rekha (Nagin in
reality) in which she does a victory dance on top of one of her victims and
lots of female glamour on parade. This is simply great silly fun.
My rating for this film: 7.5