Prince
Director: Lekh Tandon
Music: Shanker-Jaikishan; Lyrics:Hasrat/Faruk
Kaiser
Year: 1969
Running Time: 2 hrs 37 minutes
It’s good to be a Prince. Probably any Prince
would do really. Just having people address you as Prince would be kind
of fun for a while though over time perhaps it would get a bit dreary.
For Prince Shamsher it has indeed gotten very dreary and boring and it
is all he can do to motivate himself to chew on his food. As the Prince,
Shammi Kapoor is quite wonderful – he is like a gorged tick after a Thanksgiving
dinner – his face bathed in indifference, his eyes as lifeless as two beans
in a pudding and his hefty slovenly body firmly anchored by gravity to
the ground. A beautiful woman adorned in sparkling bangles dances for him,
but it is all he can do to keep his eyelids upright as he pops pills and
complains about everything. After India became independent in 1947, there
were a number of small kingdoms that did not immediately become integrated
into the country, but remained somewhat autonomous for a few years. Shamsher
(Shammi’s real name by the way) and his father are rulers in one of these
regions living in an ornate palace with enough servants to populate a small
country.
One day this all begins to change when he comes
across a holy man who refuses to bow to his will and Shamsher whips him
in a frenzy and then collapses in guilt and remorse. The holy man tells
him that to become a man again he needs to throw off his princely possessions
and go out and live as a normal person for six months. Shamsher takes this
to heart and thus begins a light but very enjoyable Capraesque tale of
a rich man pretending to be poor falling in love with a rich girl and finding
his humanity again. He stages an accident in which it looks like he has
died and he goes on the road. He soon gets a ride from an insurance salesman
(Rajindernath who seems to show up in many of Shammi’s films as the comical
sidekick) and they come across a gaggle of supposed village girls – but
who are in fact very upper class – looking for a ride. One of these is
Vyjayanthimala who breaks into a song in order to gain passage. After letting
off the girls, the two men are attacked by dacoits (bandits) and Shamsher
is held hostage – but one of the dacoits frees him because he wants to
leave the gang and visit his ailing blind mother (Leela Chitnis). On the
way though the dacoit is killed, but before his dying Shamsher promises
to go see his mother.
Like all good Indian mothers, she is devoted to
her long-gone son – but unlike most Indian mothers she can’t apparently
recall his voice and so immediately assumes Shamsher is her son and he
realizes that to tell her the truth would kill her. So he goes along with
this and picks up the loving mom he never had. He also gets a job working
in the stables of the King (Sapru) of this small region – and just as you
would expect if you have seen many Bollywood films, the Princess turns
out to be the girl he met on the road – and she takes an immediate dislike
to this overly friendly commoner. She is as arrogant as he once was and
Shamsher starts a charm campaign to wear her down showing his skills at
polo, skiing, dancing and singing (“Oh haughty one, I’m bowled over”).
This leads to one of the best dance sequences
you will come across as her friend from Europe comes to visit – played
by the legendary Helen – and they decide to show this fellow how to dance
and put on a bravura display of classical and modern dance that will make
your toes curl. Things get much more complicated later on as Shamsher has
to fight for his birthright against the always evil Ajit, take on more
dacoits, escape certain death, get tortured and keep his weight down. It
is great fun with Shammi going back and forth between his commoner and
Prince personas as adroitly as he dances. There are some amusing scenes
as well – one bedroom farce sequence in which he ends up in the wedding
bed of his father and then gets physically attached to the Princess are
terrific.
Though Vyjayanthimala looks to be in her mid-twenties
in this film, she was actually reaching her mid-thirties and near the end
of her career. In 1970 she was to marry the physician of Raj Kapoor and
retire from film. She had an amazing career that began in the early 1950’s
at the age of fifteen and was one of the first South Indian actresses to
make it big in Bollywood. She was also one of the great dancers of her
time and her popularity made it mandatory for actresses to obtain this
skill. She specialized particularly in classical Indian dance and has stunning
footwork and form that is well displayed in Prince. Her first huge success
was the 1954 Nagin, but it was her role as the tragic Chandramukhi in the
1955 version of Devdas that made people notice that she was a fine actress
as well as a great dancer. Some of her other classic performances were
in Sadhana in which she played a prostitute, Ganga Jamuna as a washer woman,
Jewel Thief in which she pairs up with Dev Anand and Amrapali in which
she again plays a courtesan. Though she retired from film, she continued
to perform her classical dances on stage and still does at this time. Prince
also marked the near end of Shammi as a popular leading man in Indian films.
In the same year a film called Aradhana came out to acclaim and ushered
in the era of Rajesh Khanna and a new series of heroes. Nearing his forties
and fast losing the fight with his girth, Shammi became more of a character
actor over the next ten years. In the sixties though no one was more fun
to watch than Shammi. There are only two male Indian actors who I want
to see everything they made - Shahrukh Khan and Shammi.
As expected with a score from Shanker-Jaikishan,
the music is a highlight of the film. It also has the three legendary voices
of Lata, Asha and Mohd. Rafi doing the vocals and it is a treat. The music
jumps from genre to genre with ease as we get a little bit of everything
from classical to pop to latin and even an Egyptian rhythm tossed in. There
are six songs of which two are particular standouts. One is the before
mentioned "Muqabla humse na" in which Vyjayanthimala and Helen put on a
tour de force of dance form as they each have three costume changes to
signify a different kind of dance style. "Badan pe sitare" is a romantic
torcher in which Shammi begins to break down the Princess’s cool demeanor
on the dance floor with lyrics like “With the stars adorning your whole
body; Where are you headed O’ Sweetheart; If you could come closer to me;
I would find so much peace”. The final song "Bachke jaane na" is
another opportunity to just watch Vyjayanthimala dance as the two of them
have escaped from the dacoits and take on the disguise of two vagabond
entertainers and have to perform for a small village.
Thanks to folks from Bollywhat who responded
to my inquiry about Vyjayanthimala here:
Also, for some information on Mohd. Rafi who
almost always sang for Shammi and is such a treat to listen to click here.
And finally, here
is Shammi writing about himself.
My rating for this film: 7.5
Song
1