The film is known as Jangli Mera Naam, a movie made mostly in Lahore by an internationally unknown studio. It also has a few elements taken from another South Indian classic called Adavi Donga ‘85. It is also well known in its native country for its iconic publicity stills. Of such stills, the most famous is that of the forest princess, her pervert older sister and their other companion, a sultry maid.
It likely was conceived by its creator Mohammad Latif Shah, when the latter was released, although it got delayed multiple times during lengthy and sometimes horrid social conflicts. But it was with the permissions of cooler heads that it finally got a cinematic release in 1994 instead of 1992 as initially thought.
The film stars the smartly dressed beefcake Jehanzaib (with the surname of Khan) as Faisal Annu, a thoughtfully nutty nature hero who is Wataru Murakami in all but ethnicity and clothes. Making a stunning final role is the now retired actress Kaveeta, aka Nasreen Rizvi (born 1960), as his sidekick. It also has Shahida Mini (born 1972) as the local forest princess turned future tribal queen!
Other cast members include a middle-aged actor as the dad of Faisal’s girlfriend, a well-endowed actress as the hippie’s wife, a comedienne as a more modestly dressed villainess, a senior actor as the wise hippie himself, a fairer haired Pashto actress as a forest maid wearing skimpier fashion, an older actress as the mum of Faisal’s younger buddy, and a chubby boy as the young Faisal Annu.
Guess who are some of the actors behind the roles? Sunita Khan as the Forest Maid, Habib, Nasrullah Butt, Humayun Qureshi, Tariq Shah, Surayya Khan, Haider Abbas and Sheeba Butt.
Is it a Tarzan movie? It's not based on the Tarzan books at all. In fact, it’s actually the loose Pakistani adaptation of Kenya Boy! It also has some elements taken from both Jungle Hunt and its 1960s spiritual predecessor Dara. The original Punjabi film is partly found media for obvious reasons related to copyright scruples.
Unlike its immediate Sandalwood predecessors, the year of its beginning was most likely 1976, the same year as the actual Sankei Junior Books Edition of Kenya Boy. It was when a seven-year-old boy named Faisal Annu went out of school to face the local underworld gangsters. Being the snobbish beginner villains, they bullied him and his senile teacher hellishly, even though the goons’ master was both a pimp and a corrupt former schoolteacher himself.
Then he went to the hospital, so that his doctor father would do a lifesaving operation on his body. Unfortunately, the lower ranking goons, under their awful master’s control, still kidnapped and almost killed the poor doctor off in fear, even though his son was finally spared by their jackass pragmatism instead. Although they realised privately that their master treated them so horribly, they’re smart enough not to get gory, so they have to party hard with their similarly dysfunctional relatives nearby. But their same old boss was such a madman that he let his Python friend run loose anyway.
As a result, the boy became a subtropical forest hero, who not only made uneasy friends with most of the local forest animals - except for the goddamn moon bears! - but he also was seen as a brainy bruiser by them all. As he grew older, he befriended a hungry old cobra and a matronly Asian elephant, who gladly dared to make him look like a superstar.
Barely 2 decades later, a brave college aged woman had her ill prepared parents kidnapped and then killed off by a bunch of stereotypical tribal mooks, who unfortunately didn’t have many choices other than supporting the main goons. She had to fight them off for a while.
After that, the woman met a dizzy hippie and the boyfriend of her dreams, while also facing off a quartet of young moon bears, played by men in shoddy bear costumes. But it was the former who turned out to be just himself in his Forest clothes! She got to know him quietly and made unlikely friends with the scatterbrained hippie mentor and his more urban wife along the way.
Meanwhile, an unhappy forest princess (albeit a somewhat saner future queen to boot!) was tired of her pervert older sister's awful antics and had to escape the chauvinistic bullying by said sister's henchmen, by luring Faisal into the dungeon of her palace. Said crazy older sister had to designate him as an unwilling guest for an epic party with a maid friend of theirs! Frankly, Annu escaped it with the help of local animals nearby. The parents were too tired to find their missing son, so they had to see him another day later. Thus, the hijinks still ensued within varying degrees, until the heroes bursted into a jumbled dance routine.
Even when a hero’s wrongful arrest by the corrupt police came in, they didn’t know that Faisal was still innocent, and they’re way too messed up to catch wealthy local gangsters on a regular scale. Yet in a surprise twist, the big bad and his Python buddy were destroyed by a family of super mad cobras, which is the most deliciously fatal of creature-focused fates faced by many villains in South Asian Jungle movies. The film ends when the parents were reunited with the hero anyway, so that they’re safe from another calamity ahead. The son was smart enough to think of them not to go into messy situations like that again.
It's a pretty funny film, a so bad it's good masterpiece of a box office flop, replete with a decently written, nature loving beefcake, a goofy hippie wearing stereotypical Adivasi clothing, a pouty girlfriend with the hots for the beefcake, and the hippie's well-endowed wife being a fun lady to hang out with. Then again, it’s just Kenya Boy without the lost world dinosaurs schtick.
No comments:
Post a Comment