Dharamveer - Meet the Spartans!

Some movies have been a great source of entertainment,some quite enlightening and some really informative. But i believe Mr.Manmohan Desai's contribution towards the cinema is unmatchable. He showed the world how the same 'old', 'boring', 'pathetic', http://thesaurus.com/browse/pathetic could be presented in a different and entertaining way (at least for the front stall). Even a term was coined for his genre of movies, i.e. 'Masala Movies'. I watched Dharamveer for the first time when i was a kid, and i am not ashamed of accepting that i really got entertained by the epic saga of two brothers separated by their wicked maternal uncle played by Jeevan(now-a-days Akshay Kumar is trying to mimic his nasal dialogue delivery in almost every movie), but they still became best friends and one became a Spartan looking blacksmith Dharam played by Dharmendra(our very own vampire, who has a great affinity towards dog's blood) and other a Portuguese looking Indian prince Veer played by jumping jack Jeetendra, it also had a cow-boyish Pran who happened to be the sperm donor(biological father of DharamVeer). With some really tacky costumes, dialogues with high sentimental count and a war galley(yeah and Sheroo-the wonder bird) it was a complete non-sense, unrealistic, history defying entertainment. But that didn't stop Mr. Desai there, he went on to change the medical science too, where a direct blood transfusion took place between three,yet again separated brothers and their poor(healthy) mother.This time it was not a mix of two different civilizations but three religions. Dialogues were even more pedestrian(thanx to Mr. Chadar errr! Kadar Khan), but the values that the movie held were still the same. A non-sense, unrealistic, science defying entertainment but a money spinner, it was 'Amar Akbar Anthony'. But in my opinion his best creation was 'Mard', there have been several movies on British Raj, but that blunder was the greatest of all. And this time dialogues were even more power punching, thanks to our own He-Man(oops! Hanuman) Mr.Dara Singh who played the role of Amitabh 'Mard' Bacchan's father and delivered some really memorable dialogues with punjabish-hindish-english accent(Halena, Karjan for Helena and Curzon). It was even rumored that once he hired a teacher to learn english, though classes ended up with teacher started speaking only punjabi. Once again our hero gets seperated from his mom(same poor healthy lady) and father too. Though this time therez no wicked Mama, but a wicked anglo-indian doctor played by Mr.Prem Chopra. This time movie has a wonder dog and a wonder-horse(in love with a statue of a mare, i dont know how did he figure out the gender of that statue), the movie had almost all the viceroys,generals ever deployed by British in India together to get annihilated by Mr Mard. Oh i almost forgot to mention the story behind 'Mard', Mr Dara Singh before getting seperated from his wife and infant son, brands his son as 'Mard' with a knife and our super-hero(he later became that in Ajooba!) smiles :). Well this time yet again the values were the same non-sense, unrealistic, science,history,death,everything defying entertainment. A blog is not enough to describe the 'Greatness' of this great filmmaker. So a small walk through: 


"Anhoni ko honi karde honi ko anhoni , ek jagah jab jama ho teeno, amar akbar anthony"
"Saat ajoobe iss duniya me aathwi apni jodi, arre tode se bhi na toote yeh dharamveer ki jodi"
"Peeth pe maara hai seene pe khaoge"
"Haath ke badle haath, maa ke badle maa"
"Mard ko dard nahi hota"
"Bure kaam ka bura nateeja, kyun bhyi chacha arre haan bhateeja"
"Na tune signal dekha, na maine signal dekha, accident ho gya rabba rabba! Allah Rakkha,aaa aaa aaa"
"Main hoon mard taangeywaala"
"Maana ki hamara aadha khoon paani hai, par aadha toh pure hindustaani hai"

A scene in Amar Akbar Anthony where three seperated sons of a mother are donating blood to her through miraculous direct blood transfusion, here at the backdrop(seen from the hospital window) there is a temple at the back of amar(hindu), a mosque(akbar) and a church(anthony). Marvelous!

Mr Pran jumps off a fort's high wall on a horse with Dharam Veer's mom.


Mard's horse(Badal) runs away with the statue of a mare which turns into real in the climax, and 'Mard' Bacchan who is riding badal is rescued by father Mr. Dara Singh(Raja Azad Singh) by offering his Hanuman shoulders to him for his wedding.

Indian looking Karjan(Lord Curzon), Haleyna(Elena), Harry, General Dyer and they speak only Hindi.