Baazi (1951) :
Brief Review -
This fake remake of Gilda (1946) is far better than the mediocre Hollywood noir. A landmark! Guru Dutt was a genius before people started realising it. I don't know from where it came that this film was inspired by Charles Vidor's Gilda, starring Glenn Ford and Rita Hayworth. I have seen the film, and I never understood the hype around it. It's so mediocre and tepid, man. When I came to know that it was remade in Bollywood, I said to myself, "Why? Why remake a mediocre film?" I started imagining Dev Anand as Ford and Geeta Bali as Rita. I had them imagined right in the first 15-20 minutes, and then I realised that this is not a remake of Gilda. Who the hell said that? Whoever said it and put it on Wikipedia is either mad or hasn't seen both films. So, this FAKE REMAKE of Gilda actually manages to come out better than the original film. It's a fascination for contemporary Indian cinema in the crime-noir genre. Like I said, Guru Dutt was a genius. He knew to create sympathy for the character who was doing so many wrong things. Hollywood had never thought about that with their crime noirs. They were comfortable with the negative character and message because their society was ready to accept them. In India, it would have never worked, and I don't think it would work even today. Baazi is a pioneer of many theories in this genre, where you know the main protagonist has done a few wrong things but never did them happily. He was forced by the situation. You have two heroines, one from a rich family and one from a filthy world, but they both turn out to be good for the hero. That's trademark writing. Dev Anand, Geeta Bali, and Kalpana Kartik are fine. Dutt's direction was a major change in the filmmaking style of that era. We actually moved from regular humdrum techniques to dark and intense atmospheric brilliance with this one. How those shadow frames, closeups, and music work, I can't tell you. Watch it and experience it.
RATING - 7/10*
By - #samthebestest.
