There have been numerous Hindi movies which are inspired by English movies.Out of them very few retain the class of the original and are still entertaining.Manoranjan based on Billy Wilder's 'Irma la dounce' is a gem of a movie.the plot as already told is anything Hindi movie had ever seen.The showing of a prostitute as an independent modern woman who is not apologetic about her profession and does not give never ending stories of forced prostitution was unimaginable in the 70's.Veteransuperstar turned director Shammi Kapoor deserves special applause to chose such a subject as his directorial debut after a successful carrier as a leading man.The script although has Indain flavor but regains the essence of the original.
The movie breaks many stereotypes and shows everything about prostitution in a very light and stylish way.No tear jerking ugly looking ladies,no shabby brothels and no superheros.Manoranjanis a bold movie even 30 years after its release.It is generally seen that in a topic like this the movie out of choice becomes cheap and vulgar but still Shammi makes Manoranjan an amazingly entertaining movie.The producers F.C.Mehra had made some great movies earlier with Shammi Kapoor in the ladylike 'Professor' and 'Singapore'.Now when Shammi's carrier as a leading man was almost over(Thanks to the arrival of superstars Rajesh Khanna and Amitabh Bachchan) Mehra did a big gamble by choosing such a story and giving the directorial duties to Shammi.The direction is almost flawless.The relationship between Sanjeev Kumar and Zeenat Aman is developed very beautifully.The director does not thrust typical Hindi film ingredients just for the heck of it and that is one of the major reasons that Manoranjan does not lose the charm of its original.Since the movie is set in India so the showing of Bombay as the city where all the action takes place instead of Paris(where the original movie was set) also goes very well with the audience.
Every aspect of the movie be it screenplay,dialog's or editing are excellent.The music by R.D.Burman is amazing.All the songs 'Suno Ji Suno','Goya Ki Chunanche' and 'Aaya Hun Main' are very well composed and sung.The choreography and song picturisation make these songs even more popular. Sanjeev Kumar gives an amazing performance in the movie.His comic timing,expression and famous dialog delivery are excellent.He is comfortable in the scenes where he is shown as the timid man opposite a rather independent and commanding Zeenat Aman.But my favourite scene is when he has an outburst and blasts Zeenat thus showing that it is only natural for men to behave this way even if he was enjoying taking orders from the lady.I guess Manoranjan is Zeenat Aman finest performance.She actually showed that being bold just did not mean body exposure but acting in movies which are bold in their content also.Her performance is the highlight if the movie.Unfortunately except for B.R.Chopra who took out an excellent performance from her in 'Insaaf Ka Taraazu',no-one could extract a performance the way Shammi did in this movie(not even the over-hyped Raj kapoor in Satyam Shivam Sundaram).Shammi kapoor had put on a lot of weight and although he hammed for most of the portion he still shows his class in some scenes.Dev Kumar as the strong villain suited the role to T(Shammi again signed him as a giant in his other directorial dud Bundalbaaz).Paintal,Madan puri and Agha are adequate.
When released in 1974 Manoranjan did not do well at the box- office,probably because it was very bold.However over the years it has formed the position of a classic.On the whole Manoranjan is an excellent movie which though very bold and could still raise eyebrows if seen at home.
