Khoon Khoon
    
                   
Director: Mohammed Hussain
Year:  1973
Duration: 127 minutes
Music: Vijay Singh
Rating: 5.0
It might not have been the greatest idea in the world for Bollywood to have done an unauthorized copy of Dirty Harry. But they did. For example, when the psycho killer hijacks a school bus full of adorable kids, he leads them in a song with musical accompaniment and the children dance - until they begin to annoy him and he slaps them around. Music critics applauded at that point. Another time he is planning to assassinate a religious leader, but kindly waits till the man finishes his song. And what would a version of Dirty Harry be without a wet sari number with the wonderful Rekha in the rain. But if you are going to steal from a film, at least have the cop say in Hindi “You’ve got to ask yourself one question. Do I feel lucky? Well, do you punk”.  This cop isn’t Dirty at all – in fact he has a wife (Rekha) and two children. And oh, there is comic relief – lots of it – provided by the cop’s partner who is a peeping tom and loves eating hard-boiled eggs. There is so much wrong with this film, but I stuck it out and am almost glad I did because the finale in the junk yard was pretty good. And the train that must have seen the bus on the tracks from 100-yards away and doesn’t even try to stop. I am not stopping this train for a school bus. You have to admire a man who sticks to the schedule.



It begins with a nightclub dance as every Bollywood film should – the dancer (Faryal) all hips and enticing smiles swaying in a bright blue outfit with enough midriff showing to make the men break into a sweat in a room so red you expect the Devil to show up. She goes back to her room and our killer is across from her with his rifle and violin case and bang – she falls dead on the bed – and the camera dramatically moves up the killer’s body and  . . . gasp it is Danny Denzongpa. Who would have guessed since we know he is in the cast and is always the villain. He was in over 200 films and was probably the bad guy in 99% of those. The cops show up and the doctor after giving the woman a close examination and eying the bullet hole in her stomach, solemnly pronounces her dead. Well, thanks doctor. The cop on the case is Anand (Mahendra Sandhu) who is the hero of the film, but may be the worst cop in cinema. But he has Rekha waiting for him at home, so I forgive him. 



Danny likes calling up the cops and telling them who he is going to kill and at what time. You would think that this would make it easy for the police to stop him and even capture him. Of course, just maybe they should have told the target to stay away from the windows – or in the next one to have all the heights covered – or at least have a plan to catch him after he shoots. Don’t ever let the Mumbai police protect you. Helen is in this film – the girlfriend of his comic relief partner (Jagdeep) and they don’t let her dance! That is enough to lower the rating another point. There is though one more nightclub dance (Padma Khan) and so that makes me want to give the film another point. Nightclub dances in Bollywood films are where much of the sex appeal came from in the films from this era – the women clad in revealing clothes and undulating or rolling on the ground in ecstasy. And they are usually the best songs in the film.