Bollywood501 - Movies - Quick Glances
| BW501 Rating: 6.5 of 10 | Genre: action/romance | Era: 1970s | Region: Bollywood |
| Music: Kalyanji - Anandji 6 of 10 |
Director: Feroz Khan |
Kitsch Factor: 9 of 10 | Must See Factor: 7.5 of 10 |
Hema Malini from "Dharmatma" (1975)
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Feroz Khan
is one of the most interesting figures of the Bollywood film industry and
"Dharmatma" is one of his most engaging films. His cinema is reminiscent
of Hollywood's post Film Noir, B-Grade social drama/action/exploitation genre,
exemplified by the films of Sam Fuller and Nick Ray who made films like "The
Naked Kiss" (1964), and "Johnny Guitar" (1954) respectively.
Feroz Khan took the aesthetic of 'low art' to great commercial heights in
Hindi Popular Cinema. Combining gritty social issues (prostitution, black
marketeering, rape, corruption) with current fads (disco music, Western Hippie
street fashion) and liberally endowing gratuitous and extended amounts of
screen time to the scantily clad female form pictured as voyeuristic objects
of desire, in item dance numbers or scenes of seduction or violation, Feroz
Khan shone himself as the top showman of what could be considered the Bollywood
'male-centric' action genre. Titles such as "Hard-hitting", "Edgy",
and "Arty" all taken with a swinging 1970s era, pop sensibility
could fit quite comfortably onto a poster advertising any film in Feroz Khan's
oeuvre with "Dharmatma" being no exception, and one of his finest
efforts.
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