Geeta Mera Naam (1974)

A lone mother taking her four little kids out to the local mela can’t be a good idea, primarily as in almost all Bollywood movies, the mela serves as a backdrop for little brothers and sisters and mothers and fathers to be torn apart by strange twists of fate.  This trip to the mela is no different as in moments, one of the tots goes amiss and then a posse of local dacoits raid the scene causing untold havoc in this whirlwind of confusion, the poor old woman fleeing the stage with her daughters, passes out in the forest leaving one infant to fend for herself.

Years pass, and one by one, we are re-introduced to the scattered children, all grown up by now.  One of the kids has turned into a kingpin villain of the underworld, crime king Johnny who has an underground lair that was the inspiration for the Austin Powers films, complete with seats for his multinational criminal guests that, at the lethal touch of a button empty their human contents into a pool of bubbling acid, turning them moments later into perfectly chilling wax effigies.  Johnny’s has to be one of the most inspired villains’ lairs in the history of Indian Cinema.

Besides being dangerously schizophrenic, Johnny also displays his dementia by cradling a furry, cuddly toy ape that never leaves his side.  He is obsessed with his toy ape, reminding him as it does of the fateful day that he of separation from his doting mother and siblings at the fair.  For relaxation, Johnny indulges in sessions of bondage and masochism, employing a leather-clad heavy to lash him until he has welts all over his back.

We also learn that another of the young separated siblings has become an up-and-coming upright police inspector-cum-geek.  At the same time, the daughter has turned into a beautiful young voluntary teacher working at a primary school.  Still, her adoptive parents are counting the days when they can start cashing in on her beauty by turning her over to the highest bidder.  When a sleazy suitor pays her parents and attempts to rape her, she turns the tables on her attacker, but he is mystifyingly killed by Johnny, who also has a score to settle with the creep.

Poor mild mannered Sadhana is arrested for murder and led away to the prison cell, but as she gets locked up, a dead ringer of hers, a modernized version, is seen being released after a stint for some petty crimes.  Therefore, in a short space of a few minutes, we have been introduced to the four separated siblings, and now we must wait for the next two hours or so for the plot (fate) to bring them back together in the unlikeliest manners.

This magnificent slice of cheese has a plot as old and stale as the hills, but Sadhana directs with such verve and aplomb that she has managed to turn her magnum opus into one of the genuinely great cult classics of the era.  Geeta Mera Naam was designed as a vehicle for Sadhana’s talents by her husband, R.K Nayyar, who created the inspired storyline.  To save on costs, Sadhana, whose career as a leading lady had flagged into near obscurity, was given the job as director and the star of the show with a screen-hogging double-role purpose-built just for her.  Miraculously, the unpredictable public lapped it up, and Geeta Mera Naam went on to become one of the year’s big money earners providing Sadhana with a fitting end to what had been a very distinguished career in which she featured in some of the finest films of the ’60s.

Sunil Dutt threatens to steal the show as Johnny but Sadhana is the focus of the limelight.  Some hit songs composed by Laxmikant Pyarelal helped propel the film to its Silver Jubilee status.  Geeta Mera Naam is a brilliant slice of Bollywood Hokum and a weird and wonderful farewell to an all-time great actress, Sadhana; plus, you don’t just earn a “cult classic” reputation for nothing.

The Phenomenal DVD synopsis.