A new book explores screen crooks of the past eight years or more.
Stills from "The Jewel Thieves".
Excerpt from Pure Evil by Balaji Vittal, published by HarperCollins with permission.
"After (UK) Raj, it was License raj..." Keshub Mahindra, the former chairman of Mahindra Group, said in an article in the Economic Times, referring to the period from 1961 to 1970. License Raj means that the procurement and distribution of goods are controlled. There are not enough fashionable goods to buy in the country, and the import tariff is twice that of other countries. Govind Nihalani said in an interview with the author that “fake wine and foreign wine are included in the smuggler’s shopping list along with gold and watches.” This provides an opportunity for smugglers. As Hussain Zaidi analyzed in a chat with the author, “By the end of the 1960s, many gold smugglers appeared, such as Bashdada and Hajimastan. They were golden mafia operating in organized syndicates. Faithful supporters of this. These flourished in the 1970s, with new entrants such as Yusuf Patel, Dawood Ibrahim, and Patan.
Bollywood seized these clues to reality, and Bollywood's smuggling engine accelerated its development from 1970 to 1972. From merely ruling eight to ten strong men in Muharras, the Mafia in its new incarnation will now lead the entire organization. Therefore, Bollywood’s smuggling villain was the first urbanized “corporate” villain. With the emergence of the Mafia, the focus has returned to the city. The men are now ready to take action. Women will be less delicate. There will be romance and music, but intertwined with action. Several famous "change agents" movies are Johny Mera Naam and Victoria No. 203.
Johny Mera Naam (1970) tells of a gang led by a smuggler named Ranjit Singh (Premnath), who disguised himself as Rai Sahab Bhupendra Singh. Ranjit’s group smuggled the stolen diamonds from India to Nepal, then sold the diamonds to “customers” in Western countries and remitted the money in the form of British pounds, U.S. dollars or rupees. Ranjit has two "capable" deputies in his team-Moti (Pran) and Heeralal (Jeevan). Ranjit’s smuggling ring also exported charas, ganja, opium and marijuana hidden in cargo to the United States through Kolkata, which contained musical instruments such as tabla and sitar. In addition, there are also statues stolen from temples and sold to overseas buyers. 'Johnson naam ka ek European mileage. Woh in cheezon ke badle me tumhe 5 laakh rupee dega... (A European named Johnson will pay you 500,000 Indian rupees for this...)", Morty told Johnny, referring to those stolen Idols. The foreign exchange and huge profits in the smuggling business have entered the Bollywood dictionary. "Yehi patthar Johnson America le jaakar 5 laakh ke bajay 15 laakh Dollar kamayega (Johnson will bring these stone idols to the United States, and from this 500,000 Indian rupees Earn 1.5 million US dollars)”, Moti added. Transnational flavors are here and now.'Agley Somvar ke din, duniya ke bade se bade se bade smuggler duniya ke kone kone se aakar yahan jama honge-America se Al Capone, England se Robert King... (Next Monday, all the big smugglers from all corners of the world will land here...)", Ranjit boasted of his private auction invitees, his collection of stolen jewels and other valuables A wonderful collection of items.
Balaji Vittal Pure Evil Harper Collins, 2021
Strangely, Johnny Mela Nam looks like the arm of a gem thief. In these two movies, the villain takes the identity of others.
Both films were shot in two neighbouring Himalayan countries-the gem thief in Sikkim (at the time an independent country) and Johnny Melanam in Nepal.
In Victoria No. 203 (1972), Seth Durgadas (Anwar Husain) and his group planned to steal priceless Golcunda diamonds worth 30 crore from a museum in Mumbai, with the obvious intention of selling them to someone abroad. Groups. As a hero, Kumar (Navin Nishchal) gambled his life to prevent this from happening. He asserted,'Ye heere tumhe kabhi, kabhi nahi mil sakte. Ye desh ki amaanat hai aur desh ke paas wapas jayenge! (You will never get these diamonds. They belong to the country and will return to the country)". Unfortunately, despite the outstanding performance of Anwar Husain, who plays the diamond smuggler Durgadas, this The movie did not earn him many miles. The reason is that the comics dominated the show with Raja and Rana (Ashok Kumar and Pran) with their spontaneous wit. Nonetheless, James Hadley Chase's The Indianized version of the novel "There is a Hippie on the Highway" was still a huge success in that era.
A still from "Victoria 203".
However, these Bollywood smugglers are hardly new. They seem to have just taken up a new profession, but their appearance is no different. There are also many shortcomings in their role modeling. Perhaps what is needed is a new screenwriter, or even a new face. Maybe both.