Theater: Junglee (1961)

Movies | DestinyKuri | February 11, 2010 at 6:32 am

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Junglee (Urdu: جنگلی) is a 1961 Indian movie produced and directed by Subodh Mukherjee. The music is by Shankar Jaikishan and the lyrics by Shailendra and Hasrat Jaipuri. The film stars Shammi Kapoor, Lalita Pawar, Shashikala and Asit Sen. Saira Banu, in her debut film, earned a Filmfare nomination as Best Actress and became a star.

The movie was a lighthearted musical that further enhanced Shammi Kapoor’s stature as the youth icon of the times. The “Yahoo” song became a symbol of Shammi’s wild (Junglee) loverboy image of the times. The switch from the serious actor image Shammi started out with, was started by Tumsa Nahin Dekha, reinforced by Dil Deke Dekho and completed by Junglee.

Chandrashekhar (Shammi Kapoor) or Shekhar as he is called now, belongs to an aristrocratic family, who believe laughter is a sign of belonging to the lower class, and as a result laughter is not encouraged in the household, run by Shekhar’s domineering mom (Lalita Pawar). In this household the only one who dares to laugh and enjoy life is Shekhar’s sister Mala (Shashikala), who also dares to love Jeevan (Anoop Kumar).

Things change when their mom finds out about Mala’s indiscretions, and she asks Shekhar to take her away from their home, to distant and scenic Kashmir, for a while. She also instructs Shekhar to arrange to get married to a girl from a princely family. When Shekhar escorts Mala out of town, and on reaching Kashmir, he meets up with beautiful Rajkumari (Saira Banoo), and after being stranded with her for a night during a snowstorm, he realizes what he has been missing, and becomes a care-free man in love. This change is welcomed by Mala, but not by his mother. To make matters worse, Rajkumari does not belong to a princely family, and Shekhar knows that his mom will never approve of his marriage with Rajkumari.

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Tags: Saira Banu, Shammi Kapoor

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