Recently, I watched a few minutes from the Hindi movie LOHA (Iron) from 1980s on one of the Indian movie channels I subscribe to. Amrish Puri is the main villain, named DAKU (Bandit) SAITAAN (devil) Singh, with an explosive moustache and a thin crop of hair bisecting his bald head. A 5 feet long double barrel gun strapped one side of his body with a thick belt of bullets wrapped around his waist, extending upwards to his shoulders on the other side. He had more hair on his eyebrows than his head and a thick lair of dark KAAJAL (Mascara) paste under his eyes.
The reason I took pains to watch this, even for a few minutes, was due to the nostalgia associated with it. I watched this movie in its entirety, in a bed bug infested theater in Puri, Odisha in 1987. Bed bugs in Puri can bite chunks of your a** off, which is apparent from the back scratching of the viewers coming out of the theatre. Adding to my woe, someone left a big mouthful of chewing gum on my seat. I realized this midway through the movie when I tried to get up. During the intermission I cleaned myself from that gluey stuff using a handkerchief (a part of a teens pocket paraphernalia those days along with a comb). Then I took my TASREEF (sat down) to finish up the rest of the movie, now taking utmost care to avoid the torn away portion of coconut coir and springs protruding upwards from the chair.
As the movie was about to end, Dharmendra, one of the lead actors kept charging towards Amrish Puri yelling KAMINE KUTTE MEIN TERI KHOON PEE JAUNGA( You scoundrel dog, I will drink your blood). He gives Amrish Puri a downward blow, using his fist as a hammer on his head, which instantly buries the later inside the solid ground until his waist, such was the power of Dharmendra's blow. The entire cinema hall erupts with whistles and applause's. Dharmendra had a huge fan following in Puri those days (I doubt he is aware of this).
Leaving Amrish Puri for dead, Dharmendra now turns around to embrace his other accomplishes Shatrughna Sinha and Karan Kapoor ( a Bombay Dyeing model in 1980s who had a forgettable movie career). But not so fast, in Bollywood formula multi starrers the villain manages to kill one of the heroes before he dies. Amrish Puri slowly turns and grabs a gun which always has a single bullet left in it, gives his typical smirk and shoots Dharmendra from back. The single bullet spent, Amrish Puri can now only click his empty gun and of course is killed now by a hail of bullets from Shatrughna Sinha. Now it is Dhamendra's turn to die, not before uttering a long monologue how fortunate he is to die in the arms of his friends. This forgettable movie LOHA is not so forgettable for me.
The reason I took pains to watch this, even for a few minutes, was due to the nostalgia associated with it. I watched this movie in its entirety, in a bed bug infested theater in Puri, Odisha in 1987. Bed bugs in Puri can bite chunks of your a** off, which is apparent from the back scratching of the viewers coming out of the theatre. Adding to my woe, someone left a big mouthful of chewing gum on my seat. I realized this midway through the movie when I tried to get up. During the intermission I cleaned myself from that gluey stuff using a handkerchief (a part of a teens pocket paraphernalia those days along with a comb). Then I took my TASREEF (sat down) to finish up the rest of the movie, now taking utmost care to avoid the torn away portion of coconut coir and springs protruding upwards from the chair.
As the movie was about to end, Dharmendra, one of the lead actors kept charging towards Amrish Puri yelling KAMINE KUTTE MEIN TERI KHOON PEE JAUNGA( You scoundrel dog, I will drink your blood). He gives Amrish Puri a downward blow, using his fist as a hammer on his head, which instantly buries the later inside the solid ground until his waist, such was the power of Dharmendra's blow. The entire cinema hall erupts with whistles and applause's. Dharmendra had a huge fan following in Puri those days (I doubt he is aware of this).
Leaving Amrish Puri for dead, Dharmendra now turns around to embrace his other accomplishes Shatrughna Sinha and Karan Kapoor ( a Bombay Dyeing model in 1980s who had a forgettable movie career). But not so fast, in Bollywood formula multi starrers the villain manages to kill one of the heroes before he dies. Amrish Puri slowly turns and grabs a gun which always has a single bullet left in it, gives his typical smirk and shoots Dharmendra from back. The single bullet spent, Amrish Puri can now only click his empty gun and of course is killed now by a hail of bullets from Shatrughna Sinha. Now it is Dhamendra's turn to die, not before uttering a long monologue how fortunate he is to die in the arms of his friends. This forgettable movie LOHA is not so forgettable for me.
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