Hero Hiralal (1988)
8/10
Charming & more Charming!
12 January 2006
Little flavor of 80s (long skirts and no obnoxious dresses), Good music, Naseeruddin Shah at his best as usual, and add a new face on top of that. That's Hero Hiralal for you. People said that it was an inconsequential movie. May be so. What could we expect at the time when Govinda, Anil Kapoor, and other actors were churning out non-sense in the late 80s. Hero Hiralal was a breath of freshness, which was obviously not meant for the masses, however, it may have seemed so. All shots that focused Naseer and Sanjana together were superb in terms of photography, facial focus and dialogues. True that Sanjana couldn't speak Hindi without an accent. What do you expect from an Anglo-Indian girl? But ironically, I still find hers better than the accent of some of today's actresses who speak Hindi like they were born and raised somewhere in Midwest USA.

I found Sanjana quite charming (much more beautiful than her nieces Karishma and Kareena). Sapno Ki Duniya (slow version) was a terrific song, obviously lost due to movie's commercial failure. Saeed Jafri, Satish Shah and Mr. Yogi fame actor were good in supporting roles. Deepa Mehta was OK and others merely filled in. This is a movie with no frills, no beach dances, no non-sense. A simple and pure means of entertainment meant for the whole family.

It's unfortunate that Sanjana's career didn't click in Bollywood. May be it was her accent or may be it was her timing. Or may be she was just meant for Prithvi Theater. A great movie. Watch it at least once and then decide. By the way, finally the DVD is out for this movie. At least someone recognized the movie!
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