the Mysterious Order of the Skeleton Suit investigates Hindi cinema
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You may have noticed a new link in the sidebar to a site called the Mysterious Order of the Skeleton Suit. If you're into poppy, sometimes monster-y, other times spy-y, always silly goodness, you will probably love reading (and listening to!) the works of my fellow MOSS agents (who include long-time friends Memsaab, Die Danger Die Die Kill, the Horror, and Teleport City). Our October mission—should we choose to accept it, and we probably do—is to investigate our namesake motif: that classic cinematic costume staple, the skeleton suit.
To my knowledge, there are very few skeleton suits to be found in Bollywood. I can think of only three: Pran and some of his friends in Karz,
one of the countless low-budget monsters in Shaitani Dracula, a movie so bizarre and terrible that you kind of have to see it to believe it, or if you are concerned for your mental well-being just read all about on Teleport City because therein Keith delivers one of the funniest pieces of writing of the decade,
and the jiving crew in the superb "Main Bhookha" from Bhoot Bungla, which Memsaab has written up with her usual aplomb.
However, given my love for villain lairs and 70s and early 80s masala (and its descendants), I have seen many skeletons and skulls as prominent decor or visual motifs.
Ajooba (look on the wall of rocks for two skeletons and the big stone skull)
I also like these computer-generated skeletons in Naag Lok. They rise out of graves, bounce up and down (maybe they were backup dancers back in their day?), and whoosh towards the camera.
By leaps and bounds, the most enjoyable Bollywood skeleton I have ever seen is in Jaani Dushman: Ek Anokhi Kahani. I mean, look:
Is that not amazing? It has SLEEVES. For a video clip, click here. And if you've never seen this film, I would actually recommend reading my friend Steve's writeup of it (you remember Steve—he wrote Army of Monkeys) instead because the film is dreadful.
What skeletons have you found hidden in the dark recesses of the filmi world? Share in the comments!
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Anonymous said…
You came up with lots of skeletons! Thanks for representing Bollywood in Skeleton Suit Month :)
The dates and underlining are my own. My notations indicate who is of what generation: double underlines are for Prithviraj's children; single underlines are for their children; dashed lines for their children; etc.
If you'd rather read, the family tree goes like this, color-coded by major branch and with the names you probably recognize in bold: first and second generations: Prithviraj Kapoor (born 1906) is the father of Raj (Ranbir Raj, born 1924), Shammi (Shamsher Raj, 1931), and Shashi (Balbir Raj, 1938). Prithviraj and his wife Ramsarni (Rama) also had a daughter, Urmi (between Shammi and Shashi), and two children who died, Ravinder and Devinder.Prithviraj has a brother named Trilok Kapoor, who is a film actor too. H…
Hey, everyone - hi. This is Beth. I am absolutely fascinated with the question of who is reading this, and my curiosity is further piqued by the growth of the happy little dots on my ClustrMap. Either there is some creative ISPing going on here, or I see people visiting from India, Singapore, Mauritius, South Africa, Europe, South America, Canada, and the US. (Special shout-out to Canada! I'm an honourary Canadian! I love you guys!) Anyway, hello to you all! I don't like how most guestbook thingies on websites seem to work, so instead I invite everyone who stops by to leave a little comment on this post (this will also be linked from the nav bar) and say hi and share why you like or are interested in Bollywood - and what brought you here. Thanks! And don't forget to have a snack before you go - they're on the table over there. Punch, too.
This group might boggle the mind even more than the Kapoors—to whom, thanks to Kishore Kumar's countless marriages, they are also connected. In college, I had a giant chart of the English royal family since the early medieval period (history major WHAT WHAT), and this one is no less complex. I don't have the words to express how amazed I am by all of this, the layer upon layer of connections, even though there is nothing new in families staying in the same business across generations or in allying with others in the same field. (Click here for a pdf.)
Corollary: now that Rani Mukherjee and Aditya Chopra are married, Uday Chopra and Satyajit Ray aredistantly related. Only by marriage, but still. Previous family tree projects: the Irani sisters (including Javed Akhtar, Shabana Azmi, and Farah Khan), the Feroz and Sanjay Khans and Roshans (with Mumtaz!), Satyajit Ray to Mithun Chakraborty (which shows the link to the Kapoors), and the Kapoors (which I need to re-do in a more v…
one of the countless low-budget monsters in Shaitani Dracula, a movie so bizarre and terrible that you kind of have to see it to believe it, or if you are concerned for your mental well-being just read all about on Teleport City because therein Keith delivers one of the funniest pieces of writing of the decade,
and the jiving crew in the superb "Main Bhookha" from Bhoot Bungla, which Memsaab has written up with her usual aplomb. 
Is that not amazing? It has SLEEVES. For a video clip, click here. And if you've never seen this film, I would actually recommend reading my friend Steve's writeup of it (you remember Steve—he wrote Army of Monkeys) instead because the film is dreadful.
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