"Actor: Minoo Mumtaz"

• Dilli Ka Thug | DVD | (07/11/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Kishore's life does a double flip when his father is murdered. His to be father-in-law breaks his engagement with Nutan because Kishore has lost his father and with it the bank balance too. Kishore on a job-hunt stumbles upon his sweetheart and upon secrets which has Nutan's father gunning for his life. All is not well with the father! Songs thrills and suspense keep the film moving at a brisk pace until the all's well that ends well climax.

• Chaudhvin Ka Chand | DVD | (07/08/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  For a fleeting moment at a county fair Nawab had a glimpse of fair moon-like face as it peeped from within the confines of a black 'burqa'. He tried without avail to find the whereabouts of the girl. The next day a torn corner of her veil came into his possession; and he handed it over to a trusted women employee with instructions to find the owner of the veil.Neither Nawab nor his employee was aware that the girl according to a Muslim custom (which purports to cement friendships) had exchanged veils with another girl. Nawab's woman employee found that her search for the torn veil led her beloved was Bano. Forthwith Nawab began to make plans for marrying Bano.Nawab's ailing mother was in no condition to undertake the Haj pilgrimage. She decided to send as her proxy a Maulvi Saheb. But the Maulvi wouldn't even think of going leaving his youthful daughter without chaperon. He said he would go on one condition: that Nawab marry his daughter. Nawab however having already lost his heart prevailed on Aslam a close friend of his to marry the Maulvi's daughter. While he himself when he finally got to Bano found that Bano was not his beloved!And then once again at a fair Nawab saw the girl in the black 'burqa'. She was accompanied by a girl in a white burqa. Nawab Aslam and their friend Shaida all three of them followed the black burqa to the girl's home. But they did not know that the girls while they were at the mazar had exchanged their veils. The 'home' of the 'girl' turned out to be the residence of Aslam's uncle. Aslam unhesitantly promised to arrange Nawab's marriage with his (Aslam's) cousin Naseema.One day per chances Nawab arrived at Aslam's house when his eye's lighted on Aslam's wife Jamila he had a revelation. Aslam too learned for the first time that the beloved Nawab had sought fruitlessly was Jamila! Aslam was very much beholden Nawab. He therefore decided to ruin his own home in order to bring out Nawab's happiness. He started visiting the establishments of tawaaifs' (singing girl): so that he should gain notoriety Jamila's folks should ask for a divorce and then Jamila should be free to marry Nawab.Nawab and Naseema were scheduled to wed soon. There was a conflict in Aslam's mind. He could not bear to see his closest friend unhappy. What should he do?The conflict is resolved in the beautiful denouement of Guru Dutt's Chaudhvin Ka Chand.

• Chaudhvin Ka Chand | DVD | (20/08/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

• Kaagaz Ke Phool | DVD | (20/08/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

• Choudhvin Ka Chand | DVD | (15/11/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Guru Dutt's glowing tribute to love Choudhvin Ka Chand is the story of mistaken identities. Pyare Miyan (Rehman) falls in love with Jameela (Waheeda Rehman) whom he catches a glimpse of at a mela. Meanwhile his old and sick mother persuades the maulvi to go to Haj on her behalf in exchange to get his daughter Jameela married to her son. Pyare Miyan thinking his love to be someone else refuses the match and instead persuades his best friend Aslam (Guru Dutt) to marry Jameela. When the two best friends find out this tangle of mistaken identities both are shattered torn between friendship and true love. Will the course of love run true? Who will be the one to make the terrible choice between love and friendship? Choudhvin ka Chand remains one of Guru Dutt's most enduring films having left indelible imprints of exquisite images of Waheeda Rehman at her beautifull best and music director Ravi's greatest hits.

• C.I.D. | DVD | (20/08/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Noir, Indian style: that in a nutshell is Raj Khosla's classic crime thriller C.I.D. (1956). Dev Anand plays the intrepid C.I.D Inspector Shekhar who is trying to solve the murder of a newspaper editor. On the way to achieving this he comes across a variety of stock film noir characters including a do-gooder with a dark side, a vamp with a heart of gold and a bumbling sidekick. All the elements of the genre are present, from the enigmatic woman to the cigarette-puffing hero to the tough police commissioner. And of course our hero finds true love as well. Produced by cult actor/director Guru Dutt, C.I.D. is a worthy companion piece to the Dutt-directed hit Baazi (1951) which explored similar territory. Cinematographer VK Murthy, who is now revered as one of the best ever, creates a shadowy, smoky world that perfectly frames the on-screen happenings. What makes it uniquely Indian is the introduction of several popular songs that enhance rather than disrupt the narrative. The suave Dev Anand is more of a soft-boiled detective than a hard-boiled one. But what makes the film memorable is Waheeda Rehman's vamp who is as coy, sexy and mysterious as they come. On the DVD: C.I.D. on DVD comes with a note that says "reproduced from vintage source for the sake of nostalgic appeal, hence possibly compromising on quality". Happily, the quality is quite good barring a couple of dropouts near the beginning. The black and white transfer is not as crisp as it could be, but given the state of film preservation in India it is quite acceptable. The subtitles are accurate. The best feature on the DVD is Nasreen Munni Kabir's three-part Channel 4 documentary "In Search of Guru Dutt" which is a comprehensive and fascinating look into the life and work of C.I.D.'s producer. --Nanan Ramachandran

• Yahudi | DVD | (29/08/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £6.99

  Based on Kashmiri's famous and often filmed play. This version is partially authenticated by former Parsee Theatre actor Modi's Prescence. The melodrama in fancy dress is set in ancient Rome. The infant son of Ezra The Jew is fed to the lions by Brutus's daughter Lydia whom Ezra renames Hannah and raises as his own child. The Roman Prince Marcus falls in love with Hannah by pretending to be Aommoner but he refuses to convert to Judaism in order to marry her when by royal decree Ma

• Kaagaz Ke Phool | DVD | (22/11/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £6.99

  The movie begins in the dying moments in the life of a famous film director played by Guru Dutt. The movie then moves to the beginning of his career where he meets Shanti only a debutante and unsure of everything she does. His growing fascination for her prompts him to cast her in his movies. Her growing independence and stature and his subsequent decay into mediocrity the tension between their personal feelings and their professional goals sets the stage for the rest of the movie. The movie has several generally acclaimed songs by Geeta Dutt which are inextricable from the movie plot itself.