Moti from Mard
Skill Set: Telepathy, Terpsichore, bomb-making, whistling, peeing on Bob Christo's head.
It almost seems unfair to the rest to include Moti in this competition. Because just as Mard, in all its sweaty hyper-masculinty, comes across like a masala film on steroids, Moti himself seems like some kind of insanely supercharged version of your typical Bollywood anipal. Not only does he perform more than his share of canine derring-do, but he also proves himself adept at comical mugging and even dancing. When you consider all of that, it's surprising that Manmohan Desai didn't just go for broke and picturize a song on him, too. Ah, the missed opportunity! Even so, I'm fairly certain that, if we had ever seen an instance of Mohammed Aziz's dulcet tones emanating from a dog's mouth, it would have been Moti's.
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10 comments:
Ha! I wonder if Moti is the same dog that was a bigger star than Jackie Shroff in Teri Meherbaniyan? There the dog got to take revenge on Jackie's behalf and more importantly got to cry over Jackie's grave even as Mohd Aziz's dulcet voice gave vent to the title track in the background. :)
That song when shown on the weekly film song show Chitrahaar, impressed everyone with an 8 year old mentality greatly, making the film a hit. Back then, when even articles about human stars were all too rare, India Today actually featured an article about that dog, how much it charged per day and about how its owner insisted on an AC room for the star. :) (AC because after crashing tru glass, it needed the cool air. :)
He was also a generous co-star who didn't mind sharing anipal space with Bahadur/Badal the wonder horse.
You are so right about his masala skills and Mohd Aziz being his "voice".
Sunil, it sounds like I *might* have to look for Teri Meherbaniyan.
Yeah, Sunil. I think in the interest of making the Animalympics as rigorously methodical a survey of Bollywood anipals as possible, I'm going to have to see Teri Meherbaniyan, too. And it's your fault.
Teri Meherbaniyan is one of Jackie's few solo hits and even then the trade openly talked about the dog outdoing him. :)
But to be fair, there is nothing remotely new or different in the film except for the title song. If you can watch that, you save 3 hours of your life. :)
Hey, Amrish Puri is the bad buy in it. That's always a plus.
Be careful, Todd. To be really anipal-comprehensive, you'll have to watch Sooraj Barjatya films too.
You're right, Memsaab. Because you know where that leads; I'll end up feeling like I have to include that stupid dog from Hum Aapke Hain Koun. And that just ain't gonna happen.
Well you should probably include Jackie and Charlie from Mr. India (1961), the first possibly gay dog couple in cinema.
We'll give you a pass on HAHK.
Mohd Aziz doing the howling for Moti and Moti in turn crying river of tears for his dead master Jakie while lighting up his pyre. I can't even get myself to watch that song again. The film was a big commercial success and Jakie and Moti gave many interviews together. They even made it to the cover of a few magazines. In fact, for the longest time I believed that Moti had moved in with Jakie Shroff.
Memsaab, while my pro-diversity leanings tempt me to include your gay bowsers, your review seems to suggest that their behaviour is disturbingly "reality-based". Do these dogs at any point wield guns or smoke cigars?
Vinayak: Yeah, I'm sold on Teri Meherbaniyan. And, hey, there it is, right at the top of my Netflix queue.
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