Khoon Khoon

Khoon Khoon (1973)

Runtime: 131 minutes

Directed by: Mohammed Hussain

Starring: Mahendra Sandhu, Danny Denzongpa, Jagdeep, Madan Puri, Rekha

From: Eagle Films/United Producers

Indian cinema... what an amazing thing that I hope to explore much more in the near future: 

Would you believe there is a movie on U.S. Netflix Instant which has only a few votes here and 15 votes on IMDb? I'll blame it on Netflix's new-and poor-layout. Yesterday I subscribed to it for the first time in like 2 months and besides there being a grand purge (at least judging by how much smaller my queue now is) there also is a new layout and it is less efficient at searching for films... at least there are multiple sites out there that have the secret links to more specific Instant searching...

Anyhow, I don't recall how I recently found out about this movie but no matter the source, I am glad to know there's an Indian version of Dirty Harry! As there are several main languages in India, I should probably specify that it's a Hindi version of Dirty Harry. It's not quite the same... sure, many story beats are followed so it will be familiar to those that have seen DH before. Of course there are some differences:

* The hero here is more slightly grungy than dirty; he has a wife and kid and even lives with his in-laws. He does not pull out a .44 Magnum and ask a punk if he feels lucky.

* The hero has a bumbling partner who is a real buffoon... this clown's main trait is that he's obsessed with eating boiled eggs! When the movie tries to do humor, it's not always great.

* The score is fine, at least what was made for the movie. Note that not only are several tracks lifted from Lalo Schifrin's score to Dirty Harry, but there's also a song from Goldfinger and even a cover of The Theme from Shaft, because damn the copyright laws.

* When there's action, it's not bad-in fact, there are a few impressive stunts.

* As it's Bollywood, there are some musical numbers, as it is what makes Indian cinema unique. Those tunes are fine. I thought the highlight was going to be the random scene where a belly dancer sings about how great she is as several shirtless dudes are faux playing instruments as they wear black shorts with white socks pulled way up high. Then there was a scene near the end...

* Remember when in Dirty Harry, Scorpio kidnaps that school bus full of young children? It happens here too. Scorpio has them sing songs then he suddenly snaps; here, THEY DO A MUSICAL NUMBER. Yes, the villain sings with the kids a jaunty tune, one so groovy you see some of the children dancing! The kids then mildly diss the villain-who by the way also danced-and that's when he snaps. I swear that this 5 minute long scene actually happened.

* I need to see more movies from India to witness insanity like this.

This is not great like Dirty Harry is, yet the Bollywood remake is so odd and it still is entertaining for what it is, I can give Khoon Khoon a good rating.