I have to admit that yesterday is the first time that I saw Bobby. I have always loved its songs and watched them occasionally too but never checked the whole film out. Yesterday, I decided to finally check it out and I feel bad for not visiting this gem before. In Bollywood, there are quite a few good teenagers / young adults (relatively) love stories. Some of the classics include - Love Story, Ek Duje Ke Liye, Betaab, Hero, Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak, Maine Pyar Kiya and Dilwale Dulhanaya Le Jayage (DDLJ). When it comes to teenagers / young adults love stories, Bobby is undoubtedly the trend setter and would probably sit at the top. I would not go in to the story as we know how these films go. What is important is how these films are made. In Bobby, Raj Kapoor has ensured that he got all the ingredients right. The chemistry between the lead pair is as good as it can get. Veteran actors Pran and Prem Nath play their roles convincingly. Prem Chopra makes a cameo in which he introduces himself similar to how James Bond does - "Prem naam hai mera, Prem Chopra". What to say about the songs? They still sound great. In fact, this is one of those films which has a great collection of memorable songs. Coming back to the film being a trend setter, I was surprised to find that Maine Pyar Kiya is an improvised version of Bobby. What is interesting is that while films such as DDLJ may appear to have dated now or lost some of its appeal to an extent, Bobby still continues to impress. One thing that could probably be improved is the first 15 minutes or so of the film where the film shows young Raj (Rishi Kapoor) growing up. Considering the taste of today's audiences, may be start the film from when Raj returns from the boarding school. Raj Kapoor is a legendary film maker and many of his films including Bobby should be restored to HD / 4K format, re-edited and re- released at least on Blue Ray.

First off, I can't hold my feelings against the way director Raj Kapoor was displaying his heroine Dimple Kapadia. I've never seen before in Indian movie, or else, such a passion to show and just show off a teen girl's body as plentiful as this ! It sure turned the taste of the movie from a romantic tale to a lunching of a 16 year old sex symbol ! Making the whole story from another Romeo and Juliet to another Lolita !Raj Kapoor was always interested in hard love stories, this one is, yet with a happy ending and without far melodramatic turns. However, no movie he directed up till that moment was having this desire to exploit sexily a very young girl as increasingly as we've watched! That already exceeded the proper bounds of the movie's basic love story; to an extent makes you think that Bobby's main point wasn't its love story only ! It was the 1970s. Earlier there was the free, swinging and hippie 1960s. So, it was ordinary to have a risqué fashions in a 1973 movie. But away from any historical conformity, with the night gowns, the short skirts; the visible panties underneath them, and the red Bikini (!) Kapadia looked strangely naked for most of the time (and according to the romantic movies, the Indian cinema at the time, and the girl's age : shockingly naked !). Clearly it isn't a movie about seduction, and if it's about the sexual dimension in love; then the nakedness was too abundant. It isn't even a sex comedy; and you know what ? If it is, then that's the wrong age to use!So could that be part of some kind of general development was happening back then (values, tastes, modes, movies..)?, or simply Kapoor was desperately commercial, dispatching this sexuality to certain audience, giving them a new yet "teen" sex goddess ?? (That's itself new enough !). At any rate, it is what the audience needed in India 1973 (putting in mind its rank as super hit). And Kapadia grew up to be one of the boldest temptation queens in the history of Indian cinema anyway ! As someone who savors the classic Indian songs I must say that save (Mein Shayar Tho Nahin) no other song got my admiration or attention. Raj Kapoor's famous love of using wide lens is evident in here. He always was thinking of the viewer as they must see huge sets and performers all the time. The drown behinds the décor were part of the romantic sense with its exact colors and smooth design. By the way this movie can be as useful as a dictionary for anyone who wants to study all the early 1970s gaudy and vociferous costumes for boys and girls. Prem Nath was nice in his supporting role. I touched a slight state of being influenced by Raj Kapoor's direction and acting. And we all know that Pran is god's gift to the supporting roles in the Indian cinema. He's one of few actors all over the world that can define The supporting role enjoyably and by countless movies too.Rishi Kapoor and Dimple Kapadia have great charisma. Yes, the performance was plausible but what makes it super is originally the casting. The 2 of them are real teens. Being in the right age for a romance was always a problem in movies. The bet at the newcomers here was right. Sadly I didn't see both of them as bright except very few times later. I didn't like the script. Too ordinary makes the story not only old and familiar but weak as well. Simplicity has been forever the shortest way to being classic, but wholly not this time. (Bobby) is supposed to be a naive love story with all the clichés, the stereotypes but on a richly entertaining level. It didn't work for me because its true naivety sometimes, and its distracting, rather disturbing, use of its heroine. It was importunately determined on manufacturing a wet sexy dream out of pretty young girl with, or more than, a romance between a boy and a girl.

Raj Kapoor proved himself as a successful director by the release of Bobby. He introduced his next son Rishi, (younger than the elder Randhir) who later in years became a screen icon along with Amitab.Bobby was released in 1973 during the Rajesh Khanna years and this film was eventful in the sense that people learned and became aware of a young entrant of an old Indian cinema family - The first being the Prithvi Raj Kapoor.The songs composed by R.D. Burman are mesmerizing and the direction is also superb. This film along with Amitabh's "Zanjeer" both released in 1973 served a real shock to the "Khanna phenomenon" which was the talk of every town for the last so many years.

A completely crazy Romeo and Juliet-style story about two teenagers, him rich and her poor, who fall head over heels for each other and defend their love against all adversity. Maybe not Raj Kapoor's best, but certainly interesting and groundbreaking for its time. This was actually the first Bollywood film I ever saw where it was clearly expressed (even though through a song and dance scene) that the pair was sleeping with each other - even more unusual as the couple consisted of two teenagers! Very Seventies in style with a severely overacting cast, but great fun nevertheless. In many ways a movie of a much freer and more uncompromising spirit than most Bollywood fare of today - but then, it was the Seventies...