Great Music. Excellent acting by Mehmood, Pran, Helen.

I watched this movie because of some strong recommendations. But I came away disappointed. Apart from the core concept, I did not find any redeemable factor in the movie. Let me explain in my own way.10 Things Wrong With Gumnaam1. Everyone goes on insulting Mehmood's character just because of his dark skin. It goes on and on, and in various insulting forms. Gets sickening after the very first time. And all this is supposed to be comedy. For whom, even for people of color?2. The same character is given a Hyderabadi accent, and that's again supposed to be funny. 3. The movie has the most insulting song to any demographic of people ever created. The song, Hum Kaale Hai to Kya Hua (What if I am dark?) is an absolute travesty, cringe-worthy to watch. Mirror of those times, eh?4. The only way the lead actor gets the girl is by stalking her. When he gets insufferable, she tells him, "You have made my life difficult." Then he breaks into song Ek Ladki ne Jeena Mushkil Kar Diya (A girl has made my life difficult). At the end of the song, they are in love. And the actor is the holier-than-thou Manoj Kumar.5. Logic dies several deaths in the movie. In one scene a female actor is informed that her uncle has expired. She does one of those mandatory "Naheeeen" things, and the next scene she is dancing the cabaret in a shiny gold dress.6. Second death of logic: Manoj Kumar is shown as a steward on a plane. Then the plane goes haywire and they land on a mysterious island. There, people wonder, "What did you do in Bombay for a living?"7. Another logic death: On the island where they are stranded, they find out from a diary that they are brought here as punishment for their past sins and they are all going to die miserable deaths. No one even bats an eyelid at that; they are more interested on what's in their dinner plates. And the next morning, Helen goes for a swim in the ocean in a bikini, and men such as Pran and Dhumal forget everything and lust over her.8. This is one of those Indian movies where foreign countries mustn't be named, for IDK what reason. When people win a raffle, the announcement is "Aap videsh jaa rahe hai." (You are going to another country.) No one asks which, the plane has no name, and they all land up the next day dressed in three-piece suits (the men) for the journey! En route, when the plane develops a snag, the pilot tells the plane can still land. The people hop out of it, and the pilot comes and says, "It will take two hours for me to repair the engine. Meanwhile, you can roam around." IN A FOREIGN COUNTRY! As if it is a Neeta Volvo Bus!9. And they find nothing in the place they land, but a desolate haveli and in that the Hyderabadi character of all things! Hyderabad is everywhere, right!10. Pran goes on drinking booze all the time on the stranded island. I can go on and on about this Indian "classic" but now I have other things to do. However, even watching this was a learning experience. I get a feel of what people of those times used to rave about. Today, this movie would have been laughed out of the cinema halls.

It's rather unusual seeing a Bollywood musical that features a thriller story in it. On the one hand it's also a real ridicules movies but it does work out in its own kind of way. It manages to create a likable, light, atmosphere, with a mystery story weaved into it, that keeps things going at all time.I'm not even a big fan of 'normal' musical, let alone Bollywood musicals. However the songs in this movie are actually quite good to listen to and besides, some of them actually do serve a purpose for the movie its story.It's a movie with a pretty good premise in it, that I'm sure some big Hollywood producers would had been jealous off. Thriller and mystery wise it really is a great concept, even though the movie really always doesn't put that much emphasize on its thriller and mystery elements.Also in the end, the story itself really doesn't make much sense. It leaves far too many questions and the concept suddenly actually seems pretty far fetched. Besides, even though this is a mystery movie, I can't really say that the movie has lots of surprises in it. It was pretty obvious who the killer was from the start on, due to the incredible unconvincing 'disguise' that he is wearing. The only mystery of the movie is why the other characters in this didn't noticed this.It's also quite ridicules how all of the characters aren't busy trying to find the killer, even though they know the are all going to get killed one by one, or try to find a way of the island. No. they are all just to busy swimming, eating, falling in love and singing and dancing to songs. But when you watch a Bollywood movie you know that you have to take all these things for granted. I did just that and was quite taken by the overall movie experience.Once you surrender yourself to this movie, you'll find it a quite pleasant movie experience. Its basically a great mixture of some cheerful fun and a bit of a darker story. But did it really needed to be so long? None of these Bollywood movies should be so long really but that is what happens when you show a reaction shot of every character every time that something happened. And there are 9 main characters in this movies...Yes, it really is a quite clumsily made movie at times, with its directing, camera-work and editing but also this does quite often add to the charm and movie experience of this movie. So even the bad things about this movie can work out as something positive, which says something about the effective this movie has on you while you are watching it. I think it's fair to say that you really don't have to be into Bollywood movies to watch and enjoy this one.It's also a movie that uses some nice settings. It's in no way a cheap looking movie, with fake looking sets in it, even though the movie probably didn't cost an awful lot to make. It shows that is pays off to shoot your movie mostly on location, rather than somewhere on the back of a studio lot.Despite of all my criticism, I really did surprisingly enjoy this movie!8/10 http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

About ten years ago, my brother and I were sick with the flu and surfing the endless satalite channels when we came across this movie and could not change the channel. We laughed all day and days to come: imitating the dance with the masked men and the lady in the obnoxious gold dress. And I was laughing again when I saw it again a few months ago in Ghost World. You think the abstract direction of the sixties was bazaare and silly- check out what was going on in India.