February 3 movie: Zanjeer. This was the movie that made Amitabh a superstar, and started him playing the "angry young man" characters that were his trademark in the 70s and early 80s. I enjoyed it, but not as much as I was expecting to. Amitabh's performance lacked the swagger of later movies like Don or Amar Akbar Anthony. I guess maybe because he wasn't yet a superstar when he made Zanjeer.
The highlight of the movie was a red-headed Muslim criminal (played by Pran, the tightrope walking dad in Don) who reforms and becomes Amitabh's best friend. A very fun, larger than life character. Also the music was really good. By Kalyanji-Anandji, it didn't have the deep funk vibe of Don, but it was catchy and enjoyable. Those guys rival R.D. Burman for my favorite Bollywood composers.
[ETA: I forgot one funny thing. The female romantic lead in the movie is played by Jaya Bhaduri, who went on to become Mrs. Amitabh Bachchan. She's a very small woman, and Amitabh is very tall, and he towered over her in their scenes together. At one point Georg and I had this exchange:
me: "Look at that height difference! He must be a foot taller than her!"
Georg: incredulous stare
me: "Oh right, you're a foot taller than me. Whoops!"
I think that Amitabh must have been more than a foot taller than Jaya. Because I come up to about Georg's shoulder, and she looked much shorter compared to Amitabh. If she's 5 foot even and he's 6'4", which could easily be the case, then there would be a 16 inch height difference.]
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