June 12, 2006

China Gate

I´ve a confession to make. No. I´m proud to annonce: I love old western movies. I grew up watching High Noon, Rio Bravo, Paint Your Wagon and of course The Magnificent Seven with my dad. Later I fell in love with the Akira Kurosawa original. So imagine my curiosity when I first got my fingers on "China Gate"

Its the "geriatric magnificent ten in Sholay county" with Urmila Matondkar in an item number. Plus it has both Puri Brothers, Danny Danzongpa, Jackie Shroff and Naseeruddin Shah.











In this version of the story ten
dishonorably discharged army guys fight a slightly mad (actually bhilkul pagal) gangster who terrorizes a small village. And our heroes combat evil while fighting their own wonderful little spleens. Its so much fun to watch those guys fighting for breath or complaining about aching backs and wrong diet. It feels like the actors had a blast shooting this movie and loved being able to kick a** once more. The bad guys are really bad. The good ones are great.











Its fun. Its dramatic. Its sweet. Its enthalling. It has lots of action. Its got a wonderful cast. It is simply a real cool western. And its the first time I liked Urmila.











Edit:
I forgot to mention that this was one movie where I had to shout at the screen in discontent because this one character was so not supposed to die. It was just not fair. He deserved to live a long and happy life and everything. Not fair. No. Bas.


1 comment:

Maja said...

Wow, a Hindi western, that's got to be fun :D
And I love Naseeruddin Shah!