Doosra Aadmi (1977) features not one but two of the Kapoor dynasty princes, Rishi and Shashi (son and brother of Raj, respectively, for those who have not mapped out the Kapoor family tree), as well as Rishi's princess Neetu Singh.* I know this blog isn't for fashion dos, but I cannot resisting contrasting the male stars, who demonstrate why, in some cultures, age, with its wisdom from experience, is so venerated. For the most part, the clothes in this movie are unfuggable (and maybe even tied to plot and chacater development, but more on that in my regular blog); they are 1977 in the good way, and even our hero Rishi gets normal-looking suits that elicit no comment. But then about halfway in, while taking a drive in the country, a most mysterious phenomenon occurs: Rishi somehow manages to look simultaneously like John Belushi, Woody Allen,
and Harry Potter.**
It's worse from the side.
Then just a few moments later, in the very same scene, he manages to channel 70s poster boy freshly-scrubbed cheeriness, with his dreamy stares and jaunty scarf...
until he holds his arms up too high for his cropped jacket and gives us a little muffin top.
Most of us would have muffin tops in a jacket and pants like that, which is why we here at Bollywood Fugly work so tirelessly to point out to costume designers how careful they must be.
On the bright side, however, we have the older and wiser Shashi (and my new FPMBF runner-up, by the way) showing us that a tank top, dress shirt, and leather jacket can be very successfully coordinated with just the right scarf (especially in the classic three-quarter turn, outstretched arms, coming-out-of-a-spin pose)
and that, depending on the uncle in question, maybe a little "uncle chest" can be a good thing.
Damn.
* The women in this movie got great clothes and generally looked 1970s classy, so I don't include them here.
** There are a lot of really big sunglasses in this movie, and generally speaking I like them, because they're 1) fun and 2) appropriate for the feeling and era of the movie. I'll be posting many more images of sunglasses and scarves in my write-up later this weekend.
