Manoranjan
Manoranjan
| 11 January 1974 (USA)
Manoranjan Trailers

Havaldar Ratan is a rookie at the local police station, and is assigned duty on foot patrol on Manoranjan Street, a notorious red-light area, on the very first day of his job. He strikes up a conversation with a good-looking young woman named Nisha, and tells her that there is a possible violation of Suppression of Immoral Trafficking Act taking place on this street. He witnesses several women soliciting men, and decides to call in the paddy wagon, and get them arrested. Alas, one of the men frequenting the prostitutes is none other than Ratan's superior officer, who immediately summons Ratan, and has him removed from service on corruption charges. Nisha takes pity on a homeless and unemployed Ratan, and asks him to live with her. He does not want her to sell her body, and so he decides to work at night, and during the day he takes on the guise of a rich Nawab and spends time with her.

Reviews
AniInterview

Sorry, this movie sucks

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Vashirdfel

Simply A Masterpiece

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Crwthod

A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.

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Mathilde the Guild

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

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Suman Shakya

The characters, setting, costumes, or the events clearly suggest the western influence in this comedy. The film fails to deliver novelty, meanders a lot, and is overlong feeling you to skip some of the parts. Despite, the film is also interesting in parts with comedies done by Sanjeev Kumar and Shammi Kapoor. The formulaic comedy of disguise by the hero looks a very bad imitation of "Professor" and at least there are moments when you would like to bang your head for the silliness of the movie. The songs, dances, and the performances from the supporting cast (even Zeenat Aman) isn't impressive. What you would like of this movie is its comical situations and wit created towards the second half of the movie. Overall, the film begins well and if you can tolerate the muddled events in the middle, the film ends at a humorous note. Anyway, if you like Shammi kapoor's screen presence, have a try with this one in which he makes a nice role.Rating: 1 star out of 4

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Vivek Bhatia

Not a bad movie, but it clearly is as good is it is by way of being almost a scene-by-scene copy of Billy Wilder's Irma la Douce (1963) (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057187/).Sanjeev Kumar plays Jack Lemmon's role, Zeenat Aman Shirley Maclaine's and Shammi Kapoor plays Lou Jacobi's. Hotel Casanova is called Hotel Mauj! Interestingly, in copying Irma la Douce, Manoranjan became probably the first Hindi movie where prostitution was presented as a 'fun' activity without (overt) moralising and the heroine sleeps with men other than the hero and that's OK. Quite a bid ahead of the curve for an Indian comedy made in 1974.Good fun!

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faceman_163

This is the Hindi version of "Irma La Douce" & it is not one of those bad remakes."Manoranjan" is a funny musical with good performances.However, the movie is finally released on DVD by Shemaroo & selling like hot cakes.Do not miss it if you are a Zeenat Aman fan, & check out the actress's' performance in her the early days of her career.Sanjeev Kumar gives one of his funniest performances.To support, there is Shammi Kapoor, Faryal & others.Manoranjan is a total entertainer.

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sb_stpaul

Sanjiv Kumar plays a constable who falls in love with Zeenat Aman, a prostitute. The result is hilarious. This is one of the few Hindi movies which acknowledge the source. In this case the source being Irma La Douce, probably the Billy Wilder movie, not the play written by Alxandre Breffort. Sanjiv Kumar is brilliant as usual. He seems eminently comfortable in comic roles. Zeenat Aman is stiff as usual, but manages to look quite attractive, and naughty. The studio set used is not naturalistic enough but it does not hamper the illusion. One brilliant scene is where Zeenat's room is searched by several policemen. Sanjiv Kumar, as the Nawab, is superb. Shammi Kapur proves to be quite a good director. Its a pity he does not give us more. The film was famous for its 'adult' content. It was famous, but no phenomenon like Sholay.

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