Disco Dancer (1987)
Cast: Anjuman, Sangeeta, Yusuf Khan, Shiva, Tariq Shah, Rangeela, Khanum, Asif Khan, Neimat Sarhadi
Director: Zahoor Hussain
Synopsis: Bombastic Lollywood potboiler with all the right ingredients!
Reviewed by: Omar Khan

Brothers (or is it Father and Son?), Zahoor Hussain Gilani and Manzoor Hussain Gilani produced and directed this Punjabi Action, Crime, and Masala melodrama with a strong feminist message containing the usual song, dance, and a touch of Tarzan of the Jungle as icing on the cake.

The film featured Anjuman, the unrivalled Queen of the Punjabi scene from back in the day. Anjuman plays a double role, supported by a sterling cast, including Yusuf Khan, Asif Khan, Tariq Shah, and Shiva from Nepal, who became quite popular in Pakistan. Sangeeta and Neimat Sarhadi as the Tarzan-like Shera Janglee also feature. There is also Khanam chewing up the scenery as Madam.

The film begins with a super-wealthy young couple leaving for a weekend to their privately owned forest along with their two infant daughters. They are off to visit their friend Shera, who lives deep in the woods and looks after their vast estate. The Super Rich couple seems to have everything anyone could wish for: a fabulous multicoloured house, numerous servants and sari-clad maids and a couple of stylish Toyotas to nip around their vast property. The only thing they desperately need to achieve nirvana is a proper heir to their millions, as the two kids they have are “unfortunately” girls, and they yearn for that elusive son.

On the way to the forest, they collide with a tree, resulting in disaster. The tycoon leaps out of the car, performs about 35 somersaults and rolls for hundreds of meters. He tries desperately to protect the infant in his arms but sadly dies, leaving the poor child defenceless in the middle of nowhere. The unfortunate mother appears mysteriously beside a nearby stream, gasping for breath due to the terrible accident.

Shera, climbing trees nearby, hears the commotion and comes hurtling Usain Bolt style to the rescue, only to find the mother in dire straits. She hands Shera her child and asks him to promise he will care for her as his own before she drops stone-cold dead.

A roaming gang of criminals discovers the daughter. The Boss is delighted to find a fat wad of cash in Daddy Dearest’s pocket and even happier when they find a shiny golden locket around the child’s neck.

They haven’t any use for the toddler and are about to hurl her physically to the other end of the forest when one of the lesser nasty hoodlums, the chubby blonde one with a hot weave, asks to keep the child for himself. The Boss reckons it’s a wrong move, but he is assured that she will be raised to be an asset to their crime business, so he relents.

So, one girl is with the faithful Shera Janglee, while the other is taken away to the city to become a part of a criminal Disco-based operation.

Shera, a rather portly but fearsome version of Tarzan-meets-thestone man, teaches his adopted daughter how to fight, hunt, and protect herself from the jungle’s dangers. The two often have fierce jostling battles to practice and maintain their edge against any fearsome intruders of the forest and those from the city.

Shera’s adopted daughter, Lali, grows from an ugly duckling to a gorgeous Jane-like Jungle Beauty. The two live contented, oblivious lives in the forest with an array of fearsome wild beasts surrounding

Disco Dancer them. Judging by their attire and training, we can assume they are hunters in the woods. Simple, but good folk.

We learn that the other sister has grown up as the gorgeous bombshell Disco and her role in the crime gang is to mesmerise the cops and all car owners with her spectacular Disco Dances. While she has her audience enthralled, her partners make off with an array of cars and go on looting sprees all over the city.

One day in the jungle, Lali spots a handsome stranger, played by Asif Khan, who is badly wounded and takes a terrible tumble from his horse. Sweet and innocent Lali, fearing for the stranger’s safety, rescues him and carries the unconscious fellow home.

With the help of some wild shrubs that Shera collects, Lali nurses the stranger named Amjad back to health and finds herself stirring with never-experienced, strange sensations. The city man tells her they are the pangs of love, and she blushes and giggles profusely before breaking out into a splendid dance in the forest to express her joy and delight.

Shera Janglee isn’t convinced, though, and feels some type of way. He refuses to allow Lali to go off to the city to be married to Amjad. He has a mini-meltdown and vents about the perils of lust. He demands that Amjad return with his family elders to ask for Lali’s hand in marriage, as is the traditional manner. Until that happens, the deliriously happy couple must wait.

Lali is excited but bids farewell to her fiancé, who heads back to the city, where we learn, to our shock and horror, that he already has a harem full of wives.

A posse of women have been duped and then forcibly turned to prostitution by his evil and formidable elder sister, Madam. Together they run a highly profitable, money-spinning Club for Discreet Gentlemen.

Dare any of the wives utter a complaint about their treatment? Madam has them crucified like Jesus Christ and lashes them with a steel-tipped leather whip, taking great delight in pulverizing the terrified women into abject submission. Madam also thrives on the local orphanage, procuring suitable girls to wed her brother.

She has Shabbo and Babboo corner and drug the girls, forcing them into the lucrative flesh trade and reaping huge rewards she splits with Amjad.

We now realise that Shera’s instinct was on point about the dastardly Amjad, and that hell awaits poor Lali if she leaves the jungle for the big bad city. Little does the innocent Lali know, that her impending marriage is a deadly trap, and she will be thrown to the wolves night after night once ensnared.

One of the orphanage girls tricked by Amjad is Sangeeta, who is confronted by two slimy studs on her wedding night instead of the husband she thought she had married. She subsequently puts up some fierce resistance before Madam again forces the upper hand, and poor Sangeeta is subdued, at least momentarily.

Madam and Amjad seemingly have it all worked out and are laughing all the way to the bank, accumulating hapless women and putting them to work.

Madam has a legion of wives lined up to be thrashed and whipped sadistically into compliance and exploited for all they are worth. She has her faithful henchmen, Shabboo and Babboo, routinely administer the girls with deadly and addictive drugs to break their will and force them to submit to a life of evil and sin. She rules the brothel with an iron fist.

When Amjad shows his sister a photo of the jungle beauty Lali, her eyes light up, and she hastily packing her bags and heads off to the forest. Once there, she deceives Shera to secure the girl she reckons has what it takes to become her next No.1 drawcard and bring her vast revenue.

Veteran star from the ‘60s, Yousuf Khan, plays an earnest police inspector who also happens somehow or the other to be the

Disco Dancer abandoned son of a deluded underworld boss, superbly acted by Tariq Shah.

When the Inspector unwittingly adds to the supply of Madams girls by marrying off his adopted sister to Amjad, it proves to be a tragic but fateful mistake. Later, when a star-struck Lali is brought from the jungle, she is mortified, discovering her husband’s intentions. When she tries to inform Shera of her predicament, Madam threatens murder, thus silencing her.

In a spirited performance, Sangeeta is the only defiant wife, putting up a stoic show of resistance to Madam and provides some of the movie’s highlights. Still, her brave plans of an attempted revolution are ultimately thwarted as one of the wives is martyred on her way to the police station.

A whole bunch of burning questions need answers. Will the dastardly Madam and loathsome Amjad be exposed? Will valiant Shera discover the truth about Lali’s terrible situation and rescue her, and will the Police Inspector find that his sister is now a call girl? Will Disco be reunited with her sister? Will Inspector Yusuf Khan discover the crime kingpin, and that the Don has forced his sweetheart Disco into a life of crime and is also his dad? Will Sangeeta’s women’s revolution ever come to pass? Where Does Shera get his fabulous headgear?

The film escalates to a dizzying climax, and all the loose ends finally come together in a thrilling, dramatic style.

Anjuman headlines the movie but doesn’t have much to do despite the double role. After the initial flurry as the jungle girl Lali, Anjuman’s city girl persona Disco, though performing delightfully to the film’s plagiarised title song, doesn’t have much scope. For once, Sangeeta and Khanam both overshadow Anjuman. The Nepali import Shiva has a small part and shouts enthusiastically while on screen. Yusuf Khan’s role as the Inspector is rather dull, and his boring romance with Disco slows the otherwise rapid pace of the film.

Khanam dominates the film as the diabolical Madam and, to some extent, Shera, who is simply electric as the stubby Tarzan clone cum Primitive Jungle man. Shera Janglee’s exchanges and dialogue delivery are sensational and worth watching the movie for their strength. He also excels in a dance number, which is a pivotal moment in the film.

The Crime Boss, played by Tariq Shah, is an arrogant loudmouth with an impressive belly and is a perfect caricature of the typical Lollywood bad-ass villain. He is a seasoned hand at it.

The plot is delicious, and the feminist struggle elevates proceedings beyond normal expectations. The selection of wigs, moustaches and jungle costumes is impeccable, with unique props to Shera Janglee’s impressive, glow-in-the-dark headgear, continuing Lollywood’s excellence in the field of “get-ups”.

On the whole, Disco Dancer is wonderfully fast-paced, high-voltage stuff, with the first half occasionally breathtaking. Things begin to falter in the second half with some needless romance, comedy, a couple of extended fight scenes and one too many songs that could have gotten the chop. But that is soon forgiven once we enter the rip-roaring climax scene with startling violence and significant dramatic confrontations.

One of the movie’s strengths is the extraordinary, synth-based background music score, which fizzes and pops with vigour, heightening the thrills and dramatics on screen.

This film is a heady concoction of typical Lollywood formula: lost children, family lockets, supreme sacrifices, forest with Jungle Men, etc. It is done with such a magnificent style that it manages to enthral for the most part. The film could have benefited from some judicious editing of about 30 to 45 minutes. Still, even then, Disco Dancer is an unmissable treat containing an irresistible dose of the finest masala ingredients that make for the perfect ladies’ first-choice melodrama.

Disco Dancer Khanam as Madam provides one of Pakistani cinema history’s truly magnificent villainous performances, with her expressions and body language exuding menace and evil from every sinew. Together with Shera Janglee and Sangeeta, they propel Disco Dancer to the memorable roller-coaster experience it is. While it may be a slightly choppy ride, it is also insanely entertaining and worth looking into for Masala Pakistani Punjabi cinema fans with a strong accent on powerful women. Disco Dancer comes with the highest recommendation.