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Mini-review: Tum Mere Ho (1990)

Even if all the Anguished Magic Snakes, Oompa Loompa Tantrics, Been music, Aamir Khans and Indian Geoffrey Rushes in the world were in this film:

I couldn’t be sad that the Sky DVD stopped working at the 1:20:49 mark.

I was tired of watching Juhi Chawla getting hit in the face by the men who “loved” her.

She had also been married off and widowed at the age of three, and is sent to her sasurals‘ house when she falls for Aamir because, you know, an Indian woman only loves/marries once. Even in 1990.

Posted on January 5, 2012 at 12:56 pm in Hindi movies   |  RSS feed You can skip to the end and leave a  reply.

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46 Comments to “Mini-review: Tum Mere Ho (1990)”

    
  1. Anvar
    January 5, 2012 at 1:17 pm

    What a review! Let the images of atrocities speak for themselves.

    Bravo.

    Reply
  2. harvey
    January 5, 2012 at 1:25 pm

    :-D
    This looks terrible!
    And just to think I saw Dhobi Ghat/Bombay Diaries yesterday, which was a fine film.
    1990, I was still in Bombay, but I can’t really remember this one!
    Utter misery seems to be a good tag for this film!

    Wonder what Aamir would say to this film now?

    Reply
  3. raja
    January 5, 2012 at 2:34 pm

    I remember seeing this movie as one of my first few Aamir movies. In fact I think this was my first Juhi movie. I don’t remember anything of the storyline – I think even then I couldn’t really make out what was going on. All I remember is that there were a lot of snake scenes.

    I doubt if Aamir will even remember this movie if you remind him of it. Am sure he won’t want to, anyway. This must’ve been made right after QSQT. That was such a runaway hit that some producers may have just wanted to cash in on this latest hit pairing. Both Aamir and Juhi were new then, so… Thankfully they followed this up with Hum Hain Raahi Pyar Ke (which I absolutely love!). :-)

    Reply
    • memsaab
      January 5, 2012 at 3:26 pm

      Oh I think he’d remember it, maybe not fondly, but he’s a pretty sharp guy :) Unless old age is getting to him too—who knows?!

      There weren’t many snake scenes up until the 1:20:00 mark; they must mostly come at the end which I can’t view (not that I mind). Aamir is a pretty cute snake charmer though, except when he’s smacking Juhi around.

      Reply
  4. jitendra
    January 5, 2012 at 2:36 pm

    just sarcastic comment to the ‘Bambaiya masala’…….actually whenever a sound of ‘been’ appear on tv, sri devi image of Nagina appears first! but entertaining review!!!

    Reply
  5. Beth
    January 5, 2012 at 2:59 pm

    Uuuuuuuuugh. Too bad. That skull top is bitchin’.

    Reply
  6. Faldo
    January 5, 2012 at 4:14 pm

    @Memsaab – Your poser to Aamir about being choosy would apply to Juhi as well. Nowadays, Juhi too appears only in somewhat meaningful films.

    Reply
    • memsaab
      January 5, 2012 at 8:18 pm

      THAT IS SO TRUE. If I ever meet her I will ask her about it too ;-)

      Reply
      • Anonymous
        January 6, 2012 at 7:11 pm

        I wonder if she would remember this film, this is one she might like to forget. Maybe the beatings she got from all and sundry would serve as a reminder :)
        Like others here mentioned, they should have stuck to making a good old snake revenge film. I had not noticed that this was made by Tahir Hussain. His brother Nasir Hussain was known for his light, romantic movies. Whatever induced him to make this one.

        Reply
  7. Gaby
    January 5, 2012 at 5:13 pm

    I saw this film only once (thankfully) when I was ten years old, and even as a young boy with an imagination capable of occasionally going haywire, I was depressed throughout the duration of this film…
    …this is mainstream Bollywood at its worst…
    …in the previous year, 1989, they also made an equally horrible snake movie called Nag Nagin starring one-hit wonder couple Rajeev Kapoor and Mandakini from Ram Teri Ganga Maili…
    I mean, one crazy snake movie ie Nagina (1986) is bad enough, but do these people have to recycle the damned concept to the point of driving audiences to hate snake movies? Pathetic…
    India is the world’s 7th largest country with diversity in just about everything-culture, society, climate, politics, you name it…it’s sad to see these people ironically out of ideas for a wholesome movie…
    It is films like Tum Mere Ho that sometimes make me wish if only all Bollywood film directors are like Satyajit Ray, Shyam Benegal, Govind Nihalani, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Girish Kasaravalli, Mira Nair, Deepa Mehta, Rituparno Ghosh and Madhur Bhandarkar…it’s just wishful thinking, but still…
    …some films are so bad they survive simply because of the presence of an A-list cast…this is a good example…
    …by the way, Memsaab, there’s this Aamir Khan film, which is an obscure film (something you absolutely love) made around the same time as Tum Mere Ho…it’s called Raakh, and it contains one of Aamir’s best performances…wonder if you’ve heard of it…I do hope you’ll come across it one day and write a post about it on your blog…I’d love to know what are your views on it…cheerio!

    Reply
    • memsaab
      January 5, 2012 at 8:20 pm

      Truthfully Hollywood recycles the same damn stuff over and over as well, mostly bad. I have heard of Raakh, not sure I have it. But I’ll look! :)

      Reply
      • Gaby
        January 5, 2012 at 10:28 pm

        Personally I can forgive Hollywood because America lacks the beguiling diversity found in the rich exotic history, flavours and colours of India…whereas India has a rich storytelling tradition which unfortunately only a handful of geniuses like Ketan Mehta, Satyajit Ray and the host of other directors from my previous comment have successfully mastered…in short, no excuse for Indian cinema to deliver such horrendous filmfare…sad… =(

        Reply
        • memsaab
          January 6, 2012 at 11:21 am

          America has influences and stories from every corner of the earth! :)

          Reply
          • Gaby
            January 8, 2012 at 11:51 am

            By the way, Memsaab, there’s this other obscure film that I’d like to recommend to you…it’s called Kondura (1978), directed by Shyam Benegal and starring Anant Nag, Vanishri, Smita Patil, Satyadev Dubey, Amrish Puri and Sulabha Deshpande…it’s basically one of those social commentary films without songs that serves to convey a message rather than to purely entertain, and it’s one of Shyam Benegal’s lesser-known films…although based on a Marathi novel, the story features a Telugu setting, but the dialogues are in HIndi…personally, it’s one of my all-time favourite films, and I’d love to see you write your opinions on it…it would surely add to your repertoire of filmi knowledge…cheers! :)

  8. Anu Warrier
    January 5, 2012 at 8:20 pm

    This must easily figure among the movies that Aamir would love to forget! (Others being Daulat ki Jung, Aatank Hi Aatank (both with Juhi) Awwal Number, and Mela) I remember watching this in my teens when, after QSQT, I would have watched the Aamir-Juhi pair in just about anything. I’m sure you already know this, but you haven’t missed anything by stopping mid-way (or having it stop mid-way). Funnily enough, immediately after QSQT, a little-known film called Raakh was released (it was actually signed before QSQT), which has one of Aamir’s finest (and rawest) performances to date. It was a sign of the talent that was waiting to be unleashed.

    Reply
    • memsaab
      January 5, 2012 at 8:21 pm

      I’m not even remotely tempted to find another dvd that might play all the way through! And funny—both you and Gaby have mentioned Raakh! So I need to find it!

      Reply
  9. Shashi
    January 5, 2012 at 10:40 pm

    Was Juhi playing the role of Mogambini here? :-)

    This movie released around the same time when “Dil” (1990) was declared a hit. I just don’t guess why Aamir being a perfectionist even those days, signed this movie.

    Reply
  10. Jenny Ketcham
    January 5, 2012 at 11:10 pm

    I’m going to second the others. Though I have a fondness for the snake goddess, whoever she is…Raakh is much better. Warning, though, one of my copies had the stopsies around track 15…one of the cheaper Eros videos, I think. “Don’t worry, we’ll send you a new one”…that stops in the exact same place!

    Sort of spoilerish………

    Raakh is one Aamir plays a young man who can’t protect his female friend from being molested by thugs after a party, and then can’t get the police (who are being bribed by the rich relatives of the offenders, of course, to keep the thing under wraps) to do anything about it. Aamir joins forces with a rogue cop (Pankaj Kapur) to try to set things straight. No happy Bollywood ending here. It’s good but very dark, and the director re-released a cleaned up version of it called Raakh Redux for the filmfest circuit within the past year and a half. I haven’t seen the new one hit DVDs yet, though.

    Reply
    • Anu Warrier
      January 6, 2012 at 12:46 am

      *More spoilers* :)

      The female protagonist (a very young and pretty Supriya Pathak) is raped, partially due to Aamir getting into a fight with some hoodlums. What was interesting about Raakh is that while he is fighting tooth and nail to get some justice, eventually taking the law into his own hands, *she* asks him to forget it – NOT because she is ashamed of what happened but because as long as he is obsessed with the rape and its aftermath, she cannot move on with her life. And no, she doesn’t commit suicide, or even try to – she gets married.

      It is a very dark film, and one that is really worth watching. It was directed by Aditya Bhattacharya (Basuda’s son, Bimal Roy’s grandson).

      Reply
    • memsaab
      January 6, 2012 at 11:23 am

      Ooh Pankaj Kapur! I’ll try to avoid Eros, they do tend to replicate bad dvds.

      Reply
  11. Salim
    January 5, 2012 at 11:32 pm

    I think I have seen this one – but you can’t blame me for forgetting it :). I like snake stories if well done – but seems to scrapping the bottom of the barrel. Jenny helped me recall the storyline Raakh – better but not FUN. Too GRIM for you and me :)

    Reply
    • memsaab
      January 6, 2012 at 11:24 am

      Sometimes I don’t mind GRIM if it’s well done and has a point. It’s pointless grim stuff that I hate, although I do have to be in the right mood to watch something dark.

      Reply
  12. Prakashchandra
    January 6, 2012 at 12:14 am

    Tum mere ho was directed by Aamir khan`s father Tahir Hussain and this movie is his home production.

    Reply
  13. MBarnum
    January 6, 2012 at 12:59 am

    Oh shoot, I hope my DVD of this movie makes it all the way through!

    Reply
  14. UpendraS
    January 6, 2012 at 3:13 am

    LOL, the Geoffrey Rush guy seems interesting.

    Reply
  15. Ranjana
    January 6, 2012 at 9:47 am

    Lol loved your review as always! :) I had “tried” to watch this movie just coz I’d become a huge Aamir-Juhi fan after QSQT. But I couldn’t sit through even half of it because it was just too bizarre! :/

    Reply
  16. Shalini
    January 6, 2012 at 10:02 am

    Might I ask, who you were torturing with this major fail of a movie? :-)

    Reply
    • memsaab
      January 6, 2012 at 11:29 am

      Only myself thankfully. Gilda and Callie don’t watch movies with me like Gemma did :( Gilda only barks and runs up and down the hallway when she hears something that scares her (which is basically everything).

      Reply
  17. Prasad Iyer
    January 6, 2012 at 2:16 pm

    I envy the exquisitely intense euphoria displayed by the woman in the first slide. One can only wonder what led to it in the movie!

    Reply
  18. Prasad Iyer
    January 6, 2012 at 3:33 pm

    Oh my goodness, sorry to have totally misunderstood that!

    Reply
  19. Suraj
    February 21, 2012 at 7:03 pm

    One of the most atrocious movies ever! :D Today people make fun of Aamir or his earlier choices. But very few people know that he did such a slew of films only due to the financial crisis his family suffered! His father Tahir Hussain faced major financial crisis when some of his films flopped and some films got stuck (primarily Locket) because the stars weren’t giving him dates. Aamir often talks about the crisis they faced while growing up…apparently conditions were so bad that they couldn’t even buy new uniforms for Aamir and his siblings and barely managed to pay their school fees. It was the main reason why Aamir’s family initially dissuaded him from entering the film line. But since Aamir had grown up observing his father and uncle he got interested in cinema and insisted he’d take up only films as profession. His father was still not convinced. But his uncle Nasir Hussain decided to give him a chance and allowed him to assist him in films like Manzil Manzil. Aamir has always insisted that he wanted to become a director, not an actor. But as the saying goes, fate had other plans. Aamir wasn’t initially supposed to do QSQT. They auditioned many other actors (including Aamir’s then friend Amole Gupte!) but couldn’t find anyone satisfactory. So Mansoor convinced Aamir to play Raj in QSQT. And Aamir agreed. He had done Holi and Raakh prior to this (Raakh released later though) but he did them only to oblige his friends like Aditya Bhattacharya..just for a lark as they say. But QSQT ended up becoming a phenomenon of sorts and he got into acting.
    Anyway, his family got some relief from the crisis due to success of QSQT. Then Aamir also got anxious to do as many films as possible simply because he wanted to completely clear all his father’s debts and get his family out of the financial crisis. Today he doesn’t talk about such stuff, lest it looks like he’s blaming his family for his choices or his failures initially. But the fact and truth is that he himself didn’t believe in films like Isi Ka Naam Zindagi, Tum Mere Ho or Love Love Love which he was compelled to do due to pressing circumstances in his real life. He confessed in an interview last year that he’d come back home and cry to sleep, telling his wife Reena what mess he’d got himself in (by signing such films) and wondering why he didn’t get better offers. Makers tried to cash on the popularity of Aamir-Juhi pair but the films were trash and obviously bombed! It’s also unfortunate that some potential hits and good films like AAA got stuck and delayed, and released too late while films like Shekhar Kapur’s Time Machine etc. got shelved.
    It was only the success of Dil which saved his career and later Dil Hai Ki Manta Nahin and Hum Hain Rahi Pyar Ke managed to keep his boat afloat. I feel even DHKMN, HHRPK, JJWS couldn’t get their due success because of some trashy films Aamir signed post QSQT, which released around same years (with Aatank Hi Aatank till 1995!!) and spoiled his reputation, affecting even some of his better films of that time.
    In fact, his entire 90s career got affected due to these rubbish films. This is why he did films like Ishq, Ghulam and Mann purely and entirely out of loyalty to Mahesh Bhatt and Indra Kumar whose Dil and HHPRK saved his career in initial stages. He once confessed in an interview to Screen Weekly that he did not believe in films like Ishq and did have issues with Mann. But he signed them blindly and didn’t argue with Indu ji (Indra Kumar) simply because he owed his career’s initial revival to him! He also admitted he did Mela only out of loyalty to Dharmesh Darshan, whose Raja Hindustani gave Aamir’s career a big push and gave him his first all time blockbuster. Loyalty to Dharmesh and an attempt to re-launch his brother Faisal’s career were the only reasons why he did Mela, which anyway added a blot to his career. You know? He had to reject good films like Saajan (he was offered Sanjay Dutt’s role) and 1942 – A Love Story, not because he didn’t like their scripts! But because he had already committed his dates to Indra Kumar and Bhatt’s films! Even when he adopted his ”one film at a time” rule, he kept doing films for his ”hit directors” purely out of loyalty!! :o
    Thanks to those rubbish films like Tum Mere Ho which affected his career, he became extra choosy, and extra self conscious. I wish he hadn’t indiscriminately signed films earlier…or at least continued to do 2-3 films at that time, so that along with bad films, even good films could come along (every star has mixed bag of good and bad, hit or flop films in a year!)…Due to his one film rule he got less success in 90s compared to others…and now he’s so conscious that if he’s producing films, then he decides to put acting on hold and concentrates TOTALLY on the film as producer! Perhaps past memories still haunt him.
    But in retrospect his worst experiences from 80s and 90s made him much wiser and helped him improve his cinematic sense. Thankfully he selects good scripts now and knows how to improvise films!
    It was only when he decided to produce Lagaan, that he came into his own and did everything his own way – not bowing down to anyone or doing stuff merely out of loyalty! It’s also good that all his personal crises are resolved now and his family is happy, including his brother who now works with him in AKP Films. Aal izz well now…but impact of these crises on Aamir’s career and his personality or his way of functioning cannot be ignored.

    Reply
  20. Suraj
    February 21, 2012 at 8:45 pm

    Haha! It’s so bad that it’s good! :D Mela is one film that I just can’t sit through! I have even watched Isi Ka Naam Zindagi, Jawani Zindabad and Aatank Hi Aatank twice! But could never watch Mela in its entirety! :D

    Reply
    

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