Archive for the ‘Music’ Category
Movie – Muqaddar Ka Sikandar (1978) – Starring Amitabh Bachchan, Rekha, Vinod Khanna, Rakhee
On January 30, 2010 in Bollywood, Crime, Drama, Lyrics, Media, Melody, Movie, Music, Video
Muqaddar Ka Sikandar released in the year 1978 and was the third film that Prakash Mehra and Amitabh Bachchan made together as a director-actor combination. It turned out to be the highest grosser of the year and went on to become the most successful film of the decade. As a commercial pot boiler it had all the right ingredients-dramatic story, tight screenplay, great actors and stars and a tremendous musical score.
A boy is orphaned at a very young age and has to face the hard world alone as he struggles to make a living. He works in the house of a wealthy lawyer named Ramnath who does not show the poor orphan any mercy. Ramnath’s daughter Kamya however sympathises with the boy and the two become friends. Eventually this orphaned boy is adopted by a Muslim lady named Fatima who also works for Fatima. He is given a new name-Sikandar. On the occasion of Kaamna’s birthday, Sikandar steals an expensive doll to gift it to his friend but Ramnath refuses him to enter the party. Sikandar tries to sneak into Kaamna’s room to leave the doll behind but is caught and he and his adopted mother are thrown out of the house.
Shortly thereafter Fatima dies making Sikandar an orphan twice over. However now he has the responsibility of looking after Fatima’s daughter Mehroo. As Sikandar cries by his mother’s grave a fakir comes to him and tells him to embrace the ups and downs of life with equal nonchalance for then he would conquer fate. This become’s young Sikandar’s mantra for life. He grows up to be a handsome young man who has amassed a fortune by turning in smuggled goods to the police and receiving the reward payouts. He is now the master of an impressive house and the owner of a profitable business.
Movie – Mr. Natwarlal (1979) – Starring Amitabh Bachchan and Rekha
On January 22, 2010 in Bollywood, Lyrics, Melody, Movie, Music, Song, Video
Mr. Natwarlal, the film releases in 1979. Starring superstar Amitabh Bachchan and Rekha it features some superb song tracks and a very interesting story line. It also has Amitabh Bachchan crooning for the first time for any film of his and the number “Mere Paas Aao, Mere Doston” has continued to entertain kids and adults down the years. In fact the song even fetched him a Filmfare nomination as Best Playback Singer (Male) along side being nominated for the Best Actor Award for the same film.
The story of the film resolves around Natwar (title role played by Bachchan himself) who lives with his beloved older brother and caretaker, police officer Girdharilal (Ajit). He has been assigned the case of apprehending notorious gangster Vikram Singh ( Amjad Khan). But the wily criminal entraps the honest officer and gets him arrested, dismissed from employment and imprisoned. The young Natwar remains a silent spectator to his brother’s victimization and swears to take revenge. He grows up and creates a secret identity for himself, posing as a powerful and mysterious underworld figure named (eponymous) Mr. Natwarlal. He becomes a modern-day Robin Hood, who steals from the rich and bad to help the poor and good.
He is successful in locating Vikram Singh who resides in the hilly regions of North India. Accordingly he relocates himself to be in the same area as his enemy. He also finds himself falling in love with a local girl (Rekha) who reciprocates his feelings. However punishing Vikram Singh proves to be a difficult task as he is a formidable presence in the area. On top of that he has to convince the suspicious villagers that he is not the ‘bad’ guy and tackle a man-eating tiger. Whether he is able to ultimately avenge his brother’s ill fortune and bring Vikram Singh to his knees forms the climax of the film.
Movie – Namak Haram – A fascinating movie starring Amitabh and Rajesh Khanna (1973)
On January 20, 2010 in Bollywood, Classic, Drama, Lyrics, Melody, Movie, Music, Society, Video
Namak Haram released in the year 1973, a good two years after the path-breaking hit Anand. It had the same hit-making team of Hrishikesh Mukherjee (Director), Amitabh Bachchan and Rajesh Khanna (main heroes). Namak Haram addresses a burning issue of the day that of rising impoverishment of cotton mill workers of Bombay. Its tonality is more entrenched in the day-to-day concerns of industrial workers who toiled from dawn to dusk but earned only peanuts.
Somnath or Somu (Rajesh Khanna) lives in a shanty house with his widowed mom and unmarried sister, Sarla. His best pal is Calcutta-based business tycoon Damodar Maharaj’s only son and heir apparent Vikram or Vicky (Amitabh Bachchan). Theirs is an unlikely friendship for the two have very little in common. Vicky has to take over the reins of the company when his father suffers a heart attack and ends up having a confrontation with a senior employee and union leader of the factory, Bipinlal Pandey. This results in a strike. Vicky’s father, the ever astute businessman intervenes and asks his son to apologise to Bipilal to return things to normalcy. Vicky does so unwillingly and the strike is resolved.
However Vicky is unable to forget his humiliation and confides about this to his best friend, Somu. The two friends conspire to teach Bipinlal a lesson. As part of the plan, Somu accompanies Vicky to Calcutta, gets a job as a labourer in the mill and gets about befriending his fellow workers. He is able to get some monetary relief for injured workers and is soon elected as the union leader, displacing Bipinlal. The success of their plan sees the friends rejoicing. However Damodar is not too keen about this friendship as he sees Somu as a potential threat, who with his middle-class values can influence Vicky in the long run. Damodar starts a chain of events to create a wedge between the two friends that get out of control. The emotion-packed climax sees the death of one friend and the other going to jail, his act serving as both a penance and homage.
Movie – Shaan – Starring Amitabh and Shashi Kapoor (released in 1980)
On January 20, 2010 in Bollywood, Classic, Lyrics, Melody, Movie, Music, Singing, Song, Video
Shaan, released in the year 1980, almost four years after the blockbuster, Sholay. The common thread between these two films is the director, Ramesh Sippy. Great things were expected from the man who had given Indian cinema its mammoth blockbuster in the form of Sholay. Almost everybody who had seen Sholay was expecting a repeat performance.
DSP Shiv Kumar Sharma (Sunil Dutta) is an honest and diligent police officer who lives in Bombay (present day Mumbai) with his wife (Rakhi) and son. He also has two wayward brothers in Ravi (Sashi Kapoor) and Vijay (Amitabh Bachchan) who are petty crooks. The two of them spend most of their time indulging in schemes that are so wildly ridiculous that one feels that the whole purpose of these plots was not to make money but to have some fun. The two brothers meet their matches in a pair of women-the glamorous Parveen Babi and the somewhat gawky yet charming Bindiya Goswami- who are also good-hearted con artists.
