Archive for the ‘Music’ Category
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.
Namak Halal – Another superb Amitabh Movie (1982)
On January 20, 2010 in Bollywood, Classic, Drama, Lyrics, Melody, Movie, Music, Singing, Song, Video
Namak Halal released in 1982, was directed by Prakash Mehra, the man who gave Amitabh Bachchan Zanjeer and us a viewers, a superstar. Namak Halal went on to become one of the biggest hits of his career and of the year that it released. It bore his trademark style of story telling, interesting with lots of twists and turns, the right amount of emotional drama and a nice does of comedy. The film starred some of the biggest stars of that era who turned in superb performances like Amitabh Bachchan, Shashi Kapoor, Om Prakash and the dusky powerhouse of talent Smita Patil.
Young Arjun is brought up by his Daddu (paternal grandfather) Om Prakash after his father is killed in the line of duty, while trying to save the life of his employer. As he grows up, he is sent to the city by Om Prakash, in searh of a new job and a new life. In the city he meets up with Bhairon ( Ram P. Sethi) who helps him land a job at a five star hotel. The hotel is owned by Raja (Shashi Kapoor). In the course of his work he ends up saving the honour of a female employee, Poonam (Smita Patil) and the duo end up falling in love. Arjun Singh also discovers that the manager of the hotel (Ranjeet) and a host of shadowy bad guys are out to kill Raja. The whole thing has been planned in a way so as to point the finger of suspicion at Savitri Devi (Waheeda Rehman) Raja’s foster mother. The bad guys have enlisted the support of a cabaret singer Nisha (Parveen Babi) to get close to Raja but she ends up falling in love with him.
Movie – Laawaris – Another Amitabh Bachchan potboiler (1981)
On January 20, 2010 in Bollywood, Classic, Lyrics, Melody, Movie, Music, Singing, Society, Song, Video
Laawaris came in the year 1981 and became synonymous with the song Mere Angne Mein Tumhara Kya Kaam Hai. It appears twice in the film, once rendered by Alka Yagnik (who received her first Filmfare nominations for this particular song) and once by the hero Amitabh Bachchan himself. It went on to become one of the landmark songs of his career. The film too was a super duper hit and notched up another success for the Prakash Mehra-Amitabh Bachchan pairing. The duo had made their mark with Zanjeer and considered by then to be one of the most bankable director-actor combination of Hindi commercial cinema.
Mehra stayed true to his forte and his style. Laawaris packed in a lot of emotional drama with the right amount of humour and of course hum-able scores. The story resolved around Hira ( Amitabh Bachchan), the illegitimate child of Seth Ranbir (Amjad Khan) and Rakhee, a singer. Disowned by Amjad Khan, Rakhee dies heartbroken and young Hira is brought up by an alcoholic beggar Gangu Ganpat (Sreeram Laagoo). Hira grows up believing he is the child of this useless man.
