Aanraders Bollywood

Mother India(1957, Mehboob Khan)

*Cast: Nargis (Radha), Sunil Dutt (Biju), Raaj Kumar (Radha’s husband), Rajendra Kumar (Ramu), Kanhaiyalal (Sukhilala), Kumkum (Champa).

Producer: Mehboob Khan
Director: Mehboob Khan
Screenplay: Mehboob Khan (story), Wajahat Mirza, S. Ali Raza
Music: Naushad


In 1940, Mehboob Khan, one of the most prolific directors of Hindi cinema, made a film called Aurat, the story of an Indian mother who fought against the odds to raise her family under tremendous hardship on a rural farm. In 1957, Mehboob remade the film as Mother India, which became one of the most influential and recognizable Hindi films ever made, and an important milestone in the history of Bollywood cinema.


Mother India tells the story of a woman and her episodic life of love and sorrow in a small farming community. She marries a man who she at first resists, but then comes to love. Soon, they are forced to beg for support from a devious local villager, resulting in a monetary contract which leads her and her family toward countless tragedies that plague her entire family - her husband loses his arms and leaves the family out of shame, her ill tempered and vengeful children grow up in squalor and hunger, she must resist prostitution to keep her honor and her land, etc.

Deewar (1975, Yash Chopra)

Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Shashi Kapoor, Nirupa Roy, Neetu Singh, Parveen Babi.

Screenplay and Dialogues: Salim-Javed
Lyrics: Sahir Ludhianvi
Music: R.D. Burman
Produced by: Gulshan Rai
Directed by: Yash Chopra


Deewaar is probably one of the most memorable Hindi films of all time. The film is a perfect amalgamation of two older classics - Ganga Jamuma (1961) that looks at the good brother v/s the bad brother and Mother India (1957) in which the mother undergoes all sorts of hardships to bring up her sons on her own. The film contains all the stock-in-trade elements of the Indian melodrama - The good and bad brother, the long suffering mother as the central moral force, divine intervention and religious symbols but what sets it apart is the taut script (perhaps the best ever Salim-Javed Script), the powerful dialogues and above all a powerhouse performance by Amitabh Bachchan as the son driven to crime - perhaps his best ever!

Trishul(1978, Prod: Gulshan Rai. Dir: Yash Chopra)

Cast: Waheeda Rehman,Sanjeev Kumar,Shashi Kapoor,
Amitabh Bachchan,Hema Malini and Raackee Gulzar,Prem Chopra,Poonam Dhillon.

Director: Yash Chopra
Producer: Gulshan Rai (Trimurti Films Pvt. Ltd.);
Story, screenplay, dialogues: Salim Khan, Javed Akhtar;

After the phenomenal success of 'Deewar', it was only natural for Yash Chopra to bring the same talented team together for another powerful drama. In doing so, he raised obvious comparisons between the two films. And if one was to campare them, there's no question that 'Deewar' emerges as superior on many counts. But despite the comparison, 'Trishul' is no less a great film.

Screen writers Salim-Javed were at the peak of their talents, Amitabh Bachchan was at the height of his popularity, and Yash Chopra was finally finding his own groove as a producer and a director. In fact, its hard to believe that the same man who made the memorable, gentle and romantic film 'Kabhi Kabhie' could also make a film like 'Trishul'.

Amitabh Bachchan's image as a brooding angry young action hero had been cemented with the success of 'Deewar' and 'Sholay' among other films. His Vijay persona had become a legendary character that had taken on a life of its own. Embodying the angst and frustration of lower class and middle class youth in those repressive Emergency and post-Emergency years, Vijay was already a symbol of rebellion and self-empowerment for millions of struggling young men.

'Trishul' added a new chapter to the Vijay saga. While repeating the mother-worship that had been the crux of 'Deewar' and which had become a crucial part of the Hindi film formula since 'Mother India', 'Trishul' introduced an important new element. Vijay's relationship with his father, played by Sanjeev Kumar.

Salim-Javed's powerful screenplay and dialogues unfolded scene after scene of dramatic conflict between father and son. Sanjeev Kumar's impressive talents were more than a match for Amitabh's smouldering intensity. The scenes between the two actors remain some of the greatest father-son scenes in Hindi cinema even today and have rarely been equalled. 'Trishul' still ranks as one of the top ten AB films, and one of the greatest father-son screen dramas made in India.

.Kudrat (1981, Chetan Anand)

Cast: Raaj Kumar, Rajesh Khanna, Hema Malini, Vinod Khanna, Priya Rajvansh, Aruna Irani and Deven Verma.

Music:Rahul Dev Burman

Chetan Anand's 'Kudrat' is set in Shimla, and is a story of rebirth and miracles.

Chandramukhi (Hema Malini) visits Shimla with her parents and her life is never the same again. Here she meets Dr. Narendra (Vinod Khanna) and they soon become good friends. Soon complications arise when chandramukhi starts to have nightmares and wakes up in a cold sweat shouting 'Maadho', 'Maadho'. Chandramukhi's parents call on Dr. Narendra when these nightmares happen once too often.

Dr. Narendra hypnotises her to find out what's disturbing her mind and accidently takes her back to her previous life, she mentions that her name is Paro and that she's with Maadho. Sensing that he's in a dangerous situation the doctor quickly brings back Chandramukhi to the present day and explains to her parents that whats disturbing her is related to a past life.

Chandramukhi soon comes across Mohan (Rajesh Khanna) and this is when the movie goes into flashback mode, and we are shown the love story of Paro, who was deeply in love with Maadho. But this love story never had a happy ending as Paro was raped and brutally murdered.

But who murdered her and what happened to Maadho are the questions that need answering, and as Chandramukhi starts to fall in and out of her Paro-Maadho trances more frequently it becomes obvious thats she's losing her mind. The only solution being, to bring the murderer to justice in this life and to free the spirit of Paro before its too late.

Lamhe (1991, Yash Chopra)

Cast: Waheeda Rehman, Anil Kapoor, Sridevi and Anupam Kher.

PRODUCED:YASH CHOPRA
DIRECTED:YASH CHOPRA
MUSIC:SHIV HARI

IN SPITE OF 'Waqt', 'Daag', 'Chandni' an 'Darr'. In spite of 'Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge' and 'Mohhabbatein', Yash Chopra still thinks this is the best film he ever made.And he has apoint.'Lamhe' is like a long and satisfying swig of cognac. 'Lamhe' is that moment in time which defines our commercial cinema's spasmodic derringdo. Written by Honey Irani, 'Lamhe' is certainly Yash Chopra's most daring film.

'Lamhe' was a story of a man caught between two women, though one of the women is dead. However, her lookalike daughter (Sridevi in a double role) whom the man brings up like his own daughter, nurses a crush for the man who loved her mother.

Amar Akbar Anthony (1977, Manmohan Desai)

Cast: Amitabh Bachchan,Vinod khanna,Rishi kapoor,
parveen babi,shabana azmi,neetu singh, pran,nadira,mukri,nirupa roy,jeevan,ranjeet.

Story: Mrs J.M. Desai
Screenplay: Prayag Raaj
Music: Laxmikant-Pyarelal
Produced and Directed by: Manmohan Desai

According to Desai, the film was inspired by a news item about an alcoholoic who regularly beat up his wife. One day, the disraught woman, abandoning her three small children on the kerbside disappeared. This gave Desai the idea to show each one growing up in three religious households, Hindu, Muslim and Christian.

Qurbani (1980, Feroz Khan)

Cast: Feroz Khan, Vinod Khanna, Zeenat Aman, Amjad Khan, Shakti Kapoor, Aruna Irani, Amrish Puri & Kadar Khan

Produced - Edited & Directed by Feroz Khan

Written By: K.K. Shukla

Music: Kalyanji Anandji & Biddu

Story:

Rajesh (Feroz Khan) a petty thief, is caught and sent to jail. In prison he meets Vikram (Shakti Kapoor) who promises a job for Rajesh once he is released. Rajesh`s girlfriend, Sheela (Zeenat Aman), is a singer at a club and patiently waits for Rajesh to come out of prison. One day Amar (Vinod Khanna), a young widower, saves her from some thugs and both become best of friends. Amar`s little daughter, Tina, grows fond of Sheela and both have a mother-daughter relationship. Seeing this Amar falls in love with Sheela but she turns him down.

Rajesh is released from jail and is suddenly picked up by Vikram who offers him the chance to open and rob of all Raakha`s (Amrish Puri) wealth. Vikram pays Rajesh in advance and Rajesh agrees to do the job. Sheela however doesn`t want Rajesh to live a life of crime any more and burns all of the money.

By chance Vikram and Amar have an argument which leads to a fight and Rajesh, who was with Vikram refusing to steal Raakha`s wealth, saves Amar`s life. A start of a great friendship lies between them. When Rajesh introduces Amar to Sheela both of their reaction makes Rajesh realize that the two have met. Sheela then states that she only knows his daughter Tina, who came by here often.

Sheela then explains to Amar that she had to lie as Rajesh can be the jealous type if he learned that she was in acquaintance of another man while he was serving time in jail. As time goes by both Amar and Rajesh friendship even grows stronger and Vikram seeing this decides to take advantage of this to get his revenge back on both friends...

Silsila (1981, Yash Chopra)

Cast: Shashi Kapoor, Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bachchan, Sanjeev Kumar, Rekha, DevenVerma Kulbhushan Kharbanda and Sudha Chopra.

Produced & Directed by Yash Chopra.



Shobha (J.Bhachchan) is in love with air force officer Shekhar (S.Kapoor). Shekhar's younger brother Amit (Bachchan) writes poetry and plays and woos Chandni (Rekha). Shekhar dies in the war, leaving Shobha pregnent. Amit sacrifices his love for Chandni to marry Shobha and save her reputation. Chandni marries a doctor (Sanjeev Kumar) in the same town where Shobha and Amit live. Soon the ex-lovers meet in an accident in which Shobha loses her baby.

Amit and Chandni have an affair while there marital partners suffer in silence. The lovers elope after a highly stylised confrontation between the two women (the two rivals standing back to back).

Shobha (J.Bhachchan) is in love with air force officer Shekhar (S.Kapoor). Shekhar's younger brother Amit (Bachchan) writes poetry and plays and woos Chandni (Rekha). Shekhar dies in the war, leaving Shobha pregnent. Amit sacrifices his love for Chandni to marry Shobha and save her reputation. Chandni marries a doctor (Sanjeev Kumar) in the same town where Shobha and Amit live. Soon the ex-lovers meet in an accident in which Shobha loses her baby.

Amit and Chandni have an affair while there marital partners suffer in silence. The lovers elope after a highly stylised confrontation between the two women (the two rivals standing back to back).

Naseeb (1981, Manmohan Desai)

Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Shatrughan Sinha, Rishi Kapoor, Hema Malini, Reena Roy, Kim, Prem Chopra, Kader Khan, Shakti Kapoor, Jeevan, Lalita Pawar, Amjad Khan, Pran,Amrish Puri.

Lyrics: Anand Bakshi
Music: Laxmikant-Pyarelal

Produced and Directed by Manmohan Desai

Manmohan Desai's most extravagantly plotted film and one of the most costliest for its time 'Naseeb' (Destiny) Namdev (pran) a waiter, a band musician (Jagdish Raj), Damodar (Amjad Khan) the photographer and Raghubir (Kadar Khan) the hack driver jointly win a lottery ticket. After being framed for the murder of the musician, Namdev is presumably killed by Damodar and Raghubir who use the money to set up a criminal empire.

The story then switches to the second generation: John Jani Janardan (Amitabh Bachchan) and Sunny (Rishi Kapoor), are the sons of Namdev; John's buddy is Damodar's son Vikram (S. Sinha). The dead band musician had two daughter's: the singer Asha (Hema Malini) and and schoolgirl Kim (Kim). Namdev was not killed after all and later resurfaces as the henchman of the ultimate crime boss, Don (Amrish Puri).

Kranti (1981 Manoj Kumar)

Cast: Manoj Kumar, Dilip Kumar, Shashi Kapoor, Shatrughan Sinha, Hema Malini, Parveen Babi, Prem Chopra, Nirupa Roy.

Produced, Dialogues, Edited & Directed by Manoj Kumar

Written by Javed Akhtar
Music: Laxmikant Pyarelal
Lyrics: Santosh Anand, Manoj Kumar



Set in the 1800s during the British occupation of India, Kranti's plot is set into motion when a farmer named Sanga (Dilip Kumar) discovers that the British have been circumventing the Indian King's decree that none of their docked ships may carry explosives. When Sanga goes to inform the King of the British duplicity, he finds that his Majesty has already been the victim of a murder conspiracy carried off by the king's younger brother and his nefarious associate, Shambhu Singh (Prem Chopra), who are in league with the Brits. Sanga is framed for the killing and set to be executed, but manages to break out of his cell before apparently being blown to smithereens as he tries to escape the premises by boat.

When the British begin to violently crack down on the rebellious Indian population, Sanga's grieving wife leaves her older son behind with another family while she tries to escape with her newborn. However, realizing that her capture is imminent, she attempts to save her child by floating him down the river in a basket. The baby winds up being taken in by the late-King's sister, who just happens to have had her fourth miscarriage and is in dire need of an infant to call her own. Sanga, meanwhile, turns out to be alive and well, but is told that his wife and children have been murdered by the British. The impassioned Sanga vows to carry on the revolution -- and he sticks to his word, eventually becoming known as the legendary freedom fighter "Kranti.

Suffice to say, there's more -- much more -- to come, although most viewers will probably be well prepared for the standard Bollywood plot device involving two brothers -- Bharat and Shakti (Manoj Kumar and Shashi Kapoor) -- who grow up unaware of their blood ties and then engage in a deadly feud before the eventual revelation of their true birthright leads to a dramatic reconciliation. As an added twist, neither of their parents realize that their sons are still alive, leading to more scenes of ironic tension than one can almost stomach. There's a great deal of fun to be had also, and a lot of it shows up in the forms of Hema Malini (Sholay [1975]), who plays a princess kidnapped by the rebels, and Parveen Babi (Shaan [1980]), who portrays the rebel girl sent to stand in for the abducted princess. The wide-eyed Malini offers up her usual engaging mixture of cute and courageous, but the more svelte Babi (whose personal life was reportedly as colorful as any Bollywood film) nearly steals the show with her sexy song-and-dance number "Mara Thumka." When these two divas go at it in a rollicking catfight that has Babi throwing a shield over her face to fend off Malini's sword thrusts, the movie skitters off into camp heaven.

Suffice to say, there's more -- much more -- to come, although most viewers will probably be well prepared for the standard Bollywood plot device involving two brothers -- Bharat and Shakti (Manoj Kumar and Shashi Kapoor) -- who grow up unaware of their blood ties and then engage in a deadly feud before the eventual revelation of their true birthright leads to a dramatic reconciliation. As an added twist, neither of their parents realize that their sons are still alive, leading to more scenes of ironic tension than one can almost stomach. There's a great deal of fun to be had also, and a lot of it shows up in the forms of Hema Malini (Sholay [1975]), who plays a princess kidnapped by the rebels, and Parveen Babi (Shaan [1980]), who portrays the rebel girl sent to stand in for the abducted princess. The wide-eyed Malini offers up her usual engaging mixture of cute and courageous, but the more svelte Babi (whose personal life was reportedly as colorful as any Bollywood film) nearly steals the show with her sexy song-and-dance number "Mara Thumka." When these two divas go at it in a rollicking catfight that has Babi throwing a shield over her face to fend off Malini's sword thrusts, the movie skitters off into camp heaven.