Suhaag (1979)

Do u know that all twins born are not identical? But if one follows Hindi movies he/she is expected to believe that all twins born are identical.So it is quite surprising to see a film-maker actually showing the concept of non-identical twins in a hindi movie and when u come to know that the filmmaker is none other than the masala King-Manmohan Desai you are bound to be baffled. Amitabh Bachchan-Manmohan Desai were an invincible combination in 70-80's.If u add Shashi Kapoor-Bachchan chemistry to it it becomes even bigger.And to top it if u have Parveen Babi and Rekha opposite them the expectations are sky-high.Fortunately,Suhaag satisfies all expectations and much more. The movie starts with Nirupa roy giving birth to twins(as already mentioned,they r non-identical).However,her husband Vikram(Amjad Khan)who is a drunkard and womaniser,does not a accept his sons and his wife(something which Amjad repeated in Laawaris).Now the mother moves from one place to another with her twins and due to some incidents one of the twins get separated(I told u it is a Manmohan Desai film).The separated son is taken care of a wicked lame man(Jeevan) who makes the boy a drunkard and a street side goon Amit(naturally Amitabh Bachchan).The son who lives with the mother grows up into an honest police officer Kishan(Shashi Kapoor).Circumstances bring both the brothers together and they become close pals. While Amit loves a dancer (Rekha),Kishan falls for her younger sister(Parveen Babi).Now their father Vikram has become a big time criminal and his rival is Jaggi(Kadar Khan).Jaggi and his son(Ranjeet) want to eliminate Vikram.However after a series of action packed sequences,some twists to the plot and some songs later the brothers unite to eliminate Jaggi and his son.Vikram gives himself to police custody and both the brothers get married to both the sisters(Two brides For Two Grooms ANYONE). Manmohan Desai was considered the Master of Entertainment and he never believed in LOGIC in his movies.Suhaag has the typical stamp of Desai.He is very well aided by his permanent team of Prayag Raaj-story writer,K.K.Shukla-Screenplay and Kadar Khan-dailogues in making Suhaag an out and out entertainer.The script is very faced pace and does not give time for the audience to think.The story although has shades of Sholay(the scene where Amitabh threatens to jump from the top of temple),Deewar(Amitabh as goon and Shashi as cop and brothers with Nirupa Roy as their mother) and ofcourse Desai's own Parvarish(In Parvarish Amitabh acts that he is blind,here Shashi actually gets blind.Infact the names of the 2 hero Amit and Kishan are straight from Parvarish)and Dharam Veer(their also Dharamendra and Jeetu played non identical twins),still the story in its totality is quite good.Kadar Khan's dialogues gives the film the necessary mass value it demands.The dialogues he wrote for Amitabh became very popular.The dialogue ''Yeh Kya Hai-Chappal, Kaun si-Kohlapurie,No-6...''became a rage. Suhaag's music is another high point of the movie. Laxmikant Pyarelal were always part of Desai camp and in this movie they again give a knockout score.All the songs ''Ek Daal Se...'',''Satra Baras ki..'',''main to beghar hoon'' are excellent.The songs have a unique thing about it. After a succesful team of Kishore-Amitabh in Desai's earlier hits Parvarish and Amar Akbar Anthony,Laxmikant Pyarelal make Mohd.Rafi the voice of Amitabh in Suhaag.Rafi sings excellently for Bachchan in songs like ''Teri Rab Ne...'', ''Hey Naam Re..''(in which Rafi proves yet again that noone could sing a bhajan as amazingly as him).Infact,Desai and Laxmikant-Pyarelal used Rafi's voice for Amitabh in their next blockbuster Naseeb as well.The usage of Shailendra Singh,who was the singing voice of Rishi Kapoor, for Shashi Kapoor(Rishi's real life Chacha) also produces excellent results.Suhaag's music is very melodious and its impact is visible from the fact that the number''Hey Naam Re...'' is still played at all Dandia nights.Add ''Teri Rab ne Bana Di Jodi..''which is one of the most popular bhangra number and u have a great soundtrack. The film although a great entertainer but has some sequences which are not great.The picturisation of the song''Imtehaan Hai...'' on Amitabh-Rekha looks like a pale version of ''Salaam-E-ishq..' from Muqaddar Ka Sikandar.The climax where Amitabh and Shashi(whos blind) hangs on a helicopter in mid-air also looks a bit too much even by Desai's standard. The film's editing is quite good.The photography is also good.The action sequences are excellent. After rather classy stuff Parvarish and Amar,Akbar Anthony Suhaag was the first movie of Amitabh-Desai team which was much more on the mass,like the character of Amitabh which is even crude at times and street-smart(In Anthony Gonsalves role Bachchan was much more classy),the hard core action and the formation of Amitabh-the complete entertainer is from Suhaag.This tendency was followed in some more super hits of the actor-director team like Naseeb,Desh Premee,Coolie and finally Mard.Infact if u observe closely even the character Amitabh plays in Laawaris has strong influence of his character in Suhaag.The street smart guy, the plot of him being brought up by a drunkard reappeared in Laawaris. The film naturally has a big ace in the form o Amitabh.