This is Bollytabulous. Or maybe Bollyicious. Meaning that this really only applies to a Bollywood film and in any other world cinema it would be burnt at the stake. It breaks every film norm as regards to basic editing, logic, transitions, plot - it even has a major plot point during the opening credits which takes place about 20 minutes into the film. But hell, we get three Amitabh Bachchans for the price of one. We get Zeenat Aman, Parveen Babi, Waheeda Rehman and Aruna Irani in the same film. We get the number one villain of the time Amjad Khan and other assorted villains that we know and love.  And let's not forget Ashok Kumar who gets top billing though he is not in the film that much because he was a legend. We get a creepy ventriloquist dummy that at times seems to talk and move on its own and likes to peep on women undressing. The music of RD Burman with one number taking place among the temples of Nepal and another in which Amitabh goes very gay. This is like opening a can of mixed nuts and trying to avoid the Brazil ones but you have to take the good and the bad. Either a genius wrote this or an escapee from a mental institution. This should not have worked and yet it does on the level that counts - it filled me with idiot glee.



I finally am beginning to understand the concept of arranged marriages and the vetting that each family does on their proposed in-laws. Because if you didn't the chances that you would be marrying a sibling separated at birth or as young children would be very high. At least if you watch enough Bollywood movies. I swear at least 25% of their films have to do with this plot point and it is only through karma or poor scriptwriting that they find each other. It is clearly a theme that very much resonates with Indian audiences - or at least did - I don't know if this is still a thing in Bollywood films. My favorite from this genre is Yaadon Ki Baarat in which three brothers separated at birth all happen to be in the same place, become friends, help each other and than discover they are brothers. It is quite a wonderful film. This doesn't go that far but I would not have been surprised if another Amitabh jumped up and said me too.



Amit (Amitabh) is probably not the lawyer you would want if you were guilty. When his friend and client Vikram (Amjad) comes up for charges on drug smuggling Amit tells the court that he is guilty and needs to spend time in jail to reform himself. This doesn't go down well with Vikram and when he gets out of jail a few years later he goes to Amit pretending to need his help but is really setting him up to be charged for a murder. Amit also clearly knows nothing about evidence and the law either - a man attacks him after Amit discovers cocaine and intends to call the police and in the struggle the man is shot. But not by Amit but by Vikram at the door. Any lawyer could prove it wasn't your gun, that it was self-defense and the man had heaps of cocaine stashed in his room. But Amit panics and flees with his wife (Waheeda) only to get separated from her at the train station. He WALKS all the way to Nepal over the mountains in bloody feet and rags - to come across a man who is trying to kidnap a little girl and he stops him. Her father who has been mortally wounded gives Amit all his property in his dying breath. And apparently, this holds up in the courts. That part takes place while the opening credits scroll.


Jump ahead 25 years later. Amit going under a new name is now a wealthy land owner in beard and gray hair who has brought up that young girl to be Manja (Parveen - who in real life he was having an affair with) and on the anniversary of the day he was separated from his wife he has his servant whip him till he is bloody. Meanwhile the wife Janaki gave birth to a boy - or is it two boys - and has become a successful artist. Her son Shankar (Amitabh again) has become a tough rigid cop who swears he will arrest his father some day. He leads by his police stick, Literally. When he has to question someone he first throws his stick into the room and promises to shove it down their throat. He also uses it to beat up the bad guys. He meets Manja when on the plane she has cocaine put in her purse and then the bad guys chase her down. They are about to take the goods when the stick comes down. He then jumps down from about 20 feet up, somersaults over the minions and beats up on the main bad guy - son of Vikram - if you remember him. The bad guy takes off his jacket and is suddenly a kung-fu master. But then so does Shankar - and the music blares as he does - and he becomes a better kung-fu master. Very dramatic the taking off of the jackets.


Turns out that Manja has come to see his mother about doing a statue of her birth father. Karma is working. When some jewels are stolen Shankar goes to Nepal to question the man who had bid for them. None other than Amit of course. Face to face with neither realizing their father-son relationship. Karma getting closer. Now you may wonder - isn't there three Amitabhs? Yes. In a side story that doesn't merge with the main one till late in the film Guru (Amitabh) is an actor and playwright - dreadful at both - who takes his ventriloquist dummy with him everywhere. It is a very funny role and his musical number as an emasculated male is a highpoint. He is hired to pretend to be the husband of Rita (Zeenat) who wants to make her grandfather (Ashok) happy. Could it be that there were two sons? What do you think? They live in  - where else but Nepal. Also living in Nepal is Vikram who wants that necklace.



He sends his man to steal it from Amit who unknowingly has it but his guards of cobras stop the man. Using cobras as guards is of course very common in India - as a child in Calcutta my parents would surround my bed at night with cobras to keep me safe and other than a few bites it worked great. It all eventually comes together in a big wonderful insane fight at the gym - which Shankar narrates - now for some slow-motion hitting - and we get slow-mo. In the middle of the fight the two brothers break into a musical number. The captured parents are lowered down in a giant bird cage and a ring of fire surrounds them. What every gym should have. And when you think this is the end fight, Vikram escapes down a raging river in a kayak with Shankar in wet pursuit. It is so much fun and undeniably stupid. The 8 star rating is strictly based on the pleasure this silly movie gave me. You never know how much of it was meant to be silly and fun or just seems that way 50 years later - but it worked for me. Three Amitabh Bachchans is still too few.