Suhaag
 
   
Director: Manmohan Desai
Year:  1979
Music: Laxmikant/Pyarelal
Duration: 164 minutes
Rating: 7.5
When I watch Bollywood films I tend to divide them in my mind into two categories - those I think a non-Bollywood fan might enjoy and those that I know they would roll their eyes at and laugh at in a condescending manner. This one falls squarely into the latter category. It is a big fat Bollywood film so full of coincidences and absurdities that the non-Bollywood fan would break into hives. But to those of us who love these anything goes Bollywood films from the 1970s that are full of corny melodrama, over the top action and more music than a Fourth of July parade they are so delicious that I would lick this film if I could. Just stuffed with all the things that screamed Bollywood back then. Not so much any more. They have gotten more Westernized, their action is as slick as Hollywood, the melodrama has been toned down - but back then these films were made for the millions of working class and rural Indians who just wanted to be entertained and to see their favorite stars. And does this ever have a cast of greats.




Amitabh Bachchan and Shashi Kapoor co-starred in a few classics - Shaan, Trishul, Dewaar and Namak Halaal. They make a great duo on the screen. This film isn't a classic really - a bit sluggish in the middle - but damn much of the time it hands out fun like a slot machine on a winning streak. Along with them are two great actresses - Rekha (only the one name) and Parveen Babi. It must have been a little complicated on the set as Amitabh who was married to the actress Jaya Bhaduri had well publicized affairs with both Rekha and Parveen. Hopefully not with both at the same time. Rekha is his romantic partner in this one while Parveen goes with Shashi - maybe that is a clue. Maybe not. On top of these are a slew of well-known actor villains - Amjad Khan, Kader Khan, Ranjeet and Jeevan. The villains all play their roles to the hilt like rotting fruit, while the women are stunning and our two heroes are handsome and . . . well heroic.



This one jumps right into familiar Bollywood territory. Separated siblings. God knows how many films have taken this path but a whole lot of them. And they work because the writers know just how to manipulate the audience as the separated siblings circle around one another for most of the film until that classic moment when they realize the truth. Durga gives birth to twin boys but their father Vikram has cast the mother aside and is now a big shot crook with a living room with red chandeliers and carpet, green walls and two staircases leading up to the top floor. Bollywood tacky. He is played by Amjid Khan famous for his villain in Sholay which pretty much got him stuck as the villain in all his films. The mother is played by Nirupa Roy, at this stage in her career playing pristine mothers, but earlier in the 1950s she was considered one of the great actresses winning Best Actress three times and played Goddesses so often that people came to her to be blessed.




Things go bad right from the start for poor Durga - her father goes to Vikram asking for help but is so hurt - "you rustle like a withered leaf" - that he has a heart attack and dies on the spot. Durga swears to Vikram that someday he will beg for mercy from her two sons. Durga then gets fooled by Jaggi (Kader Khan) into going to work in a brothel. And what a vile brothel. Inhabited by the most disreputable men with scars, eye patches, missing limbs and teeth - I have rarely seen such a low class brothel in a Bollywood film. Once she realizes this she escapes with the aid of the police but Jaggi takes one of the boys and sells it to a hooch maker (Jeevan) who brings the boy up. And so the story is set - one boy Amit (Amitabh) is brought up on the streets and the other Kishan (Shashi) is brought up by a poor but pure mother. One day as a boy Amit sees Kishan in trouble trying to raise money for his sick mother and carries him home. To his mother - both of theirs but of course Amit doesn't know.




Jump years ahead. Kishan is now an Inspector for the police and Amit is a fun loving free-spirited rogue too familiar with the bottle and the underworld. The two of them keep bumping into each other and eventually become friends. The mother accepts Amit as being a substitute for her lost son. She says to him "You are tall and broad" to which he answers "Loneliness stretched me out and the burden of misery broadened me. If only I had a mother like you telling me not to drink I would not have led such a wastrel life"  Kishan meets Anu (Parveen) in a dance club where she has been drugged - he takes her home and she breaks into a classic song as she dances on his jeep. Naturally, they fall in love. But her sister has gone missing. Amit is in love with a nautch dancer (Rekha) in an upscale brothel. Just dancing mind you. She is coincidentally of course Anu's sister who has paid for her university but is ashamed to let her know what she does. Like I said coincidences bounce off each other like rubber balls.




Eventually the two of them team up to go after the crooks and this is when the film takes off into joy. Both Vikram and Jaggi have become top of their class in the underworld. Neither son knows that Vikram is their father. You can just smell the opportunity for melodrama - what, you are my brother, what you are my mother, what you are our father. Crazy action. Kishan gets blinded by a falling chandelier and so Amit steps into his shoes and uniform and goes after the bad guys. Kishan becomes Zatoichi with  gun. He even rides a motorcycle in a chase and hangs on to a helicopter. All of it and all the coincidences come crashing together at the end in a cyclone of  fabulous. It is wonderful. The music is from two greats - Laxmikant-Pyarelal and there is a ton of it - and some of the songs are visualized with great flair and fun. Directed by Manmohan Desai - Mard, Coolie and Amar Akbar Anthony among others.