First Day First Show | 22 | Mahaan (1983)
Story and Screenplay: Prayagraaj
Dialogues: Kadar Khan
Songs: Anjaan
Music: Rahul Dev Burman
Producers: Satyanarayan – Suryanarayan
Director: S. Ramnathan
Released on: 29th April, 1983
Length: 172 minutes
Cast: Amitabh Bachchan (Shankar/Rana Ranveersingh, Shankar and Guru), Waheeda Rehman (Janki), Zeenat Aman (Reeta), Parveen Babi (Manju), Amjad Khan (Vikram Singh), Kadar Khan (Simon), Shakti Kapoor (Prem), Sujit Kumar (Rajan), Mukri (Guru’s foster father) and Ashok Kumar (Rai Sahab)
Songs:
“Jidhar dekhoon teri tasveer nazar aati hai” (Kishore Kumar)
“Har chhori raani hiyan har chhora raja” (Kishore Kumar)
“Aadhi baat ho chuki aadhi baat karle” (Kishore Kumar)
“Ye din toh aata hai ek din jawani main” (Asha Bhonsle and R.D.Burman)
“Pyar mein dil pe maar de goli le le meri jaan” (Kishore Kumar and Asha Bhonsle)
“Jidhar dekhoon teri tasveer narzar aati hai” (Amitabh Bachchan)
“Asli kya hai naqli kya hai” (Kishore Kumar and Amit Kumar)
[caption id="attachment_105" align="aligncenter" width="498"] Mahaan Poster[/caption]
Can you imagine ‘an Amitabh Bachchan movie’ getting flopped at the box office during his golden years? Can you even imagine that a film which has not one, not two but three Amitabhs and still it doesn’t get the expected response from the public? Despite having two strong reasons, ‘Mahaan’ was a flop at the box office. This shows that public opinion is so strong when it comes to Bollywood movies, if public likes a bore movie, it can be a huge hit and if it doesn’t like an entertaining movie like this, it can go into trash. But for me, as once told by my friend Mr. Adhir Amdavadi, Amitabh Movie is Amitabh Movie; it doesn’t have to fit in ‘Hit’ or ‘Flop’ kind of parameters. Ain’t I a ‘Mahaan Fan’ of Amitabh Bachchan??
Synopsis:
Vikram and Amit are very close friends. Amit, who is an advocate doesn’t know that Vikram is a drug smuggler. When police grabs Vikram by the help given by Rajan, Vikram gives his case to Amit. But Amit openly declares Vikram as a drug smuggler in the court. Vikram gets jail sentence for few years. When he returns from the jail he fixes Amit into a murder case. Janki, Amit’s wife who was pregnant at that time, sees the danger and escapes from the grasps of Vikram and his gang. Later she gives birth to twin boys. One of those was taken by a couple which leaves only one kid with Janki. Janki names him Shankar and he becomes a police inspector when he gets older. Apart from Shankar, Janki also takes care of an orphan girl named Manju. Manju loves Shankar!!
The other kid, who was taken away by that couple, names him Guru. Guru doesn’t have any interest in his foster father’s job of an advocate, he likes to sing, dance and drama all day. A girl named Reeta, comes to Guru to help her. Reeta wants to have a fake marriage with Guru so that she can satisfy her grandfather Rai Sahab’s obduracy. But later she starts loving Guru. In Nepal, Amit is hiding as Rana Ranveersingh and has gained plenty of respect for him. He knows Manju, who lives with Janaki but is not aware of the fact. Suddenly time forces Shankar, Guru, Janki, Rita, Manju, Vikram and Amit to be at the same place. What happens next? Well for that you need to watch Mahaan !!
These days whenever I watch this movie, if I get time, I always think that how different it is from other Amitabh Movies of those days and yet it was flopped? The story is based on ‘Lost and Found’ formula. He is an angry young man in Shankar and comic in Guru. Great songs. Glamour of Zeenat and Parvin Babi and as I have mentioned above, not one, not two but three Amitabhs !! It is not that three Amitabhs are not tolerable. Three different roles are enacted by him with complete competence, but yet…. Anyways, lets forgive people of that era, what else we can do now right? The story may not be new, but it is full of entertainment for sure. For Bachchan fans like me, its a treat to have three Amitabhs in one film !! Correct me if wrong, Amitabh has never done triple roles before and after this movie.
The director of the movie S.Ramnathan has done three movies with Amitabh Bachchan, but between all these three movies he has kept a loooooong gap. When no one was aware about Amitabh Bachchan, he made one of the classic comedies of all time, ‘Bombay to Goa’ with him. Though I have a huge doubt that Mehmood bhai actually was a director of the movie. Anyways, after eleven long years came this Mahan and then after 26 years he made ‘Zamanat’ with AB, which came and gone and we never know about that. Because of good screenplay for this movie, Ramnathan sir had to work little hard to handle three Amitabhs. The film is fast and entertaining. There are plenty of chances that the film could have more emotional moments, but they were not preferred hence the movie is not boring at all.
When only one Amitabh is too hot to handle, how can other actors stay in front of three Amitabhs? Amitabh’s first crush Waheeda Rehman has given ample respect by him in this movie, I mean very less touching, you know ;)? Though Zeenat and Parveen Babi are limited to being glamour dolls yet they have a few moments of their own. Amjad Khan was perfect opposition to Amitabh in those days and he is the same here too. Ashok Kumar is one of my all time favorite actors and in one of the comic scenes with Amitabh Bachchan; he makes us laugh with the typical acting style of his.
Music and songs?? Well a ‘common devotee’ of Kishore’da and Pancham’da like me the music of this movie is like travel to the heavens. Five out of seven songs of this movie are just mind blowing. If you are ‘blind fan’ of Pancham’da and Kishore’da, you must be fan of “Har chhori rani hiyan” and if you still have not heard the song, I pity you. “Yeh din toh aata hai ek din jawani mein” is sung by ‘the boss’ himself with Ashaji and it is a typical ‘Pancham song’ to say the least. Ditto for “Pyar mein dil pe maar de goli” too. Putting a sound of ‘bullet fire’ in the song in those days, can only be thought by none other then Mr. R. D. Burman. No further discussion on this please !!
So much of masala, so much of fun, yet Mahaan was flopped!! Why? Some one please clear this because I was just nine at that time.
‘EXIT’
Triple roles in Bollywood were first done by Dilip Kumar in ‘Bairaag’ and in ‘Naya din nayee rat’ Sanjiv Kumar played no less than nine roles.
27.12.2012, Thursday
Ahmedabad
Story and Screenplay: Prayagraaj
Dialogues: Kadar Khan
Songs: Anjaan
Music: Rahul Dev Burman
Producers: Satyanarayan – Suryanarayan
Director: S. Ramnathan
Released on: 29th April, 1983
Length: 172 minutes
Cast: Amitabh Bachchan (Shankar/Rana Ranveersingh, Shankar and Guru), Waheeda Rehman (Janki), Zeenat Aman (Reeta), Parveen Babi (Manju), Amjad Khan (Vikram Singh), Kadar Khan (Simon), Shakti Kapoor (Prem), Sujit Kumar (Rajan), Mukri (Guru’s foster father) and Ashok Kumar (Rai Sahab)
Songs:
“Jidhar dekhoon teri tasveer nazar aati hai” (Kishore Kumar)
“Har chhori raani hiyan har chhora raja” (Kishore Kumar)
“Aadhi baat ho chuki aadhi baat karle” (Kishore Kumar)
“Ye din toh aata hai ek din jawani main” (Asha Bhonsle and R.D.Burman)
“Pyar mein dil pe maar de goli le le meri jaan” (Kishore Kumar and Asha Bhonsle)
“Jidhar dekhoon teri tasveer narzar aati hai” (Amitabh Bachchan)
“Asli kya hai naqli kya hai” (Kishore Kumar and Amit Kumar)
[caption id="attachment_105" align="aligncenter" width="498"] Mahaan Poster[/caption]
Can you imagine ‘an Amitabh Bachchan movie’ getting flopped at the box office during his golden years? Can you even imagine that a film which has not one, not two but three Amitabhs and still it doesn’t get the expected response from the public? Despite having two strong reasons, ‘Mahaan’ was a flop at the box office. This shows that public opinion is so strong when it comes to Bollywood movies, if public likes a bore movie, it can be a huge hit and if it doesn’t like an entertaining movie like this, it can go into trash. But for me, as once told by my friend Mr. Adhir Amdavadi, Amitabh Movie is Amitabh Movie; it doesn’t have to fit in ‘Hit’ or ‘Flop’ kind of parameters. Ain’t I a ‘Mahaan Fan’ of Amitabh Bachchan??
Synopsis:
Vikram and Amit are very close friends. Amit, who is an advocate doesn’t know that Vikram is a drug smuggler. When police grabs Vikram by the help given by Rajan, Vikram gives his case to Amit. But Amit openly declares Vikram as a drug smuggler in the court. Vikram gets jail sentence for few years. When he returns from the jail he fixes Amit into a murder case. Janki, Amit’s wife who was pregnant at that time, sees the danger and escapes from the grasps of Vikram and his gang. Later she gives birth to twin boys. One of those was taken by a couple which leaves only one kid with Janki. Janki names him Shankar and he becomes a police inspector when he gets older. Apart from Shankar, Janki also takes care of an orphan girl named Manju. Manju loves Shankar!!
The other kid, who was taken away by that couple, names him Guru. Guru doesn’t have any interest in his foster father’s job of an advocate, he likes to sing, dance and drama all day. A girl named Reeta, comes to Guru to help her. Reeta wants to have a fake marriage with Guru so that she can satisfy her grandfather Rai Sahab’s obduracy. But later she starts loving Guru. In Nepal, Amit is hiding as Rana Ranveersingh and has gained plenty of respect for him. He knows Manju, who lives with Janaki but is not aware of the fact. Suddenly time forces Shankar, Guru, Janki, Rita, Manju, Vikram and Amit to be at the same place. What happens next? Well for that you need to watch Mahaan !!
===== *** =====
These days whenever I watch this movie, if I get time, I always think that how different it is from other Amitabh Movies of those days and yet it was flopped? The story is based on ‘Lost and Found’ formula. He is an angry young man in Shankar and comic in Guru. Great songs. Glamour of Zeenat and Parvin Babi and as I have mentioned above, not one, not two but three Amitabhs !! It is not that three Amitabhs are not tolerable. Three different roles are enacted by him with complete competence, but yet…. Anyways, lets forgive people of that era, what else we can do now right? The story may not be new, but it is full of entertainment for sure. For Bachchan fans like me, its a treat to have three Amitabhs in one film !! Correct me if wrong, Amitabh has never done triple roles before and after this movie.
The director of the movie S.Ramnathan has done three movies with Amitabh Bachchan, but between all these three movies he has kept a loooooong gap. When no one was aware about Amitabh Bachchan, he made one of the classic comedies of all time, ‘Bombay to Goa’ with him. Though I have a huge doubt that Mehmood bhai actually was a director of the movie. Anyways, after eleven long years came this Mahan and then after 26 years he made ‘Zamanat’ with AB, which came and gone and we never know about that. Because of good screenplay for this movie, Ramnathan sir had to work little hard to handle three Amitabhs. The film is fast and entertaining. There are plenty of chances that the film could have more emotional moments, but they were not preferred hence the movie is not boring at all.
When only one Amitabh is too hot to handle, how can other actors stay in front of three Amitabhs? Amitabh’s first crush Waheeda Rehman has given ample respect by him in this movie, I mean very less touching, you know ;)? Though Zeenat and Parveen Babi are limited to being glamour dolls yet they have a few moments of their own. Amjad Khan was perfect opposition to Amitabh in those days and he is the same here too. Ashok Kumar is one of my all time favorite actors and in one of the comic scenes with Amitabh Bachchan; he makes us laugh with the typical acting style of his.
Music and songs?? Well a ‘common devotee’ of Kishore’da and Pancham’da like me the music of this movie is like travel to the heavens. Five out of seven songs of this movie are just mind blowing. If you are ‘blind fan’ of Pancham’da and Kishore’da, you must be fan of “Har chhori rani hiyan” and if you still have not heard the song, I pity you. “Yeh din toh aata hai ek din jawani mein” is sung by ‘the boss’ himself with Ashaji and it is a typical ‘Pancham song’ to say the least. Ditto for “Pyar mein dil pe maar de goli” too. Putting a sound of ‘bullet fire’ in the song in those days, can only be thought by none other then Mr. R. D. Burman. No further discussion on this please !!
So much of masala, so much of fun, yet Mahaan was flopped!! Why? Some one please clear this because I was just nine at that time.
‘EXIT’
Triple roles in Bollywood were first done by Dilip Kumar in ‘Bairaag’ and in ‘Naya din nayee rat’ Sanjiv Kumar played no less than nine roles.
27.12.2012, Thursday
Ahmedabad
Parveen Babi was great in this movie.. as always...
ReplyDeleteMahan was an average money generator...compared to its production costs
ReplyDeleteit did complete silver jubilee in many centers
there was much hype and bad-mouthing before the movie released
Amitabh was derided by critics as - 3 times Amitabh = Triple business
given those expectations, when the movie did average business, folks were in a hurry to write it off as a flop
it made around 4.5crores Net business