Sadhu Aur Shaitan (1968)

First Day First Show | Sadhu Aur Shaitan (1968)

Story: Usilai Somnathan

Dialogues and Lyrics: Rajendra Krishan

Music: Laxmikant – Pyarelal

Producers: N. C. Sippy and A. Bhimsingh

Screenplay and Direction: A. Bhimsingh

Date of Release: 31^st December 1968

Length: 156 Minutes

Cast: Mahmood (Bajrang), Bharthi (Vidhya), Om Prakash (Babu Sadhuram), Pran (Dilawarsingh / Sherkhan), Kishore Kumar (Pundit Dinanath Shastri), Nasir Hussain (Bank Agent), Anwar Hussain (Inspector), Master Shahid (Ganesh) and Baby Fauzia (Munni)

Special appearances by: Ashok Kumar, Sunil Dutt, Dilip Kumar, Mumtaz, Jeevan, Anwar Ali, Shubha Khote and Lalita Pawar

Songs:

“Kabhi Aage Kabhi Peechhe, Kabhi Upar Kabhi Neeche” – Mohammad Rafi

“A for Apple B for Baby C for Camel D for Daddy” – Asha Bhonsle and Manna Dey

“Mehbooba Mehbooba Bana Lyo Mije Dulha” – Mohammad Rafi and Mahmood

“Nandlal Gopala Daya Karke” – Asha Bhonsle and Usha Mangeshkar

If you want to spend your spare time with loads of laugh by watching lots of great and good actors I would advise you to watch this movie. If I was a ‘laughter doctor’ then I would certainly have prescribed you this movie to forget all the pains of your life. When you have Mahmood, Kishore Kumar, Om Prakash, Pran, Ashok Kumar, Sunil Dutt and Dilip Kumar sharing single screen then why to think of others?

Sadhu Aur Shaitan

Synopsis:

Bajrang is a taxi driver, living in Mumbai; he has mixed well with his neighbor Babu Sadhuram and his kids Ganesh and Munni. Sadhuram is a cashier in a bank. Bajrang also likes Ganesh and Munni’s tuition teacher Vidhya. Once a Sardarjee forcefully enters into Bajrang’s taxi and then police starts following Bajrang’s taxi. While leaving the taxi, without paying the fare the Sardar threatens Bajrang to face the consequences if he goes to the police. This Sardar was non other then Daku Dilawarsingh. Again while saving himself from the police, Dilawar finds Sadhuram’s place as his shelter. Sadhuram immediately recognizes Dilawar as his childhood friend. Dilwar tells him that now he has become a Muslim and he spends his day by doing five time namaz only. He starts living with Sadhuram and his kids.

Slowly Dilawar wins Sadhuram’s trust and he has got a plan to rob Sadhuram’s bank. Once by showing fake chest pain to Sadhuram, he takes bank locker’s key impression on a toilet soap. One night when Sadhuram was in sleep Dilwar and his men rob the bank, but somehow Sadhuram wakes up at midnight and starts walking towards the bank. Upon reaching the bank, he sees different Dilawar and gets the shock of his life. He pleads Dilawar to put the money and things back into the bank but Dilawar don’t listen and attacks Sadhuram, in his defense Sadhuram kills Dilawar with his own gun. Actually Sadhuram and Dilawar fought inside a taxi and Dilawar himself had shot from his gun, but Sadhuram feels otherwise and leaves the scene with Bank’s money and other valuable things with him.

To Bajrang’s bad luck that taxi in which Dilawar got killed was his. The dead body of Delaware has been just below the back seat hence Bajarang was not aware of that and he begins his daily life. Every single passenger who hires Bajrang’s taxi that day leaves the journey within a few minutes of its commencement with quite a bit of fear in their faces and voices. Bajrang wonders why? …….

******

If you see the story is one or two liner, but Mahmood’s comedy and the superb supporting cast keep on running the film for more than two and half hours. I have always said and believed that Om Prakash was such an actor who can be molded easily and then you see only the character and not real Om Prakash, this belief of mine gets proved yet again by his performance in this movie. There were plenty of character artists in that era but no one could have done justice to Babu Sadhuram other than Om Prakash sir. The striking thing is that the entire film was a comedy and there are very few comic actors happened in our film industry till date and none better than Om Prakash, yet he got a serious role in this movie. The best part of Om Prakash’s performance in this movie is when he realizes that his friend is cheating him. The expressions on his face are to believe if you watch them and then you will agree with me ‘praises’ about him.

Along with Om Prakash and Ashok Kumar, Pran Saab is another actor who always gives me calming effect. Whenever I see either of these three a smile automatically comes on my face with a guarantee that now the movie is going to be a great watching experience. The only reason is that none of these three have never crossed their limits. I have never seen either of these three doing ‘over acting’… never!! Here Pran Saab is what he was best at, ‘a villain’. A different kind of villain though, but he convinces us with his acting that he is really a wicked guy. In the second part of the movie he has acted very well as a dead body. LOL I am just joking. Actually the dead body scene is repeated time and again so Pran Saab didn’t have to move around like Satish Shah of ‘Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron’.

Kishore Kumar in Sadhu Aur Shaitan

Kishore Kumar…aahaaaa!! When you see him you enjoy, when you hear him you enjoy!! Sometimes it is hard to decide whether he was a better actor or a better singer? One more unusual thing about this movie is that, in this movie Kishore’da is doing a role of a classical singer, yet he has not sung a single song, yes I repeat he has not sung a single song in this movie!! Booooo Laxmikant – Pyarelal ..lollzz kidding. Though in one scene of this movie he has made a real fun of Classical Singer by his acting. Kishore’da himself was not a ‘trained singer’ and because of that many ‘trained singers’ of that time used to feel jealous of him and I am sure he has made fun of those people by his acting in this movie. The fantabulous humorous reactions he gives when he first sees the dead body of Pran Saab is either he can give or his co-actor in this film Mahmood.

Yes, even Mahmood’s acting after seeing the dead body is simply out of this world. Though the official hero of the movie is Mahmood but for me the real hero of this movie is Kishore’da, despite being a hardcore fan of Mahmood. There is one forcefully inserted song in this movie in tune with Gumnaam’s “Hum kale hain toh kya hooa dilwaale hain”. There was no need of having a 15-20 minutes long scene of a ‘Charity show for the Taxi driver association’. Mehbooba Mehbooba bana lyo mije Dulha” is just a waste of a song. There was no need for Mahmood Saab to copy his own song but anyway lets leave that issue here and move on.

Despite having so many great names public gets surprise treatment by having a special appearance by Ashok Kumar, Sunil Dutt, Dilip Kumar, Mumtaz, Anwar Ali and Shubha Khote. Ashok Kumar is a film make-up man; Sunil Dutt is a priest, Dilip Kumar and Mumtaz are in their ‘Ram Aur Shyam’ get ups where as Mahmood’s brother Anwar Ali is with his once upon a time girl friend Shubha Khote. Everyone else but Dilip Kumar and Mumtaz have to run after they see the dead body, but Dilip Kumar must have told Mahmood that “I can give only a half day to you”, hence there are no dialogues for him and he and Mumtaz has appeared for just two minutes.

I have always felt in each film where Mahmood is in a lead role, that he must have done ‘ghost direction’ for that movie. It can be ‘Padosan’ (Jyoti Swaroop), ‘Bombay To Goa (S. Ramnath) you can easily find out the imprints of Mahmood Saab in it. Even in this film I feel that Mahmood Saab have given ‘ghost direction’ and A Bhimsingh is just there to sign the muster roll. I was never a big fan of L.P, not because I am a big fan of ‘Pancham’ because I am a big fan of O. P. Nayyar, Khayyam and Rajesh Khanna too. I love their music just like I love RD’s music. I have always found LP very loud even when there is no need to be one. Sorry LP fans, no offense meant. There is not much to say about songs of this movie, but yeah there is a particular tune when a new passenger enters the taxi and the taxi starts to move, I really liked that tune.

I would request reader buddies of this generation to try and watch this movie whenever they get the chance. I feel you may not know much about this movie, because not many T.V. Channels have shown this movie often. You will thank me once you will see this movie, of course for good reasons!!

EXIT

Bajrang: “Masterjee ye kaunsa raag hai?”

Pandit Dinanath Shastri: (Looking at the dead body) “Bajrangu isey ‘raag bhagrat’ kahete hain”

24.01.2013, Thursday

Ahmedabad