Umar Mansoor Bajwa

The year is 1973 and Amitab Bhachan was eagerly grabbing the golden opportunity to sign films with prime directors, like Shakti Samantha, Hirishikesh Mukherjee and Yash Chopra.

Amitab's excellent acting coupled with exceptional performance by Jaya Bachan and Hirishda's captivating direction made it a gem of a movie. The emotional outpouring and melodrama was very well played, needless to mention the eclectic poetry and mesmerizing music by S. D. Burman made this a landmark movie.

Primarily, Amitab Bachan's wrenching performance in this movie coupled with Zanjeer set the stage which would finally takeover the Super Star 🌟 status from Rajesh Khanna in later years to come.

Had this movie directed by William Wyler, it would had definitely left its mark not only in the filmography of Charlton Heston but also by grabbing a number of Oscars. Wyler possessed the acumen to get the best out of actors by exercising retakes, besides sharpening the script with archaic dialogues (suitable for historical epics) while accentuating the screenplay and melodrama with academic use of deep focus of sentimental emotional expression.

The story, script, direction and screenplay are all a class to watch. The songs are emotional and sensibly tipped with the threadings of the plot. Hema and Dharmendar, both have revealed their outstanding acting prowess in ample measure. Whereas, the old timer - Ashok Kumar is top of the class and manages to hold on to his very difficult and demanding role.

A must see movie for all serious viewers.