Hamraaz

Hamraaz (1967) : Brief Review -

This is what a near-perfection looks like in a wholesome romantic thriller! You watch "Casablanca" (1942) and "Double Indemnity" (1944), and you've watched the perfection in the romantic thriller genre. Can Bollywood ever match that? The answer is no. But yes, we can go close. We have Howrah Bridge, Teesri Manzil, Mera Saaya, Woh Kaun Thi, and a few others to argue. Hamraaz happens to be one of them, but it's so freaking wholesome. It starts off like a love triangle like Sangam or any other formulaic romantic drama where a girl gets married to her lover, but before anyone else can acknowledge their marriage, he dies. The woman gets married to another man, and years later, her first husband, who was supposedly dead, returns to make her life complicated. BR Chopra gives a very sophisticated and emotional touch to this formula as the husband wishes her the best with the second husband and the woman literally falls at his feet. The real thrill lies in the murder of the woman, and who killed her and for what? For us, that third man is the friend of her first husband, but it turns out that he was never at the villain's place. There is a fourth guy, and I won't spoil it for you. The film has a super hit album, and that's why you see a rare film getting 5 songs in the first 50 minutes of its runtime. The reason is the structure of the narrative. It doesn't need songs later on, which it needed a lot in the beginning to set two romantic stories in a short time, making both look rushed. Hamraaz keeps you hooked with every single element of the story, be it romance, suspicion, betrayal, past secrets, on-stage drama references of Othello, and the cute little girl as the real key-spinner. Big cast, grand music, long narrative, multiple genres-how BR Chopra managed it and made it a huge commercial success should be the textbooks of filmmaking for newbies born after 70s. Truly, a grand affair at a romantic thriller, and probably the grandest.

RATING - 7/10*

By - #samthebestest.

The movie starts with an ordinary love story of a girl with a military man, they marry without telling the girl's father. The girl's father somehow agrees and asks them to do the marriage again. War breaks out and the husband dies in the war leaving the girl pregnant. Father of girl tells the girl that the child was born dead. The girl marries a stage actor Kumar, played by Sunil Dutt. First half is full of good songs, and beautiful surroundings of Darjeeling. No one can even imagine what the second half can be. The second half is suspense thriller, young Sunil Dutt plays the role of chasing husband very well. Balraj Sahni is, as always, at the top of the affairs, as a police inspector. Balraj Sahni's styles eventually suggest that probably Amitabh copies him a lot of times. Suspense goes on till the last 7-8 minutes of the movie. Raaj Kumar is not so good, but Dutt sahib has done phenomenally well. A must watch movie. I still remember when I was a child I saw this movie first time on Vishal cinema in New Delhi, and my father when I told him that I saw Humraaz, he embraced me. Its a far far better movie than today's suspense thrillers.

Hamraaz is extraordinary quality entertainment of its times, which benefits from superb writing, excellent direction, good acting and phenomenal music. In this regard, the film is B. R. Chopra at his most quintessential. It's stylish and enjoyable and very affecting throughout. The sudden turn of events it takes halfway through the story is most unexpected but it is a fantastic twist at that, quite Hitchcockian I would say. First it turns into a successful thriller, later into a murder mystery, and it works well all through. The gripping delivery, very characteristic of Chopra's films at the time, is very tight and successful. The film's second half is therefore much stronger than the first, but the film has many qualities going for it, among which the cinematography and camera work are quite excellent for the times.

The film's main trump-card other than the interesting story and the technical finesse, is unquestionably the music, which can't get better than this. Comng from the great musci director Ravi, this is hardly surprising. All the numbers are classically melodious and wonderfully sung by Mahendra Kapoor (take "Neele Gagan Ke Tale", "Kisi Patthar Ki Murat Se"). The actors all do well. Vimi, a lesser-known actress, is competent in her most famous role, which is quite uncommon for a leading Hindi film actress. Sunil Dutt, on the other hand, does a pretty common role, similar to what he did in Raj Khosla's thriller Mera Saaya, and he does well as always. Supporting parts by excellent character actors like Blaraj Sahni and Iftekhar are a great addition, and Raaj Kumar and Mumtaz do equally well. Great entertainment, indeed.

A classic...very well made thriller movie by none other than B R Chopra. This is certainly one of the best of the that times. Music, thrills, suspense, everything was perfect. Sunil Dutt, Raj Kumar and Sadhna were just perfect in their respective roles.

Music is a great strength of the movie and some of the songs are iconic.

Good star cast. Interesting story. Very well made movie with excellent songs.