Saudagar

This my all time favorite movie, especially for the performances of Nutan, and Amitabh ! Nutan played all kinds of roles in her career, from playful, romantic, with Dev Ananad, Raj, but this is, perhaps an exceptional role, in her filmography, which she did with the superstar Amitabh, when he was not awarded that status ! Amitabh has lived the role of Moti, a rustic youth, making his living,by selling jaggery, after working hard to collect the extract from the palm trees ! but there is more to it, to his personality, as he has his eyes on the sexy, youthful damsel Phulbano, played by Padma khanna. Now this is not that simple as may seem, because, Phulbano's father wants a hefty sum as a token for agreeing to give her hand in marriage ! now the hero thinks of a plan, and seemingly succeeds, when he lures the poor widow of the village, not so old, but of course, no match to Bano ! she is an expert in making jaggery, and Moti exploits her talent to the fullest ! He makes enough money, on her hard, sincere work, and coolly divorces her, as it's easier in the Muslim religion, just by calling, Talaq, 3 times ! Poor, hapless woman ! she , any way, marries another mature person, with 2, 3 kids, and he takes care of her ! n Now comes the turn in the events, as we do believe, one has to pay for the wrong deeds, in this birth only ! Bano is only good looking, minus skills ! she makes burnt jaggery, Moti becomes a laughing stock, and eventually , has to catch the feet of his ex-wife, Nutan ! Though furious in the beginning, her goodness of the heart prevails, ad she does surrender, to teach Bano, how to master the art ! Similar to the realistic regional movies from Bengal, this movie was a refreshing change, both for Hindi cinema, as well as for Amitabh ! But sad , our immature audience wanted him as an angry young man, stereotype roles only, and the movie was side-tracked ! Worth watching for the great performances, and a very subtle, sensible direction !

Based on Bengali story, Ras by Narendranath Mitra…lol – Bengali who else!!? Moti is a businessman (man basically).

He happens to see a voluptuous damsel (Phoolbano) and wants to marry her. Her father asks for dowry (Meher) which he has to collect.

He hits upon a plan. He marries his business associate, Mejubhen (who made gur – molasses) for him to sell in the market. She is an aged (older to him) thin & shrivelled widow. Because he married her – he did not have to pay her plus he was sorted for couple of months – with cooked food and clean clothes & house ready for him. He does not show any interest in eff-ing her though – for she was not attractive enough (this should have been enough hint about his ulterior motives btw….but the grey cells of the entire women clan apparently is on leave…vacationing in some distant island with an imaginary lover)! The poor lady had no clue as to what was his trip actually! He eventually collects enough money – kicked her butt (divorced her) & married Phoolbano! After all the bodily pleasures, the season of selling comes & Moti asks Phoolbano to prepare gur. She was more into 'sleeping & having fun' and making gur was something that she was not very fond of. She gets busy in beautifying herself and manages to spoil the gur recipe!(famous song 'sajna hai mujhe' – after which she gets a tight slap from the same sajna! – lol).

He eventually takes her – shamelessly – to Mejubhen so that she could teach her to make gur. Film ends here! Conclusion :

Male (some…majority actually) psychology is pretty clear here! They give more importance to 'skin' – beauty is just skin-deep for them. Period.

Women also understand this syndrome that males suffer from…and thus they are more into spending time in the beauty parlours and trying desperately to look young, taut and firm…lest the male they are tied to through marriage & rituals will kick their butt and go. They are thus giving lesser time to household requirements but diving for Botox and silicon sack treatments…or are just plain indifferent to the emotional needs of males – tit for tat after all huh!

(PS. Males (some) start having emotional needs only after reaching an age where they are unable to perform voraciously on bed…not before that)

Any kind of proposal should definitely be followed by a total background check before agreeing to marry any bloke with ulterior motives (men should also do a thorough background check – episodes of Saavdhaan India showing females torturing men – just unbelievable …eerie)….how long would humans remain dumb is the matter to ponder upon now!

It is a general notion that Amitabh has acted in typical "Masala" movies only. But there is more to him than meets the eye. Here, he has taken on serious cinema.

This is one of his early films. He has given as terrific performance, which went unnoticed in the star-dust of his hit films. He did not return to serious cinema again. This side of him has not been exploited to the fullest. He has immense talent. That's why he continues to surprise us even after ruling the industry for more than 3 decades.

However, if he gives another shot to such films, he can leave an indelible mark. His best is yet to come.

wow , what a great movie . every time when i see any movie , i want some good human weekness to come out . And see big b is doing such type of work . when every 1 want hero without any week point , big b did it . great direction great characterization . i love it . when i was enjoying this movie 1 thing i notice every 1 so much involved in story telling . time when that movie come out , that time it is not time for serious movies . because time for money making movie . big b acting super , songs are good . emotion are realistic . and the most important part is women character is so much strong . movie end with a great message beauty is not every thing .

This is a Hindi film from the year 1973 led by Amitabh Bachchan and Nutan.

An excellent gem left even more memorable because of a just ending that seems only fair only to add an open-ended suspense in the eyes of Amitabh making it feel that things are going to go full circle!

The movie is about an self-centred guy who marries a woman business partner only to save money and marry another one he desires. Truly unforgivable as it ends up so (almost..)

It's good that this movie is still remembered among one those off-beat movies where Amitabh's depth of talent could really shine. Unlike the numerous forgettable larger-than-life hero characters that he played, especially in the 80's and 90's when it really started to get jaded.

Back to the movie though, it really exposes Nutan's talent to those who haven't watched her black-and-white films.

The songs have also stood the test of time!



I rated it 9/10 in IMDB