Do Anjaane

Review By Kamal K

twisting noir-melodrama of middle class fear and broken aspirations, with a first half built from elaborate flashbacks and a second half from a strange, convoluted revenge plot involving disguise and cinematic recreations of past crimes (bridging the gap between madhumati and om shanti om?), all grounded by rekha as a very sympathetic femme fatale and amitabh as a good but flawed man who can only understand the truth of his life when he's drunk (and forgets it the next morning when sober).

If i don't rate this higher it's because it ultimately goes too far in condemning the rekha character's actions (though it does give her a happy ending); realistically there are enough extraordinary sequences and such a unique emotional focus that i'm surprised this isn't more of a cult film.

Do Anjaane also starred Mithun Chakraborty in a small 2-minute role. In fact Mithun used to stay as a paying guest in Dulal Guha's house and he got this role after a lot of effort. The shooting was held in 1975 and he came down to Calcutta from Mumbai to meet Mrinal Sen. It was a very brief appearance in a scene with Amitabh Bachchan. Mithun was given a Mumbai-Kolkata air ticket as his remuneration and being a friend of Dulal Guha's son Gautam, it helped him. Later he had also starred in Dulal Guha's film, DHUAN, also a murder mystery released in 1980. Whiel shooting in Calcutta in 1975, Mithun had accompanied Amitabh and Rekha from Grand Hotel to various locations in Calcutta.

This film is a copy/remake of B.R Chopra' s film Dastaan( 1972), starring Dilip Kumar, Shamila Tagore, Prem Chopra, Bindu etc. More interesting is that both movies have common villian Prem Chopra with same role. Infact Dastaan was also a remake of 1951 movie Afsana; which was based on Novel Vndetta :). So better to watch Afsana:). I would give it 5/10. Afsana best Dastaan Better and Do Anjane Good. Acting wise Dastaan is best.

Many reviews say that it is a copy of Dastan (1976) starring Dilip Kumar. I just saw that after watching this. It is nowhere close. There are some resemblances, but they are purely inspirational.

Dastan, overall the story and acting is suboptimal whereas Do Anjaane is very well made. A must watch.

This film really blew me away! Something about this film that really helps you relate to its situations and Amitabh was somehow the best choice for this film.

His role of Amit has two diverse sides. One in the first half and the second one around interval. Both sides are played brilliantly by Amitabh brilliantly.

Rekha and Prem provide great support and so does Utpal Dutt!