Shaan

After the super duper success of Sholay the Sippy's came up with this lavish James Bond type action flick. I really can't give the Sippy's enough credit for making Shaan so different to Sholay. Whilst Sholay was a mesh of different genres Shaan is more or less a straight forward action epic. You can see it's inspiration from the title sequence, which is reminiscent of the Bond movies. Even the villain Shakaal's lair is modelled on that of a Bond villain's. Amitabh Bachan,Shashi Kapoor and Shatrughan Sinha perform well whilst Sunil Dutt and Rakhee Gulzar provide fantastic support. Even Kulbushan Karbanda was extraordinary as the evil Shakaal. Shaan also benefits from having a good number of villain character actors, from what I remember there was Dilip Tahil, Sharat Saxena,Goga Kapoor,Sudhir,Mac Mohan and quite a few more. Kulbushan Karbanda had a tough job on his hands trying to match upto the tyrant Gabbar Singh but he delivers. Although half of that credit goes to writers Salim Javed for creating such a fantastic villain in the form of Shakaal Let me take this opportunity to mention an interesting fact, I had seen Kulbushan Karbanda in many movies as a child and had seen Shaan over 30 times yet failed to recognise him as Shakaal because I had never seen him bald. The songs by R.D. Burman were great, especially Pyar Karnewale and Yamma Yamma. Salim Javed had a tough job on their jobs trying to write a script to rival their previous movie Sholay but they delivered. The script was good but the action scenes were fabulous. Shaan is further proof that with Amitabh on board the Sippy's can create classics, even further proof was their next venture Satte Pe Satta.

Shaan has everything you would want in a film - there's comedy, drama, action, great music, and an all-star cast. Not only that, but there also is a car chase, a hostage crisis, a shootout, a jewel heist, and a deadly marine animal!

Characters include a pair of con-artist brothers who get conned themselves but end up joining their crafty foes (an uncle and niece team), another brother who just happens to be a police officer, his wife and daughter, a mischievous club singer, a hitman who turns good, a diabolical villain and his cronies, and a disabled informant. What more could you ask for?

As if the movie itself is not enough, the music is excellent as well. What else can you expect from R.D. Burman? "Yamma Yamma" is an instant classic. Find out for yourself if you haven't heard it yet, just ask for the MP3. "Pyar Karne Wale" is a hit as well, and fits perfectly into the movie, unlike most songs in Hindi films which just appear out of nowhere (and I must say, Parveen Babi looks great as she "sings" and dances to it in the movie).

This film is a 10/10 all the way. Shaan may be older than I am, but it's a film for the ages, and my father having a rather large video collection, Shaan being among them, I must have seen it at least a half dozen times since I was little. If you love watching Hindi movies, but haven't seen it yet, put it on your list of ones to watch. I'm sure you won't be disappointed.

Shaan is a Big budget movie from the Great Director Ramesh Sippy, who has given us the Best Bollywood film of all time Sholay. His next film is bigger in budget and star cast. Shaan is a Highyly enjoyable movie that has lots of comedy with action and fun. Amitabh Bachcan in a entertaining role. Shashi Kapoor is amusing at times. Sunil dutt is efficient. Rakhee gives a decent performance. Shutrungh Sinha is not too bad. The Late Parveen Babi is fairly good, she was one of my favourite actresses in the 80s. Shaan has a classic villain Shakaal played by Kulbushan Kurbandar in his best movie of his career. Shakaal is a james bond style villain who has his own island with guns, secret rooms, rotating chairs, sharks and crocodiles. Shaan in full on entertainment and a must see if you haven't seen it.

If you compare this movie with other Ramesh Sippy movies like Akayla (Amitabh, Meenakshi, Amrita, Jacjie and Aditya), Bhrashtachar (Rekha, Rajnikant and Shilpa in her debut role), Zamaana Deewaana (Shah Rukh, Raveena, Shatru and Jeetendra), Andaz (Hema, Rajesh and Shammi) this is an absolute classic. If you compare it to Seeta aur Geeta (Hema, Sanjeev, Dharmendra) and Saagar (Rishi, Dimple in her topless scene, Kamal) this movie is OK but if you compare it to Sholay it is a letdown (but which movie isn't. Ramesh Sippy as a director is in good form (not topform). R.D. Burman gave a better soundtrack than in Sholay which songs like Jaanu meri Jaan, Yamma Yamma and others. Amitabh Bachchan is THE HERO with support from Shashi kapoor, Shatrughan Sinha, Sunil Dutt (in a special appearance) , Raakhee, Jhonny Walker, Parveen Babi and Bindiya Goswami. Kulbhushan Karbanda makes a mark as Shakal bur he is no Gabbar Singh. This movie can be best describes as Sholay in the city. If you don't expect a Sholay this movie certainly entertains. The story is about three brothers Sunil Dutt ( a police officer), his wife Raakhee, his two brothers Amitabh and Shahsi who are two conmen. On their wedding anniversary Sunil and Raakhee get shot by Shatrughan but they survive. Half an hour later Sunil does get killed. Now Amitabh and Shahshi get serious and want to take revenge on the killers. They get unexpected help from Shatrughan who has become a good man. Thgether these three tackle Shakal with help from their girlfriends and Shatru. No super plot but like almost all Ramesh Sipy films the execution is perfect. A flop when released but a cult movie now. Definitely worth a watch and far far much better then the crap action movies that come out now. Definitely worth a watch, not only for Amitabh Bachchan -the only great Indian Actor (except for Rishi Kapoor) but the supporting cast is good as well. Watch out for the scene with Amitabh and Prakash Mehra's Raquela Padmini Kapilla in a special appearance. This scene is hilarious. All in all a very good movie

Film Length as shown in Censor Certificate is 5714.51mtr and No.of Reels 22. The running time of film should be 208 mins (3hr 28min). Whereas it is available only 2hr.47mins.