Hamraaz

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.

Hamraaz meaning confidante is a suspense movie directed by B.R.Chopra, known for his movies like Naya Daur,Sadhna,etc.Hamraaz is one of his best movies.

It is about Meena,daughter of an army general who secretly marries Rajesh an army officer without telling her father about it.On the day of their marriage Rajesh has to leave to the border upon declaration of emergency.Later she gets the news of his death.

She becomes pregnant with his child which supposedly dies after birth.She is then married of to Kumar,a renowned actor from Mumbai.Four years later Meena's past seems to have come back to her life and one day she get's murdered.The solving of this murder forms the rest of the story.

The direction is good.The camera work,music and art direction stand out. Amongst the actors,Sunil Dutt,Raaj Kumar and Mumtaz stand out.Vimi is unimpressive.The supporting cast comprising of Achala Sachdev,Jeevan, Madan Puri,Iftekhar,Jagdish Raj,Nana Palsikar,Manmohan Krishna,Balraj Sahni,etc are all good.Madhumati and Manohar Deepak have danced extremely well in the song 'Na mooh chupake jiyo'.

The movie could have been faster.Though not boring,the appearance of all the songs within the first one hour becomes quite monotonous.But the songs are very melodious.They have been well sung and well composed.

Overall,the movie is good and a must watch.

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.

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.

This movie has a good cast and songs(Tum Agar Sath Daine Ka Vaada Karo)(Naa Mun Chuppa Ke Jiyo).Although the movie was a hit at its time but the main flaw is its direction.Initially the film seems to be a love story which then changes to an unfaithful type story and then to a mystery type of movie.Sunil Dutt gives a good performance as a man trapped under a mystery.Raaj Kumar also gives a good performance though his character is of no appeal or anything.The end of the movie is very strange and the presence of Raaj Kumar was not even needed in my opinion.On the whole the movie can be given 6 because of its good songs and some appealing thrilling moments but still direction really decreases it value.