Suhaag

Watched this film and cannot help thinking how irritating Amitabh is. Playing the same character as he did in countless other films, only the female actors really shine,especially Nirupa Roy and Parvin Babi. The film ends up in London for no reason and the climax with the helicopter above Southampton was good.

I find the filmmakers must be smoking something to insult the intelligence of their audience. But for fans of Parvin Babi this film is a great showcase for her. Everything twist is do convenient and sloopy, the writers and filmmaker must have been in a hurry to get this film in the can and exhibit it half finished. Really mediocre crap. Stupid film.

Suhaag is a fantastic film from Manmohan Desai that entertains big time. He has made great films like Amar Akhbar Anthony, Naseeb, Mard, Coolie and other classics. Suhaag has an amazing beginning where the 2 baby's get separated in a unfortunate way. One gets raised by his mum in poverty while the other gets raised the hard way in the slums. Amitabh delivers a super performance yet again and again. Shashi Kapoor is lovable as Amitabhs co star in all his movies. Nirupa Roy is probably the best on screen mother I've ever seen. Amjad Khan and Kader Khan are perfect fine actors of the past and play their parts great. This is a movie that has it all action, comedy, romance, adventure a true Indian masala.

Do u know that all twins born are not identical? But if one follows Hindi movies he/she is expected to believe that all twins born are identical.So it is quite surprising to see a film-maker actually showing the concept of non-identical twins in a hindi movie and when u come to know that the filmmaker is none other than the masala King-Manmohan Desai you are bound to be baffled. Amitabh Bachchan-Manmohan Desai were an invincible combination in 70-80's.If u add Shashi Kapoor-Bachchan chemistry to it it becomes even bigger.And to top it if u have Parveen Babi and Rekha opposite them the expectations are sky-high.Fortunately,Suhaag satisfies all expectations and much more. The movie starts with Nirupa roy giving birth to twins(as already mentioned,they r non-identical).However,her husband Vikram(Amjad Khan)who is a drunkard and womaniser,does not a accept his sons and his wife(something which Amjad repeated in Laawaris).Now the mother moves from one place to another with her twins and due to some incidents one of the twins get separated(I told u it is a Manmohan Desai film).The separated son is taken care of a wicked lame man(Jeevan) who makes the boy a drunkard and a street side goon Amit(naturally Amitabh Bachchan).The son who lives with the mother grows up into an honest police officer Kishan(Shashi Kapoor).Circumstances bring both the brothers together and they become close pals. While Amit loves a dancer (Rekha),Kishan falls for her younger sister(Parveen Babi).Now their father Vikram has become a big time criminal and his rival is Jaggi(Kadar Khan).Jaggi and his son(Ranjeet) want to eliminate Vikram.However after a series of action packed sequences,some twists to the plot and some songs later the brothers unite to eliminate Jaggi and his son.Vikram gives himself to police custody and both the brothers get married to both the sisters(Two brides For Two Grooms ANYONE). Manmohan Desai was considered the Master of Entertainment and he never believed in LOGIC in his movies.Suhaag has the typical stamp of Desai.He is very well aided by his permanent team of Prayag Raaj-story writer,K.K.Shukla-Screenplay and Kadar Khan-dailogues in making Suhaag an out and out entertainer.The script is very faced pace and does not give time for the audience to think.The story although has shades of Sholay(the scene where Amitabh threatens to jump from the top of temple),Deewar(Amitabh as goon and Shashi as cop and brothers with Nirupa Roy as their mother) and ofcourse Desai's own Parvarish(In Parvarish Amitabh acts that he is blind,here Shashi actually gets blind.Infact the names of the 2 hero Amit and Kishan are straight from Parvarish)and Dharam Veer(their also Dharamendra and Jeetu played non identical twins),still the story in its totality is quite good.Kadar Khan's dialogues gives the film the necessary mass value it demands.The dialogues he wrote for Amitabh became very popular.The dialogue ''Yeh Kya Hai-Chappal, Kaun si-Kohlapurie,No-6...''became a rage. Suhaag's music is another high point of the movie. Laxmikant Pyarelal were always part of Desai camp and in this movie they again give a knockout score.All the songs ''Ek Daal Se...'',''Satra Baras ki..'',''main to beghar hoon'' are excellent.The songs have a unique thing about it. After a succesful team of Kishore-Amitabh in Desai's earlier hits Parvarish and Amar Akbar Anthony,Laxmikant Pyarelal make Mohd.Rafi the voice of Amitabh in Suhaag.Rafi sings excellently for Bachchan in songs like ''Teri Rab Ne...'', ''Hey Naam Re..''(in which Rafi proves yet again that noone could sing a bhajan as amazingly as him).Infact,Desai and Laxmikant-Pyarelal used Rafi's voice for Amitabh in their next blockbuster Naseeb as well.The usage of Shailendra Singh,who was the singing voice of Rishi Kapoor, for Shashi Kapoor(Rishi's real life Chacha) also produces excellent results.Suhaag's music is very melodious and its impact is visible from the fact that the number''Hey Naam Re...'' is still played at all Dandia nights.Add ''Teri Rab ne Bana Di Jodi..''which is one of the most popular bhangra number and u have a great soundtrack. The film although a great entertainer but has some sequences which are not great.The picturisation of the song''Imtehaan Hai...'' on Amitabh-Rekha looks like a pale version of ''Salaam-E-ishq..' from Muqaddar Ka Sikandar.The climax where Amitabh and Shashi(whos blind) hangs on a helicopter in mid-air also looks a bit too much even by Desai's standard. The film's editing is quite good.The photography is also good.The action sequences are excellent. After rather classy stuff Parvarish and Amar,Akbar Anthony Suhaag was the first movie of Amitabh-Desai team which was much more on the mass,like the character of Amitabh which is even crude at times and street-smart(In Anthony Gonsalves role Bachchan was much more classy),the hard core action and the formation of Amitabh-the complete entertainer is from Suhaag.This tendency was followed in some more super hits of the actor-director team like Naseeb,Desh Premee,Coolie and finally Mard.Infact if u observe closely even the character Amitabh plays in Laawaris has strong influence of his character in Suhaag.The street smart guy, the plot of him being brought up by a drunkard reappeared in Laawaris. The film naturally has a big ace in the form o Amitabh.

Review By Kamal K

The film plays with many masala conventions. Amitabh and Rekha appear as Annu's Punjabi brother-in-law and sister and no one recognises them, Amit directs dialogue at the audience, Shashi flashes a smile at the camera after meeting Annu. There are lots of teasing references to family in the dialogue Amit calling Durga Ma, Vikram calling to threaten the zealous policeman and identifying himself to Kishan as 'tumhara baap', and a whole lot of bromance. Vikram has a very ornate lair replete with design features like a dragon wall decoration and a stuffed tiger although it suffers from some serious design flaws including being above ground and having abundant natural light which isn't really lair-like.

The soundtrack is vintage Laxmikant Pyarelal and their lush big band sound is perfect for both the rollercoaster plot twists and the more intimate moments. The songs are excellent and serve to further the story so are an integral part of the film, and the stars all seemed to have a great time performing them.

Suhaag is by far my favourite movie and I truly believe that it is the greatest movie of all time.