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 movie is a remake or inspired from B R Chopra's 1972 movie Dastan, starring Dilip Kumar, Sharmila Tagore, Bindu and Prem Chopra. Do Anjaane is a good effort but i will go with the original one (Dastan).

Do Anjaane is a classic case of a badly written short story made into an above average, watchable film. The plot is dramatic, and at the same time, taut. This film was Dulal Guha's attempt at serious cinema and he came out with flying colors thanks to the contribution of Nabebdu Ghosh who single-handedly re-wrote the story by Dr Nihar Ranjan Gupta (published in a Bengali magazine) and gave the script a generous iota of crispness.

The film tells recounts the story of a middle class couple (Amit Roy & Rekha) in Calcutta, who are forced to go different ways thanks to the intrusion of a Mr Ranit Mallick (wonder why Dulal Guha chose this name, as an actor of the same name is one of the premier stars of Bengal!), till they are united , courtesy their only son, Mithun.

It touches upon the various vignettes of a husband-wife relationship who dream of making it big. Paradoxically, the relationship turns sour and dark when the dreams are fulfilled, till the happy ending which appears forced upon to satisfy the average audience.

A must see for Amitabh fans and Hindi film lovers who see a world outside the common trash churned out in Bollywood.

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!