Pedra Negra

Kaala Patthar

Just watched one of the underrated gems of Yash Chopra, Kaala Patthar. It is a coalmine disaster story, inspired by the 1975 Chasnala mining disaster. What caught me most was the characters, who had unique backstories and motivations. Shatrughan Sinha's role was most fascinating to me, apart from the dusted, red-eyed angry young man, Amitabh Bachchan. The climax scene of the real disaster is realistic, credits to Yash Chopra's brilliant direction.

The takeaway from the movie is the attitude of Magal, who despite being a criminal, won hearts. He taught me to be full of life: "Chal Beta, Shabash!"

Amazing movie, and quite surprising that this is not one of the most highly regarded movies of its time.

The movie tells the story of a coal mine run by a greedy capitalist and the sufferings of the underpaid workers and the constant dangers they face in the depths of a coalmine. The script is extraordinarily strong, the romantic bits are kept at a minimum, and Amitabh Bachchan(AB)'s role of Vijay Pal Singh as the angry self-loathing hero fits like a T.

This is without doubt one of AB's best performances and his dialogues really fire up the movie. Salim-Javed have to be credited for the dialogues, after all they have provided ammo for AB all along with their scripts. Shashi Kapoor(SK) and Shatrughan Sinha(SS) fit into their roles perfectly, and overall the movie is not dominated by a single character.

This is all about the coal mine, and the risks and tragedies that the workers face every day. By the end of the movie, you almost feel like being one among the workers and demanding justice, alongside Vijay.

The screenplay and direction is fantastic. The opening scene with the titles is absolutely brilliant. The ghetto is very well done. The incidents between AB and SS are well portrayed, and very stylish. Characterization is top class. The background score is brilliant.

The bad? The music - i.e. the songs really break up the movie. None of the songs really make the grade and they only act as roadblocks to a free flowing movie. Most of the songs are pointless and not required.

The script really fits the era, the unrest, the anguish, really suits the time the movie was made. Then you put AB in an angry young man - role and all you need to do is wait for the money to roll in. This movie was MADE for the masses.

Amazingly that did not happen for this movie, it never reached the heights that it could have. We will never know why!! Overall... Brilliant. Don't miss it, est if you are an AB fan or a 70s movie buff.

This film has an amazingly ambitious story for its time. a story about poorly treated coal mine workers and a deeply powerfull hero destined to a life of pain and suffering for his mistakes in his past. this film boasts some powerfull performances from Amithab Bachan and Shatrugan sinha. Rakhee plays the soulful doctor destined to help the unfortunate wherever they may be thus on of the most famous lines in bollywood history when Rakhee is trying help The injured Amithab. "please why dont you try uderstand" "Pain is my destiny doctor and I can't avoid it!" Shashi kapoor plays the Dashing young romantic engineer together with Parveen Bhabi the news reporter who plays his girlfriend in the film. The story works well on a whole though technically the film leaves a lot to be desired. Though the scenes in the coal mines are well done. The rest is a bit shoddy in places, but some brilliant acting is what takes this film beyond its rather dull appearance. This film comes with a soulful soundtrack that really works well and some fantastic songs to be rememderd forever... they just don't make stories like this anymore.....shame really

KAALA PATTHAR is my all time favorite movie. I never imagined even in my dreams that I'm going to watch this masterpiece with my father on the Big Screen and that too on Amitabh Bachchan's 80th Birthday. Mr. Bachchan as Angry young man, Vijay was phenomenal he is an absolute legend. After 43 years of its release this movie is still impactful with the powerpacked performance and striking dialogue delivery of Shatrughn Sinha and pleasant appearance of Shashi Kapoor. Beautiful Multistarer Direction of Yash Chopra, Script by Salim-Javed, Playbacks of Lata Mangeshkar, Kishore Kumar, Md. Rafi and Mahendra Kapoor everything was there to make it one of the most heroic Bollywood cinema.

#HappyBirthdayAmitabhBachchan #AB80 #KaalaPatthar.

I thought it was an Indianized version of Lord Jim, which was itself based on the true story of the abandonment of a ship called PATNA! In Lord Jim too the protagonist lives with the fact of his own cowardice and eventually redeems himself by taking on ugly forces that prey on the poor and weak. Kaala Paththar had two other men in the story - and followed the usual 70s/80s cliché of the man with the criminal background having to die in the end. But it was also quite uncliched in having no overt romantic track between Shashi and Parveen Babi, and a very quiet connection between Amitabh and Rakhi. Rakhi never enunciated well in Hindi and it got worse in moments of agitation. Here she did not have to speak much and was OK. I always liked Neetu Singh and she was good in this one too. Shatru was never a favorite but he was quite restrained here IMO. For a film from the 70s, this was indeed quite a different one and I enjoyed it. Amitabh was excellent as the coward, then the slowly burning up with self-disgust man, and finally as the hero. The mine disaster was well shot and the dark and claustrophobic kind of picturization made is seem realistic. There were not really many songs to disrupt the narrative - another unique feature for a film of its time. Fr instance, no sad number with wailing violins as the hero sits and stares at the stars and broods over his past! I gave it 8/10.