Naseeb

Review By Kamal K

Great entertainer with ensemble star cast with good storyline and nice songs. As usual Amitji carries the entire film on his shoulder with support from supporting actors. What a lavish movie. The presentation was great. An out an out entertainer. There must have been efforts to include Vinod Khanna but he would have refused and would have been replaced by Shatrughn Sinha. Definitely a must watch.

Naseeb review :

Legendary director Manmohan Desai reached the pinnacle of success with Naseeb (1981) which was his favourite lost and found formula offered on a platter of superstars with dollops of entertainment. The movie had Amitabh Bachchan, Shatrughan Sinha and Rishi Kapoor with Hema Malini, Reena Roy and newcomer Kim alongwith a plethora of villains including Amjad Khan, Prem Chopra, Shakti Kapoor, Amrish Puri and Kader Khan.

Thematically, Naseeb could pass off as a sequel to Desai's Amar Akbar Anthony (1977) with the identical plot of a father (Pran) losing his family after his friends falsely implicate him in a murder just to get hold of his prize winning lottery ticket. The son (Amitabh), called John Jaani Janardhan, grows up as a waiter in these villains' hotel built from the prize money.

Manmohan Desai pulled off a coup of sorts by getting almost the entire film industry in a guest appearance in the iconic song "John Jaani Janardhan". It brought the house down at Badal Bijlee Cinema, Matunga where I saw this film as a kid with my parents. The audience was clapping and cheering so loudly the song was hardly audible. Many years later, Farah Khan included a similar song with filmstars as guests in her Om Shanti Om (2007).

Of the cast, Amitabh Bachchan was fantastic as the waiter cum amateur boxer and the audience shouting "Johny Johny" as he knocks out his opponent was a superbly executed sequence. Shotgun Sinha impressed as the alcoholic friend who ends up in love with same woman (Hema) as Bachchan. Rishi and Kim provided the comic quotient with Jeevan playing the rare positive role.

Naseeb was a runaway success releasing in matinee shows first at the iconic Minerva Cinema just to let Ramesh Sippy's Shaan (1980) complete its silver jubilee in three shows there. It then shifted from matinee to regular shows and enjoyed a long run at the Minerva. This was Desai's creative high and is one of his most entertaining movies ever..

Regards, Sumeet Nadkarni.

Basically,I think that if the actors and actresses are good performers the whole film ends up being good and as part of this film it has the best actors and actresses that can perform great.Amitabh Bachchan,Hema Malini,Rishie Kapoor,Shatrughan Sinha,Reena Roy,Rishie kapoors wife in the film,Kader Khan,Shakti Kapoor,Amrish Puri,Amjad Khan,Jeevan,Prem Chopra and everyone else.Naseeb has the right time to be funny and the right time to be emotional.Naseeb was a perfect film and had a mixture of meanings such as Friendship,love,sacrifice and being poor but being patient.I love the part at the end when they are in the hotel and they fight like mad.

Its not one my most favourite movies but it is a fun watch with great star cast and music score. Story is very topical of that time just done on a big scale but it is a very enjoyable family movie.

A fast moving multistarrer. Does not give you much time to think Good songs, good performances. Lovable.