Khoon Bhari Maang

Who am I to review the cult classic khoon bhari maang, just a mere mortal, who has watched this film 500 times atleast. Those crocodiles, the revenge sequence, the plastic surgery, the dirty tricks for wealth, stables with horses, crying innocent children, a loyal house help, inheritance etc. Every making of a perfect piece of an unprecedented Indian family revenge drama. Rekha never shone so bright, nor did the roshans, nor did sonu walia, or kabir bedi and nor were benevolent Indian reptiles represented so perfectly again. Superlative.

A dumb widow(Rekha) is lured into marriage by her best friend(Sonu)! The bold & brazen Sonu offers her boyfriend (Kabir) as a bait and the dumbo gulps it down!

The dumbo widow was also a mother of 2 kids and filthy rich too – i.e. financially independent. But clever and conniving Sonu counsels the dumbo to marry because children need a father. Dumbo agrees to marry Kabir – not thinking even once that with sexy-sultry Sonu around, how come Kabir was showing interest on a fat and ugly widow! Nor did she do any background check – as I said 'dumb'!

So Kabir takes her for a ride...yea literally ...and throws her to be devoured by the hungry crocodiles! After seeing blood in water and confirming that the ugly fatso has been disposed, Kabir happily returns home and starts to live-in with Sonu and turns the children into servants in their own house!

Well, real life would have finished here – the daughter would have grown up..in some kinda incest-like environment and the son would have turned into some drug addict – both the children would have had a sad and gory ending too! But Hindi film had other plans! They turned the ugly fatso into a beautiful swan...along with making her highly intelligent too and she manages to take revenge!

She re-unites with her children! Happy ending!

USPs – Song : Jeene ke bahane lakho hai ...

(meaning- There are many reasons to live, you never learnt the art of living, anyone can belong to you, you never tried hard enough!)

This is the dangerous song that Sonu sang to lure Rekha in Kabir's trap! So girls, do not fall in false traps like this! Be very careful of such smooth talkers who show too much interest in your personal life! Because when Rekha pushed her luck – after being convinced by smooth talker Sonu – she landed up straight in the crocodile's mouth!

Aarti (Rekha) and her husband Rakesh Roshan live a middle class life with there two children Bobby and Kavita, they live on her father's (Mr. Saxena's) estate. All there happiness were shattered one day when Rakesh Roshan passed away. Two lovers, Nandini (Sonu Walia) and Sanjay Verma (Kabir Bedi) wanted to snatch Mr. Saxena vast estate. One day, however, Sanjay happen to be a friendly man with Aarti two children and through this he decided to marry Aarti for the sake of her two children. On a boating trip, one day, Nandini & Sanjay decided to push Aarti into the jaws of death, and declaring that it was an accident. They, however, became the owners of Mr. Saxena's vast estate. But Aarti manage to survive by doing plastic surgery on her face which had been touched by a hungry crocodile's teeth. She transformed herself by changing her name to Joti and decide to become a successful Artist. One day, however, she was persuade that Mr. Sanjay ill-treats her children, pets and maids and then she decided along with the help of her boss Mr. JD (Shatrughan Sinha) to take her revenge and deploys such a way that will make her see light.

A tale of deceit & ultimate revenge Khoon Bhari Maang is probably one of Rekha's best films to date. She expertly portrays the role of maternal figure turned temptress turned brutal harbinger of doom. The transformation is as miraculous as her recovery from her physical scars inflicted by her husband (Kabir Bedi) actions. She is well supported by all cast members including the comic intricacies of Kader Khan who as usual delivers a sharp dialogue to the film. Sonu Walia plays the part of the other woman well as Kabir Bedi's reluctant partner in crime who's overdue crisis of conscious comes back to haunt her literally. The film directed by Rakesh Roshan (who also brought us delights such as Khel, Khudgarz) has few plot holes & is well orchestrated. The soundtrack has one memorable song "Hanste Hanste" which is very hummable there is also a Hindi remake of the "Chariots Of Fire" theme tune sung by the gyrating Sonu Walia (a scene not to be missed). All in all, an entertainer which shouldn't leave you disappointed 8/10.

Rekha truly blew me away with her performance in this film. Personally, I am so used to seeing her in glamour roles that i didn't think i would like this film. I ended up loving it. I think she did a wonderful job and deserved the Filmfare award for best actress back in 1988. Rekha in this film looks, well, ugly. But thats only in the begining of the film. She wears fake teeth, and made to look like she has no makeup on.

I would recommend this film to anyone and all Rekha fans alike. Oh, and she does get glamoured up towards the second half of the film. But you'd have to see it to understand what i mean.