Rupaye Dus Karod

If you're a die-hard Rajesh Khanna fan, you might consider giving this Rajesh Khanna Film a watch. However, I must warn you that the film falls short of expectations in several aspects. Let's delve into the highlights and low points of the movie.

The initial 30 minutes of the film are packed with four songs. Unfortunately, none of these songs managed to gain popularity or leave a lasting impact. Fans who were hoping for chart-topping melodies may feel disappointed.

The first half of the movie is largely unimpressive and can be considered a waste of time. The story fails to engage the audience, and the pacing feels sluggish. However, things take a turn in the second half when the suspense kicks in. This is where the film starts to redeem itself, offering some much-needed intrigue and excitement.

Deepika Chilakhia, though present in the film, is merely a showpiece with limited screen time. Her character lacks depth and fails to contribute significantly to the overall plot. Similarly, Avinash Wadhwan's role also falls short, as he is given only a few frames to showcase his talent.

The main leads of the film are Chunky Pandey, Amrita Singh, and the legendary Rajesh Khanna. They carry the weight of the narrative on their shoulders and deliver commendable performances. Rajesh Khanna's presence brings a nostalgic charm to the screen, undoubtedly a treat for his ardent fans.

Tragically, during the dubbing process, Om Shivpuri, an esteemed actor, passed away. As a result, his voice had to be replaced by someone else in a few scenes. This alteration may be noticeable to attentive viewers and could affect the overall coherence of the film.

Nazar Khan, known for his appearances in crime-based television series like "Crime Patrol" and "Savdhaan India," has a brief role in the movie. While his appearance adds a touch of familiarity, it's unfortunate that his character isn't more developed or given substantial screen time.

In conclusion, "Rupay Dus Karod, Rajesh Khanna Film" has its share of ups and downs. It caters primarily to Rajesh Khanna enthusiasts who are willing to overlook its flaws. The lackluster first half is compensated by a suspenseful second half, but the limited presence of Deepika Chilakhia and Avinash Wadhwan may leave viewers wanting more. Nonetheless, the film benefits from the performances of Chunky Pandey, Amrita Singh, and the timeless Rajesh Khanna.

Rupaye dus karode is one of those films which was different from the films made during its time. It had many layters to it who might have confusde the common man & hence did not do as well as it was expected to.

Rajesh khanna brings in a lot of solidity & maturity to this role. He gives a measured performance. The way he handles the villains is a treat to watch. Age has not dimmed his perosnlaity in any way.

He is well supported by amrita singh though her role is not very long.

The film could have done with some better music. Also, it could have been publicised better.

The world of fictional work can be classified in various categories / genres. One immensely popular category of such work is the stories of crime detection genre. People from all over the world have been reading such stories with a great interest for over a century. In the post-independence India, several Indian authors have produced detectives who are the desi versions of Sherlock Holmes, Perry Mason or Hercule Poirot. Such novels (alongwith the romantic and social novels) were a runaway success in India through the pocket book versions which were quite cheap and easily affordable by common readers until the advent of internet finally led to the dilution of the reading habit of the Indians and reading such books no longer remained their favourite pastime. However in the heyday of the pocket book business, not only millions of Indians read the detective novels but a sizable chunk of such readers believed in their stories also.

When this profession was at its peak (the decline started soon thereafter due to cable TV and internet), there came a Bollywood movie which portrayed a detective novelist as its hero. This movie is a suspense-thriller made in the style of formula-based potboilers. It's Rupaye Dus Karod (1991).

Rupaye Dus Karod (ten crores of rupees) is the story of a detective novelist (writing in Hindi, of course) - Ravi Varma (Rajesh Khanna) whose father had to flee from India in his childhood itself because of a conspiracy masterminded by his wicked business partners (Kiran Kumar and Sadashiv Amrapurkar). Brought up by his mother, he obtains a law degree but does not practise and instead writes Hindi novels of crime detection genre. Being the hero of a Bollywood movie, he is successful and famous in his profession. His father transmits a sum of Rs. 10 crores from abroad for his family and now the baddies (his so-called old friends and ex-business partners) are interested in usurping this huge sum. They are well-aware of the talent of Ravi Varma and therefore, they hire his services to draw a scheme so that this money could be usurped by them. For compelling him to do this job for them, they kidnap his mother and threaten to kill her.

Now, to save his mother's life, Ravi Varma agrees to work for them and prepare a chain of small schemes which combined together, develop into a great scheme through which the villains could usurp the hefty sum of Rs. 10 crores. However, since our hero is not a baddie himself and he is doing all this under compulsion only, his schemes are not meant for the threatening villains only but also for himself to get rid of their pressure, save the life of his mother and finally not allow the hard-earned money of his father (he does not know that the person sending the money is his separated father only) to get into the hands of the unscrupulous people. He involves some youngsters in his scheme as his assistants - Chunkey Pandey who is the son of Kiran Kumar and keeps on chasing skirts, Amrita Singh who is very keen and enthusiastic to become a detective herself, Avinash Wadhavan who is her brother, Deepika Chikhliya who is actually the assistant of the novelist hero etc. During the proceedings, another young girl - Sonu Waalia gets murdered. Now this story does not remain restricted to the scheming of usurping of the money mentioned in its title but gets transformed into a murder mystery. However, as expected, the hero turns the tables on the opponents, resolves the murder mystery, makes his young comrades come out of the legal trap they have been caught in and gets reunited with his parents in the climax.

Rupaye Dus Karod is one of those movies which were made on novel themes and good scripts but the penchant of the movie makers for the regular Bollywood formulae to ensure that the movie did well on the box office diluted the quality of the product coming on the screen before the audience. I always fail to understand why these filmmakers never realize that going for the regular formulae (songs, dances, over the top comedy, fights etc.) without a need, takes away the advantage of the novelty of the idea and the good script available with them and proves counter-productive also because instead of boosting the box office performance of the movie, such useless things make an adverse impact on the same.

And therefore, Rupaye Dus Karod is also no better than the run-of-the-mill Bollywood movies that used to come during the seventies, the eighties and the early nineties. The movie is entertaining, no doubt but it's not as good as it could have been, given the good story idea which appears to have been lifted from some thriller novel itself. The movie has everything - comedy, romance, sentiments, ideals, action and mystery. However the whole movie is just an average product. A sort of seriousness is missing in the narrative as well as many characters of the story which should have been there to make an impact. The ending scene also contains novelty but again it's not as impressive as it could have been.

Chunkey Pandey and Amrita Singh have tried their level best to make the audience laugh (though they look less humorous, more ridiculous). Rajesh Khanna is miscast in the lead role. Sadashiv Amrapurkar has got ample footage in the screenplay but he is also stereotyped. Avinash Wadhavan and Sonu Waalia are the better performers in this movie.

Summing up, if you are also fond of detective novels (written in any language) and also feel that the incidents shown in such stories are close to reality, then you may like this movie. Otherwise also, this movie is a good one time watch and not bad to watch on TV / computer in a lazy afternoon.