Review of Naseeb

Manmohan Desai made several entertaining films, his films cared less for logic, story but more for entertainment. MDk is one of the rare directors who gave 4 blockbusters in 1977, After AAA(1977) he made several blockbusters with Bachchan from Parvarish(1977), SUHAAG(1979)and then NASEEB(1981) which was touted as a sequel to AAA as it starred almost similar stars, Big B and Rishi returned back as brothers, Pran as their lost father.etc This time MDK made the film on a larger canvas and shot the film also on foreign locales and brought a bigger supporting cast, For the song John Jani janardhan he brought almost everyone from Raj Kapoor, Simi Garewal, Dharmendra, Rajesh Khanna to the that time favourite Vinod Mehra The story is somewhat similar, very convulted but yet treated well by MDK and it guarantees full entertainment. The film starts 20 years before, Young Pran and his friends Kader Khan, Amjad Khan and Jagdish Raj(for once not a cop) get a lottery ticket by a drunk Satyen Kapuu and they decide to share it, Then tragedy strikes and the long lost theme starts plus the film forwards 20 yrs later Strangely in the same year in YAARANA too Amitabh and Amjad both friends were separated in childhood as the latter went abroad to study 20 years later Amitabh works as the waiter in the hotel run by villains Kader and Amjad and Kader's son Prem Chopra(though same age as him) and Shakti Kapoor. The film has several funny scenes in the first half like the entire scene where Reena Roy comes with the cake and the chaos that ensure. Rishi crying for 1 mark ala Dharam in Sholay threatening for suicide and then saving Kim(Dimple lookalike) We also have Jeevan(regular of MDk)as a funny principle who flirts with girl's hostel principle Shobha Khote. Amitabh saving Hema Malini and their love story which starts off funnily but then gets serious with the predictable twist of Shatru/Amit falling for her and then Bachchan sacrificing his love(done superbly with symbolism used as a cross showing his sacrifice) Amitabh and Shatru paired in a love triangle 1 year before this film in DOSTANA which too was a superhit The film then becomes an action film and after all pairs get each other the focus begins on nailing down the criminals, Pran returns, Amrish Puri too returns and then we have the predictable MDk style get up dance song Rang Jamake ala Amar Akbar Anthony and an action filled climax. The film does have some flaws like some scenes don't make sense like how Kim does lipreading when someone faces their back, also several other scenes which are overlooked. The film is quite lengthy too like in those days Direction by MDk is superb Music by LP is superb, most songs were hit like John Jani Janardhan sung by MDK fav Mohammed Rafi who passed away in 1980 and this film was a tribute to him Strangely since SUHAAG MDK didn't have Kishore the usual fav for Big B sing for him and in this film too Kishore sang for Rishi(Pakdo Pakdo) and for Shatru(Rang Jamake)while Rafi sang for Amitabh. Mere Naseeb mein sung by Lata is still a superhit and performed superbly by Hema Malini Pakdo Pakdo a fun number on Rishi and Kim dancing while playing kabaddi(boys vs girls) and then we have Zindagi Imtehaan leti hai when Big B realises that Shatru too loves Hema, the song is apt sung by Dr. Kamlesh Avastathi. Anwar, Suman Kalyanpur, Chorus Anwar sounded similar to Rafi while Kamlesh sounded like Mukesh, but the latter was annoying, Anwar made his career singing songs like Rafi which was followed by Shabbir Kumar and Mohammad Aziz. Most memorable song is also CHAL MERE BHAI wherein a drunk Amitabh sings in his own voice with Rishi Kapoor coming to try to convince him to go home, Rafi and Big B make a good team The finale dance number Rang Jamake with all in get ups is also a brilliant number, KK, Rafi and Shailendra return after Hum Premi(Parvarish) and make a good team The film is quite similar to AAA, as in both films Amitabh has a drunk scene, Shatru's role was supposed to be played by VK who had left to US that time while Rishi does his cartoonish act similarly in the climax Also we have Pran here too as Big B's lost father

Amongst actors Amitabh Bachchan as usual stands tall and he plays the main lead He proves his versatility by performing superbly in action, romance, comedy, drama. In all MDK films he always entertained the masses and gave his most freewheeling performance, This was his last classy film with MDK like AAA, after that he made crass films like COOLIE and MARD and then GJS. Hema Malini looks beautiful and does well in her role and looks charming and has superb chemistry with Big B. Her bike scenes are a treat Shatrughan Sinha looks overweight but does quite well in his role This was his last film with Big B so far, Rumours were abuzz that both were big time rivals those days and there never spoke during the shoot Rishi Kapoor again entertains after AAA, He is one actor who always entertained never mind if his role was a second lead or main lead. His comedy timing is superb and also his drama scenes Kim resembles Dimple Kapadia and does okay Reena Roy in her biggest film perhaps does a superb job Amongst the huge supporting cast Pran is superb, Amjad Khan and Kader Khan are good as the bad guys Amrish Puri is superb in his small role Lalita Pawar does well as usual, Jeevan and Shobha Khote are funny, Viju Khote has one scene Prem Chopra and Shakti Kapoor are good as the villain cum jerks. Mukri is funny