Movie Review: Qurbani

Qurbani is a hit Bollywood gangster movie from 1980. Well you wouldn’t find anything original in the storyline but then as in all Hindi movies, it all depends on how the story is told, right? And its here that you will find the saving graces of the film.

To cut the long story short: There’s a guy, Feroz Khan who is into thievery and romancing a bar-dancer (Zeenat Aman). Then he is sent to jail by a funny cop, Amjad Khan. Vinod Khanna, another stylish and sexy guy steps in to fall in love (mostly one-way as Zeenat would have us believe) with Zeenie baby. Top this concoction with 2 rival sets of villains, Amrish Puri on one side and Shakti Kapoor + Aruna Irani on the other. The end-play being: Shakti and Aruna blackmailing Feroz+Vinod to rob Amrish of his wealth which was usurped from Aruna. The end? Well Vinod dies in the effort (alongwith many of the villains)….thats what Qurbani (Sacrifice) is all about and Feroz and Zeenat fade into the sunset.

So why would anyone watch the movie?

Well, for one, the sheer class of the actors involved. Most of them are in top form. Feroz and Vinod are at their stylish best, in their heyday too. Zeenat is doing what suits her best: displaying her figure and shapely body accompanied by a little bit of average acting. Amjad Khan shows his funny side and his bantering with Feroz is something that is not too often seen in Hindi films i.e. pithy humour (the kind portrayed by Big B in Sholay). Amrish Puri, Shakti K and Aruna I perform more than adequately in negative roles. At times though, the way Vinod and Feroz carry on, it almost seems a homo-erotic situation. Too close for comfort.

Music is great. All songs are eminently hummable. I guess most of the songs of this movie would feature in any top 500 list of Hindi songs

• Aap jaisa koi meri zindagi mein aaye (that someone like you steps into my life): sung by the Pakistani singer Nazia Hassan who instantly catapulted to fame in India and elsewhere, with this song. But alas, we haven’t seen much of her after that. Wonder why……….
• Hum tumhe chahte hai aise (I desire you thus)
• Laila Main Laila (Me, Juliet) - female voice not sung particularly well
• Kya dekhte ho, surat tumhari (what do I stare at? Your face of course) - sung with verve by Asha Bhosale
• Qurbani, Allah ko pyari hai qurbani (Allah loves a Sacrifice)
  

Combined with slick action sequences (well, at least as compared to the other movies of those days), foreign locations, tight script and you have a winner. Perhaps the biggest talking point of this movie was how Feroz Khan purchased a brand new Mercedes and bashed it up (on purpose, of course) during one particular action sequence in the film

Yes, I could have done without the topless Vinod Khanna displaying his underarm hair, I wonder why that was not passé in those days?

Incidently, Javed Jaffrey I think caricatured Feroz Khan in the movie Salaam Namaste, and hilariously at that.

So all-in-all: A regular run-of the mill gangster movie, Bollywood style, ridiculously sublime at times. It rises above the ordinary due to the sheer star power, script and great music/songs.

Credits:

Dedicated to Sanjay Gandhi – odd

Starring

Feroz Khan
Vinod Khanna
Amjad Khan
Zeenat Aman
Amrish Puri
Aruna Irani
Shakti Kapoor
Kader khan
Jagdeep
Baby Natasha Chopra -sweet

Lyrics: Indivar and Farooq Qaisar
Dialogue: Kader khan
Written by K.K.Shukla
Music: Kalyanji Anandji
Playback: Mohammed Rafi, Nazia Hassan, Asha Bhosle, Kishor Kumar, Manhar etc.
Edited, Produced, Directed: Feroz Khan

The youtube link to the song Aap Jaisa Koi is below