Movie Review: Khud-daar (1982)

This is another Big B movie quite a bit more tolerable than ‘Nastik’, the movie I reviewed in my previous blog. The meaning of Khud-daar, mmmm, is something close to ‘principled’ or ‘one with self-respect’.

The story

2 step-brothers run away from home escaping a cruel step-mom (well, actually it’s the wife of a much elder step brother who is caring for them). They land in the big bad city, are taken care-of by a kind Muslim, one brother becomes a taxi driver to support the other brothers education. The educated one loses his khuddari on the way and succumbs to the lure of money, goes into smuggling and is, well, mildly embarrassed by his ‘simpleton’ and poor brother. After many challenges to khuddari and a courtroom drama, all ends well. Amitabh Bachchan plays the taxi driver brother, Vinod Mehra his educated brother. Parveen Babi and Bindiya Goswami play their respective love interests

And so

A patchily bearded Sanjeev Kumar stars in the first few shots as the elder brother to the 2 kids who run away to the city. His easy amiability and composed acting is a pleasure to watch. SK disappears soon enough (presumably for a repair job on his beard) and sure enough appears in the 2^nd half as the clean-shaven suave lawyer, amongst the cities prestigious denizens. The three-piece suited SK is the one we all know and admire from movies like Deewar, Aandhi etc. Tanuja (Kajol’s real-life mom) gets to play SK’s wicked wife!!

As with many other movies of that era, this one too deals with changing societal values, clashing cultures, reconciliations, matured wisdom and especially problems of that era (smuggling, the ill effects of wealth on society, the challenge of uniting the ‘diverse’ India through commonalities etc.)

In their own way, Hindi films do try to break the societal stereotypes. Hindi films (unlike Hollywood films) carry on their shoulders the bigger burden of trying to educate and reform a society, making them comfortable with modern values and at the same time pointing out the dangers of an overly westernized life. Given the Indian art tradition too, you have stories with a lot of metaphors or seemingly fantastic situations. But all this is acceptable in our genre of films since we do not overly lay stress on realistic cinema. Metaphorical cinema is our forte. And our great epics (part of our artistic tradition) basically educate people on values and ethics. That same tradition is carried forward by Hindi cinema

So you have here a SanjeevK who takes care of his step-brothers with so much love, a Muslim saviour who adopts the orphaned kids, the Hindu hero adopted by a Muslim old man and who marries a Christian girl thus giving not-so-subtle messages about the underlying unity of India with its diverse set of characters comprising various different religions. True to Hindi cinema’s tradition of having larger-then-life characters, you have kids spouting lines such as ‘I will willing to lift burdens but not willing to be a burden on others’ etc.etc.

Big B stars as a taxi driver aided by his ‘Herbie’, a taxi with a mind of her own (a Question here: why is a taxi a she and not a he?). He especially excels in the comic scenes. By the time of this movie, Big B’s tentativeness from the days of ‘Zanzeer’ seems to have disappeared. Watch the theatre scene with AB watching his younger brother on stage. How one yearns for that sense of comic timing and dialogue delivery from the Bachchan of today. He is clearly enjoying himself and confident of his abilities in this movie. That X factor which was not so evident in Zanzeer, is now clearly evident and in bucket loads too. And you have AB referring to his taxi as his mother. Only in Indian cinema!!!!!! Imagine a Brad Pitt or a Tom Cruise doing that.

Songs

• Unche Niche raaste aur manzil teri door: a feel good song especially at the start of a Hindi film is always a prelude to some disaster: preferably incorporating a murder or two; better still, leaving someone orphaned.
  

• The ‘Govinda’ festival song: ‘Mach gaya shor sari nagari mein’ must surely rank among the top 10 ‘govinda’ songs of the hindi film industry. Watch the accompanying dancers to Big B. They might not be technically perfect, but they are dancers from the streets, not the potently bland modern day sterilized Shiamak Davar clones (city slickers) that we see on screen. These are very obviously people who have risen from the streets and they bring a certain joie-de-vivre that’s a pleasure to watch. Look at Parveen Babi, a Muslim who plays a Christian in the movie and is dancing to a Hindu god (Krishna) in this movie. That’s India for u. Layers upon layers. PB looks particularly striking in a red sari.
  

• Angrezi mein kehte hai ke I love you: a song that was on many lips during that period
  

• A very inane song ‘Disco 82’ containing such immortal lyrics as ‘Main ek disco, tu ek disco, duniya hai ek disco’ (I am a disco, You are a disco, the whole world is a disco) sung by no less a personality then Lata Mangeshkar. Having her sing this song is like handing Sachin Tendulkar a plastic bat to play with.
  

And finally

That’s the best part about Bollywood vis-à-vis Hollywood: heroes who aren’t ashamed to cry, sing and dance, act silly, romp around trees and in gardens, wear silly costumes and act with all sincerity.

This inclusivity of Hindi cineama: the liberal sprinkling of English, the coexistence of multiple family generations in frame-after-frame, the kindly minority characters: the loving Muslim chacha, the benevolent Christian priest, the jocular Parsi. Relegating their role as just a token presence would be a mistake though not entirely untrue.

On a side-note, Parveen Babi is very charming throughout the movie. Hers is a fascinating life (just like a movie). She came from a family with royal connections, came into films, was unlucky in love and ended her life as a lonely schizophrenic (at one time she accused Big B of trying to kill her!!!) with family members contesting over her will.

Btw, don’t look for technical excellence in this film. You probably wouldn’t find it.

Credits

Starring

Sanjeev Kumar & Tanuja

Amitabh Bachchan & Parveen Babi

Vinod Mehra & Bindiya Goswami

Prem Chopra

Mehmood

Ramesh Deo

Kalpana Iyer

A.K.Hangal in a bread and butter role: watch the film and you will know what I mean. AKH by now can sleepwalk through this kind of role. Sholay and Lagaan are just a few examples of this.

Story/Screenplay/Dialogues: Kader Khan

Playback: Lata and Kishor

Thrills: Veeru Devgan (father of Ajay Devgan)

Lyrics: Majrooh Sultanpuri

Music: Rajesh Roshan (uncle of Hrithik Roshan, brother of Hrithik’s father, Rakesh Roshan)

Producer: F.K.Rattonsey and Anwar Ali

Director: Ravi Tandon (father of Raveena Tandon)