The other day I watched a portion of the Hindi movie SHAAN (Prestige) on TV. I couldn't watch it much longer, as my taste of movies have matured over a period of time - not to mention I saw it earlier.
The movie was from a different era, when the theme of 3 heroes (in many cases they are brothers), 3 heroines (their female lead counterparts) and a vicious, often comical villain (bad guy) with miltiple cronies, concocted with lively music was the instant formula for churning out such successful hits in the era of 70s and 80s.
It was the age of Amitabh's rule. He was the leading actor in the movie and already a Superstar on ascent on his way to be the one man Bollywood industry. His stature as mega star was powerful enough to successfully wrestle with a 20 feet Crocodile in a scene from the movie.
The other actors, Sashi Kapoor and Satrughan Sinha, the later an overrated actor who being jealous of Amitabh's success made himself a self proclaimed Superstar (his tendency to overrate himself still continues in politics).
Bindiya Goswami in the middle of the popular JAANU MERI JAAN song shoots her GULEL (Slingshot) from a moving bus with immaculate accuracy which would put any Olympics sharp shooter to shame. It miraculously finds its mark by toppling the tricycle used by Amitabh and Sashi Kapoor, chasing the duo of her and the ever effervescent and bubbly lady company Parveen Babi.
Parveen Babi was exquisitely pretty for her time, having a touch of modernity with flowing silky hair. Unfortunately later she committed suicide. Not long before killing herself she squarely blamed Big B, then the one man Bollywood industry for exploiting her.
The Superstar was rumored to be a notorious philanderer who cheated on Jaya Bhaduri with several women. When Jaya was pregnant with Abhisek, he escaped with Zeenat Aman to Swiss mountains post a shooting session in Europe. Rekha had a long affair with him until she started cheating on him as well. Amitabh, himself a champion womanizer could not accept the insatiable Rekha going with other men younger and stronger than him. The Superstar was accused of physically abusing Rekha.
So with the popular, contriversial superhero on board, when the movie SHAAN was released during the summer of 1981 the demand for the tickets sky rocketed. It was also an unusual movie, carrying high expectations for a different reason, being the second movie produced by Ramesh P Shippy, 6 long years following his iconic movie SHOLAY which took the box office by storm.
In Bhubaneswar it was showing at the Kalpnana Cinema, a movie hall known more for showing low quality movie with high quality CHAARAPOKA (Bed bugs) which can bite chunks of your ass off, (it's apparent from the back scratching of the viewers coming out of the hall).
My uncle was able to procure couple of tickets from his BARAGAIYA friends (inhabitants of a village close to the movie theater who by virtue of their sway in that area could obtain the tickets on high demand).
People placed too much faith on this movie, expecting a blockbuster. But SHAAN ended in a damp squib. Yet the craze and crowd in anticipation of SHOLAY -II was enough for the producer to make a blockbuster of it. Though the scenes from Shaan now look funny to us, it stands the testimony of STHANA (place), KALA (time) and PATRA (place) - appropriate stuff for appropriate time.
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