Amitabh Bachchan steals the show . Review on Khuddar (Old)

I remember very well that in early 80's the song based program 'Chitrahaar' was very popular in every house.After all there was only 1 channel Doordarshan and only a handful of film-based program.In one of the episodes in 1982 they showed 2 top songs of that week.One of them was 'Pyaar hamein Kis Mod...' from Satte Pe Satta and the other being 'Angrezi mein kahte hain..' from Khuddar.At that time I had already watched Satte pe Satta but had not seen Khuddar.From that day itself I wanted to watch the movie which had a chart-buster song.In another instant during the same time my aunt went to watch the movie with her friends leaving behind me and so the desire to watch the movie naturally increased.I watched the movie some years later and again watched it few days back on Star Gold and felt like writing a review on it.

Hari Srivastava(Sanjeev Kumar) is a not so young man living with 2 of his kid brothers Rajesh and Govind.Due to the difference in their age Hari treats them more like sons than brothers.Hari gets married to a selfish lady(Tanuja).When she comes to know that the young brothers are actually Hari's step-brothers and still Hari takes so much pain to bring them up,she starts feeling negatively about both the kids.Once when Hari leaves for the city to pursue his dreams of becoming a lawyer his wife beats both the kids for trivial reason and asks them to leave home.When Hari comes back and comes to know about the fact he is heart broken. The brothers find refuge in Rahim Chacha(A.K.Hangal),who brings them up with his own children.The 2 kids grow up and Govind becomes Chotu Ustaad(Amitabh Bachchan) and Rajesh becomes Raja(Vinod Mehra).While Chotu is a self-reliant(Khuddaar) and hard-working taxi driver Chotu is a flirt studying in the college.Chotu treats his taxi as a human and calls her Basanti and saves money so that Raja can study and become a big man.Contrary to Chotu's wish Raja does not give much attention to his studies.Instead he enjoys drinking,partying,gambling and eventually falls for a beautiful girl Manju(Bindiya Goswami).Manju is the daughter of a rich man Verma Seth(Pinchoo Kapoor).While he is a nice man his brother Bansi(Prem chopra) is a man of evil deeds.

Raja marries Manju and starts living with her leaving his brother Chotu alone. Alongwith Rahim Chacha and his family and Basanti Chotu develops a close bond with Mary(Parveen Babi).Mary was initially into liquour business but mends her ways after falling in love with Chotu.Chotu comes to know that the new district judge is noneother than his elder brother Hari.He tries to meet Hari and tell him about their relationship but his occupation of a taxi-driver prevents him to do so.Meanwhile Raja falls in the trap of Bansi and joins hands with him to make money illegally.Bansi with the help of Verma's assistant Ramnath(Ramesh Deo) eventually murders Verma and puts the blame on Chotu.He tries to get Raja also hooked as the trucks in which all the illegal stuff were transported were under Raja's name.The judge of the case is none other than Hari.After some dramatic sequences the brothers get freed from the case and are reunited.Hari's wife realises her mistake and accepts Chotu and Raja alongwith Mary and Manju.

Khuddar was released in 1982 when Amitabh was on his peak as an actor.In that year 4 other movies of Amitabh, Namak Halaal,Shakti,Satte Pe Satta and Desh Premee were huge hits.Khudaar however got a decent opening at the box-office.Within sometime of the release Amitabh got terribly injured while shooting for Coolie.This boosted the collections of Khuddar which eventually went on to become a super-duper hit.The black rates during that time touched astronomical price as audience came in huge numbers to see their favourite star's movie.Besides this fact Khuddar is an excellent entertainer and has every ingredient to make it a blockbuster.

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Ravi Tandon had worked with Amitabh and Parveen Babi earlier in the 1974 hit Majboor.This movie came when Amitabh was a much-much bigger star and Ravi Tandon directed the movie very well.It is said that during the dramatic climax in court-room his daughter Raveena(who was a kid then could not stop giggling).Ravi makes Khuddar a complete entertainer which has everything action,emotion,romance,drama,comedy and court room scene.the film is produced by Mehmood's brother Anwar Ali who is also a very close friend of Big B.Surprisingly although the movie was a big hit both Ravi Tandon and Anwar Ali did not make memorable movies after Khuddar.

Sanjeev Kumar as the elder brother gives a decent performance.His scenes in the court room are prrof enough of the talent the great actor had.His emotional scene with Amitabh in the prison is excellent.Vinod Mehra has shades of negative to his character and does is job quite effectively.Parveen Babi looks her best and as usual acts naturally.This was the last big hit of the Amitabh-Parveen famous couple and they excel in the film.Bindiya Goswami looks a bit fat but still makes a good couple with the then real-life husband Vinod Mehra.Tanuja as the bad bhabhi is not very convincing.Prem Chopra is usual.Pinchoo kapoor,A.K.Hangal and Ramesh Deo are okay.Mehmood irritates in his cameo while Raza Murad is adequate in his cameo.

Clearly the movie belongs to Amitabh Bachchan.Although the movie is a multistarrer Amitabh Bachchan towers everyone in the cast and crew.His performance is simply excellent.He is as ease with comedy as much he is in tragic scenes.Although there is a bit less of action in Khuddar as compared to his other hits,still Amitabh leaves a mark in every scene of the film.His portrayal of the taxi-driver made the taxi-drivers across the country very proud and even they started behaving like him.The scene where he blasts Vinod Mehra as he had failed in his exam shows his caliber in dramatic scenes..His attempts to speak english are also hilarious. Khuddar was remade in Tamil with Rajnikant in Amitabh's role.Although the movie was a hit and Rajni was appreciated I doubt that anyone can play the role of Chotu Ustaad the way Amitabh Bachchan did.He is outstanding in the emotional scenes and plays the uneducated,rough yet tender hearted elder brother in an amazing manner.I do not know where has the fire vanished from this great actor as now what he does on screen is a pale imitation of himself.I guess Amitabh should watch Khuddar once again to get some inspiration so that he delivers a performance similar to the one he gave in Khuddar.

P.S.-Read my comments on the music of Khuddar,kadar Khan and his script and on the taxi Basanti in the comments section.