A Damsel Among Three Close Friends. Review on Neeyat

Neeyat (1980) is a formula-based Bollywood potboiler which I had watched in the Mahavir Talkies cinema of my hometown Sambhar Lake. This was the last movie watched by me in that local theatre and hence I still remember it. It's an entertaining movie meant for the regular audience of Bollywood cinema.

Neeyat (intention) is the story of three close friends who are now out of college and pursuing different lines, but still keeping their friendship intact. They are Jeet (Jeetendra), Vijay (Shashi Kapoor) and Ajay (Rakesh Roshan). Jeet is the son of a big businessman (Pinchoo Kapoor) who is clandestinely involved in illegal activities albeit maintaining his dignified and benevolent image in the society. Vijay is the younger brother of a newspaper editor (Dr. Shreeram Lagoo) who is a committed newsman. Ajay has joined police force and is now a cop. Jeet joins his father's business which is mainly running a five star hotel and also arranges a respectable job for hitherto unemployed Vijay in that itself.

Suddenly a mysterious girl strikes the lives of all these three friends in different ways and at different points of time. This girl is Rekha(Rekha) who meets Ajay in a train journey, Jeet in a marriage and Vijay on a dark road in night hours. And all three heroes fall for her. Rekha reciprocates the love of Vijay and they both decide to get united. However Rekha's guardian (A.K. Hangal) being burdened by an old obligation of Jeet's father, engages her to Jeet. Seeing Rekha as getting engaged to Jeet and being the love-interest of Vijay, Ajay sidelines himself suppressing his feelings for Rekha in his heart forever. However he advises Vijay to keep a distance from Rekha who is now the fiancee of Jeet who is unaware of the love affair that has come to a halt.

However Jeet's father who is not happy with Jeet's friendship with Vijay, ensures that Jeet comes to know of the love of Vijay and Rekha. That knowledge of Jeet generates a rift in the friendship of Vijay and Jeet. Jeet accuses Vijay of backstabbing him and Vijay quits his job in Jeet's father's hotel. Jeet also breaks his engagement with Rekha. Now comes another twist in this tale of three friends.

A jailbird breaks the jail and reaches Jeet's father who only had sent him to jail despite being his boss himself. Scorned by him, the jailbird now reaches Vijay's journalist elder brother and tells him that Jeet's father only is the ringleader of the criminal gang active in the city. Vijay's brother prepares a banging news headline for the next day's newspaper on the basis of the runaway jailbirds statement but he gets killed before being able to complete that job.

Now Vijay on his own and Ajay as a part of his duty, start searching for the murderer of Vijay's brother. On the other hand, Jeet feels that there's something fishy regarding his father as well as Vijay's deceased brother(despite breaking his friendship with VIjay, Jeet has been keeping his elder brother and sister-in-law in high esteem and they have also been continuing their affection for Jeet like it was earlier). He also starts sniffing the things as they are going on. Finally, truth becomes known to all these three friends and the movie concludes on a tragic note after an action-packed climax.

This regular potboiler has nothing special or extraordinary to boast of but there's little doubt that it's an entertaining flick. The script has been written by inserting all the tried and tested formulae in optimal measures. Friendship is the aspect most stressed in the story and a love-triangle thereafter. A good dose of romance is also there and good comedy has been blended with both the friendship and the romance ingredients of the story.

The movie opens with a highly amusing scene of the three friends and thereafter once the heroine comes into picture, many entertaining scenes follow because of her interaction with each one of them. The narrative is slow till the interval point but fast afterwards when the crime angle takes prominence. Certain events have been shown in flashback and blended with the present scenario of the story very well. Seasoned director Anil Ganguly has directed this routine story quite admirably.

Technically, this movie is up to the mark. It's not unduly long. Musical score of Kalyanji Anandji is pretty good. Pyar Karna Nahin Aaya, Hum Teeno Ki Woh Yaari, Mere Yaar Ye Din Ho Mubarak Tujhe, Tumhen Aise Kaise De Doon Apne Ghar Ka Pata, Pyaase Dil Ki Pyas Bujhane Aaja etc. are quite good to listen and they have been nicely picturized also. Kishore Kumar, Amit Kumar, Nitin Mukesh, Mohammad Rafi and Asha Bhosle have given their voices for the various songs.

Performance wise talking, Dr. Shreeram Lagoo is the best performer whereas all others have done neither badly nor excellently. Deven Varma has done good comedy whereas Ranjeet as the confidante of Jeet's father has given a comic touch to his negative role with the help of his pet words and stylish dialog delivery. Despite performing routinely, the three heroes have demonstrated good on-screen chemistry and their camaraderie impresses the audience.

Neeyat is a nice time pass and I recommend it to the entertainment seeking audience who like entertaining flicks made in the style of the seventies. All the four principal actors of the movie, i.e., Shashi Kapoor, Jeetendra, Rakesh Roshan and Rekha had their own fan following in their heyday and Neeyat will be liked by their fans also.