Amitabh Bachan and Raakhee in Kabhi Kabhie (1976)

Amit Malhotra (Amitabh Bachchan) woos Pooja (Raakhee) with his poetry but, in accordance with their parents’ wishes, she marries an architect Vijay Khanna (Shashi Kapoor) while Amit goes into the family business. Pooja and Vijay form a happy family with their son, Vicki (Rishi Kapoor), who falls in love with Pinky (Neetu Singh), the daughter of Dr and Mrs Kapoor (Parikshit Sahni and Simi Garewal). The Kapoors and the Khannas discuss the dilemma they face in telling Pinky that she is adopted. Pinky finds her birth-mother, Anjali (Waheeda Rehman), who pretends to her husband, Amit, and their daughter, Sweetie (Naseem), that she is her niece. When Vicki arrives, he hides his connection with Pinky and works in Amit’s quarry; Sweetie falls in love with him. Vijay brings Pooja with him on a business trip to build a hotel. When he realises that Pooja and Amit were lovers, he laughs it off, but when Amit finds out that Pinky is the illegitimate child of Anjali and an airforce pilot who died before their marriage, he rejects Anjali. Events come to a head when Sweetie, on discovering that Vicki and Pinky are lovers, tries to commit suicide by heading for the part of the quarry where the blasting is about to begin. She is saved by the concerted efforts of all. Amit suddenly remembers Anjali and rushes back to the house to find her about to leave. The film ends with the marriage of Vicki and Pinky, where the three sets of parents perform the rites and Sweetie is the bridesmaid.

Kabhi kabhie weaves together two different stories, contrasting romantic love over two generations in the context of love in the nuclear family unit. The first story, the Romantic poet who cannot free himself from the past, was inspired by the life of the film’s lyricist, Sahir Ludhianvi, while the second is about adoption and its impact on families.

The theme of family love is very strongly developed here and is used to establish a generational contrast. The happy families are those who place an emphasis on trust and love. The norm is the nuclear family, characterized by great love between husbands and wives, parents and children, whether natural or adopted, the joking relationships of in-laws and the love of friends for each other. The final scene allows Pinky’s adopted parents, her natural parents and her new husband’s parents to take an equal part in the kanyadaan or the giving away of the bride.

Cast and Production Credits

Year – 1976, Genre – Drama, Country – India, Language – Hindi, Producer – Yash Raj Films, Director – Yash Chopra, Music Director – Khaiyyam, Cast - Amitabh Bachchan, Shashi Kapoor, Raakhee, Waheeda Rehman, Neetu Singh, Rishi Kapoor, Naseem

Sadhana in Waqt (1965)

Waqt was a landmark in many ways: it is a multi-starrer with four main heroes and two major heroines; it set a trend for showing the lifestyles of the super-rich; it is a ‘lost and found’ film, a storyline that became a favorite in the 1970s; and it has memorable songs.

A prosperous merchant, Lala Kedarnath (Balraj Sahni), believes nothing can disrupt his happy family life until an earthquake tears his world apart and he loses everything including his loved ones. He is on the verge of finding his eldest son but, hearing he has just escaped from an orphanage where he was beaten, Kedarnath kills the warden and goes to jail for twenty years. The eldest boy, Raja (Raaj Kumar), is raised by a criminal and becomes a professional thief, while the second son, Ravi (Sunil Dutt), is adopted by a rich couple and trains as a lawyer. They both live in Bombay, while the youngest, Vijay (Shashi Kapoor), looks after their mother in Delhi, where he falls in love with Renu (Sharmila Tagore), a rich college girl.

Raja and Ravi both love Meena (Sadhana) but Raja, finding a childhood picture of Ravi, realizes that he is his long lost brother and sacrifices his relationship with Meena. Vijay has moved to Bombay, where he is hired as a chauffeur by Renu. Ravi reproaches Renu

for having an affair with his driver, then Meena’s parents object to Ravi marrying their daughter when they do not know who his parents are.

Raja throws a party to announce the identity of Ravi’s parents. Although other members of the family bump into one another — such as Vijay and Kedarnath — no connections are made.

When Raja is framed in a murder, he hires Ravi as his lawyer. A courtroom drama ensues, in which Vijay appears as a witness; then his mother comes into court. Kedarnath recognizes her and is reunited with Vijay, after which Raja reveals that he and Ravi are his other two children. The family returns to open a shop, with the two future laughter-in-laws settled into the family.

The film is an example of an early ‘lost and found’. Although Waqt hows the family separated by an earthquake, probably referring to the Quetta earthquake of 1935, it requires only a little imagination to see its as a partition story, where the earthquake is a metaphor for a far greater human upheaval. The line of migration from Punjab to Bombay is the one followed by many in the Hindi film industry.

Waqt is justly famous for its whole new glamorous ‘look’ in clothing and lifestyle. While the outdoor locations were in Kashmir, Simla, Nainital, Bombay and Delhi, the film spares the viewer no detail of the lifestyle of the super-rich, who have motor boats, American cars, throw lavish parties and live in houses adorned with fountains, circular beds, sunken seating and grand pianos. This set the style for a whole ‘look’ for Hindi films, away from the drama of feudal riches to newly upwardly mobile social groups. The women are glamorous in every respect, displaying highly stylish outfits, diamond jewellery and elegant grooming. The men wear the tight suits that were fashionable at the time, while only the older generation appears in ‘traditional’ clothes.

Waqt has enduringly popular songs, composed by Ravi with lyrics by Sahir, including ‘Ai meri zohrajabeen’ (Manna Dey) (which Yash Chopra’s son Aditya includes in his debut film, Dilwale dulhaniya le jayenge, as a love song for the older generation) and ‘Aage bhi jaane na tu’ (Asha Bhosle).

Waqt was the first colour film made by B. R. Films and established Yash Chopra as a major film-maker, a position he still holds nearly forty years later after directing films such as Dhool ka phool (1959), Daag (1970), Deewaar, Kabhi kabhie, Trishul, Silsila, Chandni, Lamhe, Dil to pagal hai and Veer-Zaara (2004), and producing other films, such as Dilwale dulhaniya le jayenge – Rachel Dwyer

Cast and Production Credits

Year – 1965, Genre – Drama, Country – India, Language – Urdu/Hindi, Producer – B.R. Films, Director – Yash Chopra, Music Director – Ravi, Cast – Sunil Dutt, Sadhana, Balraj Sahini, Achla Sachdev, Raj Kumar, Rehman, Sharmila Tagore, Shashi Kapoor, Shashikala