Bollywood Blockbusters of 1980s

Few days ago, read this post written by our very own Desi Blog Hero, Gaurav Sabnis. In this post he wrote about the downfall of Hindi cinema in 1980s, where every second movie practically had the same ‘ghasa-peeta’ storyline. Myself, being a complete Hindi movie buff, I somewhat agree with Gaurav. However, I don’t think that this problem existed only in that decade. This problem is very much present even today. Every director/producer, wants his movie to be a ‘hit’. Rather then experimenting with new ideas, they prefer to stick with the “winning formula”, made successful by some previously released movie.

Anyways getting back to my topic, even in 1980s there were quite a few movies which made a lasting impression and were considered the best among their respective ‘genre’. According to me, the best comedy movies were released in this decade.

Here is my list of some of the best stuff to come out of Bollywood in the 1980s.

1. Khoobsurat (1980) –

Director – Hrishikesh Mukherjee

Producer – N. C. Sippy

Lead Actors – Ashok Kumar, Rekha, Rakesh Roshan, Shashikala, Dina Pathak and Keshto Mukherjee.

Rekha has given one of her best performance in this movie. To have an entire movie centered around ‘female actresses’, was itself a gutsy and bold step from the director and producer. However according to me, Dina Pathak’s role as ‘Mrs. Nirmala Gupta’ (a very strict and authoritarian lady) was the main high-light of the movie. This movie won two FilmFare awards in that year.

2. Silsila (1981) -

Director & Producer – Yash Chopra

Lead Actors – Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bachchan, Sanjeev Kumar and Rekha.

This movie was billed as a true story when it came out. Even though it is still a masala Bollywood movie, it has some striking resemblances to the life story of the leading ladies and the hero, Amitabh Bachan. In real life Amitabh had an affair with Rekha while married to Jaya Bhaduri. The movie version follows the same script, except adds many secondary characters, such as Sanjeev Kumar as Rekha’s husband. All the actors acted exceptionally well, in this movie. It was first of it’s kind to explore the theme of extramarital romance when such topics were taboo in Bollywood. The song ‘rang barse’, from this very movie is considered a national anthem for ‘Holi Festival’.

3. Arth (1982)

Director & Producer – Mahesh Bhatt

Lead Actors – Shabana Azmi, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Raj Kiran and Smita Patil

Again considered to be based on real-life affair between Mahesh Bhatt and Praveen Babi. According to me, this is one of few good movies to come out of the Mahesh Bhatt camp. Shabana Azmi was simply brilliant in the role of a distressed house wife and Smita Patil was equally excellent in the role of ‘Kavita Sanyal’. The best part of the movie are the three songs and the music by Jagjit Singh.

4. Ardh Satya (1983)

Director – Govind Nihlani

Lead Actors – Om Puri, Smita Patil, Amrish Puri, Shafi Inamdar, Achyut Potdar, Sadashiv Amrapurkar and Naseeruddin Shah.

A hard-hitting film by Govind Nihalani , it has Om Puri in the lead role of a police officer and Sadashiv Amrapurkar as Shetty , the local mafia don. Ardh Satya one of the first movie to explores the corruption in the system , the third degree methods used by the police and finally the frustration faced by honest officers trying to do their duty. It came as hard hitting reality and became very popular with the people and went onto contributing to the cause of hooliganism and vandalism as also the cause of the awareness amongst people as of what really happens in the ‘underworld’.

5. Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro (1983)

Director & Producer – Kundan Shah

Lead Actors – Naseeruddin ShahRavi Baswani, Satish Shah, Om Puri, Pankaj Kapur, Satish Kaushik, Neena Gupta, Deepak Qazir, Rajesh Puri, Zafar Sanjari, Uday Chandra, Harshad Gandhi, Jaspal Sandhu, Anil Chaudhary, Ajay Wadhavkar.

In my opinion, this movie could be considered a ‘cult’ for Comedy movies. It enjoys the absolutely unique distinction of being among the top three films of any Indian who has seen it. That is what a real classic is. It endures and gains stature thru time. Naseeruddin Shah and Ravi Basvani made a wonderfully contrasting pair of idealistic but amateur sleuths who are out of depths in the real India. Satish Shah as a dead D’Mello was a riot. But the film was stolen by two of the most talented, and greatly under-utilised, comic actors this country has. Om Puri as a lecherous Punjabi contractor Ahuja, and Pankaj Kapur as the sophisticated Punjabi contractor Tarneja. They just have to be watched again and again.

The main high-light has to be the ‘Mahabharat’ scene. Again and again, for lines such as ‘Yeh kya ho raha hai’ and ‘Shaant Gadaadhaari Bheem, shaant!’ strike an almost too high comic note. This scene is also a masterly parody of, and dialogue with, the North Indian nautanki and filmic tradition, as various periods, genres, stories and cultures flow into each other. The ‘cheer-haran’ scene of Mahabharat suddenly becomes Salim’s confrontation with Akbar in Mughal-e-Azam. Even just thinking about the scene, I can’t hold myself from laughing out loud.

6. Sadma (1983)

Director – Balu Mahendra & Hrishikesh Mukherjee

Lead Actors – Kamal Hassan, Sridevi, Gulshan Grover, Silk Smitha & Leela Mishra

In Sadma, Sridevi gave a fine performance as a girl whose mental condition reverts to that of a five-year-old when she meets with an accident. On the other hand, Kamal Hassan in an equally stunning performance of an honest guy with a pure heart who decides to help out this girl, while un-knowingly falling in love with her. This movie had an un-conventional sad ending. The last scene of Kamal Hassan at the railway station, trying to remind Sridevi of their time together, was simply heartbreaking and un-bearable.

7. Jhooti (1985)

Director – Hrishikesh Mukherjee

Lead Actors – Rekha, Raj Babbar, Amol Palekar, Supriya Pathak and Deena Pathak

Yet again, Rekha emerged winner with her spontaneous comic timing in this film. This movie proves that speaking truth is not always the right thing to do!!! As the title suggests that the movie is about a female (Rekha) who is a liar, and it is this female who shows how much lying can be a worthy quality. Nice movie with some good comedy. As in all Hrishikesh Mukherjee, the setting is a simple middle class family with ordinary existence. A story about your probably next door ‘family’.

8. Mirch Masala (1985)

Director – Ketan Mehta

Leading Actors – Benjamin Gillani, Mohan Gokhale, Nina Kulkarni, Deepti Naval, Suresh Oberoi, Harish Patel, Dina Pathak, Supriya Pathak, Smita Patil, Om Puri,Paresh Rawal, Naseeruddin Shah.

A powerful performance by Smita Patil where she demonstrated the strength of women, when a group of village women unitedly bring about the fall of a tyrant police officer. The story is set in colonial India, when the British have disarmed the people, and continue to oppress villagers, through tax collectors called “subedars”. These subedars in turn lust for more than the tax. The movie successfully conveys the cowardice of oppressed men who cannot even think of rebellion, and even beat up their wives when they protest against their decision. The end scene where all the village women attack the subedar and his men by throwing ‘chilli powder’ on their faces, is extremely mind-boggling.

9. Chameli ki Shaadi (1986)

Director – Basu Chatterjee

Lead Actors – Anil Kapoor, Amrita Singh, Pankaj Kapur, Annu Kapoor, Amjad Khan and Om Prakash.

Another classic movie in the ‘comedy genre’. Amrita Singh, Anil Kapoor and Pankaj Kapur were simply too good in this movie. Basu Chatterjee and Sharad Joshi have been successful in capturing the spirit of a small town in UP. The language used is right out of some town in western UP and the result is a laugh-riot. Tips given by Amjad Khan to Anil Kapoor inorder to ‘pataooo’ his love, were hilarious.

There were other movies like Himmatwala, Parinda, Mr. India, Mandi, Sharabi, etc that stood out from rest of the movies which were released in that decade. So I guess, if you look closely you will realize that even in 1980s there were brilliant films that did manage to touch our hearts as well as entertain us.

*Disclaimer – Some of the above movie info has been taken from various online-sources.