Cast: Dharmendra, Hema Malini, Shatrughan Sinha, Rehman, Naaz, Abhi Bhattacharya, Ravinder Kapoor, Anwar Husain & Kanhaiyalal Release...
Cast: Dharmendra, Hema Malini, Shatrughan Sinha, Rehman, Naaz, Abhi Bhattacharya, Ravinder Kapoor, Anwar Husain & Kanhaiyalal
Released on 12th April 1974, Dost celebrates 50 years this year. Helmed by director Dulal Guha, Dost became a huge hit following the director’s super-successful Dushmun (1971) starring Rajesh Khanna. One of the captions in a trade magazine read ‘From Dushmun to Dost with love’.
Dharmendra was at his peak then with Rajesh Khanna’s popularity ebbing and Amitabh Bachchan still upcoming. But the film belonged to Shatrughan Sinha (moving away from his villainous character) who plays a thief and is transformed by Dharmendra. Sinha not only shone like a bright star but also playbacked for the song ‘Aa bata de ke tujhe kaise jiya jata hai’ along with Lata Mangeshkar and Mohd Rafi.
Laxmikant Pyarelal’s music was
top notch with the inspirational Kishore Kumar classic ‘Gaadi bula rahi hai’
which had lyrics by Anand Bakshi topping the charts. It is still extremely
popular even today. Such songs are not even thought of today forget about
making them! The film earned nominations for Kishore Kumar, Anand Bakshi and Shatrughan Sinha at the Filmfare Awards.
Maanav (Dharmendra) is an orphan
raised by Father Francis (Abhi Bhattacharya singing Gaadi bula rahi hai). After
completing his MA Maanav returns to his home only to find that Father Francis is
no more. While relocating to Bombay, Manav meets Gopi Sharma (Shatrughan Sinha)
on the train who tries to steal Manav’s luggage. They become friends but with
different ideologies. Maanav stays with Gopi and his family and changes Gopi
who is an alcoholic and a thief. Manav gets a job in Hercules Milk Foods. Here
he meets the owner Mr. Gupta’s (Rehman) daughter Kaajal (Hema Malini) who falls
in love with Manav much against her father’s wishes. Anwar Hussain played
the villain Montu Sardar with great panache.
Dost was a very neat and clean
film that needs to be viewed even today for its social message. And yes, do not miss
Amitabh Bachchan’s cameo, possibly done as he was shooting for the same
producer Premji’s film Majboor (1975).
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