Cast: Feroz Khan, Rehana Sultan, Danny, Alka, Narendranath, Madhu Chanda, Paintal, Ranjeet, Sudhir, Kunwarajit & Ajit Simply love this...
Cast: Feroz Khan, Rehana Sultan, Danny, Alka, Narendranath, Madhu Chanda, Paintal, Ranjeet, Sudhir, Kunwarajit & Ajit
Simply love this Indi-western directed by Narinder Bedi which had superb music by Rahul Dev Burman. The opening titles and Feroz Khan’s entry along with the background music are taken from ‘For A Few Dollars More’ which sets the tone for a fast-paced actioner. Feroz Khan’s character ‘The Man With No Name’ is a straight lift from Sergio Leonne’s The Dollar trilogy and Kurosawa’s ‘Yojimbo’ who goes on a search to find his father’s killer. The song ‘Jeevan mein tu darna nahin’ sung by Kishore Kumar is one of the best Hindi western film songs (followed by ‘Haare na insaan’ from ‘Kachche Heere’ and ‘Joshilaay shehzaade hain’ from ‘Joshilaay’ all composed by Pancham da and sung by Kishore da). The entire film is based on Kurosawa’s ‘Seven Samurai’ (1954) and John Sturges ‘The Magnificent Seven’ (1960).
Khotey Sikkey which was released on March 29, 1974, narrates the story of a dreaded and notorious dacoit Jhanga (Ajit) who terrorizes and kills people at will. A village sarpanch is killed by Jhanga and his son Ramu (Paintal) goes to the city to bring back his brother Jaggu (Narendranath) who along with his few city thug friends Danny (Danny Denzongpa), Salim (Ranjeet), Bhaggu (Sudhir) and Jeet (Kunwarajit) come to the village to fight against Jhanga. They are also aided by a mysterious man in black and without a name (Feroz Khan) and a nautch girl Rani (Rehana Sultan) in their quest. But the man with no name has a personal vendetta against Jhanga.
The film was shot in Rajasthan giving it a look like a Western film
setting. The Feroz Khan angle is taken from Lee Van Cleef’s character in ‘For A
Few Dollars More’. The watch scenes and the climax are a straight lift from the
same film. Ajit’s character Jhanga was repeated in the super hit ‘Pratiggya’
(1975) and Khote Sikkay itself was a predecessor to the cult classic of
Bollywood- Sholay (1975). The widow Madhu played by Madhu Chanda is repeated in
Sholay with Jaya Bhaduri playing Radha. Parts of Sudhir’s character Bhaggu were given to Dharmendra is Sholay too.
Khote Sikkay got an ‘A’ certificate upon its release because of excessive violence and sex (Alka bathing in a two-piece, her opening cabaret, and Sudhir’s trysts with women). Yet it did brisk business at the box office prompting a sequel in 1982 with the near about same cast and music director and director, Kachche Heere which unfortunately didn’t do well.
This 132-minute-long film hasn’t aged and remains a good action-packed entertainer even after 50 years.
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