A multi-starrer in the truest of senses, Kaala Patthar (KP) was a film everyone was looking forward to coming from the jodi of Yash Chopra-S...
A multi-starrer in the truest of senses, Kaala Patthar (KP) was a film everyone was looking forward to coming from the jodi of Yash Chopra-Salim-Javed after their blockbusters in Deewar (1975) and Trishul (1978). The film had terrific hype surrounding it and all eyes were on KP when it was released on August 24, 1979.
The poster had a coal-faced
Amitabh Bachchan and the fans were going gaga over the poster. But the film
didn't live up to the expectations of its predecessors. However, despite negative
publicity, KP remains a top grosser (courtesy: Trade Guide 1979) and is now
considered a classic.
The film was inspired by the Chasnala
Mining Disaster that happened in 1975 near Dhanbad wherein 370 odd miners were
killed. However, no actual mine site was used in this film- the underground set
was constructed in Film City Bombay, and the rest at Loni Farms in Poona. The
film also resonates with Joseph Conrad’s 1900 timeless classic “Lord Jim”, about
a young seaman’s guilt over an error of judgment made by him on the spur of the
moment and his desperate attempts to seek redemption.
Amitabh Bachchan looked dashing
as the disgraced Navy Captain Vijay Pratap Singh, who is branded a coward when
he abandons a ship and risks the lives of the passengers aboard. He is court-martialled
and seeks refuge as a coal miner to escape and forget his past. Shashi Kapoor
as the suave coal mine engineer Ravi Malhotra who does not know initially that
he is working for a corrupt and greedy boss Seth Dhanraj (Prem Chopra). The
third main character is Mangal Singh (Shatrughan Sinha) who is a murderer and
is a runaway convict who also takes refuge in the colliery village escaping
from the eyes of the police. Shatrughan steals the show as Mangal. His
dialogues were instant hits like "teesre baadshah hum hain',
"mere taash ke tirappan pattey", "mere gulshun ke
bulbul" and many more.
How these three mainly rescue the
trapped miners forms the crux of the story with also the redemption of Vijay and
Mangal.
The film boasted of Raakhee Gulzar (Dr. Sudha), Parveen Babi (press reporter Anita), Neetu Singh (bangle seller Channo), Parikshit Sahni (truck driver Jagga) and Sanjeev Kumar (Dr. Mathur) in a guest appearance plus Sharat Saxena, Manmohan Krishna, Macmohan, Mohan Sherry, Satyen Kappu, Iftekhar, Madan Puri, Sudha Chopra, Romesh Sharma and even Poonam Dhillon is a guest appearance (she had no dialogues).
The music also played a very
important part in the film. Rajesh Roshan scored some gems- the Kishore-Lata
duet 'Ik raasta hai zindagi', the Rafi-Lata duet 'Baahon mein teri",
"Dhoom mache dhoom" and "Jagya jagya" all becoming hits.
The background score was given by the musical genius Salil Choudhury (who also gave
the score in Yash Chopra's Ittefaq).
Writer duo Salim-Javed despite
giving an author-backed role to Amitabh as the angry young and brooding
Vijay, it is Shatrughan Sinha as the crass and rustic Mangal who walked
away with all the accolades and seetis. The writer duo reserves the best for
Shotgun. Shashi Kapoor is his usual happy-go-lucky self and is perfectly suited
for Ravi’s role. The action and the constant pricking between Amitabh and
Shatru are one of the highlights of the film and of course, the dialogues of
Shatru are simply seeti-maar and clap-worthy.
KP remains one of Yash Chopra's
good works if not excellent and even after 45 years, this film doesn’t get old
revisiting.
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