Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Moushumi Chatterjee, Satyen Kappu, Iftikhar, Dhumal, Madan Puri, Helen Music: R D Burman Director: Narinder Bedi...
Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Moushumi Chatterjee, Satyen Kappu, Iftikhar, Dhumal, Madan Puri, Helen
Music: R D Burman
Director: Narinder Bedi
‘Please don’t reveal the End’ comes right at the end and why not. Even after 50 years director Narinder Bedi’s moderate success of the adaptation of Hitchcock’s’The Man Who Knew Too Much’ definitely needs a revisit because of the suspense it creates right from frame one. The use of POV shots of eyes, telephones & shoes keeps the thrill element quotient high. Plus Bedi makes sure that the audience gets the right amount of tension in the film which was released in theatres on October 18, 1974.
Amit and Sheila Srivastava (Amitabh and Moushumi) are going to Amit’s office party when they see a man getting stabbed in the middle of the road at night. Being good samaritans they take the wounded man to the hospital. They find out that the man is a journalist. Tension starts when Amit starts receiving anonymous threatening calls followed by the murder of his dog Johny and the kidnapping of his son Bunty.
There are long-drawn car and train chases that could have been shortened. The surprise appearance of the villain in the end otherwise absent from the narrative raises the film despite being a lot of red herrings (Madan Puri, Rajan Haksar & Hiralal).
Amitabh Bachchan as Amit Srivastava as a middle-level executive in a multinational firm (Glaxo) is fantastic. Moushumi as Sheila, Amit’s wife is miscast. R D Burman’s background music was gripping. There were only three songs in the film - ‘Main Benaam Ho Gaya’ sung and picturized on Narendra Chanchal which appears in the climax was at the top of the charts and still popular today. The Asha-Rafi song ‘Aa raat jaati hai’ is a little gem. The Lata solo ‘Ek din hansne’ is passable. The dialogues were by Prof. Kader Khan.
Benaam proved to be a modest money spinner then, giving into the notion that thrillers/ mysteries don’t do well as the suspense is revealed in the end ‘Yaani ke’.
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