A huge box office success Manmohan Desai’s ‘Suhaag’ was the highest-grossing film of 1979 when it was released on October 30. Starring the s...
A huge box office success Manmohan Desai’s ‘Suhaag’ was the highest-grossing film of 1979 when it was released on October 30. Starring the super hit jodi of Amitabh Bachchan and Shashi Kapoor its female leads were Praveen Babi and Rekha with Amjad Khan, Kader Khan, Nirupa Roy, Jeevan, and Ranjeet in the supporting cast.
The story was the usual Manmohan
Desai saga which never failed to hit bullseye during the 70s. Vikram Kapoor
(Amjad Khan) is a criminal who has antagonized a rival gangster Jaggi (Kader
Khan). He is married for years to Durga (Nirupa Roy) who later gives birth to
twin sons. Jaggi steals one of them and sells him to a bootlegger Pascal
(Jeevan) leaving Durga devastated. To top it all Vikram too leaves her. Durga
brings up Kishan (Shashi Kapoor) who is now an honest police officer to the
best of her ability mourning the loss of her other son Amit (Amitabh Bachchan)
who has grown up to be an alcoholic petty criminal. Initially hostile both became
firm friends.
Meanwhile Vikram hires Amit to
kill Kishan during the Navratri dance who then alerts Kishan. Unfortunately in
the attack, Kishan turns blind. Amit then goes hunting for the man behind the
crime leading to a confrontation with his own father.
A complete entertainer, this
lost and found saga never fails to give you the thrill of watching Big B’s star
power coupled with the debonair Shashi Kapoor. The ladies look glamorous and do
their bit to propel the story forward.
Music directors
Laxmikant-Pyarelal served up some really memorable and melodious numbers for
Suhaag, Among them “Ae yaar sun yaari teri” sung by Mohammed Rafi and
Shailendra Singh is a very popular friendship song along the lines of Sholay’s
iconic “Yeh dosti hum nahin todenge” while “Tere rab ne banadi jodi” is a
regular at most Indian weddings even today.
Suhaag had been in production since 1977 and finally released in 1979. When Muqaddar Ka Sikander was released in 1978, Rekha played a tawaif, like in Suhaag. A furious Manmohan Desai accused Prakash
Mehra of copying Rekha’s character for his blockbuster.
Suhaag was later remade in Telugu as Satyam Sivam in 1981 starring NT Rama Rao
and Akkineni Nageswar Rao.
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