Star cast: Lakshmi, Vikram, Nadira, Om Prakash, Achla Sachdev, Sulochana, Rita Bhaduri, Jalal Agha, Sridevi 'Bhool gaya sab kuch yaad ...
Star cast: Lakshmi, Vikram, Nadira, Om Prakash, Achla Sachdev, Sulochana, Rita Bhaduri, Jalal Agha, Sridevi
'Bhool gaya sab kuch yaad nahin ab kuch', 'My heart is
beating keeps on repeating', 'Dil kya kare
jab kisiko' are golden oldies which one cannot tire of listening to over and
over again even half a century after the release of Julie. Rajesh Roshan’s
first film as music composer won him the best music director of the year award
for 1975. Julie also happened to be the first Hindi film of acclaimed South
Indian actress Lakshmi, Vikram Makandar and legendary actress Sridevi as the
sister of the title character. Incidentally 'My heart is beating' sung by Preeti
Sagar, whose lyrics were by Harindranath Chattopadhyay was the first English
song in any Bollywood movie.
Coming to the film, Julie which released on March 18 50
years ago, directed by KS Sethumadhavan was a remake of the 1974 Malayalam hit
Chattakari which was the Malayalam debut of Lakshmi as well.
The story revolved round the love affair of an Anglo
Indian Christain girl Julie (Lakshmi) and a Hindu Brahmin boy Shashi (Vikram),
teenage pregnancy and unwed motherhood, social taboos which had not been so
fully explored in Hindi films earlier.
Julie has a loving alcohol father Morris (Om Prakash)
a dominating mother Margaret (Nadira), a younger brother and sister Irene
(Sridevi). She falls in love with her best friend Usha’s (Rita Bhaduri) brother
Shashi. The two end up sleeping together and Julie gets pregnant.
While Shashi leaves for his job in the city not knowing of her pregnancy,
Julie’s mother sends her away to have her baby in secret. The baby is sent off
to an orphanage. By the time Julie returns home her father has died.
Later when she tells Shashi about the baby he proposes
marriage. But neither Devki his mother (Achla Sachdev) nor Margaret wants this
inter-religion wedding. However, Shashi’s progressive father (Utpal Dutt)
thinks otherwise and the couple tie the knot and are reunited with their baby.
Strangely Sridevi who was just 11 years old when she
started shooting for the film and Rita Bhaduri who had debuted in Julie died in
the same year 2018.
Vikram considered Julie to be the biggest blunder of
his life. Unhappy with his role as he felt he was suppressed in the
heroine-oriented film, Vikram complained that he was not even there in the
climax. Despite Julie being a critical and commercial success Vikram failed to
benefit in the film industry after Julie’s release and gradually faded away
from public memory. However, the insane signing amounts he got by signing as
many as 20 films before Julie released he invested wisely making himself
financially secure.
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