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Julie: Still going strong 50 years on

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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