Starcast: Shashi Kapoor, Shabana Azmi, Danny Denzongpa, Asrani, Aruna Irani, Ramesh Deo, Iftekhar, Achala Sachdev, Asit Sen, Madan Puri Dire...
Starcast: Shashi Kapoor, Shabana Azmi, Danny Denzongpa, Asrani, Aruna Irani, Ramesh Deo, Iftekhar, Achala Sachdev, Asit Sen, Madan Puri
Director: C.P. Dixit
Music Director: Ravindra Jain
Released on September 24, 1976, based on the popular lost-and-found formula Fakira was a major box office hit and was the 6th highest film of the year.
Two young brothers lose their parents in a fire and get separated. Years later they grow up and become criminals and sworn enemies. Vijay/Fakira (Shashi Kapoor) is a kind of Robin Hood who steals from the rich and helps the poor. Ajay/Toofan (Danny) is assigned by another gang leader Chiman Lal (Madan Puri) to capture or kill Vijay who had robbed his smuggled goods and cash on many occasions. Neeta/Geeta (Shabana) an undercover cop joins Vijay's gang which includes Neelam (Aruna Irani) and Popat (Asrani). She ends up falling in love with Vijay much to the Neelam's chagrin who was in love with Vijay herself. Vijay and Geeta marry in secret. How does Vijay discover the truth about his wife's real identity and that Toofan is his long lost brother forms the rest of the story.
Incidentally the Fakira team was the same dream team which had come up with the superhit Chor Machaye Shor two years earlier in 1974. Fakira was later remade in Telugu as Dongalaku Donga in 1978 starring screen legends Krishna, Mohan Babu and Jaya Prada.
Ravindra Jain's music was outstanding with gems like the Kishore-Lata duet "Tota maina ki kahani", Kishore's qawwali "Hum to jhukkar salaam karte hain", Lata's romantic ditty "Dil main tujhe bithakar" or the cloying title track "Fakira chal chala chal" sung by both Mahendra Kapoor and Hemlata.
The film also helped Shabana Azmi, known for her arthouse cinema, establish herself as a commercially viable actress and make a winning pair with Shashi Kapoor whose die hard fan she was. So crackling was their chemistry that rumour-mills were afloat about their secret affair.
Shashi Kapoor was his disarmingly charming self in the Robin Hood role tailormade for him. Despite Danny's apprehensions about the audience not accepting him as Shashi's brother due to his Nepali looks, he got the maximum claps from the audience during the emotional climax when Danny reunites with his reel brother.
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