Cast: Ashok Kumar, Raaj Kumar, Sharmila Tagore, Navin Nischol, Deven Verma, Anwar Husain, Helen, Hiralal, David Directed by: Brij Music by...
Cast: Ashok Kumar, Raaj Kumar, Sharmila Tagore, Navin Nischol, Deven Verma, Anwar Husain, Helen, Hiralal, David
Directed by: Brij
Music by: Kalyanji Anandji
If Bollywood ever decided to bottle chaos, add a dash of glitter, a stolen diamond, two-and-a-half lost relatives, and shake it vigorously to Kalyanji-Anandji beats, the result would be Ek Se Badhkar Ek which released in September 1976— a film that doesn’t just celebrate masala, it practically invents a new spice rack.
Clocking 50 glorious years, Brij’s madcap caper still plays like a cinematic relay race where the baton is a diamond older than the Mahabharata and literally everyone is running after it — thieves, lovers, long-lost brothers, and probably a confused bystander who just wanted chai.
The plot? Oh, it’s delightfully unhinged. Brothers are lost and found with the casual frequency of misplaced socks. A husband and wife are separated because… well, it’s the 70s, that’s what couples did back then. And at the center of this chaos sits the aforementioned diamond, which has clearly seen more drama than a joint family WhatsApp group.
Brij, riding high after Victoria No. 203 and Chori Mera Kaam, directs like a man who’s had three cups of cutting chai too many — the film zips, zooms, and somersaults at such a pace that if you blink, you might miss a plot twist, a reunion, or possibly an entire subplot. There is, quite literally, no time to breathe. Not even the villains get a coffee break.
The screenplay thrives on coincidences so outrageous they circle back to being genius. People bump into each other with the precision of GPS tracking (decades before Google Maps), secrets unravel at the exact dramatic moment, and disguises are so effective that even the audience briefly questions their own eyesight.
And then there’s the cast — a veritable buffet of scene-stealers.
Ashok Kumar as Raja brings his trademark style, as if he wandered in from a more serious film but decided to stay for the fun. He is simply the (racing) heartbeat of the film. Raaj Kumar as Shankar? Pure swagger. The man doesn’t deliver dialogues; he launches them like guided missiles. Every line feels like it should come with a slow clap and a wind machine.
Navin Nischol and Sharmila Tagore hold their own admirably amidst the madness, looking glamorous and occasionally pausing to remind us there is, in fact, a romantic angle somewhere in this treasure hunt. Meanwhile, Deven Verma sprinkles his signature comic timing, Anwar Hussain does his dependable act, and Helen — well, Helen doesn’t appear, she arrives. And when she does, gravity briefly takes a holiday.
The only noticeable absentee from this Brij party is Pran — a regular in the director’s circus — and yes, you do miss him, like forgetting to add garam masala at the end. But honestly, with everything else going on, you barely have time to file a complaint.
Musically, Kalyanji-Anandji keep the energy levels soaring. The songs don’t just punctuate the narrative; they join the chase. You half expect the diamond itself to start dancing at some point.
In the end, Ek Se Badhkar Ek isn’t just a film — it’s an experience. A gloriously chaotic, logic-defying, thoroughly entertaining rollercoaster that reminds you of a time when Bollywood didn’t worry about subtlety, realism, or restraint. It just wanted to have a blast — and dragged the audience along for the ride.
Fifty years later, it still feels like the cinematic equivalent of a firecracker string — loud, unpredictable, slightly dangerous, and impossible to ignore.
By Pratik Majumdar (author: Love Coffee Murder and 1975 The Year That Transformed Bollywood)
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