1985 was a memorable year for Hindi cinema, with even some flop films making a mark for their cinematic merits. New talents either breezed in or made their first major marks. Here is looking at the 10 milestone motion pictures from four decades back.
Aitbaar / Dimple Kapadia, Raj Babbar & Suresh Oberoi / Director: Mukul Anand
This was an extremely well-adapted version of Agatha Christie’s filmed classic, Dial M for Murder. Dimple Kapadia made her first impact after her comeback with Zakhmee Sher in 1984 and Lava and Arjun earlier this year. The film had extraordinary music by Bappi Lahiri, with his ghazal, Kisi nazar ko tera intezaar aaj bhi hai, proving timeless. Its singers Bhupendra and Asha Bhosle also sang the smooth Awaaz di hain aaj ek nazar ne, and Asha’s Tum aur main aur yeh bekhudi remains among the hottest songs ever in our cinema. For trivia hunters, this was the first film with a song by Ila Arun—Khaali peeli pyar se mera. Sadly, the film did not do well.
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Arjun / Sunny Deol & Dimple Kapadia / Rahul Rawail
If Aitbaar was Dimple’s first of many great performances after her comeback, Arjun was her first commercial success. And Sunny Deol made an impression as the angry, rebellious man who stands up for his rights in his first image-consolidating role. Rahul Rawail made a post-Love Story-and-Betaab impression, but could not sustain after that, but for a tepid Arjun Pandit (with Sunny again) in 1999 among multiple flops.
Mard / Amitabh Bachchan & Amrita Singh / Manmohan Desai
This was the last hit of the till-then flop-free 7-film Manmohan Desai combination. Also the last blockbuster from the box-office wizard, it marked the entry of Anu Malik into the Desai realm after an unbroken decade-long and again flop-free 9-film association with Laxmikant-Pyarelal. Mohammed Aziz made a mark with the title-track. Like any MKD film, the movie was made up of many ‘item’ sequences.
Meri Jung / Nutan, Anil Kapoor, Meenakshi Seshadri & Khushboo / Subhash Ghai
Subhash Ghai’s only association with writer Javed and his first film with future favorite Anil Kapoor also introduced Jaaved Jafferi. The film also saw Ghai’s singing debut in the song Jhoom le ghoom le (with Laxmikant as co-singer). A the courtroom drama with powerful performances from Nutan, Anil Kapoor and Amrish Puri, it had the cult song, Jeet jaayenge hum tu agar sang hai.
Pyar Jhukta Nahin / Mithun Chakraborty & Padmini Kolhapure / Vijay Sadanah
A surprise blockbuster, this film, marking the comeback of lyricist S.H. Bihari, who also wrote the film, marked the A-category of cinema super-hit for Mithun Chakraborty. The Mithun-Padmini love story was the second biggest hit of the year and catapulted the pair to the forefront as they went on to do multiple films together. The album shot into prominence Kavita Krishnamurthi, whose variant of Tumse milkar na jaane kyoon (filmed on Bharat Bhushan’s child grandson, Master Vicky) outclassed its Lata Mangeshkar-Shabbir Kumar version in popularity. Last but not least, the film’s chartbusting score signaled big-time for a new music label that had sprung up and now dominates the music scene—T-Series!
Ram Teri Ganga Maili / Rajiv Kapoor, Mandakini & Divya Rana / Raj Kapoor
Directed and edited from his own allegorical story by Raj Kapoor (though it sadly proved to be his swan song), this controversial (for its revealing scenes of Mandakini) film released alongside Saagar (featuring Raj’s son Rishi Kapoor and discovery Dimple Kapadia) on the same day. It was not only the highest grosser of the year but also the biggest hit of that decade until Maine Pyar Kiya released in (very) late 1989. Sadly, it remains Rajiv Kapoor’s only hit as well.
Ravindra Jain’s music remains his best and most successful work to date, while the film marked Raj’s last association with his 1949 discovery Hasrat Jaipuri, who wrote the album’s biggest chartbuster, Sun sahiba sun. Interestingly, though credited to the composer, its tune was Raj’s own, reprised from his Sangam hit, Ich liebe dich, I love you. And for the first time, an album (on Saregama-HMV) crossed four times Platinum Disc in sales.
Saagar / Rishi Kapoor, Kamal Haasan & Dimple Kapadia / Ramesh Sippy
Ramesh Sippy was the first to sign Dimple Kapadia in 1980 (five years before!) when she decided on a comeback, and he not only chose her Bobby co-star Rishi Kapoor again, but also Kamal Haasan, whose Ek Duuje Ke Liye was being made. Javed Akhtar, after his split with partner Salim Khan, wrote the film and its songs, and R.D. Burman composed the hit music. The film generated some undue controversy about a momentary topless glimpse of Dimple but did not do great business.
Sanjog / Jeetendra, Jaya Prada & Vinod Mehra / K. Vishwanath
The South maestro spun a riveting tale around a mother and daughter (Jaya Prada in a dual role) and their emotional turmoil. A film that centered around a daughter’s sacrifice for her mentally-challenged mother, this was a heart-tugging family drama that also was a hit. And the classic lullaby, Yashoda ka Nandlala sung by Lata Mangeshkar continues to haunt lovers of melody.
Tawaif / Rishi Kapoor, Rati Agnihotri, Poonam Dhillon & Deepak Parasher / B.R. Chopra
The last directorial of B.R. Chopra to hit gold, this powerful social drama featured Rati Agnihotri in one of the finest roles of her career. Rishi Kapoor, as was his wont, shone as always in this heroine-dominated film (Bobby, Doosara Aadmi and Sargam and later films like Nagina, Chandni, Henna and Bol Radha Bol). Based on Dr. Masroor Alam’s hard-hitting book, Bahut Der Kar Di (a memorable song of this name was written by Hasan Kamaal, composed by Ravi and sung by Asha Bhosle here), the film had trenchant dialogues by Dr. Rahi Masoom Reza. Armed with his work as ‘Literary Advisor’ for Nikaah and this film, Dr. Reza became Chopra’s legendary writer for Mahabharat, the filmmaker’s TV magnum opus.
Utsav / Shashi Kapoor, Rekha, Shekhar Suman, Anooradha Patel & Kunal Kapoor / Girish Karnad
The film has been shown everywhere as a 1984 release, though I had watched it in October 1985! Girish Karnad, its director and scriptwriter, confirmed to me that the film was released in 1985 itself! The erotica set in the B.C. era and based on the Sanskrit play, Mrichhakatikam written by 5th century playwright, Sudraka in Sanskrit, was a tepid success. It narrated the story of a poor Brahmin lad (Shekhar Suman) who fell in love with a wealthy courtesan (Rekha). Laxmikant-Pyarelal, amidst their regular work, composed exquisite melodies for this Shashi Kapoor production, like the timeless Man kyoon behka (Lata-Asha) and Saanjh dhale (Suresh Wadkar).
The most interesting trivia about this film is that the film was originally announced with Kamal Haasan in Shekhar Suman’s role, Padmini Kolhapure in Rekha’s character, Rati Agnihotri in the role played by Anooradha Patel and Amitabh Bachchan in Shashi Kapoor’s villainous character!