Sometimes, even a fabulous cast fails to carry a film. An enviable line-up, assembled with the aim to reap riches at the box office, comes a cropper after initial promise. That it peters into a tame and predictable climax, where the heroine flexes her muscle power ala her man, is a let down. The mediocre plot loses direction in the second half when the director looks to get over the agony.
Amitabh Bachchan and Shashi Kapoor form the principal cog in this story of two con men who make a living by testifying falsely in petty court cases. Well, the story certainly had the making of a fine comedy but the narrative stutters and eventually falls flat. There is little to redeem the film from plunging into an abyss that leaves the audience disappointed. But it did not reflect in the response from the fans even when word spread that the star cast was just an illusion.
Durga (Rekha) is a Tamil-speaking labourer who falls for Mohan (Kapoor). For Ahmed Raza (Bachchan) the world revolves around his friend Mohan and later Jenny (Helen). Mohan and Ahmed have an adopted sister Shyamlee (Aparna Sen), who has a doting father in Masterji (AK Hangal). Then there is a Sikh major Balbir Singh (Utpal Dutt), not to forget Barkat Chacha (Gajanan Jagirdar) and Govind Anna (Shreeram Lagoo), who is head of the construction workers.
There is a galaxy of negative role veterans –– Amrish Puri, Om Shivpuri, Prem Chopra, Sudhir and MacMohan –– all making fleeting appearances. And finally we have Sanjeev Kumar playing Kabir Das, promoting all religions even as he discards his father’s wealth, some of it ill-gotten.
This could not have figured among the best that came out of the stable of Salim-Javed. There was an overwhelming predictability about the story, Three good men pitted against more than three bad men. Not always does such a formula work. It certainly did not in this case. A pity since the film takes off on a racy note with Mohan and Ahmed flawlessly reeling off false statement in the court. That their conscious pricks them later is part of the predictable course.
Ahmed comes to Jenny’s rescue and adopts her child. Now Jenny has a dark past and obviously she must exit the story line. So she is administered a spurious drug, promoted by Kabir’s father Seth Jamuna Das (Shivpuri). The characters seem to run into each other. Like Shetty, who first attempts to rape the blind Shyamlee, then murders Jamuna Das, and gives away all the secrets in a dying statement. Now there is little to look forward to since everything seems to be fall in place.
A false statement, that lands Kabir in jail for the death of his father, transforms the lives of Mohan and Ahmed because their dear sister, oblivious to them, has received a marriage proposal from Kabir. The players in this drama head to a common destination where the heroes and the villains settle the issue once for all. As always, the police arrives when it is all over with ‘Inspector’ Jagdish Raj bringing the curtain down.
