BizAsia Special: Celebrating 40 years of ‘Suhaag’

16th November 2019 will make it 40 years since the Bollywood film ‘Suhaag’ was released. In 1979 ‘Suhaag’ made it to the list of the most successful films that year because it was a complete package of entertainment.

On this day BizAsiaLive.com will look back at this classic and remember why it won the hearts of the audiences.

Themes

If looked at closely there will be many themes in this film however the two that will be explored are addiction and good VS evil. It is because of these two themes that the characters end up in certain situations in their lives.

Amit (Amitabh Bachchan) is a man who struggles with addiction. Due to being brought up in an environment that was surrounded by alcohol and being forced to drink when he was young, Amit grows up to become an alcoholic. As he is a worshipper of the goddess Durga he stops drinking on a certain day for religious reasons but at other times the bottle is inseparable from him. When Durga (Nirupa Roy) asks him to stop drinking as does Kishan (Shashi Kapoor) because he wants him to join the police force Amit is put to the test.

In the 1970’s many Bollywood films had the theme of good against evil such is the case here. Vikram (Amjad Khan) is a criminal wanted by the police while Kishan (Kapoor) being on the side of the law tries his best to arrest Vikram at all costs. There is a scene where Amit talks about how Kishan is a good man and that he always follows the law. As for him he calls himself a bad person who does the wrong things and drinks alcohol therefore nothing good happens in his life. He questions Durga as to why Kishan had to lose his eye sight and what did he gain from being good.

Durga replies by saying that what do those mothers gain when their sons are sacrificed while at war. Their mothers feel a sense of pride at which Amit is left speechless. The fact that it might be easier to go on the wrong path but the feeling of peace and happiness in doing the right thing is something else.

Music

The credit goes to Laxmikant Pyarelal for creating an album that had a little bit of everything. Every song fit the situations in the story making the film flow nicely. ‘Teri rab ne bana di jodi’ was the must have song at every wedding giving off strong Punjabi vibes with the sounds of the dhols. It is said that this song was picturised in London which had the main cast performing with a group of backing dancers. The situation in the song consists of Basanti (Rekha) and Amit persuading Kishan to accept Anu (Parveen Babi), their reason being that their pairing is a match made by the almighty himself.

‘Athara baras’ was the upbeat song that saw Rekha and Bachchan create their magic on screen. It also had some comedy thanks to Bachchan’s character who warns some of Basanti’s visitors in a funny manner.

‘Main Toh Beghaar hoon’ saw Anu (Babi) being playful as she is completely out of her senses in the song with poor Kishan trying to get her home safely. It was also quite funny to watch with Babi getting up to all sorts of mischief. For this song Kapoor’s vocals were used and his name can be seen in the opening credits under the list of singers for the film.

Some of the greatest legends were asked to sing such as Mohammed Rafi, Shailendra Singh, Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle and Anwar.

Story

Manmohan Desai is the director known for making films that consist of family members separating because of some unfortunate incident but by the end of the film he always made sure that there was a happy ending.

Durga (Roy) played the role of a mother who gave birth to twins but when she tells her husband Vikram (Khan) he doesn’t want anything to do with her or the children. To make matters worse for Durga one of the twins gets kidnapped and is sold to a criminal who makes people beg for money as well as doing other illegal activities.

With a lot of difficulty Durga brings up her son and he grows up to become a well respected police officer named Kishan (Kapoor). On the other hand her other son Amit (Bachchan) is a small time thug but is good at heart.

The fun begins when both Kishan and Amit collide with one another not knowing that they are actually brothers. The audience awaits the moment when the whole family will be reunited and most interestingly how it will happen.

A multi star cast

During the 70’s it was pretty normal to see a multi star cast working together. The audiences would be lucky enough to see so many big stars working together sometimes playing family members or best friends.

Babi and Kapoor were paired opposite each other in this film and they looked good together. With their great chemistry it is no surprise that after this film they were seen together in numerous films later.

After Bachchan and Rekha worked together in the 1978 film ‘Muqaddar Ka Sikandar’ it seemed like both the audience and directors wanted to see more of them. Luckily their wishes were granted and they appeared together in this film and after the success of this one they worked together in many other popular films too.

Another duo that was ever popular was of Kapoor and Bachchan who were often seen playing brothers or best friends in films. Every time the two actors worked together the audience knew they were in for a treat. The actors have worked in at least ten films together.

We hope you enjoyed this journey down memory lane.

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