Inkaar (1977)

After watching Chhoti Si Baat, I was browsing through Vidya Sinha’s filmography on Imdb, and there I discovered Inkaar. Described as a thriller on the website with an average rating of 7.9 (40 odd votes), I decided to check it out. And thankfully, watching this movie starring Vinod Khanna as a CID officer turned out to be quite a good call.

A taut, fast paced thriller from the 70s, Inkaar is a stylishly made highly entertaining movie directed by Raj Sippy. The movie is a kidnapping drama and has its central theme right in sight throughout its run-time. The movie opens with a very interesting scene in which Inspector Amarnath Gill (Vinod Khanna) enters a restaurant where a man has reportedly suffered from a heart attack causing quite a concern amongst its patrons. Inspector Gill, however, identifies in a jiffy that the man is faking the attack to escape from paying the restaurant bill. This scene firmly establishes Gill’s character as a sharp, no-frills inspector who keeps emotions out of his already very tough job.

The focus then shifts on the professional and personal world of a successful businessman Haridas Choudhary (Shreeram Lagu in a typical patriarchal role). He is shown to be living a near perfect life; a fact thumped down by a typical ‘sukhi ghar sansaar’ family song featuring a special appearance by Rakesh Roshan; and like it happens in so many of our Hindi movies, as soon as the song ends disaster strikes. Choudhary receives a ransom call from a maniacal criminal Raj Singh (Amjad Khan) and his two accomplices, claiming that they have kidnapped his son. Chaudhary starts hyperventilating and immediately agrees to pay the ransom. However things change rapidly when they realize that the kidnappers had taken the wrong kid with them. Instead of the businessman’s son, they had abducted his driver’s young boy (Master Raju) of the same age.

Things take an interesting turn here, as the story runs on two parallel paths. While a team of CID officers led by Amarnath Gill start chasing the kidnappers, on the other hand there is the emotional melodrama involving the faithful ‘almost family’ driver and the Choudhary family which also includes inspector Gill’s love interest (and Choudhary’s young sister) Geeta (Vidya Sinha). The movie then becomes a riveting crime thriller with an intelligent team of CID inspectors chasing an intelligent and dangerous villain. The good thing is that it stays that way till the end. The narrative is highly engrossing, and despite a few clichés, manages to keep you interested. The last ten minutes or so are somewhat protracted, but the way they have been shot is very interesting (though they remind of the climax of another Vinod Khanna starrer Achanak).

Films like these don’t leave much scope for histrionics, but Vinod Khanna is superb as a plain clothes cop (mostly dressed in black suits throughout the movie). His character is suave and unrelenting and has a strange cool quotient that is hard to explain. Amjad Khan is equally impressive as the mad villain, and adds a lot of weight (no pun intended) to the enterprise. Shreeram Lagu gives the impression of overacting, and the same goes for the actor who plays his driver. Vidya Sinha has nothing much to do, and unfortunately neither does Master Raju.

The songs by Rakesh Roshan are forgettable. Ah wait! The movie also boasts of one of the most favour Helen number ever ‘Mungda Mungda’ (Katrina’s item number in the upcoming film Agneepath seems designed on the same lines). This song, and a small portion following it, seems forced into the otherwise hiccup free screenplay.

Parting Note: ‘Inkaar’ is an extremely engaging movie and fans of the thriller genre will definitely enjoy this one. It would have been rated as one of the best Hindi thrillers ever had it evidently not been a scene by scene copy of a Japanese classic Tengoku to Jigoku by Akira Kurosawa.

Ittefaq (1969)

To a fan of suspense and mystery movies, there is nothing more satisfying than viewing a taut and fast-paced thriller. ‘Ittefaq’, one of the early movies directed by the much celebrated Yash Chopra (and rightly so), is one such movie that is gripping enough to keep to you thouroughly engaged with its suspenseful plot and unconventional sequence of events. Produced under the BR Chopra banner, which was famous for its mystery movies, Ittefaq can be rated as one of the best thrillers to have been made in Indian cinema. It is an unusual Hindi movie with no songs and a run-time of just over 100 minutes.

The movie starts off in dramatic fashion, and takes no time in coming straight to the point. Painter Dilip Roy’s (Rajesh Khanna in a complex role) wife is found dead in their apartment and he is accused of the crime. His wife’s sister Renu (Bindu) gives testimony against him and despite his many protests and claims of being innocent, Dilip Roy is convicted of murdering his wife. During the course of the judicial proceedings, his wild and unpredictable behavior leads the court to label him as mentally unstable and thereafter he is sent to a mental asylum. One rainy night, Dilip spots an opportunity to escape from the asylum and chances it. With Police on his trail, he enters the first house he spots feasible to break into. He finds the lady of the house, Rekha (Nanda), all alone and forcefully takes refuge there. What transpires in next few hours is what Ittefaq is all about.

With limited characters and the entire drama unfolding almost in one house, the movie has its focus pretty clear and it is one rare movie from its times which has no subplots, no distractions whatsoever. The drama between Dilip and Rekha is the highpoint of the enterprise, with the last thirty minutes being edge of the seat stuff. The only time the movie slacks a bit is around the half-way mark, when it looks like a slight romantic angle in developing between the main leads, but such fears are unfounded as is revealed in the latter half of the film. The twist and the subsequent culmination to the film are fantastically shot and wonderfully performed.

Another element that adds tremendous value to this movie is its background score and its sound design. Each and every sound, disturbing the silence of the night, has some meaning attached to it and plays some or the other role in building up the mystery. The lighting and production values are top notch, and the editing is razor sharp. The characters of the supporting cast are well defined and are performed ably by well known actors from that generation. But as far as the performances go, Rajesh Khanna takes the cake. He is saddled with a very difficult role and is present in almost each and every scene of the movie. In one of the early roles of his career, he performs remarkable, especially during the latter portions of the movie. Nanda, in a very unconventional role does very well and delivers one of her best performance. Iftekhar (the man who can be seen as a Police inspector in almost every movie from that time), plays a CID inspector here and gives an impressive act.

Parting Note: Ittefaq is one of the better suspense movies made in Indian cinema. Fans of this genre will find it highly satisfying, and so will the fans of Rajesh Khanna, for they will get to see one of the best performances of his career.