Charandas

Charandas is a 1977 Bollywood film directed by B.S. Thapa, starring Om Prakash, Urmila Bhatt, Lakshmi (actress), Vikram Makandar, Farida Jalal, Raj Mehra, in lead roles.

Synopsis

The entire plot is woven around Indian family values, entrepreneurship and meteoric rise in business of a workshop owning mechanic, Charandas, played by veteran actor Om Prakash. Charandas lives with his dutiful, religious wife Kamla, enacted by Urmila Bhatt, and two children, running a mechanic workshop. He has a good family friend Aslam played by Raj Mehra. His bank loan is sanctioned and in a time span of 10 years, he builds an engineering empire, becoming a rich tycoon. All through he shares family get togethers with his friends and their families and it is here, that Dharmendra and Amitabh Bachchan, make a special appearance in a famous Qawwali, "Han Dekh Lo Ishq Ka Martava", sung by Aziz Nazan Qawwal,^[2] Yesudas, on Aslam's birthday.

Soon money clouds the eyes of his family members to the extent that his dutiful wife and loving children are transformed into bad mannered party dopers, holding parties to celebrate the birthday and marriage of their pet bitch Pinky, which shocks Charandas, and he leaves his home for hotels and factory rest houses. On the other hand a village belle, Lalli, played by Lakshmi (actress), accidentally meets Charandas in a distraught state, being abandoned by her mean and selfish husband Ashokh, played by Vikram,^[3] a small time stage actor living with his mistress, Sheetal.^[4] Both decide to teach their respective family members a lesson and team up to act as a lovey dovey couple, Lalli spoilt by numerous shopping extravaganzas and holiday trips to places like Kashmir, and Charandas as the doting lover.

Sheetal drives away Vikram from her home, seeing his dubious standards of introducing his wife Laxmi as his maid servant. Meanwhile Urmila Bhatt, as Kamla decides to launch a court case on Charandas with the help of Aslam, and Ashokh (Vikram), who is also asked to live in their palatial mansion, by employing a photographer, Paintal (comedian), as Pinto, to take photographs of Lalli and Charandas in compromising positions, and prove that Charandas has become mentally ill, thus to take over his entire business empire. She fails miserably in the court, her case fought by Sunil Dutt as lawyer Tandon, when Charandas bequeaths his entire empire to his workers as shareholders, and proves that because of the bad behaviors of their respective spouses, he had taken Lalli only to be a daughter; which was misunderstood due to the mentality of their cheating spouses.

The story ends with both the families being re united in their respective holy matrimony and Indian celluloid themes being typified once again. Strangely the star cast, is a throwback on the hit debut film in Hindi of Lakshmi (actress), namely Chattakkari (1974 film), which was the first Malayalam film to run continuously for 40 weeks in Bangalore, and was remade in Hindi as Julie (1975 film) and in Telugu as Miss Julie Prema Katha (1975). The famous song number, "My Heart is Beating", sung by Preeti Sagar, had catapulted Laxmi to fame on the Hindi screen and starred both Laxmi and Om Prakash, with Vikram as the beau.

Cast

• Om Prakash as Charandas
• Urmila Bhatt as Charandas's wife, Kamla.
• Lakshmi (actress) as Lalli
• Vikram Makandar as Ashokh
• Amitabh Bachchan ... Qawwali Singer (Special Appearance)
• Dharmendra ... Qawwali Singer(Special Appearance)
• Sunil Dutt as Lawyer Tandon in court case
• Manorama as Anglo-Indian mother of six daughters
• Farida Jalal as Vilasiya
• Raj Mehra as Aslam

Soundtrack

References

External links

• Charandas at the Internet Movie Database