Rehman Khan

Rajput began in 1975 as a dream project with all the makings of a blockbuster hit. It had Goldie as the director,LP as music directors; and Dharmendra, Hema Malini, Rajesh Khanna, Vinod Khanna as the lead actors. Following her phenomenal success in Laila Majnu,the gorgeous Ranjeeta was also roped in. As if that was not enough, they also signed Tina Munim some time in the middle of the project. Unfortunately, the movie took seven years to see the light of the day, and it turned out to be only an average box office earner. There is no satisfactory explanation available as to why it took so long. Maybe there were problems with the dates of the overworked stars. To a viewer, the main problem appears to be the the weak story-line which ,it seems, was revised again and again, and it became weaker with each revision. The characters played by Dharmendra and Hema Malini are deeply in love, and they get physically intimate, but their parents-Om Shivpuri and Rehman- are sworn enemies. The result is that Hema gets married to the character played by Rajesh Khanna, and Dharmendra goes to jail as he kills the dacoit who attacks Hema Malini's Doli. Hema gives birth to Dharmendra's son who is raised by Rajesh Khanna as his own son, even though he knows the truth. Bhanu (Vinod Khanna) is in love with Kamali( Ranjeeta) who gets raped by Ranjeet who plays a tyrant ex ruler. Ranjeet is a widower who has a daughter from his first marriage-played by Tina Munim. Vinod Khanna forces Ranjeet to marry Ranjeeta, and kidnaps the daughter (Tina Munim) to settle the scores. Predictably, the kidnapped daughter falls in love with the kidnapper. In spite of the multi star billing, the bizarre twists to the story lead to the evident asymmetry in the relationships as Hema is the heroine for both Dharmendra and Rajesh Khanna; and Vinod Khanna is the hero for both Ranjeeta and Tina Munim. I give full marks to Goldie as he managed to make a watchable movie even though the project dragged for seven years for whatever reasons. Among the actors, Rajesh Khanna has performed the best. Physically, he looks less of a Rajput if you compare him with Dharmendra,Vinod Khanna, and Ranjeet. But his role was meatier, and he did full justice to it as the devoted lover, committed husband, caring and loving foster father, and a brave and intelligent Police Officer. Dharmendra didn't have much scope in the story. Vinod Khanna didn't have too much scope either, but he was the director's darling. Goldie sure gave special importance to his Guru Bhai ( Ref Acharya Rajneesh) ,Vinod Khanna, who gets significant footage particularly during the climax. It should be mentioned that while Goldie and Mahesh Bhatt had deserted Rajneesh, Vinod Khanna was still with the Godman and even went with him to America.He could shoot for the film only when he visited India. The girls were totally ignored except for some scintillating scenes of Hema Malini. Ranjeet was too young to play Tina's father and certainly inadequate to be the main villain. I recall when I first saw this movie, my fellow viewers wondered why Prem Nath was not there in the movie. Certainly a watchable film. The names of the actors should be taken to mean the characters played by them in the film.

Teja's family consists of himself, his wife, Sita, his brother, Shanker, and a son, Sunder. They all live happily. Things take a turn for the worse, when Sita passes away. Teja decides to re-marry, and he does so with Sonia, who comes to live with him at his palatial home with her brother, Laxmidas, with a devious agenda of taking over his property. Soon misunderstandings arise, and Shanker is asked to leave the house. Eventually these misunderstanding involve Sunder, who also is asked to leave the house by Teja, who thinks that his brother and son are consipiring against his newly-wedded wife. Years later, Sunder has grown up to be a conman, and Shanker a black-marketeer. Both Sunder and Shankar meet without knowing each other's identity, and a confrontation takes place. When they realize they are related, they decide to expose Sonia, and open Teja's eyes, not knowing that Teja is completely blinded by Sonia's love, and will not let anyone to come between them. —rAjOo (gunwanti@hotmail.com)

Balraj Sahani plays a professional Artist with wife Achala Sachdev and son Manoj Kumar caught in the trap of Rehman and Shashikala who for the payment of a large Life insurance policy frame him in the murder of Rehman - who escapes to a world of crime after becoming a dead man for the world. —Mamta Dhody (Delhi,Jabalpur)

A self-conscious bride is tormented by the memory of her husband's dead first wife.

Humiliated and falsely imprisoned, Reeta Mehra (Sadhana) swears to take revenge against Sohanlal (Rehman). Upon her release she finds out that her ailing mother (Leela Chitnis) has passed away, and this adds fuel to her vengeance. She then meets with Heeralal (Ashok Kumar), who was a former business partner of Heeralal, who went to jail to save him, and as a result had to serve a lengthy jail sentence. Upon his release, he finds out that Heeralal had not kept his promise to look after his wife and child. Heeralal coaches Reeta on how to go about their vengeance - their target is the only son of Sohanlal - Rajpal (Sanjay Khan); make him fall in love with Reeta; get them married and then extract vengeance from Sohanlal. But fate has something else planned for this group of people. —rAjOo (gunwanti@hotmail.com)

Noor Jahan, the empress of the Mughal empire, becomes the favourite wife of Emperor Jahangir and steadily begins to exert more influence on the throne through her love for him.

Jitendra Gupta lives a poor lifestyle in Calcutta, India, along with his elder and widowed sister, and a niece named Sushma. He works in the editorial department of a leading newspaper. He unauthorizedly exposes unscrupulous persons that are related to the newspaper's board of directors, leading to him being reprimanded by the Managing Director, Amita Sinha, and being forced to resign. Amita does have a change of heart, when she finds out that he had printed the truth, not only reinstates him but promotes him as the Chief Editor, and falls in love with him. Amita lives a wealthy lifestyle with her sister, Sunita, and is all set to tell her the good news that she finds out that Sunita has fallen in love with him also. Amita decides to give up on Jitendra in her sisters' interest. Shortly thereafter she receives a marriage proposal from wealthy Vikram Varma, the brother of a Director of the newspaper, for Sunita's hand. Will Amita seek this opportunity to wed Sunita with Vikram - and have Jitendra for herself?

Lala Kedarnath Prasanta (Balraj Sahni) has three sons whose birthdays are on the same day. Lala Kedarnath has a Kashmir carpets & dry fruits business and fate has been kind to him that he got rich and earned a lot of respect and fame in society. On the occasion of their birthday celebration, they are visited by a well-known astrologer Pandit Uday Shankar (Badri Prasad), who advises Lala Kedarnath not to be proud for his past achievements and to not be too optimistic about the future as fate (Kismat) plays a key role in life. Lala Kedarnath ignores the prediction and is busy making plans for an even wealthier future. He says that his eldest son will become a barrister, the middle one Ravi will join him at the shop, and the youngest would be an engineer. Later that night as he is proclaiming his grand plans for the future to his wife (Achala Sachdev), there is a sudden earthquake and the whole town crumbles. When Lala Kedarnath regains consciousness, his house has been destroyed and his family is gone. The oldest son, Raju (Raaj Kumar), ends up in an orphanage, while middle son, Ravi, (Sunil Dutt) is found on the road by a rich couple who take him to their home to raise him as their own son. The youngest son, Vijay (Shashi Kapoor) who is still an infant, is with his mother Laxmi (Achla Sachdev). A family friend tells Laxmi that he saw an iron beam fall on Lala, and he might not be alive anymore. Unable to find the rest of the family, Laxmi and Vijay live in poverty. Lala Kedarnath traces Raju to the orphanage but finds that he has run away because the orphanage manager (Jeevan) beat him up. The manager was very corrupt who took the government grants and spent it on his own luxury and comfort rather than provide the basic amenities to the kids. When Raju protested, he was severely disciplined. Frustrated, Kedarnath kills the manager and is jailed. As the police drive away with Kedarnath. Raju grows up as Raja, a sophisticated thief, who works for Chinnoy Seth (Rehman). Raja falls in love with Meena (Sadhana) and decides to give up the life of crime. Once Raja had stolen a necklace that belonged to Meena and then decided to return it to her as a present on her birthday. That day Raja fell I love with Meena. Raja claims that the thief dropped the necklace inside his house while escaping. Chinnoy is livid that Raju returned the necklace to Meena and says that he got Raju from the streets and made him what he is today. Raju refuses to let Chinnoy own his personal life. Ravi is a lawyer now and his father and Meena's father are good friends. Ravi's father had asked Meena's father to arrange for Ravi's internship. Ravi is loved by his foster parents who never told him that he is adopted. He has a sister named Renu. Meanwhile, Vijay has completed his BA but cannot find a job. Renu has been in love with Vijay since their college days together (Vijay is also in love with Renu), but Vijay has not been able to find a suitable job in Delhi despite having a BA degree. Laxmi has been diagnosed with cancer. Vijay takes Laxmi to Bombay for her treatment at the Tata Memorial Hospital. Vijay cannot find any job in Bombay and has no other option but to be a driver employed with Chinnoy Seth. Lala Kedarnath is released from prison after completing his sentence and decides to find his kids. Kedarnath finds from his old friend Hardayal (Hari Shivdasani) that Laxmi is alive and stays in Delhi. When Kedarnath reaches the address, he finds that Laxmi had shifted to Bombay. Renu and her parents also come to Bombay for a vacation. Renu finds Vijay as a driver working for her father's friend Chinnoy Seth, when he comes to visit them. Renu still loves Vijay, but now Vijay is very reserved and knows that the gap between their social status is too huge. Raja continues to pursue Meena, but a vivacious Ravi arrives in her life and sweeps her away. Raja finds that Meena is spending all her time with Ravi. Gradually, Meena and Ravi fall in love with each other. To Raja's dismay he realizes that she however intends to marry Ravi, who is a family friend. On the night before their engagement, Raja decides to kill Ravi only to realize that he is his long-lost brother. However, he cannot tell Ravi about his parentage and in the meantime Meena's parents (father (Manmohan Krishna) and mother (Leela Chitnis)) decide to break off the engagement on discovering that Ravi is of unknown parentage and religion. Heartbroken, Ravi leaves his home after an argument with his foster parent's (father (Surendra Nath) and mother (Sumati Gupte)) daughter Renu (Sharmila Tagore), whom he considers a sister, over the fact that he had objected to her affair with Vijay who is working as a driver for Chinnoy Seth. Raja learns about Ravi's problem and decides to reveal the truth about their relationship at a party organized by Chinnoy Seth. However, Chinnoy Seth's employee Balbir Singh (Madan Puri) drunkenly misbehaves with Meena at the party and Raja manhandles him. Later that night, the drunk Balbir gets into a fight with Chinnoy Seth and in self-defense, Chinnoy Seth ends up stabbing Balbir fatally with his dagger. To cover up his crime, he decides to frame Raja and drags the body to Raja's house, hiding it in his closet. Vijay happens to witness this but is shut up with the promise of money for his mother's treatment. Raja is arrested and asks Ravi to defend him as an advocate, while Vijay initially testifies falsely and then recants his statement after being confronted. Lala Kedarnath also appears in court as the witness who found Raja being caught by the police. Raja is ultimately proved innocent and Chinnoy Seth is convicted after he blurts out the truth in court (as Ravi uses his smarts to prove that Raja could never have attacked Balbir from the angle that Chinnoy proposed and that it was Chinnoy who was in the right position to attack Balbir), thanks to Ravi. Afterward, Laxmi arrives in the court to make sure Vijay did the right thing. Lala Kedarnath sees her in the courtroom and has an emotional reunion with her and Vijay. Raja then overhears Lala Kedarnath narrating his orphanage incident to Laxmi and introduces himself and Ravi as Lala Kedarnath and Laxmi's remaining two sons. The entire family finally reunites. In the end, Lala Kedarnath and the rest of the family build a new home where they, Meena's family, and Renu's family live together.

The tragic-comic story of Chhalia, a naive, simple-minded young man who comes to the city and witnesses the harsh side of life; and falls in love with a young woman named Shanti, only to find out that she is married but separated from her husband, Kewal, and adopted son, Anwar. He puts all he can in an effort to locate Kewal and re-unite the family. —rAjOo (gunwanti@hotmail.com)

Vijay, a talented poet struggles to get his work published and faces constant rejection. Disheartened yet spirited, Vijay finds solace in Gulaboo, a kind-hearted young woman who works in a brothel; she helps him to get his work published and get the recognition he deserves.

Vijay, a talented but indigent poet, struggles for love and recognition in this selfish world. Vijay a poet whose work is not taken seriously by the publishers even his elder brothers dislike him for the same and want him to find a suitable job.Due to all this Vijay leaves his house and starts living alone where once he encounters a prostitute Gulabo murmuring his poem and follows her but she feels he is an impostor.But Gulabo soon realizes her mistake and meets him and both develop feeling for each other he comes across Ghosh a publisher who wants to publish his poems but in turn hires him as a servant.Vijay finds that his former lover Meena is married to Ghosh for financial security and when Ghosh finds about it he fires him from work.Vijay is again left jobless and no where a beggar whom Vijay gave his coat meets with a train accident and everyone believes he is dead.But Vijay is very much alive and tries to prove his identity but his sent to an asylum where his brothers and Ghosh refuse to identify him. —alex.mjacko@gmail.com Unemployed Vijay is the youngest in his family consisting of his widowed mom, and two brothers. His passion is poetry - frowned upon by his brothers - who want him to find gainful employment instead. Vijay's poems are quite radical in which he laments about the poor, the destitute, and the arrogance of the rich after the departure of the British from India. His efforts to get them published are in vain. He takes to drinking, gets in trouble with the law, is disowned by his brothers, ends up at a brothel and befriends a prostitute named Gulabo. Gulabo is sympathetic, listens to him as he pours his heart out, and decides to assist Vijay. Watch what happens when Gulabo approaches some of her affluent clientèle to assist Vijay and try and get his work published, without revealing that they are written by an alcoholic, disheveled, homeless man. —rAjOo (gunwanti@hotmail.com)

Circa the Mugal rule in Hindustan, Shahjahan, the present emperor is approached by one of his subjects, whose daughter, Ruhi, is so beautiful, that her suitors have killed her to-be grooms, as well as two of her brothers, who came to her aid. He now seeks the Emperor's assistance. Appalled at this, the Emperor confers with his Queen, Mumtaz, and upon her advise asks the father to bring his daughter to be a guest of the palace, and it is from here that a suitor will be chosen by none other than his royal majesty himself. The father does as asked, but one of the Queen's aide is troubled by Ruhi's august presence, that she fears that the Emperor may take a liking to her, and make her his begum. She plots a devious scheme so that Ruhi is promised to get married to Shiraz. The matter gets quite complicated as Ruhi has already been promised to Sohail. The Emperor and his Queen are so perturbed by this situation, that both become ill. The situation is resolved when Sohail decides to give Ruhi up so that she can marry Shiraz - but not until Mumtaz tragically passes away. Devastated and heart-broken by her death, Shah Jahan feels that she can be made immortal by the building of a royal tomb, and asks Shiraz to come up with such a Mahal. Watch as events begin to unfold, that will finally give rise to one of the seven wonders of the world - The Taj Mahal. —rAjOo (gunwanti@hotmail.com)