Majboor (1974 film)

Majboor
Directed by	Ravi Tandon
Produced by	Premji
Written by	Salim–Javed
Starring	Amitabh Bachchan Parveen Babi Pran Farida Jalal Sulochana Latkar Satyen Kappu Iftekhar Jagdish Raj Mac Mohan Rehman
Music by	Laxmikant–Pyarelal
Distributed by	Suchitha Films Pvt. Ltd Eros International
Release date	6 December 1974
Country	India
Language	Hindi

Majboor (translation: Compelled) is a 1974 Indian Hindi-language suspense thriller film directed by Ravi Tandon, produced by Premji and written by Salim-Javed. Released in India on 6 December 1974, the film stars Amitabh Bachchan, Parveen Babi and Pran in lead roles and Farida Jalal, Sulochana Latkar, Satyen Kappu, Iftekhar, Jagdish Raj, Mac Mohan and Rehman in supporting roles.

The movie is loosely inspired by two English movies of 1970 - Zig Zag and Cold Sweat. The film was later remade in Telugu by director K. Raghavendra Rao as Raja (1976) starring Shobhan Babu and Jayasudha. It was also remade in Tamil as Naan Vazhavaippen (1979) with Sivaji Ganeshan and K. R. Vijaya , in Gujarati as Naseeb No Khel (1982) and in Malayalam as Ee Kaikalil (1986). The movie was also an inspiration for the 2008 movie Jimmy.

Plot

Ravi Khanna (Amitabh Bachchan) is a middle-class travel agent living with his ageing mother (Sulochana Latkar), his wheelchair-bound sister, Renu (Farida Jalal), and his young brother, Billu (Alankar Joshi), and is also due to get married with his wealthy girlfriend, Neela Rajvansh (Parveen Babi). One rainy night, one of his clients, the wealthy Surendra Sinha (Rehman), visits his travel agency to pick up the tickets that have been reserved for him when Ravi notices a large emerald ring on his finger. After leaving the premises, Surendra Sinha offers Ravi a lift in his car till the crossroads near Ravi's house as there is not a single taxi to be seen. Some time later, two detectives, CID Inspector Khurana (Iftekhar) and Inspector Kulkarni (Jagdish Raj), come to interrogate Ravi at his office as Surendra Sinha was mysteriously abducted that night and his dead body was later shockingly recovered from a manhole. Ravi is innocent, but nervous as Inspector Khurana and Kulkarni are taking a keen interest in him since he is the last known person to have seen Surendra Sinha and seeks legal advice from his lawyer friend, Advocate Rane (Shiv Kumar).

However, the stress seems to be triggering severe headaches, so Ravi ends up at the place of Dr. Shah (Sajjan) and is sent for an X-Ray. The news is not as good as Ravi would have liked as Dr. Shah suggests a brain surgery, explaining that Ravi shockingly has a tumour in his brain, one that that will slowly grow and, if not removed, cause his death. Ravi is willing to do anything to live, even have himself operated upon, but Dr. Shah has a few caveats that the brain surgery could cure him completely, but there is no guarantee that even if he survives the brain surgery, he will not be blind, or even a paraplegic. Ravi is aghast as he is the sole provider to his family and cannot contemplate a life where he becomes a dependent, so he leaves without making a decision when the choices are death and a life worse than death. Ravi returns home, deep in thought, and his family's affection and their implicit trust in his ability to take care of them only serve to increase his conflict. The next morning, at work, Ravi gets the news of Narendra Sinha (Satyen Kappu), younger brother of Surendra Sinha, having declared a handsome reward of ₹500,000 for any information about his brother's killer.

Driven against the wall and worried about his family's future, Ravi anonymously telephones Inspector Khurana at the police station and poses as an informer about Surendra Sinha's murder in a scheme to frame himself as the murderer and collect the reward money for his family. After learning about the anonymous telephone call, Narendra is ready to pay out the reward, but Inspector Khurana tells him that the money has to be paid to a lawyer whom the informer suggests and a sealed envelope will also be deposited with the same lawyer. Once the money is paid, the informer will inform the police who the killer is, and will provide the evidence as well. Narendra is willing to go through with the proposal. Now that his proposal has been accepted, Ravi meticulously sets the stage, even leaving sealed instructions and a cover letter with Rane, who is rather bewildered at all the cloak-and-dagger stuff until Inspector Khurana calls to confirm that the money mentioned in the covering letter will be entrusted to him. Acting upon the received information, Inspector Khurana and Kulkarni recover the evidence and it is sent to the laboratory for testing. Soon, Ravi is arrested for the murder of Surendra Sinha by Inspector Kulkarni and is sentenced to death by the court for the crime, much to the consternation of his family, and that of Neela and her father (D. K. Sapru).

While Neela and Ravi's mother try to make some sense of Ravi's confession, also go to Narendra to beg for clemency, Ravi is in prison awaiting his execution, and another critical seizure lands him up at the hospital, where, serendipitously, it is Dr. Shah who examines him. Knowing Ravi's medical history, Dr. Shah wastes no time in getting him into the operation theatre, and Ravi miraculously undergoes a successful brain surgery with no side-effects, but Dr. Shah is shattered to learn that he had saved his patient on the operating table only to see him hang for murder. Well aware that he has condemned himself to be hung for a murder he did not commit, Ravi, during Neela and Rane's permitted visit in the hospital, asks Rane if he could appeal and tell the truth in the court as the sealed envelope he left anonymously in his care will confirm his story after all. However, Rane's response tells Ravi that he is his friend as well as his lawyer, so the court would not believe anything Rane says, and that the only way for Ravi to escape the consequences of his ill-advised actions is to find the real murderer of Surendra Sinha. In order to save himself from going to the gallows, Ravi escapes from the police custody in search of the real culprit and is aided by Neela in his pursuit.

As Ravi investigates the significant large emerald ring of Surendra Sinha that could lead back to the killer, he has some lucky breaks and benefits from his own logical procedural thinking, and one of them is the arrival of Michael D'Souza (Pran), a kind-hearted and happy-go-lucky professional thief, fencing his wares through Prakash (Mac Mohan). After learning of Ravi's plight, Michael pledges to help him nab the real culprit, recalling that on the fateful rainy night, he had grabbed the same costly ring from the driver of a car, unmindful of the fact that it belonged to the dead Surendra Sinha on the backseat. Michael's endeavour to identify the murderer later takes him to Surendra Sinha's house where he runs into his real murderer and sets up a meeting point to settle the issue. In the climax, Michael manages to solve the mystery but not without paying a heavy price, which leads to a wounded Michael holding the murderer at gunpoint while Ravi drives desperately to get a doctor back in time.

Cast

• Amitabh Bachchan as Ravi Khanna
• Parveen Babi as Neela Rajvansh
• Pran as Michael D'Souza
• Farida Jalal as Renu Khanna (Ravi's sister)
• Sulochana Latkar as Mrs. Khanna (Ravi's mother)
• Satyen Kappu as Narendra Sinha
• Iftekhar as CID Inspector Khurana
• Jagdish Raj as Inspector Kulkarni
• Mac Mohan as Prakash
• Rehman as Surendra Sinha
• Madan Puri as Mahipat Rai
• Sajjan as Dr. Shah
• Alankar Joshi as Billu Khanna (Ravi's brother)
• D. K. Sapru as Mr. Rajvansh (Neela's father)
• Shiv Kumar as Advocate Rane (Ravi's friend)
• Sudhir as Sharma (Ravi's colleague)
• K. N. Singh as Prosecuting Attorney
• Murad as Supreme Court Judge
• Ashoo as Mona Sinha (Surendra Sinha's widow)
• Lalita Kumari as Sulakshana Rai (Mahipat Rai's wife)

Soundtrack

#	Title	Singer(s)
1	"Aadmi Jo Kehta Hai"	Kishore Kumar
2	"Dekh Sakta Hoon" (Male Version)	Kishore Kumar
3	"Roothe Rab Ko"	Mohammed Rafi & Asha Bhosle
4	"Phir na kehna Michael daru peeke danga karta hai"	Kishore Kumar
5	"Dekh Sakta Hoon" (Female Version)	Lata Mangeshkar

Success

The film was a Hit at the box office.

Awards and nominations

• Filmfare Supporting Actor Nomination--Pran
• Filmfare Supporting Actress Nomination--Farida Jalal

External links

• Majboor on IMDb