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 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 and written by Salim-Javed. Released in India on 6 December 1974, the film stars an ensemble cast of Amitabh Bachchan, Parveen Babi, Pran, Farida Jalal, Sulochana Latkar, Satyen Kappu, Iftekhar, Jagdish Raj and Rehman. The music was composed by Laxmikant-Pyarelal.

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 film Jimmy.

Plot

Ravi Khanna (Amitabh Bachchan) is a middle-class travel agent living with his elderly mother (Sulochana Latkar), wheelchair-bound sister, Renu (Farida Jalal), and young brother, Billu (Alankar Joshi), and is also due to get married with his girlfriend, Neela Rajvansh (Parveen Babi). One rainy night, one of his clients, the wealthy Surendra Sinha (Rehman), visits Ravi's travel agency to pick up the tickets that have been reserved for him when Ravi notices a large emerald ring on his finger as Surendra Sinha impatiently taps on the counter. 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 the travel agency as Surendra Sinha was apparently abducted that night and his dead body was later shockingly recovered from a manhole. Ravi is innocent, but nervous as Inspector Khurana and Inspector Kulkarni are taking a keen interest in him since he is the last known person to have seen Surendra Sinha. The stress seems to be triggering severe headache attacks and Ravi undergoes a brain X-Ray. The shocking diagnosis is far more serious than tension as Ravi has a brain tumour that needs to be removed, while there is also no guarantee that he will not be blind or even paraplegic as the side-effects of the brain surgery. 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.

While he is aware of the fact that his brain tumour is set to consume him in six months, Ravi receives the interesting news of Surendra Sinha's grieving younger brother, Narendra Sinha (Satyen Kappu), having declared a handsome reward of five lakh rupees for any information about his brother's killer. In a bid to secure 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 killer and collect the reward money for his family since he has nothing to lose and is going to die in six months anyway. Narendra Sinha is ready to pay out the reward after learning about the anonymous informer from Inspector Khurana. Acting upon the received information, Inspector Khurana and Inspector Kulkarni recover the evidence that has been created against himself by Ravi, who is soon arrested by them for the murder of Surendra Sinha and is sentenced to death by the Supreme Court of India for the crime, much to the consternation of his family and that of Neela. While Neela and Ravi's mother try to make some sense of Ravi's confession, also go to Narendra Sinha to beg for clemency, Ravi is in prison awaiting his execution and his another headache attack lands him up at the government hospital by Inspector Khurana and Inspector Kulkarni, where Ravi miraculously undergoes a successful brain surgery with no side-effects but is now a convicted criminal of abduction, ransom and murder.

Well-aware of having condemned himself to be hung for a murder he did not commit, a regretful Ravi realises that now the only way for him to escape the consequences of his ill-advised actions is to find the real murderer of Surendra Sinha. In a bid to save himself from going to the gallows, Ravi succeeds in escaping from the hospital in search of the real killer and is aided by Neela in his pursuit. In the process, Ravi investigates the significant ring of Surendra Sinha that could lead back to the killer and experiences the arrival of Michael D'Souza (Pran), a kind-hearted and happy-go-lucky small-time thief, from his own logical procedural thinking. Learning of Ravi's plight, Michael pledges to help him nab the real culprit after 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 happens to run into the murderer and sets up a meeting point by the riverside in the hills to settle the issue. The climax alternates between a grievously injured Michael holding the murderer at gunpoint and Ravi driving desperately to get a doctor back in time. In the end, the real killer of Surendra Sinha is surprisingly revealed to be his own brother, Narendra Sinha, but not without Michael paying a heavy price in managing to solve the mystery.

Cast

• Amitabh Bachchan as Ravi Khanna; Neela's lover-turned-husband, Mrs. Khanna's first child, Renu and Billu's older brother, Mr. Rajvansh's son-in-law, Michael's friend
• Parveen Babi as Neela Rajvansh; Ravi's lover-turned-wife, Mr. Rajvansh's daughter, Mrs. Khanna's daughter-in-law, Renu and Billu's sister-in-law
• Pran as Michael D'Souza; Ravi's friend
• Farida Jalal as Renu Khanna; Mrs. Khanna's second child, Ravi's younger and Billu's older sister, Neela's sister-in-law
• Sulochana Latkar as Mrs. Khanna; Ravi, Renu and Billu's mother, Neela's mother-in-law
• Satyen Kappu as Narendra Sinha; Surendra Sinha's younger brother and murderer, Mona's brother-in-law and lover
• Iftekhar as CID Inspector Khurana; Inspector Kulkarni's employer
• Jagdish Raj as Inspector Kulkarni; Inspector Khurana's assistant
• Rehman as Surendra Sinha; Narendra Sinha's older brother and murder victim, Mona's ex-husband
• Mac Mohan as Prakash; Michael's accomplice in theft
• Madan Puri as Mahipat Rai; Ravi's one-time accquaintance, Sulakshana's husband
• Sajjan as Dr. Shah; Ravi's doctor
• Alankar Joshi as Billu Khanna; Mrs. Khanna's third child, Ravi and Renu's younger brother, Neela's brother-in-law
• D. K. Sapru as Mr. Rajvansh; Neela's father, Ravi's father-in-law
• Shiv Kumar as Advocate Rane; Ravi's lawyer friend
• Sudhir as Sharma; Ravi's colleague
• K. N. Singh as Prosecuting Attorney
• Murad as Supreme Court Judge
• Ashoo as Mona Surendra Sinha; Surendra Sinha's widow, Narendra Sinha's sister-in-law and lover
• 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