7/27/2019 Namak Haram Movie Review

1/4

When rummaging through Hrishikesh Mukherjees list of classicfilms (which include Golmaal, Abhimaan, Chupke Chupke andAnand), Namak Haraam is perhaps not the first obvious filmthat would come to mind. This means that the film is quite

underrated to a certain extent. Mukherjee has always been adeptat portraying friendships or relationships that unfold in a compellingway onscreen. Namak Haraam is another example of anexploration of a male friendship.

The plot is a little inspired by the English film, Peter GlenvillesBecket. Vikram (Amitabh Bachchan) and Chander (RajeshKhanna) have been close friends since childhood. They are soclose that they regard each other as brothers. Vikram thinks ofChanders mother as his own and calls her maa (his real mother

passed away when he was little). Vikrams father, Damodar (OmShinde), has a mild heart attack and has to take a rest from hisfactory business. He requests his only son to temporarily take upthe manager position and handle all the managerial duties. Vikramgladly does so and settles into his new role as a boss with ease.Along with this ease comes a certain degree of arrogance andpride.

The head of a workers union, Mr. Bipinlal (AK Hangal) asks

Vikram for financial compensation for a worker who accidentallyinjured his hand in a machine. His plea is met with an outragedresponse from Vikram who does not see the point of paying aworker who was careless enough to damage his hand. At theadvice of his father, Vikram later issues an apology to the unionleader, albeit a reluctant one. His pride now dented, he runs backto Chander and emotionally regales the whole story. Chanderconcocts a scheme where they both can hope to get revenge ontheir new enemy, Mr. Bipinlal. Chander will work as a labourer in

the factory (changing his name to Somu) and gradually contrive tomake Mr. Bipinlal look stupid in front of other workers. Soon afterthat, he will replace Mr. Bipinlal as the leader. Once this plan iscarried out, something unexpected happens to Chander aliasSomu. He gets an intimate peak into the lives of his co-workersand is emotionally touched by what he sees. He witnesses theirpoverty, their pain and their struggles. Chander is taken aback andhis eyes are fully opened. He sides with the workers union andVijay is left fuming. This sets off a series of incidents that lead onits way to the tragic denouement.

This film examines what happens when two extremely close

7/27/2019 Namak Haram Movie Review

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friends start supporting two different ideals. Vikram is a supporterof capitalism while Chander feels that the workers are underpaidand undervalued. Vikram cannot see why Chander is fighting forthe cause of the poor. His reasoning is that everybody can look

after themselves. He eschews anything to do with poverty andsocialism, issues that even his love interest, Manisha (SimiGarewal), is passionate about. Later though, he is grateful to herfor shedding light on his problems with his best friend. With hersocialist stance, only she is able to understand Chanders position.As well as a fable on friendship, the film looks at the barrierbetween the poor and the rich. The story suggests that the rich areblind to the trials suffered by the poor. After spending a long timewaiting for his friend, an upset Vikram goes to the village

(disguising himself) and spies on Chander to see what he is up to.Chander is having a good time in his fellow workers house and isteasing his new love, Shama (Rekha). Vikram looks through thewindow of the house and then walks away in anger. This meremoment symbolizes the barrier between the two worlds. A lot ofrich people only want to glimpse at the world of the poor from theoutside but it is not often that they want to be on the other side ofthat window. They will glance from the outside and then walk away.Pre-Dil Chahta Hai, portrayals of male friendship has rarely beenconvincing in Hindi cinema. While the portrayal of the characters

friendship has a dated depiction to it, one of the directorsremarkable strengths is to turn something clichd into somethinggenuine. Therefore, the two mens devotion to each other isendearing to watch. I would argue that Mukherjee was actuallyaware of the trap that he could potentially fall into. He must haveknown that the friendship depicted is larger-than-life at times andso he added small touches to ground reality into it. When Chanderbegins to deliver a sermon regarding the harsh lessons that he haslearnt, Vikram, like a real-life friend most likely would, tells him to

stop talking as if he is in a movie. Mukherjees awareness keepsthe friendship real enough to stop it from becoming too outlandish.Gulzar (who penned the dialogue), too, deserves credit here forthe realistic tone of the conversations between the twoprotagonists.

While the film looks at the friendship between two friends, it alsoglances at the relationship between a father and son. Vikramsdistance from his father is demonstrated physically in the

beginning portion of the film when he is living miles away from hisfather and hardly thinks about him until he has a heart attack. Only

7/27/2019 Namak Haram Movie Review

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then is Vikram is forced to leave his friend. It suggests a distancebetween the father and son- a lack of bonding. Vikram taking overhis fathers job is his only real chance to get to know him and tocreate a bond with him, which is why he takes Damodars advice

too seriously. After the fight with Mr. Bipinlal, Vikrams father tellshim to never forget the humiliation when he goes to apologize tothe workers union leader, the memory will be his strength. Vikramtakes this advice too much to heart and this is spelt out in hissubsequent determination to rid of Mr. Bipinlal from his workplace(using an elaborate scheme). The way Vikram adopts his fathersadvice turns out to be his weakness with grave consequences. In adesperate attempt to impress him, Vikram loses his best friend andat the end it seems as if Vikram gets his revenge by punishing his

father where it hurts the most- his heart.Amitabh Bachchan displays the spark here that would laterdevelop into a stronger image in his career (ala the Angry YoungMan persona). If a different actor had essayed the role, it wouldperhaps be difficult to understand what the character feels sobetrayed about. Bachchan brings across his characters misplacedpride in his arrogance through the way he acts and the way hespeaks. His now-familiar red eyes convey the depth of his feelingof being emotionally hurt and betrayed. The soft-spoken Rajesh

Khanna is just perfect for the role of a man whose conscience tellshim that there has got to be more to life than just playing andworking. Bachchan and Khannas interesting approaches to theiracting combine to make a great on-screen team. Check outAnand to see another superlative effort from the Bachchan-Khanna-Mukherjee team. The heroines are kept out of the mainplot to allow the film to focus solely on the implications of the malefriendship. Simi Garewal does register an impact in her few sceneswith Amitabh Bachchan. Rekha has nothing much to do and since

she was still a newcomer in this film, her acting is raw and herwhole look (ie make-up and clothes) is undeveloped and bland.Namak Haraam is not particularly known for its music but thereare some amazing songs by Kishore Kumar with a melodiousscore by R.D. Burman. I love Diye Jalte Hain, Phool Khilte Hainand Nadiya Se Dariya. These two numbers are wonderful, justwonderful!

The film went onto win two Filmfare awards for Best Dialogues forGulzar and Best Supporting Actor for Amitabh Bachchan. Whileboth awards were well deserved, the latter does not make sense

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as Amitabh and Rajesh share equal screen time. But it doessignify the moment when Rajesh Khanna handed the bastion ofsuperstardom onto Amitabh Bachchan. After this, the careers ofboth of the actors were never the same again. One star began to

shine brighter while the others starlight began to dim.