Suhaag (1979)

Directed by: Manmohan Desai

Music: Laxmikant-Pyarelal

Lyrics: Anand Bakshi

Starring: Shashi Kapoor, Amitabh Bachchan,

Rekha, Parveen Babi,

Amjad Khan, Nirupa Roy,

Jeevan, Kader Khan,

Ranjeet, Jagdish Raj

Sometime ago, Shalini – my partner in crime when it comes to watching Hindi movies – and I were talking about the ‘Manmohan Desai Universe’. His movies were larger than life, his characters were over the top, and the melodrama was dialled up to the highest pitch. Yet, wholly illogical as his movies were, Desai’s characters were logical and realistic within the universe they inhabited. And, Desai had a fine grip on the combination of masala that he served forth. So, after watching Naseeb together, Shalini and I made a future date to watch Suhaag, which is considered one of his ‘lesser’ movies, even if it was the top box-office grosser of that year.

Think of a Desai film with two heroes, two heroines, and two villains – also, brothers separated at birth, blindness, some moral conflict, cops and robbers, exciting chases, love, filial duty, revenge, divine intervention… the full range of a masala universe packed into three hours of non-stop entertainment. No one can accuse Desai of stinting on emotion.