Khandan

Khandan (1965) : Brief Review -

Too much family drama to handle, but that's what 60's entertainment was all about. The 60s saw many South remakes in Hindi cinema, and most of them were taken from successful movies and became successful as well. Khandan came from the Tamil movie Bhaaga Pirivinai, which was directed by A. Bhimsingh, and he sat on the director's chair for the Hindi remake as well. Needless to say that it becomes easier to recreate your own work rather than somebody else recreating it with his own vision. Bhimsingh's Khandan is a melodramatic affair, and I was kind of expecting that from it. However, the melodrama was over the top and one level higher than what I expected. The elder son Govind becomes paralysed by one hand and one leg, and his aunt despises him for that. Her brother returns from Singapore and starts dividing the house. With his conspiracy, this happy, big family and house are scattered into pieces. There is too much melodrama, too many nuances that play a major role in proving the "karma" factor right, too many villains to hate, but Pran is just amazing. Govind is paralysed, but his son is normal, whereas Sunder is normal, but his wife gives a birth to a paralysed son. Now that's too much drama, and it's too conflicting. I don't see any logic in that or the way Govind is ready to get humiliated every time as if he were a duffer, but maybe that's what the 60's entertainment was all about. People hardly care about the logic and went mad over the high-voltage drama that became dated soon. Sunil Dutt, Pran, Nutan, Lalita Pawar, Manmohan Krishna, and Om Prakash have delivered superb performances. This film doesn't feel crap because of them. The songs are very situational, but the chart-scoring numbers aren't there. Badi Der Bhayi Nandlala maybe your devotional chartbuster. Overall, a highly dramatic family soap that's faded away from memories too soon, deservingly.

RATING - 6/10*

By - #samthebestest.