What can be said about this old time classic movie? Perhaps it can be described as one of the best movies that I can remember watching in Bangalore with my parents thirty six years back and even that after I had heard that Amitabh Bachchan had got married to Jaya Bhaduri. Watching this film, made me remember those childhood days. A professional singer, whose career is soaring, marries a girl from a village, who has learnt singing from her father and whose career, he takes care of. But then his begins to falter and leads to jealousy.
Starring Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bhaduri, Asrani, David Abraham, Bindu, Durga Khote and A.K. Hangal, this is superbly directed by the late Hrishikesh Mukherjee, while the music is by S.D. Burman I still remember watching Bindu as a vamp in many of the films before this and it made a change to see her in a role, which could have led her to be the "other woman" in this, but she didn't and this made a difference in the story. Amitabh as the husband who becomes jealous is just superb and since this was released after "Zanjeer," he was by then very well known. Jaya Bhaduri was also perfectly cast as are Asrani and David Abraham.
The music by S.D. Burman is beyond any doubt as the best for this type of film and the songs all of them are memorable even after thirty six years and while listening to and watching them, I was able to sing along, which nowadays is extremely rare to do so as many of the tunes are not so memorable. As the lyricist, Javed Akhtar, said recently, it is very rare to hear such tunes nowadays.
It's a shame that films such as "Abhimaan" are no longer being made and if they are, they wouldn't do very well as times have changed, peoples taste have also changed and they will keep on doing so even after you, the reader, and I are no longer around.
