Maryada

This movie can be put into the genre of formulaic films, but for the sad song "Zuban per dard bhari daastan chali aye".

The wording of this song and the perfect voice quality of Mukesh, the terrifically thrilling night windstorm, melodramatic music and morose acting by Rajesh Khanna is something special to watch. The anguished and perplexed vibes frozen on the face of Rajesh during this particular song are an excellent display of his magnetic screen presence during the early 70s. Another music number "Chupke se dil dye de" also carries some romantic appeal which is a duet filmed on Rajesh and Mala Sinha.

On cold lonely days, when there is no other task ahead, watching this flick, especially the aforesaid sad song, with a hot cup of tea should be worthwhile.

Maryada (1971) : Brief Review -

A double role formula with a suspenseful theory but too messy. Unlike Ram aur Shyam (1967), where twins swap places unknowingly and keep the secret open, Maryada is very restricted and suspenseful about the same twins formula. What's more is that every single character in the film behaves on an extreme level, and the reactions are also very extreme, causing all the conflicts to look weak. I'll try to explain all those characters in brief. Pran's character is greedy; he is all about money, and so easily he can spread a rumor about someone's death. Laxmi's character disappears suddenly, and we have no clue. She reappeared in the climax from nowhere. That was too dramatic just to make a happy ending right. Lalita decides to earn the money and becomes a dancer and a rich girl with no struggle. Abhi Bhattacharya is a murderer and yet manages to complete his marriage. Wasn't that too mad? Raja Babu spends 4 years in mourning but does not leave the place and decides to go out to find his wife and kid. Why bro? Ranjan is too blind to see what's coming his way just to hide a normal secret of his friend's identity and even breaks things up with his girlfriend for his friend. How? As a whole, the characters are a mess. The songs also don't hit the high bar, and I believe Kalyanji-Anandji could have done much better than this. Rajesh Khanna enters the picture at halfway, Raaj Kumar is decent, and Mala Singha steals the show here. This was a very peculiar double role for her, and she has done a fantastic job even though the characters don't make much sense. Arabind Sen fails to clear many things in the first half, and that's why the film looks confusing. It took me a whole lot of time to understand that it was a double role because the events were too quick and roughly done. Overall, a decent watch that can be enjoyed with compromises.

RATING - 5/10*

By - #samthebestest.

During the seventies there were several films like this one with no head or tail.An actor of Raaj Kumar's calibre is wasted here and Mala Sinha's pairing with Khanna is embarrassing.The story is rubbish.Could have been better with a little more imagination.The script is not too bad and the outdoor scenery is superb.Raaj Kumar and Pran are miscasted as well as Mala Sinha though their acting is good.The film begins to flounder with the entry of Khanna.His looks make him more the younger brother of Ms.Sinha and Raaj Kumar.As for the music one or two tunes are above average.With his distinctive style of acting Kumar could have made more impact had the story been realistic.He looks stupid in the village costumes.Pran excels as always.One of the worst Raaj Kumar films i have ever seen.

Pros A good script with powerful cast (Raaj Kumar, Rajesh Khanna and Mala Sinha) having some nice dialogues made it worth a watch. Cons Music and climax could have been better.

Some pretty serious plot holes and logical failures but an otherwise interesting story and decent acting make this worth watching.