Coolie review:
2nd December 1983 was most awaited day for Indian movie buffs, particularly Amitabh Bachchan fans. Manmohan Desai's Coolie was releasing on that day - a film which had attracted immense attention even before its release due to Bachchan's near fatal accident while shooting it. The particular scene required the screen baddie Punit Issar to punch him in the stomach and then Amitabh was to roll over on a table. Unfortunately, the punch got mistimed and hit Bachchan hard and he got further hurt on the iron table rupturing his intestines.
The entire India, including the then PM Indira Gandhi and his close friend Rajiv Gandhi, paid visits to Breach Candy hospital and prayed for the superstar's speedy recovery. After many months, Bachchan was back on his feet, quite frail and weak but re-shooting the film from that very same scene. Manmohan Desai (Manji as he was affectionately called) froze the movie frame with a note stating "This is the shot in which Amitabh Bachchan was seriously injured" to let his audience know the exact unfortunate moment.
Coolie was sold out for weeks in advance and getting tickets was next to impossible. A two to three rupees ticket was black marketed for a whopping three hundred rupees!! Badal Bijlee, Matunga was perennially housefull so my parents took me to Capitol Cinema opposite CST (then VT) and I still remember the entire audience at Capitol just stood up and clapped loudly for minutes as Amitabh made his grand onscreen entry walking on top of a train with an eagle in hand. It was a great gesture to welcome him back on screen after this accident. The film became a blockbuster hit and ran for multiple weeks at Capitol where films wouldn't last for a week or two. The main theatre was of course Alankar at Gol Deval where the film completed a golden jubilee run. Manji even refused to give Alankar Cinema to Prakash Mehra for Sharaabi (1984) though Coolie had completed a silver jubilee. It lead to an argument between the two rival filmmakers.
As a standalone product, Coolie was quite underwhelming compared to Manji's other hits like Amar Akbar Anthony (1977) and Naseeb (1981). It was the standard lost and found formula with the separated child growing to be a railway coolie who then takes on the perpetuators and also finds his family in the end. Ths film also had a strong communist undertone where Amitabh held the hammer and sickle in the posters. But nobody cared about all that. Coolie was Amitabh's triumph over death and the whole India celebrated it wholeheartedly!!
Regards,
Sumeet Nadkarni.
