Sohni Mahiwal review :
Sunny Deol's debut 'Betaab' was a smash hit of 1983. Naturally, there were high expectations from his next release and Sohni Mahiwal did not disappoint the audience. Produced by FC Mehra's Eagle Films, this was their second Indo- Soviet co-production after the successful Alibaba aur 40 Chor (1980).
Re-telling the classic love saga of Sohni Mahiwal, Sunny Deol and Poonam Dhillon played the eternal couple whom even death couldn't keep apart. Both the actors were not the first choice and Kumar Gaurav was approached for the lead but dad Rajendra Kumar asked for a high price which lead the producers to Dharmendra who advised beta Sunny to sign the movie. Dimple Kapadia was the original choice for Sohni but she was committed to Ramesh Sippy's Saagar (1985) and declined the role. Poonam Dhillon then came on board.
The character of Zara daku was specially written for Zeenat Aman whom the Russians loved in Abdullah (1980) and Alibaba aur 40 Chor. She even got her own backstory involving Mazhar Khan in a cameo. Zeenat and Mazhar fell in love during the filming and later got married.
Sunny and Poonam made a sweet pair and the film was finely executed with top production values and melodious music. Particularly, Anu Malik became famous with this film and signed many prestigious projects after this. The exotic locales of Ural mountain ranges of the former Soviet Union were wonderfully captured on screen.
Sohni Mahiwal became a huge success at the box office. By the time, it released in Russia and became a blockbuster there, it had already celebrated silver jubilee hit in India. But Sunny Deol had also added two flops to his name by then - Sunny and Manzil Manzil.
Regards,
Sumeet Nadkarni.
