Parvarish

Review By Kamal K

Superb, superb, superb .... A great entertaining film by great director, Manmohan Desai. He was the King of masala entertaining movies and this movie is full of his marks throughout! Excellent script, catchy camera work, extra ordinary shot takings, and engrossing direction, thrilled to watch action scenes. Superb acting by all. Great musical score by Laxmikant Pyarelal. Jaate to jaane jana is a treat to watch!

I had seen this movie so three times, and enjoyed it every time. It's a family drama, action packed thriller film.

Even new generation would find it interesting.

Watch it and enjoy it. It will also bring you out from bad mood, if any!

The movie was brilliant for its time. After the success of Deewar and Sholay, most of the directors kept the best roles in the movies for Amitabh Bacchan. Here as well, Manmohan Desai projected Amitabh as the honest good cop, intending all the sympathies and attention from the viewers but who steals the show? It's Vinod Khanna! Vinod Khanna was fabulous in the movie, he always stole the show even if the roles written for him may or may not be bigger than his co-actors. He is the ultimate grey shade hero of the Indian cinema. No one can beat his personality, his charisma, his style, the panther walk and his brilliance in adopting any role thrown to him. He clearly beats Amitabh here. The movie was the great Indian entertainer with the top two superstars of the 70s.

Parvarish (1977) : Brief Review -

Another instant mass connect film by Manmohan Desai in his or any director's most memorable year. 1977 belonged to Manmohan Desai like no other Bollywood director in history. 4 out of the of the top 5 highest grossing movies (Amar Akbar Anthony, Dharam Veer, Parvarish, and Chacha Bhatija) that year were directed by him (Hum Kisise Kam Nahin was by Nasir Hussain, another mass film-making it a mass year by all means). Has any Bollywood director ever seen a phase like that? Post release, Parvarish belonged to those chawl days of the 80s when two-hero films were trying to attract in the cinemas, while this one was a huge hit on VCR and later on TV. My father used to watch it in Chawl, then I saw it during my childhood when we were in Chawl, and now today, when I am shifted to a building flat 2 decades ago, this film still feels entertaining. The rift between brothers or the son and father was not new by 1977, so Parvarish does feel repetitive. We had Deewar and so many other films trying to initiate the same emotional breakdown between blood relatives, whereas a few other films tried the adopted son formula. Parvarish is a mix of both. It does the right thing to justify its title by making the adopted son stand against his own father because he has learned to stand with justice from the good upbringing he received from his foster father. The job by script was done, and the screenplay plays with the idea nicely and also adds some crisp with those two heroine characters with all that con stuff. You need a couple of hit songs, and we have "Jaate Ho Jaane Jaana," but the second one, I am not sure. Desai makes it formulaic for the audience's sake, and he was right with his conviction. It doesn't matter if Parvarish is not termed a great film over the years-deservingly-but it is a good entertainer-deservingly. "Duniya ka koi bhi kanoon ek patni ko apne pati ki jeb katne se nahi rok sakta" was an inspiration to the crores of wives. Crying emojis.

RATING - 6.5/10*

By - #samthebestest.

Vinod Khanna and Amitabh Bachchan, the two biggest superstars of the 1970s in one film, a sureshot formula for success at the time. Amitabh was fabulous as the honest police officer who could do anything for his line of duty. However, the real star who steals the show is Vinod Khanna. His screen presence could not be matched by anyone, he meticulously did justice to his role of a suave, stylish but ruthless criminal bound by revenge. His dialogues, emotions and humour, all overshadowed Amitabh in the film. Both VK and AB, great actors with a great supporting cast in Shammi Kapoor, Kadar Khan (in his earliest villian role), Amjad Khan played their parts well. The only flip side is the presence of some boring scenes with both the actresses.

Director Manmohan Desai was pretty skilled in making masala movies consisting of action, comedy and emotions. His movies used to be complete entertainment package for the spectators. He considered himself to be an entertainer only (rendering entertainment of an escapist nature) and never believed in making meaningful or simple movies. All of the movies produced and directed by him fall into the category of pure entertainers containing no or very less logic in the story. In 1977, four such multi-starrer movies made by him were released and all of them became super hits. One of them was Parvarish.

'Parvarish' means upbringing of a child. Hence the plot of this movie revolves around upbringing of a child only. A police officer (Shammi Kapoor) fosters the child of a dacoit (Amjad Khan) alongwith his own child (both are boys) and renders both of them good upbringing so as to develop them as good citizens and good human-beings. One of them (Vinod Khanna) gets a wrong impression that he is actually the son of the dacoit (who has now become a big smuggler) whereas the truth is that he is the real son of the cop and the other one (Amitabh Bachchan) who has also become a cop is actually the son of the dacoit-turned-smuggler. How this misunderstanding affects this youth who is one of the two heroes and how everything is finally set right is the remaining part of the story.

As asserted supra, Parvarish (1977) has been made as a formula-studded entertaining flick. And it is successful in meeting its purpose. The spectator remains glued to the screen for more than two and a half hours without getting bored. Plenty of action is there. Sentiments are there. Drama is there. Comedy is there. All the regular spices are mixed in optimum quantum to make a delicious dish named as Parvarish served to the audience.

Comedy is one thing I am willing to mention separately and specifically. In this movie, specialist comedian and specific comedy track is not required to render a dose of humour to the audience. This job has been accomplished by the heroines of this movie (Shabana Aazmi and Neetu Singh) and their interactions with the heroes (and their parents) as well. The heroines have played the roles of pickpocket sisters and needless to say, they demonstrate their art on the heroes as well as their parents only. And that administers a very good dose of humour to the people watching the movie. Music directors Laxmikant Pyarelaal have composed a comedy song 'Jaate Ho Jaane Jaana' which is, in my view, one of the best comedy songs created in Bollywood movies. Not only the lyrics are humorous but the acting of the foursome (Amitabh-Vinod-Shabana-Neetu) in this song is also rib-tickling for the viewers.

The music otherwise is also good. 'Hum Premi Prem Karna Jaane' is another very good song picturized on Vinod Khanna, Amitabh Bachchan and Shammi Kapoor. Since this is the movie made by a person who was proficient in making actioners, the action part plus the other technical aspects are also good. Dialogues are impressive. The movie bears a clear stamp of the director's vision and his approach towards making movies for the usual Indian audience.

Performances are admirable. Amitabh Bachchan and Vinod Khanna have done pretty well as the heroes. Shabana Aazmi and Neetu Singh have, as said earlier, not only fulfilled the quota of heroines but also showcased their skill in doing comedy also. Shammi Kapoor has done exceedingly well in the role of a senior cop on one hand and father of two grown-up sons on the other. All others have also done justice to their roles.

The director has tried to create an impression that it's a story about upbringing and the fact that nurture is more important than genes (to make a good person or otherwise) but overall the movie does not discuss any such thing in a serious way. It is meant to entertain only. And it entertains only.

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