Kahani Kismat ki (1973)

The second selection in my Dharmendra week is this camp drama extravaganza from the same director who brought us kab? Kyoon? Aur Kahan? He again returns to his numerology idea of having triple K's in his film title with this one, and as luck would have it for him this one tured out to be a box office hit for him


Ajit (Dharmendra) is a graduate unable to gain employment, frustrated at his inability to support his family Ajit resorts to robbing, he's caught and sentenced to 2 years in Jail


His mother(Sulochana) out of guilt that her son had supported her from robbed items leaves the rich mansion Ajit bought her and moves to a poor bungalow


Ajit is pardoned and released from Jail early, he returns home and promises his mother he'll be on the straight and narrow


While on the search for a job, Ajit out of desperation takes part in a wrestling match with a money prize or 200 Rupees for the winner


He wins and with the money he buys various items for his families including a lunch box for his chota bhai ( little brother). He finds there's a huge amount of cash in the lunch box as well as the address of the owner who happens to be Mr Prem (Ajit)


Prem is impressed by Ajit's honesty and as a result he affers him a job, his daughter Rekha falls for him (i don't blame her)


She gets the help of her friend Jayshree T on how to woo him over

At first Ajit is shy and conscious of their class differences


but fierce Rekha ( oh how i loved her feisty dialogues in this scene) refutes him and challenges him to man up


you tell him girl


Ajit does and he declares his love for her to the whole world


Ajit soon starts getting weird fits and seizures, he goes to the doctor where he's diagnosed with cancer, and told he has months to live



This creates drama in his relationship with Rekha, Ajit not wanting her to be hurt by his death breaks up with her in a painfully neart breaking way when he introduces a paid actress to claim she's his wife



Karam Chand (Arjun Hingorani) who knows about Prem's past evil deeds threatens to reveal his secrets, if Prem doesn't pay him large amounts of money


Prem lies to Ajit about Karam Chand's threat and manages to convince Ajit to do his dirty deed by stealing the incriminating documents karam Chand has been blackmailing him with. Ajit out of desperation for money as well as the fact he might be dying soon agrees to the crime


Unfortuantely Karamchand is killed on the same night as Ajit's plans to rob him, as a result Ajit is framed for his murder


When Rekha discovers Ajit is in prison, the true love she feels for him, causes her to go visit him, on her way back she stumbles and collapses which results in a loss of huge amounts of blood

Khoon bhari maang it is indeed

The doctor finds it hard to find her matching blood type and a conclusion is eventually reached that only Ajits blood can save her, but Arjun has cancer, which means his blood can't be given to Rekha


Would Ajit be willing to give Rekha his cancerous blood, or can the doctor find a solution to this? Who framed Ajit? who killed karamchand? Does Ajit really have cancer? Also what dirty deed of Prem was Karam Chand aware of and threatened to reveal to the world Watch Kahani kismat Ki to finsd out these answers

Kahani Kismat Ki (the story of destiny) represents one of Dharmendra's camp peformances from 70's hindi cinema, there's nothing special here but if you love your camp 70's escapist fares, then you'll love this

For Dharmendra fans there's lots to love, ladies (or gents) you get to see Dharmendra fight in his briefs and flex his muscles






I was amazed by Rekha's look in this, i found her beautiful in this film, many people think she wasn't beautiful in her younger days but i loved her look here



Good songs from Kalyanji Anandji, there's the title track 'Kahani Kismat Ki' a seductive item number 'Tu yaar hi mera' and one of Dharmendra's most popular songs 'rafta rafta'

my favourites are 'Duniya mujhe Kehti Hai'



and Rekha and her girl friends in the playful and cool 'Kab tak na dogi dil' watch them rock out with their plastic guitars and other instruments on the beach




Total Score: 5.5/10

Pran Jaye Par Vachan Na Jaye (1974)

I'm not familiar with many of the dacoit movies produced in 60's-70's bollywood, Pran Jaye Par Vachan Na Jaye (Lay down your life if needed for fulfilling your promise) is among the last few ones produced in the 70's i think, i bought it out of curiosity and i ended up loving it so much. I've watched it twice since buying ( trust me, that's a big deal as i only have time to watch most movies once due to the insane amount of movies i have to get through) So anyway we have a dashing Sunil Dutt as the daku and a young Rekha as the feisty courtesan Janiya as well as superb music by O.P. Nayyar

Raj Thakur (Sunil Dutt) is a dacoit who believes and fights for the safety of the oppressed and women in his village. When he calls the local courtesan Janiya a naachnewale she gives up her dancing and rumours spread all through the region of him being married to Janiya (Rekha)

Raj Thakur considers this a taint to his self respect and he makes plans to get Janiya married publicly to a chosen fellow so that his name can be cleared

Janiya however isn't a courtesan entirely by choice, she had been kidnapped from her father by her wicked uncle (Madan Puri) and then sold to Chanda a pimp who then raised her up as a courtesan

Janiya is arrested for being a call girl and news reaches her father Dharaj (Iftekhar) in the city that his long lost daughter daughter Sheetal now called Janiya (Rekha) is still alive


Dhanraj rushes to the town to meet his supposed daughter, but by the time he gets there she has been captured by Raj Thakur who hopes to get her married so his name can be cleared. He falls in love with her but he is unable to admit his feelings to himself. Things take a turn when police gatecrash the weddding preparations and Raja Thakur escapes with Janiya

When Sheetal's father finds out she's been captured by Raja Thakur he approaches Raja Thakur's mother for help, asking her to help persuade her son to give him back his daughter


She assures him her son Raj Thakur means no harm and that he would get his daughter back the next day

Raj Thakur obeys his mother and hands Janiya over to her, just when her father is about to meet his daughter, she's kidnapped by Mangal Singh's (Premnath) henchmen.


Mangal Singh (Premnath) threatens her father to pay 25 lakhs if he wants to see daughter again

Raj's mum is injured during the kidnap and when he finally his dying mother, she makes him promise to reunite Janiya back to her father

Raj goes into town and then makes plans of how he would rescue Janiya from Mangal Singh


What follows are a series of disguise with Raja Thakur in some seriously funky 70's fashion

i want that green jacket in my wardrobe


A villain's den that looks so much like a discotheque


And an aide who had been sent to kill him joining him in his quest to bring down Mangal Singh

Will he be able to rescue Janiya? What obstacles will he face?

Overall a fun masala-ish flick, attempting to highlight the humanity/kindness of dacoits, at the heart of the film is the somewhat atypical message which became quite popular in a number of dacoit films trying to show dacoits as humans with emotions too, much like the 1963 Sunil Dutt starrer Mujhe Jeene Do (someone please put this on dvd with subtitles)

the film makes us believe Raja is a dacoit not by chance but as result of Raja witnessing his fathers death on the hands of Loan Sharks, Raja grows up robbing and helping the oppressed as a result of the materialist greed which had casued his father's death

Enjoyable performances from all the cast, Sunil Dutt is one of my favourite actors and he delivers a highly watchcable camp act in this, and what a transformation Rekha later went through, i had to do a double take to ensure it was really her


a young dusky toned Rekha

Great music from O.P Nayyar i had long heard of the wonders or should i say magic of O.P Nayyar but this was the film that brought it home for me, Asha Bhosle sang all the songs in this, from the super hot mujra 'Ek tu na piya' the seductive 'Aapke dard jawan hai', the cabaret-esque 'dekho are dilbar' and the beautiful ballad 'chain se humko kabhie' (audio only) which wasn't picturised in the film itself for some reason, the song won Asha Bhosle her 6th Filmfare 'Best female playback award'

my favourites have to be 'Bikaner ki chunri' with a feisty Jayshree T telling us where she got all her wares from



another favourite is 'dekho raja dekho' for the stringy instruments and drum beats infused with Asha's sweet vocals



Total Score: 7/10 ( Entertaining dacoit fare)

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