Namak Halaal - Loyalty - Bachchan at his Best! (film only review) (Namak Halaal (DVD))

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Product:	Namak Halaal (DVD)
Date:	12/10/07 (113 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A good all round Bollywood entertainer

Disadvantages: Somewhat dodgy plot, rather lengthy at 3 hours

Namak Halaal is a Hindi language film (aka Bollywood) certified as PG, which was released in 1982. The film's title means "Loyalty" and it was a real hit film back in the day. I saw it recently after about 20 years of first having seen it and enjoyed it enough to want to write about it.

The film stars Amitabh Bachchan as Arjun, Shashi Kapoor as Raja, Smita Patil as Poonam, Parveen Babi as Nisha, Waheeda Rehman as Savitridevi and Om Prakash as Dadu along with a big supporting cast including: Ranjeet, Suresh Oberoi, Kamal Kapoor & Satyen Kappu.

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Bhim Singh (Oberoi) is a trusted servant of Sanyal (Kamal Kapoor), a wealthy man whose life and only son and heir are being threatened by his own brother. Sanyal signs over all of his properties including large hotels to Bhim Singh's wife, Savitridevi, in the event of anything happening to him. The very same day Bhim Singh and Sanyal are killed and in his dying moment Bhim Singh makes his wife promise to take more care of Sanyal's son Raja than their own son, Arjun, which she agrees to. One of the servants hearing this promise fears for Arjun's life so she steals him away and delivers the child to his grandfather Dadu (Prakash) who disowns his daughter-in-law, assuming she has given up the right to her own son for the love of money, refusing to listen when she tries to explain that it was his own son that made her make the promise. This all happens in the first 10 minutes of this 3 hour long film!

Raja is sent away abroad to study and even though news arrives that Sanyal's brother has died in an accident, Savitridevi decides to keep Raja away from home till he is grown up and fully educated so he can take over the business as an adult. Just before Raja (Shashi Kapoor) returns to India an attempt is made on his life and someone close to him poisons his mind against Savitridevi; the woman he thought all these years was his mother, implying that she is responsible for the attempts on his life so she can inherit his huge fortune.

In the meantime, Arjun (Bachchan) has grown up in the village, having been brought up by his Dadu (meaning grandfather) who decides it's time he goes out into the real world, by this, he means into town life, to become a real man. Arjun is a simple man who adores his grandfather and doesn't have any vices. He manages to get a job at Raja's main hotel, fall in love with Poonam (Patil) who works there and soon Raja and Arjun's lives are intertwined irreversibly, neither of them knowing the history of their parents and Arjun unaware that Savitridevi is his real mother and vice versa. Raja also manages to fall in love with a cabaret singer at his hotel, Nisha (Babi), whose motives towards him seem unclear.

Who is trying to kill Raja and why? What is Nisha hiding? Who is the man that Poonam has to meet after work? Is Savitridevi as innocent as she makes out? These are the questions all answered during the course of the film.

~*~*~*~

Namak Halaal is one of those films which you can think of in two ways. You can see it as dated and "too" 80s or you can see it as a good piece of film-making with good disco songs, action and comedy scenes with a fairly average story. There were quite a few songs in the film but I have to admit to recognising at least 4 or 5 of them from still being played on Indian radio stations once in a while and some of the real disco numbers have been re-released by new artists and have done really well as dance music numbers. The music for the film was by Bappi Lahiri, a legend even today for Bollywood film music and the playback singers were Kishore Kumar, Asha Bhosle and Bappi Lahiri himself singing in Raat Baaki Baat Baaki, a sexy dance number, where Parveen Babi's character is supposed to draw Sashi Kapoor's character away from the crowd to his waiting assasins. Ke Pag Ghungroo Baandh is a classic award winning number by Kishore Kumar which had me toe tapping away during the whole song and chuckling at the comedy during the song and dance scene when the supposed simpleton Arjun first arrives from the village and does a song at Raja's hotel to try to get a job there. Thodi Si Jo Pee Lee Hai is a fun number by Kishore Kumar when Arjun pretends to be drunk to trick his grandfather into thinking he's taken up drinking. Jawan-E-Jaaneman is a peppy disco song which is almost trippy in the visual effects - we see Parveen Babi's character for the first time in this song and she looks stunning but is dressed in a gold lame outfit which is rather amusing.

Amitabh Bachchan proved yet again in this film why he became such a huge superstar in the Indian film industry. He plays the part of a simple guy brought up in a village with such ease that you really believe he is this sweet dolt of a guy, he gets to the big city and bumbles around initially, but once employed, he is fiercely loyal to his employer and keeps up his good moral standards by not letting city life change him. You see him in funny moments where he really does make you laugh - in one scene he tells a large group of potential hoteliers that his boss likes people to do as he does, e.g. stand when he stands, sit when he sits, cough when he coughs and this scene goes from mildly amusing to hilarious as his boss gets more and more confused as to why this bunch of grown men seem to be playing a childish game of "shadows" with him. The scene gets even funnier when Bachchan's character tries to catch a fly that keeps landing on the various businessmen (who are basically all crooks which he knows). I was in absolute stitches during this scene and I can't honestly say that any comedy scenes in Hindi films I've seen in recent years have evoked such genuine mirth in me! At the other extreme, there was a scene where he overhears his mother talking to Raja, just after he's figured out that she's his mother which was so emotional it had me reaching for the tissues. From seeing Bachchan's acting in this film one can clearly see that his charisma was a big part of him reaching such great heights!

I've never been a fan of Sashi Kapoor, as an actor nor as a looker! This film did not change my mind in the least. His character in the film was that of a spoilt immature heir to what seemed little more than a hotel and a big house (unless I missed a big part of the plot). Although the film is a dual-starrer, it's definitely more of a one man race as far as I'm concerned - Kapoor's role was definitely secondary to Bachchan's. There was a scene when Kapoor joined in a dance with Parveen Babi and it really made me cringe as dancing is definitely not his forte, he looked clumsy and goody which I don't think was the intention unfortunately! I couldn't sympathise with this character in the film at all. Here's a man who is bought up with a good education by a woman he believes to be his mother. When he finds out she's not his birth mother but someone who gave up her own family to look after his interests, he's far too quick to believe she's after his wealth. He talks down to her, as he does to almost everyone else in the film. I know it's the story and we shouldn't expect too much but they really the writers got too carried away with the "I'm rich so I can behave really badly and expect to get away with it" stereotype!

Waheeda Rehman was as good in this role as any I've seen her in. She was a Bollywood star in her own right during the 60s, the 70s and 80s saw her taking on more mature roles and she's even acting in films now. In Namak Halaal, she still has her beauty (as she does even to this day) and it was hard to believe she'd be old enough to have adult children!

Om Prakash was adorable as Arjun's doting grandfather. There's something just very likeable about this actor - he is very avuncular and the scenes where he thinks his grandson has gone off the rails and become a womaniser and a drunk are just so funny - his facial expressions are a real picture - and also very touching when he gets emotional.

The characters of Parveen Babi and Smita Patil (although the leading ladies) were not big enough for me to dedicate a whole paragraph to each of them! Parveen Babi was hot stuff in Bollywood in the 70s and 80s. Her major roles that bought her most fame were when she was paired with Bachchan, not quite sure I believed her as the love interest of Shashi Kapoor in this film but she is visually stunning and definitely there for eye candy for the fellas. I had never noticed before this film but she bears a very striking resemblance to Hollywood actress Michelle Pfeiffer. When we find out more about Babi's character in the film, we can empathise with her and understand why she does what she does. The character of Smita Patil falls for Bachchan's character all too quickly but they do make quite a nice pairing. Patil looked rather glamorous in this film which was quite new to me as she normally portrays downtrodden women who find the strength to rise above their problems - usually quite arty films. Kudos to both supporting actresses, they did justice to their roles.

Ranjeet and Satyen Kappu played their villainous roles well enough but Ranjeet to the extent that he was also like a pantomime villain! Satyen Kappu was hard to even recognise as he just seemed to be wrapped up in a coat and scarf in every scene which I found rather odd! The villains in the film were quite amusing in that they weren't scary and were just very dim-witted! Some of the villains must have been really ugly as they wore stockings over their heads in various scenes and most especially in the final scenes where there was absolutely no reason to be hidden when the "main" bad guys were open causing mayhem! Bollywood baddies at their best (or worst) - the fight scenes in the film are truly entertaining and had me chuckling all the way through!

I can finish my summary of the film by saying that this film definitely belongs in the 80s, it's pleasantly nostalgic but some of the values are rather old-fashioned. I can't imagine many women giving up their own children these days to bring up someone else's child on the say of their dying husband. Also the mentality of someone working as a servant and accepting a slap from your boss? What's that about? Maybe it's just me, but if my boss slapped me he would no longer be my boss! I don't think that sort of behaviour would be accepted in India these days either. It almost seems like the days of slavery when a master could do pretty much anything they wanted to their slave and get away with it!

I have to put a warning in here about 6 men in skin coloured body suits with really dodgy fake afros! It really was a shock to the system watching that dance scene. Not sure what Bappi Lahiri was on when he thought up THAT scene for his songs! Also - look out for the dodgy hotel guest from room 666 with the hilariously overly long moustache who keeps trying to hit on Arjun's girl, I could have told you that would be a bad move my man!

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If my review has whet your appetite enough to want to watch this chunk of 80s kitsch Bollywood film-making; you can try renting from your usual DVD rental source or you can buy the DVD from Amazon Marketplace for a few £s or from SelectCheaper.com for about £5. Make sure you switch on the sub-titles as some of the dialogue is so funny you'll be sorry you missed it if you try to guess what's going on!

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I had to include this ridiculous quote from the film. In one scene, Raja asks Arjun if he can speak English as the hotel has many international guests and as Arjun is from a village, Raja assumes he's a hick and can only speak Hindi. This is Arjun's response which had me in stitches: "I know such English that I will leave the British behind. You see sir, I can talk English, I can walk English, I can laugh English, I can run English, because English is such a funny language. Bhairo becomes Byron because their minds are very narrow. In the year 1929 when India was playing Australia at the Melbourne stadium Vijay Hazare and Vijay Merchant were at the crease. Vijay Merchant told Vijay Hazare. look Vijay Hazare Sir , this is a very prestigious match and we must consider it very prestigiously. We must take this into consideration, the consideration that this is an important match and ultimately this consideration must end in a run. In the year 1979 when Pakistan was playing against India at the Wankhede stadium Wasim Raja and Wasim Bari were at the crease and they took the same consideration. Wasim Raja told Wasim Bari, look Wasim Bari, we must consider this consideration and considering that this is an important match we must put this consideration into action and ultimately score a run. And both of them considered the consideration and ran and both of them got out."

Overall I would rate Namak Halaal as a strong 7 out of 10. It's a long film at 3 hours but it was definitely one of Bollywood's best films of that era still remembered fondly today by many fans. There are a lot of questions that one could ask about the plot but it's best not to or you'll get a headache! Just enjoy the ride!


Namak Halaal was directed by Prakash Mehra and produced by Satyendra Pal. The elaborate costume designs were by Manya Patil Seth and playback singers were Asha Bhosle and Kishore Kumar, the latter winning a Filmfare Aware for Best Male Playback Singer in 1983.


n.b. Also published on ciao.co.uk under the same username

Summary: Recommended? Yes, if you loved the 80s and can handle 3 hours of nostalgia!