CAST & CREW
| Produced By | G. Hanumant Rao |
| Directed By | K. Bapaiah |
| Music By | Bappi Lahiri |
| Starring | |
| Jeetendra | Jaya Prada |
| Kader Khan | Amjad Khan |
| Asrani | Shakti Kapoor |
Click HERE for a complete listing of Cast & Crew
PLOT SUMMARY
Ramchandra aka Ramu is the son of a lowly gardener who lives in the city of Ujjain with his mother and a friend, Hanuman. He falls in love with the princess Indumati and desires to marry her. An evil magician Mantrik along with his disciple Sadajappa in pursuit of the power of the Goddess Pataal Bhairavi wants to sacrifice Ramu before the Goddess. He lures Ramu by promising his riches, however Ramu gets to know Mantrik’s evil intentions and beheads Mantrik. Sadajappa resurrects Mantrik and what ensues is a battle between the good and the evil. Ramu kills the evil Mantrik in the end and marries princess Indumati.
Click HERE for a complete plot summary and storyline.
MY TAKE
I had immensely enjoyed Pataal bhairavi as a kid and still love Kader Khan’s rendition of the evil magician in the movie. What I did not know until recently was that this movie was a remake of a Telugu movie by the same name (‘Patala Bhairavi’) which featured screen icon N.T. Ramarao in the lead role. (Click HERE to read more).
Kader Khan does well as a comic villain and Shakti Kapoor plays an able sidekick to Jeetendra. However it is Amjad Khan who actually excels as ‘Vishvanath Chanchal’ with his comic timing and buffoonery in his endeavors to marry the princess Indumati played by the gorgeous Jaya Prada.
I personally think that the decade of 80s was the creatively the worst decade of Indian cinema. The formula films of this decade hardly gave the actors a chance to break the stereotype moulds that they had been cast in. The commercial formulas were repeated with heavy doses of melodrama, unreal situations and bleak storylines and plots. Jitendra, I feel displayed immaculate market and commercial sensibilities when he headed south and became a favorite
Pataal Bhairavi is fun to watch if you are a little forgiving about the details that the director failed to take care of. Amjad Khan excels in his fancy dress show and Jeetendra is at his dancing best (don’t chuckle).
The choreography is bound to get you rolling in laughter. There are typical geometrical formations and scores of ‘extras’ running in the background and lying down in circles, standing in circles and even swimming in circles. Jeetendra is wearing a cape and flying, no running like superman and jumping around with all his latka-jhatkas.
I truly feel that the movie should be watched for Kader Khan’s dialogue delivery and the way he goes about reciting ‘Bol Ambe', Bol jagdambe’ and his evil business. His falling for the princess is a little out of tune with his character and his shaving off his beard which apparently contained his magical powers at the slightest of instigation becomes difficult to digest even in this bizarre magical tale.
MUSIC
Bappi Lahiri dishes out some foot tapping numbers and one song ‘Mehmaan nazar ki’ stands out. However the lyrics are a big let down. Consider this that the song ‘Mehmaan..’ actually goes something like this ‘Mehmaan nazar ki ban jaa, ik raat ke liye..’ which is kind of creepy considering that when translated it means ‘Be my guest for a night..ahem’. So when you are watching this movie with the kids, just ensure that they do not pick up any lyrics. (But then it is still better than Emran Hashmi crooning ‘kabhi mere saath koi raat guzaar..’ now what can be more direct than that? Anyway.)
OVERALL
I recommend you watch ‘Pataal Bhairavi’ for the following few reasons:
- Some very funny dancing and high pressure dialog delivery by our own ‘Jumping Jack - Jeetu Bhai’.
- Some ‘ass’tounding gyrations by the gorgeous Jaya Prada.
- Amjad Khan dancing in a huge Ghaghra-Choli along with Silk Smitha (rare right)
- And above all, Kader Khan essaying the role of the evil magician (5 star).
Enjoy!!
However, Raja’s eccentric grandfather had put forth a condition following which Raja must spend 30 crore rupees in 30 days to inherit the entire sum. The conditions attached forbid him to make any property or buy anything for himself. He is also not allowed divulge the secret to anyone else including his best friend Govind. How he spends the entire sum until the last minute is what the film is all about.
The chemistry between Naseeruddin Shah and Satish Shah is amazing. Together they lift an otherwise ordinary script to a position where it becomes an enjoyable watch. The humor is situation oriented and is definitely lot better than the slapstick affair that was so characteristic of the movies in the 80s. 
Personally I like the sequence where Raja had just taken up the challenge of spending 30 crores in 30 days and he hires the security guard (Praveen Kumar aka Bheem of the TV serial Mahabharat) 
and changes his salary from 1500/- a month to 1500/- a day and then hires Dilip Tahil at 15000/- a day (Now that is good even by today’s standards, considering that he is assigned a post of being Raja’s personal photographer). 
The fun part begins when he goes on to redesign the room of the hotel he is staying in and takes along all his friends from the slums (who go on to do the laundry at the hotel’s swimming pool), spends 10 lakh rupees on getting the 
special ‘Bidi’ from Gangu Bai (played by Lalita Pawar), plays cricket in the hotel suite (in turn breaking a chandelier among other articles, contesting an election and yes, playing a cricket match against Sunil Gavaskar’s XI. Oh yes, our dear Raja is the strike batsman of the local team Dharavi XI 
and nurtures a dream of breaking Gavaskar’s record. The match with Sunil Gavaskar is the surprise package in the film and the legendary batsman plays himself in the movie. 
However, Poonam Dhillon had little to do and Aditya Pancholi was more like a situational prop (like many other of his films during that time). I still do not know why was Mandakini cast at all in this story. I guess with little more slick editing this movie could have been a major money spinner at the box office. 
The movie portrays a canvas which is larger than life and unrealistic and yet it does so in a fairly simple way. I guess if cinema inspires a moviegoer to dream, this movie is the dream that all people nurture in one way or the other. 
Sparsh (Devnagari: स्पर्श, Touch) is a 1980 Bollywood feature film directed by Sai Paranjpye starring 
Years later I wrote my first play for a school performance loosely based around the character played by Naseeruddin Shah. The play was stalled due to some reasons but I could never completely forget the movie. Sai Paranjpe is better known for her lighter movies like 'Katha' but she teams up with Basu Bhattacharya here (who is again known for movies around mature subjects around matrimony mainly - Avishkar, Aastha and Griha Pravesh to name a few) to render a tail that touches your soul and makes you feel for people who are denied the gift of vision like no other movie ever previously did. 
The movie was largely shot in a blind school in Delhi and most of the children who acted in the movie were actually visually impaired. This not only adds to the realism of the movie but renders it that earthy and genuine feeling which makes you wanting to reach out to every single kid in the movie. 
Naseeruddin Shah is an acting institute in himself. He delivers with a conviction which surpasses and sits high over his other performances till date. The beauty with which he underplays his character and strives to keep his dignity and self reliance intact and is a complex emotion to understand and depict on screen. 
Personally I find the scene where he gets furious on the waiter in the restaurant when the bill is presented to Shabana Azmi, depicted exceedingly well. While Naseeruddin Shah portrays the dignity of a visually impaired person striving to find his way in the world, Shabana Azmi plays the widow who finds her solace in working for the blind school and is struggling to adjust to their 'different' world. 
There is a scene where she stands in the classroom and asks the students to introduce themselves. She begins by saying “Yahan se shuru karte hain” and points to a child forgetting that she is in a blind school and the words 'here' and 'there' have little meaning. The entire sequence is simple yet very powerful and moving.
Om Puri is hardly recognizable in his lean young version as compared to when you see him today. There isn’t much there in the script for him and he renders in a brief supporting role as another fellow visually impaired friend of Anirudh. 
I always believed Mohan Gokhale could have gone on to play bigger meatier parts. It is sad that his talent was largely wasted in side roles in most of his movies. Probably one would remember a tele serial called 'Mr. Yogi' as one of his main works which was aired during early years of Doordarshan. 
Radhika Sareen (played by Maia Katrak) is pregnant and the baby is not her husband's. The dilemma is that if she tells her husband, how will he react? What will he do? The film un-spools from Radhika's mind as she imagines her husband's possible reactions to her predicament. She debates on whether she should tell her husband and plays out various scenarios in her mind about how he will react to her confession.
I believe that he beautifully portrays the egoistic shade in the character and takes it to a point where I guess anyone who watches his performance shall be able to identify a hue of this portrayal in their personality. The shot where he tries hitting a tennis ball with the umbrella and once he gets the shot after multiple attempts and then flashes from his balcony is simply outstanding.
Very little is known about Maia Katrak outside this movie. Perhaps this is the only movie she has appeared in. The CD cover says that she has about sixteen years of experience in advertising business and runs her own 
the significance of 'Krishna' sightings mentioned in the movie, but did feel the sequence where 'Radhika' dismisses the beggar dressed as Lord Krishna is thought provoking. Overall a good 4 out of 5, sincere attempt at movie making considering that it was a first for most of the cast and crew. My verdict go rent out the DVD, buy it from 
The chemistry between Rati Agnihotri and Amitabh is amazing. He abducts her, brings her to his home and chains her to a bed and still when she hears about news of his staged death, she comes weeping dressed in black and confesses "Pehli baar jab maine tumhe railway station par dekha toh mere dil mein kuch hua" 
(Now that I regard as some serious upbringing issue). She continues "Tum sabke saamne mujhe 'Luggage' ki tarah uthaa ke apne ghar le gaye. Dar-asal tumhari yehi ada, yehi mardaangi mujhe pasand aa gayi". So clearly if you love someone, kidnap her. 
However, none of them thought of noting down each other's address or writing to each other and being in touch all the years. They did get large wall size prints of the school photo that they had and lived by it all the time though. The song follows "Mujhe Peene ka shauq nahi, peeta hoon gham bhulaane ko". 
The movie however has its moments and these are largely the comic scenes perfected by Amitabh Bachchan and Rishi Kapoor with such ease that you double up even at the slapstick fare. Be it Rishi Kapoor eating the newspapers with Sambhar or Amitabh Bachchan cooking the omelette with the Yoga session on radio. 
I guess the greatest USP of the film produced by Ketan Desai and directed by Prayag Raj and Manmohan Desai was the injury that Mr. Bachchan sustained during a fight sequence when Puneet Issar "accidently" hit Amitabh Bachchan in his abdomen. 
On the music front, I guess Laxmikant Pyarelal have done a reasonably fair job. "Accident ho gaya Rabba Rabba" I remember was a hit and so was "Humko Ishak hua hai yaaron" sung by Shabbir Kumar. 
I still sing "Saari Duniya ka bojh hum uthaate hain" every time I carry shopping bags for my wife. There is another song thrown in for haj yatris which goes like "Madeene wale ko mera salaam kehnaa". 
Personally I like "Jawaani ki rail kahin chhoot naa jaaye". The song and choreography sure is naughty and suggestive. I could see similar steps in Accident ho gaya and Jawaani ki rail, looks like doing dance steps was fairly simple then.
I guess there is something about Amitabh in this movie that makes it such a special one. The opening sequence where he leaps in the air and runs towards the train is imprinted in the minds of many. 
I remember Mallika Sehrawat admitted on a chat show having been smitten by that running shot. Apart from that I guess the climax where Kader Khan empties a revolver on Amitabh and he takes in all the bullets is a high energy scene as well. 
