Himmatwala (1983 film)

Summary

Himmatwala (transl. Brave Man) is a 1983 Indian Hindi-language action comedy film, produced by G. A. Sheshagiri Rao under the Padmalaya Studios banner, presented by Krishna and directed by K. Raghavendra Rao. A remake of the Telugu film Ooruki Monagadu (1981), the film stars Jeetendra and Sridevi in lead roles. Himmatwala on release was a giant commercial success, grossing 5 crore, becoming one of the highest grossing Hindi films of 1980s.[2] The film proved to be a breakthrough for Sridevi in Bollywood and launched her to stardom. Her dance number "Naino Mein Sapna" became a rage with Rediff stating that "the water pots may have dominated most frames in 'Naino Mein Sapna', but it was Sridevi's bejewelled outfits and headgears that stole the show".[3]

Himmatwala
Theatrical release poster
Directed byK. Raghavendra Rao
Written byKadar Khan (dialogues)
Screenplay byK. Raghavendra Rao
Story bySatyanand
Based onOoruki Monagadu (1981)
Produced byG. A. Sheshagiri Rao
Krishna (Presents)
StarringJeetendra
Sridevi
CinematographyK. S. Prakash Rao
Edited byKotagiri Venkateswara Rao
Music byBappi Lahiri
Production
company
Release date
  • 25 February 1983 (1983-02-25)
Running time
150 minutes
CountryIndia
LanguageHindi
Box office5 crore (equivalent to 85 crore or US$11 million in 2023)[1]

Plot edit

Master Dharam Murti witnesses Sher Singh Bandookwala murdering a man. Bandookwala manages to get exonerated by using his money and influence. He wants to get revenge on Murti, and falsely accuses him of sexually assaulting a female teacher named Menaka. Murti becomes very demoralized by this incident and leaves the village abandoning his wife and children lest they also face the stigma of being related to him.

His wife, Savitri, toils to make her son, Ravi, an engineer. Ravi grows up and returns to the village as the chief engineer for the village's new dam building project. Meanwhile, Bandookwala has been terrorizing the villagers. His daughter Rekha has been following in his footsteps and harasses people. Ravi's sister Padma gets involved with Munimji's son Shakti and becomes pregnant. Bandookwala wants to use this situation to torment Ravi.

Shakti marries Padma according to Bandookwala's plan and starts torturing her. Rekha eventually understands how cruel her father is and falls in love with Ravi seeing his honesty and goodness. She pretends to be pregnant so that Bandookwala faces the same situation as Ravi had with his sister. Ravi suddenly finds his father among the workers of the dam and brings him back to prove his innocence in front of the village panchayat. Bandookwala is held responsible for all of his evil doings and is set to be punished by the panchayat, but Dharam Murti asks everyone to forgive him, on the condition that he mends his ways. Bandookwala promises to become a better person and his daughter Rekha is married to Ravi.

Cast edit

Soundtrack edit

The music album was composed by Bappi Lahiri and the lyrics were penned by Indeevar.

Song Singer
"Nainon Mein" Kishore Kumar, Lata Mangeshkar
"Ladki Nahin Hai" Kishore Kumar, Asha Bhosle
"Taki O Taki" Kishore Kumar, Asha Bhosle
"Wah Wah Wah" Kishore Kumar, Asha Bhosle
"Imtihan Imtihan" S. P. Balasubrahmanyam

Remake edit

A remake of the film starring Ajay Devgn and Tamannaah and directed by Sajid Khan, released under the same title on 29 March 2013. The movie opened to negative reviews and became a Box-office bomb.[4][5]

References edit

  1. ^ "Top Earners 1980-1989 (Figures in Ind Rs)". Boxofficeindia.com. Archived from the original on 14 October 2013.
  2. ^ "Top Earners 1980-1989 (Figures in Ind Rs)". Boxofficeindia.com. Archived from the original on 14 October 2013.
  3. ^ "Sridevi's IMMORTAL onscreen avatars". Rediff. 25 February 2018. Retrieved 2 August 2022.
  4. ^ Roy, Priyanka (7 May 2013). "Ajay tells us why himmatwala flopped". The Telegraph. Kolkata: ABP Group. Archived from the original on 6 December 2017. Retrieved 1 May 2017.
  5. ^ "'Himmatwala': Sajid Khan, Ajay Devgn's charm tepid at the box office". Zee News. 1 April 2013.

External links edit

  • Himmatwala at IMDb