Namak Halaal


Namak Halaal is a 1982 Indian action-comedy masala film, directed by Prakash Mehra and written by Kader Khan, with music by Bappi Lahiri and lyrics by Anjaan. The film stars Amitabh Bachchan, Smita Patil, Shashi Kapoor, Parveen Babi, Waheeda Rehman, Om Prakash, Ranjeet, Satyen Kappu, Suresh Oberoi and Ram Sethi. The film is the biggest comedy blockbuster of all time and went on to be the third highest-grossing Indian film of the year.
It was remade in Telugu as Bhale Ramudu, by veteran director K. S. R. Das in 1984 with Mohan Babu and Murali Mohan, in Turkish as İkizler by Yılmaz Atadeniz in 1985 with Behçet Nacar and Müslüm Gürses and in Tamil as Velaikaran, by veteran director S.P. Muthuraman in 1986 with Rajnikanth and Sarath Babu in Amitabh Bachchan and Shashi Kapoor's roles respectively and was a huge hit.
The song "Raat Baaki" has been recreated by Tanishk Bagchi for the movie Ittefaq.

Plot

Bhim Singh works as a manager and personal bodyguard to Seth Raja Singh and saves him from many murder attempts planned by Raja's step brother, Girdhar Singh. One day Raja Singh appoints Savitri, Bhim Singh's wife as trustee to their property and guardian to his toddler son Raja Kumar. On the same day, he and Bhim Singh die at the hands of Girdhar Singh. Savitri promises her husband that she would take care of Raja Kumar at any rate. Everyone including Bhim Singh's father Dashrath Singh blames Savitri thinking that she killed her husband and employer for money. Savitri hands over young Arjun to Dashrath Singh and settles herself as Raja Kumar's mother to protect him.
Later Arjun grows up to be a naive youngster under the care of Dashrath Singh. He moves to the city to build his life on his own and joins as a bellboy in a five star restaurant. There he meets Poonam and they both fall in love. That hotel is owned by Raja Kumar and run by Savitri. Hotel manager Ranjit Singh is the son of Girdhar Singh and plans to kill Raja. They manage to show Savitri as a culprit and Raja believes that and suspects Savitri.
Gradually Arjun comes to know that Savitri is actually his, not Raja's mother and swears that he would protect Raja at any rate, just like his father did. Meanwhile, Raja meets a beautiful young dancer Nisha and gets attracted to her. She is actually hired by Ranjit Singh to kill Raja, but Nisha falls in love with Raja and couldn't kill him. Finally she arranges a party on a boat to execute her plan, but Arjun foils it.
Finally goons kidnap Arjun's and Raja's family members and blackmail them to transfer all his property to Ranjit's name. Arjun and Raja beat all bad guys and save their loved ones. Raja marries Nisha and Arjun marries Poonam at the end and they reconcile with their mother Savitri.

Cast

was Prakash Mehra's original choice for the role of "Raja Singh", a role which eventually went to Shashi Kapoor.
Amitabh Bachchan portrays the protagonist Arjun Singh, who was influenced by the character Hrundi Bakshi, the protagonist of the 1968 Hollywood film The Party; Hrundi Bakshi is an Indian character who was portrayed by British comedian Peter Sellers.
Prakash Mehra's favourite actors Ranjeet and Satyen Kapuu acted in this film after Laawaris.
Baapi Lahiri scored music for the first time for a Prakash Mehra film, after blockbusters Muqaddar Ka Sikandar & Laawaris, by Kalyanji Anandji association with Prakash Mehra.

Music

The movie's soundtrack, which consisted of five songs, became a huge hit. Singer Kishore Kumar bagged his 5th Filmfare Award for Best Male Playback Singer for the song 'Pag Ghungroo Baandh'.
'Jawani Jaaneman' went on to become a major hit. The intro to the song is similar to Sammy Davis jr's Candyman melody. The main part of the song has similarities to Donna Summer's The Wanderer. 'Raat Baaki', another song picturized on Parveen Babi, also became a big hit.