Love, Thrills, Cliches. And a Wickedly Delicious Murder Mystery!

PARWANA
(1971)

Directed by- Jyoti Swarup

Written by- Agha Jani Kashmirir, Madhusudan

*Amitabh Bachchan, Yogeeta Bali, Navin Nischol, Om Prakash, Asit Sen, Shatrughan Sinha


A wicked murder mystery that unfortunately spends a majority of its screentime catering to masala Bollywood norms.
Jyoti Swaroop directs a cliche train of boy loves girl-girl loves someone else-spurned boy swears to reclaim what's rightfully his, fittingly quoting the age old adage, "Everything's fair in love and war". 
And so, Parwana delivers one of the most sinister murder plots ever conceived on Indian celluloid.

This is a very stiff and very new Amitabh Bachchan's only fourth film, where he appears as the coy, oily haired and mild mannered artist, Kumar. Though his unique flair is clearly evident in scenes of emotional outburst.
When his unrequited love for girl next door, Asha is challenged by her newly betrothed, Rajesh, Kumar takes it upon himself to win Asha by hook or by crook.

There are cliches abound and of course nearly half the film could be skipped through, because it doesn't take a fully functioning brain to guess '70s bollywood love stories. It is when the crafty Kumar weaves his diabolical web that things start to get interesting. And they soon get out of hand too in the climax when his masterstroke is eventually revealed.

I learned of this film while watching Johnny Ghaddaar, which pays a grand homage to it in basing its plot on Parwana's murder technique, and so, despite its premise being spoiled for me, I can say I really enjoyed the nefarious plot unfurl right in front of me.

In other departments, Madan Mohan's music wasn't anything special. The dialogues your usual '70s Urdu/Hindi amalgam.
The most memorable performance from the film, however, remains the cameo from Shatrughan Sinha as the fiery public prosecutor. He plays the sleazy sarkari vakeel who will do anything to break the accused and wiggle out a confession with the stereotypical loud conviction of all Hindi film prosecutors.

Yes, this is not a perfect thriller. But it's certainly one of the most original ones, at least where it matters. And though the real murderer and his whole plan is guessable thanks to some shit editing and lame direction, that doesn't take away from the fun.

I really enjoyed this film, because as cheesy as it was, there was a certain charm to the old world, family values infested '70s era Bollywood which has been lost forever. And I appreciate that whenever I get the chance to reminisce about it.
But top that off with a neat mystery and you have me hooked!


Rating- 3.7/5