The Great Dacoit Films of Bollywood

Nowadays dacoit films are not being made. This does not mean that dacoits have disappeared. They are very much there but they are not living in Chambal any more. Today's dacoits do not sit on top of a horse with a gun wearing the costume, black tilak marked on the forehead which we are familiar with.
In the '60s, '70s and '80s, this was one genre that guaranteed and spelt sure shot success. On my research, it was found that K L Saigal played the role of a dacoit in 1934 film Daku Mansoor.
The significant dacoit film of this decade was Paan Singh Tomar released in 2012, a biopic had Irrfan Khan in the role of the bandit who was finally killed in a police encounter in 1981. Here are a few dacoits films that are worth mentioning.

Daku Mansoor

The film was produced by New Theatres Ltd. Calcutta and the music director was R. C. Boral.The cast of the film included K. L. Saigal, Uma Shashi, Prithviraj Kapoor, Husnbanu, Pahari Sanyal and Nemo. Daku Mansoor was actress Husn Banu’s debut film.The film was based on a Bengali folktale and involves the dacoit Mansoor (K. L. Saigal) and his love first for Paribanu (Husn Banu), and then for Meher (Uma Sashi), and ultimately the rejection of his way of life.

Bade Sarkar

It is a 1957 Hindi romantic action drama film, directed by Kishore Sahu. The film starred Kishore Sahu, Kamini Kaushal, Durga Khote, Agha, Gope and K. N. Singh. The story told in a flashback by an elderly lady (Kamini Kaushal), involves a masked man called the Black Bandit (Kishore Sahu), who robs the rich in order to help the poor peasants. The masked man turns out to be the cruel Zamindar's 
(landowner) son.

Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behti Hai

is a 1960 Hindi film directed by Radhu Karmakar and produced by Raj Kapoor. The film stars Kapoor, Pran and Padmini in lead roles. 

Raju (Raj Kapoor) is a poor, friendly orphan who wins his bread by singing songs. One day, he sees an injured man and helps him. Later, he is kidnapped by a few bandits who mistake him to be an undercover policeman. Pran plays a Daku who  kills the Sardar and takes over; he wishes to forcibly wed Kammo. When Raju tells all the truth to the police, they decide to confront and kill the bandits. Raj begs the police to not kill them but is shunned. 

Ganga Jumna

It is a 1961 Indian crime drama film, written and produced by Dilip Kumar, and directed by Nitin Bose, with dialogues written by Wajahat Mirza. The film stars Dilip Kumar (Muhammad Yusuf Khan), Vyjayanthimala and Nasir Khan in the lead roles. Set in rural Northern India, the film tells the story of two impoverished brothers, Ganga and Jamna (played by real-life brothers Dilip Kumar and Nasir Khan), and their poignancy and sibling rivalry on opposing sides of the law, one a dacoit criminal and the other a police officer. The film was also notable for its Technicolor production, use of the Awadhi dialect, and its rustic setting, and it is a defining example of the dacoit film genre.

Mujhe Jeene Do

 It is a 1963 Hindi film, directed by Moni Bhattacharjee and written by Aghajani Kashmeri. This dacoit drama stars Sunil Dutt, Waheeda Rehman, Nirupa Roy, Rajendranath and Mumtaz.

Shot in the Chambal Valley ravines of Bhind-Morena under police protection in Madhya Pradesh state, and Mohan Studios, Mumbai the film highlights the acting talents of its star cast; Waheeda Rehman and Sunil Dutt, The film was a major success.

Mera Gaon Mera Desh

It is a 1971 Indian film, directed by Raj Khosla.starring Dharmendra in the lead role and Vinod Khanna as a dacoit. Dharmendra plays Ajit who meets Anju (Asha Parekh - lead female) and both fall in love. Ajit comes to know of Jabbar Singh (Vinod Khanna) a dacoit who is terrorizing the surrounding community, and Ajit decides to take on Jabbar. In retaliation, Jabbar abducts Anju, and instructs Ajit to come unarmed. Ajit decides to follow these instructions, however, as soon as he reaches Jabbar's hideout, he too is captured, and at the mercy of Jabbar and Munni (Laxmi Chhaya), who has been scorned by Ajit, and it is now up to her to decide Ajit's fate.

Kachche Dhaage

It is a 1973 Bollywood action film directed by Raj Khosla. The film stars Vinod Khanna, Moushumi Chatterjee and Kabir Bedi.The film is about dacoits, particularly in the Chambal Ravine there are abundance of bandit gangs, chiefly consisting of Brahmans and Thakurs, both carrying on their age-old rivalry and hatred for each other from generation to generation. Our story revolves around Brahman Pandit Tulsiram who betrays Thakur Bahadur Singh to the police, and as a result Bahadur is sentenced to be hanged. Widowed, pregnant and devastated, Bahadur's wife swears that she will raise her child to hunt down and kill Tulsiram at any cost. She gives birth to a son, names him Lakhan, and lets the bandits teach their way of life. As soon as Lakhan grows up, he kills Tulsiram. Hearing of his father's death, army-man, Roopa, resigns and openly swears to kill Lakhan. 

Pran Jaye Par Vachan Na Jaye

It is a 1974 Hindi film produced by Ratan Mohan and directed by S. Ali Raza. The film stars Sunil Dutt, Rekha, Iftekhar, Premnath, Jeevan, Bindu, Madan Puri, Ranjeet and Jayshree T. Raja Thakur(Sunil Dutt) is a bandit, but a bandit with a difference. He is principled, he has respect for women, and is a man of his word. So when he assures Seth Dhanraj that he will deliver his missing daughter, Sheetal, to him even if he has to sacrifice his life, one can do nothing but believe in him. Raja Thakur does find Sheetal, only now she is known as Janniya(Rekha), a dancing courtesan. 

Sholay

It is a 1975 Indian action-adventure film, written by Salim-Javed, directed by Ramesh Sippy, The film is about two criminals, Veeru and Jai (played by Dharmendra and Amitabh Bachchan, respectively), hired by a retired police officer (Sanjeev Kumar) to capture the ruthless dacoit Gabbar Singh (Amjad Khan). Hema Malini and Jaya Bhaduri also star, as Veeru and Jai's love interests, respectively. Sholay is considered a classic and one of the best Indian films. It was ranked first in the British Film Institute's 2002 poll of "Top 10 Indian Films" of all time. In 2005, the judges of the 50th Filmfare Awards named it the Best Film of 50 Years.

Ranga Khush

This film was released in January 1975 in the banner of Apollo International.It was acted,directed and produced by Joginder.Ranga, the bandit chief terrorises many villages and the police cannot catch him. A poor villager Sultan Singh lives with his son Karma and daughter Devi. Ranga kills Sultan and kidnaps Devi. Karma tries to organise the villagers against Ranga and his gang of dacoit to save his sister.

Ganga Ki Saugandh

It is a 1978 Hindi movie. Produced and directed by Sultan Ahmed, this film stars Amitabh Bachchan, Rekha, Amjad Khan. This movie is set in a village setting where Amjad Khan is a tyrant. Amitabh plays a very naive young man, and becomes a dacoit to avenge the death of his mother. Amitabh is thrown out of the village when he is unable to offer a satisfactory explanation for the death of the cow. He forms a group who work in throwing Amjad Khan off his high throne.

Chambal Ki Kasam

Chambal Ki Kasam is a 1980 Hindi action movie directed by Ram Maheshwari. The film stars Raaj Kumar, Pradeep Kumar, Shatrughan Sinha, Moushumi Chatterjee, Farida Jalal, Amjad Khan, Bhagwan and Nirupa Roy. The film is about the life of a dacoit, Thakur Suraj Singh (Raaj Kumar). He was the son of a zamindar, but his parents were killed by the dacoit Zaalim Singh. In the confusion, Suraj got separated from his brother and sister. When he grew up, he becomes a dacoit in order to take revenge upon his parents killer. After Suraj killed his parent's killer, the dacoit Zaalim Singh's son (Ranjit Singh) tried to take revenge on Suraj. 

Dacait

Dacait is a 1987 Indian film directed by Rahul Rawail.The movie stars Sunny Deol, Meenakshi Sheshadri, Raakhee and Raza Murad. It is based on how a simple-living guy transforms into a dacoit after being oppressed by the Zamindars of the area. The plot is based in the Chambal area, which is the confluence of three states UP, MP and Rajasthan and has been ignored for development since independence.

Bandit Queen

It is a 1994 Indian biographical film based on the life of Phoolan Devi.  It was directed by Shekhar Kapur and starred Seema Biswas as the title character. The music was composed by Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. The film won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi. Seema Biswas who played the role of Phoolan Devi got the National Award for Best Actress. The film was premiered in the Directors' Fortnight section of the 1994 Cannes Film Festival and was screened at the Edinburgh Film Festival. The film was selected as the Indian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 67th Academy Awards but was not accepted as a nominee.

Paan Singh Tomar 

It is a 2012 Indian biographical film based on the true story of the athlete of the same name. A soldier in the Indian Army, he won a gold medal at the Indian National Games but was forced to become a bandit. The film is directed by Tigmanshu Dhulia and produced by UTV Motion Pictures. Irrfan Khan plays the title role, with Mahie Gill, Vipin Sharma and Nawazuddin Siddiqui in the supporting cast. The film won the Best Feature Film and Best Actor in the 60th National Film Awards 2012.

Here we present to you some of the famous Dakuus/Dacoits/Bandits of Hindi cinema other than above films.

1. Sunil Dutt As Birju In Mother India (1957)

2  Dharmendra As Chhote Thakur Ranjeet Singh In Patthar Aur Payal (1974)

3  Sunil Dutt As Birju In Daaku Aur Jawan (1978)

4   Sanjay Dutt as Jeeva in Jeeva (1986)

5   Amrish Puri As Sher ‘Shera’ Singh In Loha (1987)

6   Sridevi As Durga In Sherni (1988)

7     Mukesh Tiwari As Jageera In China Gate (1998)

Pakeezah was the Taj Mahal for Kamal Amrohi

Throughout his career, Kamal Amrohi directed only 4 films. Mahal in 1949, Dayera 1953, Pakeezah 1972 and Razia Sultan in 1983. Pakeeza was the dream project of his life. He was in deep love with his third wife Meena Kumari. He met Meena Kumari during the filming of Tamasha. Veteran actor Ashok Kumar introduced them. They fell in love and married on 14 February 1952, on Valentine's Day in a much private ceremony. He wanted to present Meena Kumari on the screen as no one had done before: beautiful, sad, sanguine, dejected, calculating, sexy, he ambitioned to capture as many dimensions of her as he knew of. ‘Shah Jahan made Taj Mahal for his wife, on that grand scale he wanted to present Meena Kumari on celluloid. 
The immortal singer K. L. Saigal discovered Kamal Amrohi and took him to Bombay to work for Sohrab Modi's Minerva Movietone film company, where he started his career working on films like Jailor (1938), Pukar (1939), Bharosa (1940), A. R. Kardar's film (Shahjehan 1946). He made his debut as a director in 1949, with Mahal, starring Madhubala and Ashok Kumar, which was a musical hit, with songs by Lata Mangeshkar and Rajkumari Dubey.
He wrote scripts for the movies made by Sohrab Modi, Abdul Rashid Kardar and K. Asif. He was one of the four dialogue writers for the latter's famous 1960 movie, Mughal-e-Azam, for which he won the Filmfare Award.
"Dayera" was produced and directed by Kamal Amrohi released in 1953 starring Ashok Kumar and Meena Kumari. The film was a musical hit but not a commercial hit. After the failure of Daera, Pakeezah as an idea was roaming in Amrohi’s mind. The concept, he says, was irretrievably fixed with his love for his wife. He hoped to create a film which would be worthy of her as an actress, and worthy of the love he felt for her as a woman. Thus the creation had only one central character and around the fortunes of this character, the fate of the film revolved.

The mahurat of Pakeezah was done on 18 January 1958. Initially, it was launched as a Black & White venture. Later, with colour technology coming in, Kamal Amrohi started it all again in the new colour format. But soon after that, when Cinemascope also got introduced, Amrohi now wanted to shoot it in Cinemascope. So he brought the required lens from MGM on a royalty basis and started shooting. However, after a while, an error was detected in the shoot being done with the new lens. The matter was reported to MGM, who after studying the problem, didn’t collect their due royalties and also gifted that lens to Amrohi as an appreciation gesture. The film was still being made, when in 1964, Kamal Amrohi and Meena Kumari got separated due to their mutual differences. The project came to a halt for some time when it was more than halfway complete.
Even after separation, Kamal Amrohi persuaded Meena Kumari to complete the film but Meena Kumari told him that she will work only he give her the legal divorce.It took five years for the shooting to resume in 1969 after Sunil Dutt and Nargis persuaded Meena Kumari to complete the film. By this time Meena Kumari has diagnosed with liver cirrhosis and was in serious critical condition under observation.  

 Kamal Amrohi organized a great reception on 16 March 1969, he gave his wife a peda (sweet) as a peace offering and made a documentary film on her arrival at the studio. Meena Kumari was determined to complete the film and, was well aware of the limited time left for her to live, went out of her way to complete it at the earliest.Her condition became so bad that during the filming of the last song “Teer-e Nazar,” she collapsed. A body double, Padma Khanna, was used who was personally trained by her for the scene. Throughout the song, Padma Khanna's face remained veiled and the veil was lifted at instances to show Meena Kumari's face.

When the project got resumed in 1969, Amrohi was confronted with another difficulty; Ashok Kumar, who was the original hero getting no younger. He had to find a younger leading man for his film. Many names were thought at that time, it was Raj Kumar who fina;;y did the role.
After finalizing Raaj Kumar, the role was modified from being a businessman’s character to a forest officer according to the strong built & impressive persona of Raaj Kumar. During the making of the film, composer Ghulam Mohammed and cinematographer Josef Wirsching died, leaving director Kamal Amrohi at a loss. Eventually, though, composer Naushad was brought in to compose the background score; and after Wirsching's death, over a dozen of Bombay's top cinematographers stepped in as/when they had a break from their other assignments, and they maintained an even look.
When Pakeezah was resumed in 1969, many exhibitors suggested Kamal Amrohi to change the music according to the then famous trend and style. To this, Amrohi said that he would have readily done this if only Ghulam Mohammed was still breathing alive. But, now he cannot betray a man, who gave him such melodious songs, after his unexpected and untimely death. So he kept his music intact but used fewer songs as planned to keep up with the fast-changing times.
Kamal Amrohi saw in Pakeezah an epic, a larger-than-life film with hundreds of extras, with expensive and exotic sets, with the superhuman effort made to preserve period flavour; and all this he wished to do with the collected professional proficiency he had acquired in nearly two decades.

On 3 February 1972 the film released with a grand premiere at Maratha Mandir theatre in central Mumbai and the prints being carried on a decked-up palanquin.  Meena Kumari arrived to attend the last premiere of her life. Kumari let Raaj Kumar, for the benefit of the press, kiss her hand and went in to see the film.^[Meena Kumari was seated next to Kamal Amrohi during the premiere. When Mohammed Zahur Khayyam complimented Meena Kumari with "shahkar ban gaya" (it's priceless), she was in tears. After watching the film, Meena Kumari told a friend that she was convinced that her husband Kamal Amrohi was the finest film-maker in India. Kumari regarded the film as Kamal Amrohi's tribute to her.
The film finally released for the general masses the following day on 4th Feb 1972. The film received a warm reception from the audience, it was Meena Kumari's untimely death on 31 March 1972 which acted as an ultimate push and made it one of the top grossers of that year. Pakeezah was house-full for 33 weeks and even celebrated its silver jubilee. Meena Kumari's performance as a golden-hearted Lucknow nautch girl drew major praise and the film is since then considered a classic cult film and has a status much similar to K. Asif's 1960 magnum opus, Mughal-E-Azam.

Song of Pakeezah 1972

Song of Pakeezah 1972

Song of Pakeezah 1972

Song of Pakeezah 1972

Song of Pakeezah 1972