Parwana (1971 film)

Parwana (lit. Moth) is a 1971 Indian Hindi-language psychological thriller film directed by Jyoti Swaroop. It stars Amitabh Bachchan, Navin Nischol, Yogeeta Bali, Om Prakash in lead roles and Shatrughan Sinha in a special appearance. In this film, Bachchan plays his first negative role as an infatuated lover-turned-murderer.

Plot
Kumar (Amitabh Bachchan), an artist by profession is in love with Asha (Yogeeta Bali). Asha wins a trip to Ooty in a dance competition, and falls in love with a wealthy tea plantation owner, Rajeshwar (Navin Nischol). When Kumar finds out, he goes to Asha's uncle, Ashok Verma (Om Prakash) and demands Asha's hand in marriage. When he refuses, Kumar plots to kill him. (The manner in which Kumar plans and executes the murder is regarded as an immensely brilliant and engaging sequence.) Kumar boards and exits various modes of transportation to avoid any possibilities of suspicion by creating an alibi. He finally kills Ashok and frames Rajeshwar in the hope of winning Asha's love. But Asha still loves Rajeshwar, and believes in his innocence. She promises to stay with Kumar forever, if he could get Rajeshwar exonerated from his death sentence. Kumar realises that Rajeshwar will always remain Asha's love. He writes down his confession giving details of execution of his plan of murder, gives it to Rajeshwar and commits suicide.

Cast

 * Amitabh Bachchan as Kumar Sen
 * Navin Nischol as Rajeshwar Singh
 * Yogeeta Bali as Asha Parekh
 * Om Prakash as Ashok Verma
 * Shatrughan Sinha as Public Prosecutor (Special Appearance)
 * Laxmi Chhaya as Kamla Singh
 * Lalita Pawar as Sarita Singh
 * Asit Sen as Mr. Ghosh
 * Ranjeeta Thakur as Mrs. Ghosh
 * Helen as a Cabaret Dancer

Music
Since the director Jyoti Swaroop had a successful pairing with R. D. Burman in the movie Padosan, the music of the movie was originally to be composed by Burman. But he later had creative differences with the director and hence Madan Mohan was roped in. The lyrics were penned by Kaifi Azmi. Most of the prominent singers of the industry lent their voice to the soundtrack of this movie, including Kishore Kumar, Mohammed Rafi and Asha Bhosle.

Legacy
The sequence of Kumar's use of various modes of transportation was an inspiration for the 2007 Bollywood film Johnny Gaddaar, where it is shown that the film's protagonist has watched the film Parwana and does the same to avoid suspicion.

Home media
The DVD of the film was released by IndiaWeekly under its own label.