Shaan (1980 film)

Shaan (translation: Grandeur) is a 1980 Indian Hindi-language action crime film directed by Ramesh Sippy and produced by G. P. Sippy under the production banner of Sippy Films with a story written by Salim–Javed after the blockbuster success of their previous venture, Sholay (1975). The film was released in India on 12 December 1980 and stars an ensemble cast of Sunil Dutt, Shashi Kapoor, Amitabh Bachchan, Shatrughan Sinha, Raakhee Gulzar, Parveen Babi, Bindiya Goswami, Johnny Walker and Kulbhushan Kharbanda. The music was composed by R. D. Burman. It was the most expensive Indian film made until then.

The film was an average performer upon its initial release. However, it did good business during re-runs. Burman's songs bagged a Best Music nomination at Filmfare Awards. Shaan was one of the last films to feature the vocals of playback singer Mohammed Rafi. The character of Shakaal was inspired from the Ernst Stavro Blofeld's character from the James Bond film series.

Plot
After diffusing a hostage situation, DCP Shiv Kumar (Sunil Dutt), an honest, brave and upright police officer, returns home to his wife, Sheetal (Raakhee Gulzar), and their young daughter, Guddi, announcing that he has been transferred to Mumbai. Shiv has two younger brothers, Vijay (Amitabh Bachchan) and Ravi (Shashi Kapoor), who reside in Mumbai. They are intelligent and capable youths but spend their time indulging in crooked schemes and conning unsuspecting people. In one of their schemes, Vijay and Ravi convince a corrupt hotel manager (Yunus Parvez) that Vijay has stolen diamonds worth ₹2.5 lakh and Ravi, a police officer, is searching for him. The manager makes a deal with Vijay to purchase the diamonds stolen by him for ₹10,000, when Ravi returns and threatens to arrest him for helping a criminal. The manager pays an additional ₹5,000 as bribe to Ravi, who then pretends to arrest Vijay for his crime. Later, Vijay and Ravi meet a beautiful young girl, Renu (Bindiya Goswami), who owes money to a creditor whom she refers to as Chacha (Johnny Walker). The due date is past and Chacha threatens to initiate legal actions against Renu, but she offers her Porsche car against a loan of ₹30,000 as the car is worth at least ₹1 lakh. Ravi (who is besotted with Renu) and Vijay overhear the conversation and offer to help Renu by purchasing her car for ₹30,000, but it turns out that the car was stolen and Vijay and Ravi are arrested by the police.

After their release from prison, Vijay and Ravi are helped by a legless beggar, Abdul (Mazhar Khan), in tracking down Renu and Chacha, who return them the ₹25,000 but have already spent the remaining ₹5,000. Vijay and Ravi are impressed with Renu's work and advise her and Chacha to join forces with them in conning people. Their next plan is to steal a diamond necklace from an erstwhile queen (Bindu) when she attends a party at a hotel, but a glamourous thief, Sunita (Parveen Babi), manages to steal the necklace before them. After the police begin a search of every individual at the hotel, Vijay notices Sunita hiding the necklace in his pocket and escapes by hiding it in his walking stick. He falls in love with Sunita and invites her to join their gang. However, Vijay and Ravi's following scam as two godmen claiming to walk on water backfires as Shiv reads the advertisement posters and arrests his own brothers. However, he later releases Vijay and Ravi from prison and hopes to shape them into a much honourable life. Meanwhile, a mysterious man (Shatrughan Sinha) attempts to shoot Shiv twice in the city, but Shiv survives both times. After learning about the two attempts on Shiv's life, Vijay and Ravi advise him to find a different line of work, stating that his profession is unpredictable, dangerous and unsuitable for a family man. However, Shiv refuses to resign from his job, citing his undying patriotic commitment to his corps and his country.

Meanwhile, Shiv is investigating a gang of international smugglers and it turns out that they are working for Shakaal (Kulbhushan Kharbanda), a sadistic international crime lord who is operating from a remote island outside India, while funding crime in Mumbai and rejoicing in pain of his enemies and traitors. The island of Shakaal is equipped with hidden cameras and all sorts of automatic gadgets, including a pack of hunting dogs and a man-eating crocodile in an artificial pond below a rotating table with seats. Shakaal kills Ranjeet (Sudhir), one of his own henchmen, by throwing him into the pond to be hunted by the crocodile on learning that Ranjeet was an informer to Shiv. Due to the fact that Shiv is progressively getting close to finding out the source of crime in Mumbai, Shakaal has Shiv kidnapped and brought to his island by his henchmen, where he reveals that he had only arranged the previous two attempts on Shiv's life. Shakaal also tries to influence Shiv to join his criminal forces in exchange of a wealthy and successful life, but Shiv attempts an escape from the island and is pursued by the pack of Shakaal's hunting dogs. Although he manages to evade them too, Shakaal eventually shoots Shiv fatally on the beach from his helicopter, and has his dead body dumped back to Mumbai.

As Vijay, Ravi and Sheetal lament the tragic death of Shiv, the mysterious man approaches them and introduces himself as Rakesh, a marksman and former circus performer who used to shoot targets blindfolded. Sheetal identifies Rakesh as the man who attempted her husband's murder, but Rakesh confesses that Shakaal had kidnapped his wife, Roma (Padmini Kapila), and blackmailed him to kill Shiv, and that he had deliberately missed on the two previous occasions in hopes of buying time to save his wife. However, Shakaal had already deduced this and released Roma in a car with failed brakes in retaliation, resulting in Roma's death in an accident which Rakesh tried to unsuccessfully prevent. After learning this, Vijay and Ravi join hands with Rakesh with the resolve to destroy Shakaal's empire and pursue justice for both Shiv and Roma. To that end, the trio seeks the aid of Abdul, who provides them information about Shakaal's contraband warehouse in Mumbai. Even though the trio manages to blow up the warehouse, Shakaal retaliates by having his henchmen target Sheetal and Guddi on a remote bridge, but Rakesh saves them with the help of some horses in the stable of a nearby farmhouse. Despite this, Abdul is pursued by Shakaal's henchmen in the middle of a night, and meets his death after being thrown off a bridge, causing a furious Vijay to break into the illegal bar of Shakaal's henchmen and thrash them all for killing Abdul.

As a result, a frustrated Shakaal swears death on the trio, and now has Sheetal kidnapped and imprisoned by his henchmen at his island. Meanwhile, the trio is approached by one of Shakaal's henchmen, Jagmohan (Mac Mohan), who offers them his help to gain entry at Shakaal's island, as he was mercilessly thrashed nearly to death by Shakaal for his previous failure. Posing as a dance troupe, the trio, along with Sunita, Renu and Chacha, manages to enter the island and performs for Shakaal, who later shockingly captures them all and reveals that he had only sent Jagmohan (who was faking his injuries) to trap them in reality. However, Chacha creates a commotion that allows the trio to be freed, and thrash Jagmohan and the rest of Shakaal's henchmen to death, also killing the crocodile in the pond and Shakaal's remaining two henchmen wearing gas masks in a poisonous gas-filled chamber. Just as the trio finally succeeds in capturing Shakaal after avoiding all the booby traps and is about to kill him, Sheetal intervenes and refuses to let them do so, pointing out that their action will be disrespectful to the law that Shiv upholds. In the arguing commotion, Shakaal frees himself and is about to attack everyone with a gun, forcing the trio to shoot Shakaal fatally in self-defense and finally end his ignominious existence. However, Shakaal sets the island to self-destruct with his dying breath. Despite this, the trio, their respective girlfriends and Chacha are all able to escape the exploding island on a helicopter to safety, satisfied that they have beaten Shakaal in his tracks for good.

Cast

 * Sunil Dutt as DCP Shiv Kumar
 * Shashi Kapoor as Ravi Kumar
 * Amitabh Bachchan as Vijay Kumar
 * Shatrughan Sinha as Rakesh
 * Raakhee Gulzar as Sheetal
 * Parveen Babi as Sunita
 * Bindiya Goswami as Renu
 * Johnny Walker as Chacha
 * Kulbhushan Kharbanda as Shakaal
 * Mazhar Khan as Abdul (Vijay and Ravi's informer and a legless street beggar)
 * Mac Mohan as Jagmohan (Shakaal's henchman)
 * Sudhir as Ranjeet (Shakaal's henchman and Shiv's informer)
 * Padmini Kapila as Roma (Rakesh's wife)
 * Yunus Parvez as Hotel Manager
 * Viju Khote as Police Inspector who chases Vijay and Sunita's car
 * Helen as item number in "Yamma Yamma" song
 * Bindu as item number in "Pyaar Karne Wale" song

Shakaal's henchmen

 * Sudhir Pandey as Tiwari
 * Dalip Tahil as Kumar
 * Sujit Kumar as Raghunath
 * Manik Irani as Shyam
 * Goga Kapoor as Kirti
 * Sharat Saxena as Prakash

Production
Logistical issues relating to other projects in which the cast was involved meant that Shaan took three years to make. While Sholay drew its inspiration from the American Western and Spaghetti Western films, Shaan took its lead from the James Bond films with fancy sets and beautiful costumes. Shakaal, the bald villain (originally to be played by Sanjeev Kumar) played by Kulbhushan Kharbanda, was based on the James Bond villain, Blofeld.

A large golden eagle is prominent in Shakaal's island lair and in the Bollywood obligatory final song-and-dance. The eagle is reminiscent of the golden lamb in Cecile DeMille's Ten Commandments; construction on the golden eagle required outside experts to be flown in and cost, in Rupees, the equivalent of the chariot scene in Ben-Hur.

Sippy wanted to repeat the cast of Sholay (1975) for this film, but due to date issues, Sunil Dutt played the role initially offered to Sanjeev Kumar, Bindiya Goswami played the role initially offered to Hema Malini, and Shashi Kapoor played the role initially offered to Dharmendra.

The film was set and partially filmed on the island of Steep Holm.

Parveen Babi suffered her first anxiety attack when she completed shooting the song "Pyar Karne Wale". Just after the shooting of that song, there was a scene in the film where Parveen Babi is inside the car and then Amitabh Bachchan gets in the car. The scene was later shot when Parveen Babi returned from the US and she recommenced work by shooting this scene.

Soundtrack
The music was composed by R. D. Burman and the lyrics were penned by Anand Bakshi.

Vocals were supplied by the late Mohammed Rafi (for Kapoor and Khan), Kishore Kumar, RD Burman (both for Bachchan), Asha Bhosle (for Babi), Usha Mangeshkar (for Goswami), and Usha Uthup.

Mohammad Rafi recorded a rehearsal for the song "Yamma Yamma", with a final recording scheduled for later. Due to Rafi's untimely death before the final recording, Burman used the rehearsal. This is the only song where Rafi and Burman sing a duet together.

Box Office
The film grossed ₹12.5 crore during its lifetime theatrical run. Adjusted for inflation, the film has grossed ₹271 crore ($33 million) as of 2023.

Awards

 * 28th Filmfare Awards :

Won


 * Best Cinematography – S. M. Anwar

Nominated


 * Best Music Director – R. D. Burman