The other day I caught dushman on tv asia, and it’s one of the best films of rajesh khanna and his best performance in my opinion other then the film anand. It’s great family film, with good songs exactly what you expect in a rajesh khanna film.
The films stars 70’s great couple rajesh khanna, mumtaz, meena kumari, bindu, johny walker.
surjit singh (rajesh khanna) is a very careless, person and earns his living driving a truck, most of the time while drinking alcohol while driving. One night while on duty he stops at a kotha, of chandabai, to see her sing and drinks a lot and gets caught behind schdule. Then he rushes out drives his truck and accidentaly kills a farmer named Ramdin.
Surjit is arrested by the police, charged and brought in court for the hearing. The judge finds him guilty and sentences him the maximum time under the indian penal code for 100 years, with a difference, he is not to spend time in jail but must work to look after the surviving family members of ramdin’s family, which includes a ram din’s wife malti (meena kumari), his sister kamla, two sons a crippled father ganga din and his blind wife.
Surjit attempts to convince the judge to change his ruling, but in vain he is transported to the village where he meets hostile villagers who would rather kill him and let him toil on their their scared land, but with police protection he permitted to go to gangadin’s house, where faces more hostililty not fed, and even given a new name Dushman by ram din’s family members.
On the first night surjit tries to escape from the village, but he is caught and brought back by the police, surjit now must come to terms with the fate that he created for himself and the family of ramdin. Slowly surjit begins to like the village life, and even win the hearts of ram din’s mother, father, sister and two sons, except malti ram din’s wife. Surjit falls in love with phoolmati(mumtaz).
The punishment by the judge changes surjit into a good human being who begins to care for people.
The music of the film was pretty good, one song that really stood out was jhotha hai tera wada, sungh by kishore kumar, it’s right in the begining of the film can be described one of the best songs sungh by kishore kumar. The music is directed by laxmikant pyarelal.
The film is directed by dulal guha who has also directed films called dost, do ajnabe, pratigya, which were hit movies.
Performancewise- rajesh khanna gives his best performance, that didn’t win any awards, the film came out when the rajesh khanna was at top in the early 70’s aftera superhit anand, kati patang, haathi mere sathi, sacha jhutha, dushman was another hit film. Perhaps rajesh khanna was made for family type of movies not action films, He was an average actor to me. Mumtaz is good also as phoolmati she had a good comic timing. Meena kumari as usual is good. Johny walker is funny and is there for about 10 to 15 minutes to give out a laugh. Everyone else in the film acted well.