Coolie (1983 Hindi film)

Coolie

Film poster
Directed by Manmohan Desai
Prayag Raj
Produced by Ketan Desai
Written by Smt. Jeevanprabha M. Desai
Kader Khan
Prayag Raj
K.K. Shukla
Starring Amitabh Bachchan
Rishi Kapoor
Rati Agnihotri
Kader Khan
Waheeda Rehman
Puneet Issar
Satyendra Kapoor
Music by Laxmikant-Pyarelal
Cinematography Peter Pereira
Edited by Hrishikesh Mukherjee
Distributed by Aasia Films Pvt. Ltd.
M.K.D. Films Combine
Release dates
 14 November 1983
Running time
 167 minutes
Country India
Language Hindi

Coolie (Hindi: कुली, 'Porter') is a 1983 Indian Bollywood action comedy film, directed by Manmohan Desai and written by Kader Khan. The film stars Amitabh Bachchan as Iqbal, a railway coolie, with supporting roles played by Rishi Kapoor, Rati Agnihotri, Kader Khan, Waheeda Rehman, Suresh Oberoi and Puneet Issar.

The film made over Rs. 10 million per territory, a rare achievement for the time.[1]

The film is notorious for a fight scene with co-star Puneet Issar, during which Amitabh Bachchan was near-fatally injured due to a mistimed jump.

Background Information

Before the film started Bachchan asked Kannada legendary actor Rajkumar to make his cameo in the film.[2][3] There was a mutual respect in Amitabh and Rajkumar and they were both admirers of each other.

Synopsis

A wealthy, but evil man named Zafar Khan (Kader Khan), has fallen in love with a girl named Salma (Waheeda Rahman) and wants to marry her, but she and her father do not let him. Zafar is arrested for various crimes and is imprisoned for 10 years, but when he is discharged, he sees that Salma is married to a good man named Aslam Khan (Satyendra Kapoor). Zafar Khan, wants to convince Salma to marry him but Salma refuses. Zafar murders Salma's father and plots his revenge by flooding the region in which Salma lives, nearly killing Aslam and injuring Salma, causing her to lose her memory. During this catastrophe, Salma is also separated from her young son, Iqbal (Amitabh Bachchan). Zafar abducts Salma and tells the world she is his wife. He also adopts an infant from an orphanage in Kanpur, a boy named Sunny (Rishi Kapoor), for Salma to raise on the advice of a psychiatrist. Meanwhile, Iqbal is reunited with his uncle, who has lost his wife and son in the flood. The uncle will raise Iqbal as his own, as they have no more family.

Years pass, and Iqbal and his uncle work as coolies. Iqbal has grown up to be a dashing, confident young man, and is considered the leader of the local coolies. He organises a labour strike, which brings the station to its knees. Sunny, a young, budding reporter, is covering the story. While speaking to Sunny, Iqbal sees a picture of Sunny's mother who turns out to be Salma. Iqbal rushes to Salma's house to see her after all these years, but upon meeting her son, she has no recollection of him. Zafar is infuriated by Iqbal's trespass and has his guards severely beat him, while he takes Salma to the psychiatrist to administer electric shocks on her so that her memory never returns.

Iqbal and Sunny become friends, and both find love; Iqbal with a Christian girl Julie D'Costa (Rati Agnihotri) and Sunny with his childhood sweetheart, Deepa (Shoma Anand). Things are looking up, but the coolies uncover a banking and housing scandal against them. After a series of run-ins with the corrupt parties, Iqbal finds himself in a fight to the death with Zafar. Salma returns at a very pivotal scene in the film, during the election standoff between the communist workers under Iqbal and the capitalist lords under Zafar with her old memories intact and she publicly testifies against Zafar and how he destroyed her family. In the crowd is an old man, who turns out to be Iqbal's long-lost father Aslam. Also, Iqbal's uncle recognises a birthmark on Sunny, proving that Sunny was indeed the son he thought he had lost in the great flood. The family is reunited, much to the fury of Zafar, who then proceeds to shoot Iqbal's beloved mamu (uncle) who cared for him in his youth. Iqbal and Sunny both chase after the evildoers, killing Mr. Puri and Vicky in the process, until Iqbal corners Zafar in a masjid. The holy shroud from the shrine flies onto Iqbal's chest, and Iqbal defiantly faces Zafar with the belief in God's protection from harm with His name on his chest. He is shot several times by Zafar, but he continues to chase Zafar up the minaret, saying a part of the shahada with each shot. With the last of his strength, he cries the takbir and pushes Zafar off the parapet, killing him instantly, and Iqbal collapses into his mother's arms. Coolies from all faiths pray hard for his recovery, and Iqbal recovers from his injuries.

Cast

With the death of Mohammed Rafi, the favourite singer of Manmohan Desai, a singer who cloned Mohd Rafi was used to sing for Amitabh Bahchcan in the movie. Shabbir Kumar had his first time singing for Amitabh Bachchan since Kishore Kumar refused to sing for Amitabh Bachchan due to some issues.

Near-fatal accident for Amitabh Bachchan

The film became famous even before its release when Amitabh Bachchan was critically injured on 26 July 1982 in the intestines while filming a fight scene with co-star Puneet Issar at the Bangalore University campus, which almost cost him his life.

In the fight scene, Bachchan was supposed to fall onto a table, but mis-timed his jump. This resulted in an internal abdominal injury. He was transferred to a Mumbai hospital, where according to the actor, he went into a "haze and coma-like situation", and was "clinically dead for a couple of minutes".

While he was in the hospital, there were reports of widespread mourning and prayers were offered by many Indians in the country and abroad. According to reports, Rajiv Gandhi canceled a trip to the United States to be with him.

Bachchan received 60 bottles of blood from 200 donors, one of whom was carrying the Hepatitis B virus. Bachchan recovered from the accident, but discovered in 2000 that the virus had resulted in cirrhosis of the liver, which damaged about 75% of his liver. Bachchan later spoke out about his experience to raise awareness about the Hepatitis B vaccine.[4]

Despite critical injury, Bachchan recovered remarkably and resumed shooting on 7 January 1983. In the final cut of the film, the fight scene during which he got injured was frozen and a message appears marking the scene as the one in which he was injured. Manmohan Desai did this on Amitabh's wish.

Due to Bachchan's injury, the ending was also changed. The original script showed Amitabh dying after Kader Khan shot him. But later on, after the injury-and-recovery episode, Manmohan Desai, thinking that this would have a negative impact on the movie as well as a bad feeling in the audience, decided to change the ending. The modified ending has the hero recover after his operation.[5][6][7]

Soundtrack

# Title Singer(s)
1 "Mujhe Peene Ka Shauk Nahi" Shabbir Kumar, Alka Yagnik
2 "Jawani Ki Rail Kahin" Shabbir Kumar, Anuradha Paudwal
3 "Lambuji Tinguji" Shabbir Kumar, Shailender Singh
4 "Sari Duniya Ka Bhoj Hum Uthate Hain" Shabbir Kumar
5 "Humka Ishq Hua" Shabbir Kumar, Asha Bhosle, Suresh Wadkar
6 "Accident Ho Gaya" Shabbir Kumar, Asha Bhosle
7 "Mubarak Ho Tumko Haj Ka Mahina" Shabbir Kumar

Famous dialogues

"Humari taarif zara lambi hai. Bachpan se hain sar pe hai Allah ka haath aur Allahrakha hai apne saath. Baju pe 786 ka hai billa, 20 number ki bidi pita hu. kam karta hun coolie ka aur naam hai Iqbal"

"Hum mazdooron ka seena lohe ki deewaar hai, aur yeh humaare hathiyaar hain. Yeh humara pet paal bhi sakte hain aur tum jaison ka pet phaad bhi sakte hain".

Box office

The film was an 'All Time Earner', it got the highest verdict (equivalent to 'All Time Blockbuster' today) present at that time by Trade Guide (Bollywood box office magazine), and was among the rare movies which crossed 10 million per territory.[1] There were only 13 'All Time Earner' [crossed 10 million per territory] movies till 1984, 9 of which starred Amitabh and Coolie was among them.[8] The film was the top earning film of 1983 and one of the biggest hits of the 80's decade.[9][10]

References

  1. 1 2 "Amitabh Movies Verdict (1969–1984) By Trade Guide(Prakash Pange) " Bollybusiness : Bollywood boxoffice". Bollybusiness.wordpress.com. Retrieved 12 July 2012.
  2. ↑ "Amitabh Bachchan wanted Rajkumar to act in Coolie". The Times of India.
  3. ↑ "Dr Raj Leader of golden era". indiaglitz.com.
  4. ↑ Kowshik, Priyamvada (24 Nov 2015). "I have liver cirrhosis and am surviving on just 25 per cent of my liver: Amitabh Bachchan". India Today. Retrieved 6 December 2015.
  5. ↑ "Coolie (1983)". IMDb.
  6. ↑ Sampath, Parinatha (2 Aug 2013). "Amitabh Bachchan's near-fatal accident". The Times of India. Retrieved 6 December 2015.
  7. ↑ Ronamai, Raymond (10 Oct 2012). "I Was Clinically Dead for a Couple of Minutes, Says Amitabh Bachchan". International Business Times. Retrieved 6 December 2015.
  8. ↑ "Upto 1984 : Total 13 All time earners, 9 of them starred Amitabh " Bollybusiness : Bollywood boxoffice". Bollybusiness.wordpress.com. Retrieved 12 July 2012.
  9. ↑ http://ibosnetwork.com/asp/topgrossersbyyear.asp?year=1983
  10. ↑ http://ibosnetwork.com/asp/topgrossersbyyear.asp?year=198

External links

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