THE INDIAN COWBOYS
THE INDIAN COWBOYS
Can you remember those- horses, boots, hats, jeans, jackets, pistols and above all tall and dark guy with half shaved beard- the cowboy?
Recently No country for old men refreshed those memories associated with cowboys and their culture. While watching that flick; Indian (specilly hindi) movie cowboys came into my mind. Most of them existed in 70s and 80s and have not seen since long time.
They were basically inspired from Clint eastwood, Gregory pack and all other those once upon a time movie cowboys of hollywood. But our cowboys had qualities of those cowboys with essential benefits or qualities of Indian culture. Like western cowboys they used to ride on horses, wear boots, jeans and shooting bullets like playing with toys… but could also dance and sing very well, must fall in love with village girl etc etc. Most of our good cowboys had Daku or Thakur/zameendar as their hard targets.
Let’s take a look….
Khote Sikkey
”Kasam Feroz Khan ki” FEROZ KHAN was the best Indian cowboy hindi films have ever seen. He had no name in Khote Sikke but whenever he used to appear on screen; special whistle used to play and he sing that hit song “jeevan mein darna nahin, sar nich kabhi karma nahin…” He superbly represented that arrogant nature and attitude. Instad of jacket he wore balck shawl shirt.
Narinder Bedi made Khote Sikke; a true Indian cowboy movie with hard hitting dialogues, action, drama and strong villain Ajit as Jagga. As per my opinion, Khote sikke is the best Indian cowboy movie.
Narendra Bedi tried to regain success of Khote Sikkey by making Kachche Heere in 1982.
Most of the actors were same as khote sikkey. Feroze Khan again played desi cow boy.
Joshiley
Dara(Sunny Deol) and Karan (Anil Kapoor) were the young, energetic, egoist and handsome cowboys. They had their pasts and had target to destroy Jogi thakur (Rajesh vivek) and Kulbhshan Kharbanda. I liked dusty nature and action of the movie. Joshiley had good cinematography representing landscapes of Rajasthan. Also the title song “Joshilay shehzaade hain” when Sunny and Anil are riding on horses - was beautifully composed and picturised.
Joshilay-title song
Zalzala
Inspired from makenaz’s gold; this movie had some good thrilling moments and action. Dharmendra, Shatrudhna Sinha and Rajiv kapoor were cowboys here. Rajeev Kapoor used to sleep on khatiya attached at the back of his horse.
Farishtey
Dharmendra and Vinod Khanna goes to destroy empire of Jaychand (Sadashiv Amrapurkar). They looked like cowboys but spoiled the image of true cowboy by double meaning dialogues and comic attitude.
Elaan-e-jung
Another Anil Sharma Cowboy movie. Dharmendra was his cowboy. Not so impressive.
Jaagir
This Pramod Chakravorthy movie had Dharmendra, Mithunda and Danny as cowboys.
China Gate
Om puri, Naseeruddin Shah, Danny and Amrish Puri went to capture Jageera. Danny as Gurun presented all the qualities of cowboy.
Sholay
Jay and Veeru were not like true cowboys; but had some qualities like pistols, jeans and attitude. The title theme of sholay was perfect for a cowboy movie.
Then there were movies like Kohraam (1991)-Dharmendra, Wanted- Mithun Charkaborthy, Keemat-Akehsy Kumar, Saif Ali Khan, Jaanbaaz(Anil Kapoor) which represented some of the qualities of cowboys.
In this male dominant area, long time ago; before indian cowboy was born, an indian cowgirl was also there. FEAERLESS NADIA. She was quite popular by her films Hunterwaali, Hunterwaali ki beti and many others mostly made by Homi Wadia and co-star John Kawas. I have not seen her all films but had glimpses of her films and she was really mother of all above mentioned cowboys.
So that’s all i can remember about our desi cowboys. Can you add some more?
p.s. There is movie called “Indian Cowboy” which was relesed in 2007.
Filed Under
Movies, People, Thoughts , anil sharma, china gate, cowboy, elaan e jung, farishtey, fearless nadia, feroz khan, jaagir, joshile, kachche heere, khote sikke, narendra bedi, zalzala
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the latest - Arbaaz-Sohail in jaane tu…
they rocked…
Down South in Telugu, movies, we had those desi cowboy movies starring the actor Krishna during the 70’s.
Mosagallaku Mosagadu was a total lift from The Good, The Bad and the Ugly, with Krishna playing Clint Eastwood’s role, and veteran actor Nagabhushanam playing Eli Wallach’s role. That was one of the biggest hits too.Krishna popularized the cowboy image in Telugu cinema.
Chiranjeevi also acted in a cowboy flick in the 90’s called Kodama Simham. The movie had varied sources of inspiration from GBU, For a Few Dollars More and even Indiana Jones and Last Crusade.
Krishna’s son Mahesh Babu, tried to bring back that genre with a Western movie called Takkari Donga in 2002, starring Bipasha Basu and Lisa Ray as the heroines. However the totally slick and Westernized look of the movie, did not go down well with the Telugu audience and it flopped.
But to date Krishna has been to Telugu cowboy movies, what Feroze Khan has been to Bollywood cowboy flicks.
Khotey Sikkhe i think was somewhat inspired by The Magnificient 7.
There was another Feroze Khan starrer Chandi Sona, co starring Parveen Babi and Danny, that was a Curry Western too. THe movie had Danny singing a song for RD Burman in his own voice.
sholay is the best cowboy movie…..its not one on the surface but it gives u a feel of a western right from the start……………
Good one…
Do you remember Vinod Khanna as Shera in Khoon Pasina? That was a typical cowboy character!
Here are some Telugu Cowboy flicks, mostly starring Actor Krishna
Nenante Nene
Bandipotu Bhimmanna
Jagat Kiladeelu
Jagat Jateelu
But to date it is Mosagallaku Mosagadu which remains the deifinitive Telugu Cowboy flick.
Chiranjeevi’s Kodama Simham was a big hit, but somehow its success could not spark a revival in the Tolly Western genre.
Before that there were also some Tolly Western movies starring smaller actors like Suman and Bhanuchander.
There was a movie Merupu Dadi, which was shot on a large scale, and was taken from Mackennas Gold and Raiders of Lost Ark, to a large extent.
Most of the Telugu Westerns were like a hybrid mixture, u had cowboys mixed up with Kings and scheming ministers, and audiences loved that mixture.
I guess Mahesh Babu’s Takkari Donga was rejected, because it was too slick and westernized.
@Ratnakar (3),
The song was ” Sun Sun Kasam se lagun tere kadam se
Na ulajh tu hamse , tu chali ja”.
Danny sang it very well and his mountain doped voice supported the latke jhatke (ups and downs and pauses) required at good places and song was pictuirsed well also on him and Farida Jalal.
Shailesh,
Good list. Firoz Khan made most of the films in this category.
Joshiley had very good background music and it could have been far better if Shekhar Kapur had completed it.
Sunny was given a Cow Boy looks in his debut film Betaab also.
Somebody had started a Cow Boy film with Amitabh Bachchan also. I have seen the poster of that unfinished film.
There are few Sunil Dutt movies also where he has played a cow boy and one such film I can recall was Yaari Dushmani, where he was pitted against Amjad Khan.
Personally I feel that hindi cinema missed to make an appropriate and a wonderful Cow Boy film because there is no film where Raaj Kumar could have played the lead role, atleast I dont recall. He had everything required to play such role. a well toned body, skills in horse riding, style and an amazing voice to say dialogues in styles.
Just a single scene from Pakizaa may support this hypothesis. Scene where Meena Kumari is lying in the tent of Raaj Kumar in the forest near a river. Its evening time, sun is setting and Raaj Kumar is coming there riding on the horse.
Thats an image required for an actor to play a cow boy.
wtf!! SUCH A LIST WITHOUT mITHUNDA?!?!!!
Sacrilege!!!!!!!!
“Wanted”??!!!!!
ooops eheh i was about to post the comment when i saw the fineprint.. u did mention ‘wanted’ shailesh parandu no posters??!!!!!!!
Firoz Khan undoubtedly brought the Indian Cowboy in vogue. The movie that kicked it off big was “Kala Sona” starring him with Prem Chopra playing the bad guy (but of course). Many show up in the list and then in comments. and Yes Mithun’s “Wanted” as mentioned above by DPac, which I was dying to see but my parents were dead against it (who is this Mithun? sorry no movie)… got to see Wanted about 10 years later when I was old enough to bunk classes to see the morning show… the background music would go “Wanted Wanted Wanted”…
There’s another one “Tajurba” starring Raj Babbar and surprise surprise - Naseeruddin Shah as two cons, but of course Indian Cowboys who fight to protect the village from the wrath of the villain (the late Mazhar Khan)… their intro scene begins with both singing a song which goes something like this:
Tere naam Akkad
Mera naam Bakkad
Akkad Bakkad dono fakkad
Aage chalkar lete takkar hainnnnnnnnn….
Tajurba..a potboiler western starring Naseeruddin Shah and Mazhar Khan!!
Mithunda’s Waqt ki Deewar..a Sholay cum Western copy..
Kasam…Anil Kapoor..doing Bhojpuri Western!!!!
numerous Mithunda, Feroz Khan, Sunil Dutt, Amjad Khan, Ranjeeta, Om shiv puri (somebody should do a retro on this grand actor), Raja Murad, Mcmohan,Vinod Khanna starrers came with a quasi - psuedo western/Gaothan theme..”Bhaago daaku aya..and then the hero is pitted against the “western daaku” gang alone and fights them with sticks, guns, ropes and what have you!
Unfortunately, I have forgotten many names here..in those central govt. community halls..these were the movies that generally used to arrive first and foremost!!!!!!
i ahve already mentioned wanted at the end of the post.
Wanted had shammi kapoor and tina munim with mithunda. Mithunda used to wear shawl type shirt. it was good entertainer.
Oz..man..you too remember Tajurba looks like..that was a classic movie..and yeah I certainly remember that ditty!!
@ Ratnakar…I remember watching Kodama Simham with my parents I think I was in 4th or 5th grade….some of the images from that film still linger in my head…thats what chiru as my fav hero…I think another reason why kodama simham worked was because of sudigalli character that mohan babu played with his own style….I love the songs from that film…star star megastar…I still love that song…
I like Takkari donga it was slick and stylish but it was hollow…some how it didn’t work…
I was talking to one of my friend and we were talking about whole western movies I didn’t knew bolloywood had ever made desi-western films in big chunk…there were just odd one or two films but thats about it… From the present actors I think Akshay kumar and John Abraham would suit playing cowboys…some should make a desi cowboy film with action, romance, item numbers and good revenge plot…
… and the Indian Cowboy who may become the greatest of all… Quick Gun Murugan, if at all it gets released!
Yes…..waiting for Quick Gun Murugan….
Hey, you guys forgot Raj Khosla’s MERA GAON MERA DESH. Slick brutal flick with great performances, locations and song situations. Ok, nobody wore hats, but you mentioned SHOLAY so….
Then there was BHAVANI JUNCTION, inspired by LAST TRAIN FROM GUNHILL. MR NATWARLAL too had a Terence Hill/Bud Spencer mood. And AZAAD, with Dharmendra. There is a whole list of dacoit movies, which are our ‘westerns.’
And yes i remember the background score of Wanted too.
hi sriram sir… im one of ur fans..
is the movies with john-aishwarya for rohan sippy happening anytime soon…
read u were still working on the script..
The Kaoboys of RAW
The yet to be made fictionalized adaptation of B.Raman’s life as a career spy,named after Kao, the founder/father of RAW.
another one to this list - ‘AANDHI TOOFAN’
Pratigya
Do Shikari
Humse hai Zamana
Some of Joginder films like Ranga Khush:)
@shaileshhHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH..
grrrr ’shawl type shirt’ ??!!!!!!!
u talk about cowboys and westerns and u talk like this??!!!
DHikaaaaaaaaaaar HAi!!
its called Poncho my friend
eternalised by the Man with No Name a k a Clint
yes, poncho. i could not recall. thanks for correction.
I am very interested to buy the complete list of Indian or Hindi cowboy western movies. Please let me know where I can purchase it from. I am open to paying ny kind of money to purchase the movies.
Regards,
Kunal
Passionate for Indian western movies