Dhundh(1973) :: A Murder mystery with nice music!
B R Chopra combines shades of D.H.Lawrence’s “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” with the suspense elements, of Alfred Hitchcock’s films and presents “Dhundh“, a suspense thriller which has got some very good songs also.
Sahir’s all filmi songs look like his best works as he has always maintained a very high standard. Ravi’s music adds much value to the film and its two songs are truly collector’s items.
It is sung so effectively by Asha Bhonsle that it remains one of her best songs.
Song is pasteurized in such a way that it carries the story ahead. Lyrics represent very well the emotions and mental state of the Zeenat Aman’s character. This song itself suggests that film is about relationship of three characters.
Ravi used his favorite male singer Mahendra Kapoor to sing the other song which follows the philosophical flavor,
Union of B R Chopra and Akhtar Ul Iman, had earlier created two murder mysteries Kanoon (1960) and Humraaz(1967). In Dhundh this pair of writer and director, combined both, the court room drama and the suspense.
Danny plays a middle aged Thakur Ranjeet Singh, who has lost his legs and movements in his life is limited to the sitting on a wheel chair which he can operates himself while he is inside the house but he needs helps of his young wife whenever he wishes to go out.
Zeenat Aman plays his young and beautiful wife, Rani. Ranjit Singh has always been a callous and tyrant rich man and his crippled status has added more frustrations to his already complex nature. He has become puppet of anger, frustrations and his negative thinking has made him a sadist. He enjoys oppressing his wife and he doubts her in every field of life. He humiliates her everywhere and makes hell her life.
Ranjeet Singh makes friends with a handsome advocate Suresh, played by Sanjay Khan. Both the males spend time together and play chess etc but soon Ranjeet Singh feels that his friend has orientation toward his young and pretty wife Rani. He is angry, frustrated and he insults both Suresh and Rani and asks Suresh to leave his house. He keeps doubting Rani and one day he asks her to carry him to the peak of a small mountain and all the way he scolds her and insults her that she is fulfilling her lust through Suresh. He accuses her that she is conspiring to kill him.
It’s a remarkable scene where on the top of the hill she stops and he says,” I know you are thinking to push my chair down the hill so that I may die and then you can live a free life”. She is like, caught red handed and as if he has read her mind.
There is no lie either in his sayings and his doubts because Rani and Suresh start loving each other, but Rani seeks his love only after seeing no possibility of change in the oppressive behavior of Ranjeet Singh. Suresh suggests her to have divorce and start her life afresh.
One evening there is a big fight between husband and wife, Ranjeet Singh and Rani and in early morning, Ranjeet Singh is found dead, sitting on his wheel chair in his room.
Who has shot him?
Rani- as she wants to get freedom from her hell like life ?
Or Suresh – as he wishes to marry Rani and also because Ranjeet Singh had insulted him?
Police has to investigate the case and case has to face the trial in the court to give audience the treat of some good legal confrontations between the lawyers.
Is it so simple in the film? or more mysteries are there to be solved?
Film starts with a scene when it is still dark and a man walks towards a house, he is wearing over coat and his face is not seen because of his felt cap. He knocks the door of the house but gets no answer and he finds that door is opened and he enters inside and sees that a man is sitting on a chair near a table New man says,” My car has been broken…….”
He still gets no answer so he thinks that perhaps house owner is sleeping and he goes near the man and touches his shoulder to wake him up but because of his touch that man falls down and he finds that man has been died.
He searches for the light and in the light he sees that a woman is standing few feet away, having a pistol in her hands. She is standing like a statue but totally in a disheveled appearance. He goes near and asks,” Did you kill him?”
He tries to make a phone call to the police but stops and gives an ear to the story of the woman, who has confessed that she has killed her husband. After listening the woman’s story he develops sympathies with her and says that as nobody has seen her killing her tyrant husband so they two can camouflage the whole scene in her favor. He tries to wipe away all the possible signs from that room which can convict her as the killer. When he thinks that everything is in order then he makes a call to the police. He tells police a false story that when he was coming here, he saw one person running outside. He tries to present it as a robbery case. With the progress in police investigations several things come in to the light and affair between Rani and Suresh is exposed. And this exposure brings difficulties before them.
Police is pointing toward Rani and Suresh but story has more mystery involved in it and Judge has to consider every angle before giving the final verdict.
One person knows all and when this person reaches to the witness box then everybody sitting in court becomes shocked after knowing the reality.
It’s a slick thriller and one may enjoy this film for its tight script, direction, performance, music and over all presentation.
Danny lives convincingly the role of a frustrated, envious, revengeful, tyrant and crippled man and he very successfully brings out the animal instinct residing inside the Ranjeet Singh. Danny sits on a wheel chair all the time but his upper body movements, his facial expressions and expressions in his eyes and above all his very effective dialogue delivery are enough to send chills down spine of the audience. He is the winner in this suspense thriller as far as performance is concerned. He is a psychic case here and he brings out those shades quite effectively. It is one of his best performances in hindi films.
Zeenat Aman plays the subdued and oppressed wife with an ease. She could resemble with the character and thus she looked perfectly suitable for the role. She has been given the beautiful song, Uljhan Suljhe na ….. and picturization of this song and her performance in the song reveals the different problems of her present life and makes it a well sung, well picturized and well performed song. She is not an actress who can act at that level that may win a scene in her favour from other co stars but her persona matches well with the requirement of the role and her different bonding with Danny and Sanjay Khan in the film is portrayed very well.
Sanjay has small role and justifies his selection in the role of Advocate Suresh. He looks composed and presents a good alternative for Ranjit Singh’s cruel personality before Rani. Both Sanjay Khan and Zeenat Aman brought authenticity to that part of the film where they are shown to feel love for each other.
This is the director’s grip over the story that audience feel it is justified when Rani feels to leave Ranjeet Singh to marry Suresh.
Naveen Nishchol plays the role of the person who sees first time the dead body of Ranjeet Singh and such roles have been cake walk for him.
There are not many suspense thrillers and murder mysteries in hindi cinema and Dhundh certainly is one of the good films made in this genre.
Even if suspense genre does not appeal one he may watch it for very good performance of Danny, good music, good direction and many other merits.
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
= this was a good one with respect to creating chilling points and the grand suspense revelation in the climax. I remember one interview of Danny given in the eighties where he mentioned this movie. The discussion involved on how sometimes unexpectedly you get more on film… the example he gave was a scene in Dhund where in his anger he throws a plate on the wall. In the editing room it was noticed that the plate crashing on the wall, breaking into many pieces and bouncing off it in all directions… unexpectedly gave it a 3D effect. I’ve rewinded the tapes of Dhund to that scene many times over, when I read the interview, and sure enough – the sort of 3 D effect is there to see!
awesome info…gotta see this in detail when i watch it again
OZ:
I recall that scene, though not the 3-D effect because as I remember so many years after, plate is not thrown in the direction of audience but on the side wall, so 3D effect was missed for me. and I had not seen by then any of the 3-D film so perhaps was away from this effect. But surely will try to have VCD or DVD, whatever is available of this film to see that effect.
Thanks for this unique info.:)
When I watched it for the first time in early 90’s, I was convinced, then, that the movie was inspired by one of the Chase novellas. Wish I could remember the name of the book now. Nevertheless, Danny, Naveen and Zeenat make the movie worth watching. One of the best chillers ever made.
I can’t forget the scene where Navin Nischol’s running around wiping out evidence and the background merrily cycles through the Shaft theme by Isaac Hayes :d
wb & GT :
Film has some different treatment than other suspense thrillers and this treatment makes it special film to watch. Audience know the relationship between Danny and Zeenat Aman, and even if she has killed the Danny, its acceptable and yet Director maintains the suspense and we are curious to know what lies in next scene.
How a stranger comes and becomes a special part of the story, is beautiful.
I always felt this was the best role Danny had done. If not for him, the movie would have been quite boring
Muzzy: Danny has done many roles which can be termed as his best roles, if they are seen separately.:)
He is Sanjeev Kumar with North eastern morphology.
Surely Danny is the most important element in Dhundh.:d
i want to Download the song
Sansaar kee har shah ka bas itna fasana hai
Ek dhundh se ana hai ek dhndh mein jana hai
i want the songs of the movie dhundh (1973. can any body please tell me from where i can get it.
astha
It’s a very fine movie. Songs are very good. It’s one of the best movie I saw.
Alok,
ya songs are good, film is a good watch
———
Kundan, Astha ,
hope by now you guys might have got the songs of dhundh.
Can someone tell me what could be the location of the movie. Maid servant and fog makes me think it could be kashmir. and so does mad servant’s outfit. but in later shots it looks to be maharashra. thx. i’m new to this blog.
alok