Shaan
Poster
Directed by	Ramesh Sippy
Written by	Salim–Javed
Produced by	G. P. Sippy
Starring	Sunil Dutt Shashi Kapoor Amitabh Bachchan Shatrughan Sinha Raakhee Gulzar Parveen Babi Bindiya Goswami Johnny Walker Kulbhushan Kharbanda
Cinematography	S. M. Anwar
Edited by	M. S. Shinde
Music by	R. D. Burman
Production company	Sippy Films
Distributed by	Eros International Rajshri Productions
Release date	12 December 1980 (1980-12-12) (India)
Running time	181 minutes (DVD) 208 minutes (VHS)
Country	India
Language	Hindi
Budget	₹42−42.5 million[1]
Box office	₹85−125 million[1]

Shaan (translation: Grandeur) is a 1980 Indian Hindi-language action thriller 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). Released in India on 12 December 1980, the film 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.

The film was an average performer upon its initial release.^[2] 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.^[3]

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 and announces that he has been transferred to Mumbai. Shiv has two younger brothers named Vijay (Amitabh Bachchan) and Ravi (Shashi Kapoor) living in Mumbai. They are intelligent and capable youngsters 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 him with arrest 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 named Renu (Bindiya Goswami), who is a damsel is distress and owes money to a moneylender whom she refers to as Chacha (Johnny Walker). The due date is past and Chacha threatens to initiate legal actions against Renu. She offers her car against a loan of ₹3 lakh as the car is worth at least ₹10 lakh. Vijay and Ravi (who is besotted with Renu) overhear the conversation and offer to help Renu by purchasing the car for ₹3 lakh but it turns out the car was stolen and Vijay and Ravi are arrested.

After their release from prison, Abdul (Mazhar Khan), a legless street beggar, helps Vijay and Ravi track down Renu and Chacha, who return them the ₹2.5 lakh but have already spent the remaining ₹50,000. Vijay and Ravi are impressed with Renu's work and ask her and Chacha to join forces with them in conning people. Their next idea is to steal a diamond necklace from an erstwhile Queen, when she attends a party at a hotel, but a glamorous thief, Sunita (Parveen Babi) manages to steal the necklace before them. However, the police condones off the hotel and begin a search of every individual when Vijay notices Sunita hiding the necklace in his pocket. He escapes by hiding the necklace in his walking stick and invites Sunita to join their gang. However, Vijay and Ravi's following scam as two godmen claiming to walk on water backfires as their elder brother, Shiv reads the advertisement posters and arrests them. They eventually get released after serving their terms. Meanwhile, a mysterious man (Shatrughan Sinha) attempts to shoot Shiv twice, 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, arguing that his profession is unpredictable, dangerous and unsuitable for a family man. However, Shiv stands firm by citing his undying patriotic commitment to his corps and his country.

Shiv is investigating a gang of smugglers and it eventually turns out that they were all working for an international crime lord named Shakaal (Kulbhushan Kharbanda), who is operating from a remote island outside India. The island of Shakaal is equipped with hidden cameras and all sorts of automatic gadgets, also, a pack of hunting dogs and a man-eating crocodile in a pool below a rotating table. Shakaal kills Ranjeet (Sudhir), one of his own henchmen, by throwing him into the pool as the prey of the crocodile as Ranjeet was an informer of Shiv. Due to the fact that Shiv is progressively getting close to finding out the roots of crime in Mumbai, Shakaal has Shiv captured and brought to his island by his henchmen, where he reveals that he had arranged the previous two attempts on Shiv's life. He attempts to influence him to join his criminal forces, but Shiv attempts an escape from the island. After a long chase between Shiv and the pack of hunting dogs, Shakaal shoots Shiv to his death on the beach from his helicopter and has his body dumped back to Mumbai.

As Vijay, Ravi and Sheetal lament the tragic loss of Shiv, the mysterious man, who attempted to shoot Shiv twice in the city, approaches them and introduces himself as Rakesh, a marksman and former circus performer who used to shoot targets blindfolded. Rakesh confesses that Shakaal had held his wife named Roma (Padmini Kapila) hostage and blackmailed him to shoot Shiv,but 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 faulty brakes in retaliation, resulting in Roma's tragic death in a fiery car accident. On learning this, Vijay and Ravi team up with Rakesh with the intention to defeat Shakaal and pursue justice for both Shiv and Roma. The trio seeks the aid of Abdul who provides them with information about Shakaal's contraband warehouse in Mumbai. Even though the trio manages to destroy the warehouse, Shakaal retaliates by having his henchmen target Sheetal and Guddi. Rakesh manages to save them both.

After this unsuccessful attempt, Abdul is chased by Shakaal's henchmen in the middle of the night and his death occurs after being ruthlessly thrown off a bridge. A furious Vijay breaks into a bar where Shakaal's henchmen spend time playing cards and beats them all up severely for Abdul's death. A frustrated Shakaal orders his henchmen to capture Sheetal and imprison her at his island. Meanwhile, the trio is approached by one of Shakaal's henchmen named Jagmohan (Mac Mohan), who offers them his help to gain entry in Shakaal's island as he was mercilessly thrashed by Shakaal for his previous failure. Posing as a dance troupe, the trio, along with Sunita, Renu and Chacha, manage to enter the island and performs for Shakaal, who later shockingly captures them all and reveals that he had 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 beat Jagmohan and Shakaal's remaining henchmen to death. Further, Vijay is able to kill the crocodile after being thrown into the pool, while Ravi and Rakesh also gain the upper-hand in an enclosure fighting in a poisonous gas-filled chamber with Shakaal's two henchmen having worn gas masks. 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. The arguing commotion allows Shakaal to free himself and attempt to shoot everyone with his gun, forcing the trio to shoot Shakaal fatally in self-defense. With his last breath, Shakaal pulls the lever and sets the island to self-destruct, however, the trio, Sunita, Renu, Sheetal and Chacha are all able to escape from the exploding island, and fly off safely in a helicopter.

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

Production

Logistical issues relating to other projects in which the cast was involved meant that Shaan took three years to make.^[4] 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.^[5]

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.

The version of the song "Yamma Yamma" is not the final recorded song, that is used in the movie. It was a rehearsed copy sung by Late Mohammad Rafi, and the actual recording was scheduled for later, which was used by R.D. Burman in the movie due to the untimely death of Mohammad Rafi before the final recording. This is the only song where Mohammad Rafi and R.D. 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

References

External links

• Shaan at IMDb