मुक़द्दर का सिकन्दर
Like many great masala films, the plot of Muqaddar ka sikandar is not easy to summarize. It has a little of everything - orphans, gangsters, mean rich dudes, time bombs, a dashing hero, a mysterious, beautiful courtesan, dream sequences, long lost mothers, a wild psychedelic dance club, and more. But it's also a little sadder and bleaker than much contemporaneous masala fare.
The title means "Conqueror of destiny," but it is also a play on words - the word "sikandar," conqueror, derives from the name of Alexander the Great, and is also the name of the film's main character. The wordplay is not without irony; destiny arguably conquers Sikandar rather than the other way round. At the start of the film Sikandar is a young orphan who suffers a series of misfortunes. The disheartened boy meets a mystic who advises him to change his outlook on life by laughing the in face of his troubles. Cut to twenty-some years later, where the boy has grown into a tough but honest businessman (Amitabh Bachchan). Sikandar has harbored a love for a girl who was kind to him when he was a boy, and pines after her now that she is a grown woman (Rakhee), though she despises him as a result of one of those aforementioned boyhood misfortunes. He meets and befriends an unemployed lawyer-cum-tough-guy named Vishal (70s heartthrob Vinod Khanna). He also meets a nautch-girl named Zohra (Rekha), who falls madly in love with him though he has little interest in her. Zohra's jealous patron, the notorious criminal Dilawar (Amjad Khan) sets his sights on Sikandar; Vishal unwittingly falls for the girl that Sikandar has been pining for his whole life; and the masala train chugs satisfyingly along.
Amitabh Bachchan was an icon of Hindi film in the 1970s and its elder statesman today. The first time I saw him, in Amar Akbar Anthony, he quickly became my favorite classic filmi star, and he is in fine form as the emotionally scarred Sikandar. He gives life to the brilliant songs in the film's wonderful soundtrack. His long limbs and wild charm fill the screen as he rides his motorcycle through Bombay in the film's energetic title song, and his handsome face turns sad and wistful in the reprise of the film's melodic hit "O saathi re." Rekha, a Bollywood icon in her own right, turns in a typically smoldering, breathy performance - Zohra is not her meatiest character ever, a kind of bargain basement Umrao Jaan, but she's passable and provides suitable pathos to the film's masala, as well as a couple of pretty good dances. The film's villain, Dilawar, in contrast, is a whole lot of fun. Amjad Khan, who plays Dilawar, was bone-chilling as the sadistic Gabbar Singh in Sholay; here, he is more cerebral and witty, a thinking man's thug, and one of the best characters in the film.
At the time that I first saw Muqaddar ka sikandar it was one of the best Hindi films I had seen. I am not sure that's still true - I've been on an astonishingly good run of films, thanks to everything I've learned from my friends over at the BollyWHAT? forums - but it is still one of the most entertaining, and its soundtrack remains a solid favorite. I recommend Muqaddar ka sikandar heartily to anyone with a taste for masala, an interest in Bollywood's classics, and the willingness to shed a tear or two.
