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Six pages with more than 110 stills from Kabir's Indian movie
AAKHRI KASAM:
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Small farmer Jagga enjoys a hard but rewarding life in
the fertile valley of the River Chambal in Rajasthan.
It will soon be time to bring in the harvest.
Jagga is pleased with his crop, and he has some good friends. He loves his attractive
wife Malti and is proud of his son Birju, who is working hard in school.
But one day, as Jagga is away, a henchman of the landlord Thakur Ranvir Singh
forces his way into the couple's house on horseback and kidnaps Malti as a terrified
Birju looks on. When Malti struggles against the attacker, Birju is injured.
Malti is taken to Thakur, the zamindar.
The landlord is a brutal man, an alcoholic feared by all the villagers because
of his violence. Thakur's wife knows about his activities, but does not confront
her husband. Thakur, drunk yet again, rapes Malti. She manages to stagger home,
only to find her son, dying from a head wound.
Malti, clutching a dead Birju, jumps into a well in despair.
Jagga, on his return, is blinded by rage over the death of his wife and son,
and decides to confront the zamindar. However, he only finds Thakur's wife and
their two sons, Ram and Kishan, in the house. Jagga grabs one of the children
and threatens to sacrifice the boy to the goddess Kali. His own pain makes him
indifferent to the desperate cries of the child's mother, asking him to return
her first-born son. Although Thakur's men try to stop him, Jagga manages to escape
with his hostage.
A malang baba (holy man) convinces Jagga there is a better way to avenge Birju
than to kill Thakur's innocent son. The boy, Kishan, is renamed Badal and brought
up to live a life of righteousness. Jagga now decides to get Kishan/Badal to
confront his murderous father when he is old enough.
Thakur, living in fear of Jagga, sends his other son, Ram, to be brought up in
the city. Ram grows up with his uncle, a policeman.
It is now 20 years later.
Jagga has never forgotten his plans for revenge.
Badal (Kabir Bedi) is now about 25, a handsome free
spirit who is an expert rider and marksman. He is always to be found where people
suffer danger or injustice, saving girls from a raging bull or delivering villagers
from the zamindar's tax collectors. For despite his age, Thakur's reign of terror
has not abated.
But Badal, a devotee of the goddess Kali, has no idea that his younger brother
Ram is now a police inspector and is about to be posted to the very village where
their father Thakur holds sway over the terrified population.
Ram and Badal's paths cross. As the noble outlaw and the honourable policeman
both believe in truth and justice, they grow to respect each other. But neither
knows they are brothers.
Thakur promises a reward for Badal's capture and forges an alliance with the
powerful dacoit (bandit) Sangram Singh, who roams the nearby villages with his
gang. Inspector Ram however refuses to make common cause with his criminal father,
so that Thakur soon has both his sons turned against him.
Badal, ever a knight in shining armour, saves people on many an occasion and
even recaptures a stolen offering to Kali, handing it back to Inspector Ram.
Raised without a mother, Badal discovers the unquestioning loyalty of Thakur's
wife and his daughter as, injured by the inspector in a manhunt, he runs to them
for succour. The elder woman is even prepared to go to prison if that is what
it takes to save the mysterious stranger to whom she feels deeply indebted. Badal/Kishan
does not suspect the two are his mother and sister.
This time, however, Inspector Ram has no choice but to arrest Badal, who is suspected
of stealing. Losing his chance to win Thakur's reward for Badal's capture, bandit
Sangram Singh kidnaps Thakur's daughter on her wedding day, as well as her mother,
and demands a ransom.
Freed from jail by the villagers, Badal finds out that Thakur is his father,
and joins forces with his brother Ram to free their sister and mother from the
bandit's clutches in an explosive finale!
But what about Jagga's plans to use Thakur's own son to exact revenge for his
20-year-long suffering???
Will bandit Sangram Singh be punished for his greed???
What will Sangram Singh do with Jyoti, Badal's and Ram's sister???
Will Police Inspector Ram fight free of his violent father???
Will hero Badal survive Jagga's revenge???
And will Jagga finally find peace???
***
Aakhri Kasam - a film for Kabir fans who also loved him as
Sandokan
About 20 minutes into the movie, Kabir has
his first scene as 25-year-old Badal, about 20 years after his abduction
by Jagga, riding into view on a horse of the Indian Marwari breed.
The good-looking hero has many scenes wearing a half-open jeans shirt, leather
belt amd bell bottoms, in typical 70s style. He is often on horseback or in other
alluring poses. Wearing a talisman dangling on a leather strap, Kabir/Badal
is a loner with a troubled relationship with the law, even though he is righteousness
itself. At one point, he describes himself as a 'vagabond'.
But you'd better take Kabir/Badal's
fashion statements seriously - the mysterious horseman nearly always carries
a loaded gun!
Kabir/Badal is
not one to shy away from a challenge, even if this often results
in a good fistfight, with all the slapstick elements typical
of a masala movie. But he will only act for a good cause, like
saving innocent villagers from the zamindar's extortionate tax
inspectors, or damsels in distress from a raging bull. Kabir/Badal
visibly enjoys turning a scarecrow into a deadly weapon. Nor
is there much of a future for one villain at the wheel of his
car, as our clever hero weaves a larger-than-life spider's net.
In another scene, Kabir/Badal,
wearing his beatific smile, catches his loot using a fishing-rod. Kabir has
no trouble outsmarting any scoundrel, and so it's no wonder that Champa is so
smitten by Kabir/Badal that it
takes the claxon on Inspector Ram's jeep to bring her down to earth again.
Some of Kabir's action scenes were
shot by stuntmen.
You can usually tell from their slightly darker hair, narrower face, less impressive
chest and smaller figure.
Since the sound track was added later, as was customary at the time Aakhri Kasam
was shot, there are quite a few scenes where the sounds do not match the action
or are out of place altogether. In one scene, Kabir tosses
away a wooden stick which falls to the studio floor with a loud metallic clang.
Aakhri Kasam, with its two heroes bound by friendship - a popular movie formula
at the time - is a typical Bollywood product of the 1970s, made only for the
domestic market.
Kabir and Vinod
Mehra are the main heroes, while the comic part - also de
rigueur in Bollywood - is played by the police inspector's
assistant.
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