FRIENDS OF KABIR - NEWS!
AUGUST 31, 2005
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Using a scarecrow to beat baddies?
Vagrant Kabir has a few more tricks up his sleeve...
Aakhri Kasam
Kabir Bedi in Aakhri Kasam Kabir Bedi in Aakhri Kasam
Kabir Bedi in Aakhri Kasam Kabir Bedi in Aakhri Kasam

New stills online at Kabir-Bedi.com:

Six pages with more than 110 stills from Kabir's Indian movie AAKHRI KASAM:

HOME » PICTURES » MOVIE-STILLS » AAKHRI KASAM

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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