Saat Hindustani

aka Seven Indians 1969 144’ b&w Hindi

d/p/s K.A. Abbas

pc Naya Sansar

st Madhukar lyr Kaifi Azmi

c Ramchandra

m J.P. Kaushik

lp Shahnaz, Madhu, Utpal Dutt, Madhukar, Anwar Ali, Amitabh Bachchan, Jalal Agha, Surekha, Sukhdeo, Prakash Thapa, Irshad Panjatan, Dina Pathak, A.K. Hangal, Anjali

Remembered as one of Bachchan’s first feature films, this is a non-violent variation of the Dirty Dozen (1967) with moralistic comments about contemporary India. Six men from different parts of the country join Maria (Shahnaz), a native of Portuguese-occupied Goa, to raise nationalist sentiment in that state by hoisting Indian flags on Portuguese forts and buildings. In the process they find unity and abandon their religious and regional differences. The film begins with a dying Maria who summons her former comrades and ends with the comrades assembling before her and reiterating their faith in nationalism. The film was released together with the controversial short Char Shaher Ek Kahani (1968). Apart from Bachchan, it was also the first Hindi film by Malayalam star Madhu, who played the Bengali commando.

Film