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Zanjeer

aka The Chain 1973 145’ col Hindi-Urdu d/p/co-lyr Prakash Mehra pc Prakash Mehra Prod. s Salim-Javed co-lyr Gulshan Bawra c N. Satyen m Kalyanji-Anandji lp Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bhaduri, Ajit, Bindu, Pran, Om Prakash, Iftikhar, Ram Mohan, Yunus Pervez, Purnima, Gulshan Bawra, Keshto Mukherjee

First of many films to cast Bachchan as an angry young man, although this still seems a transitional movie: the hero evolves from a cop into a vigilante, the latter being closer to the star’s subsequent persona. As a child, Vijay witnesses the murder of his parents by a faceless killer wearing a chain around his wrist. Haunted by the image of the chain, the adult Vijay (Bachchan) becomes a cop determined to clean up Bombay. He befriends the Pathan gambler Sher Khan (Pran) who becomes his ally. Although romantically involved with Mala (Bhaduri), Vijay singlemindedly roots out evildoers and finally identifies his parents’ killer: Teja (Ajit). Taking the law into his own hands, he avenges the murders. The film, which introduced the Salim-Javed style, the real authors behind the Bachchan persona, was a great success and set the trend for later revenge and vigilante movies to which the director, the scenarists and the stars of this film would continue to contribute throughout the 70s. Mehra continued the theme in Muqaddar Ka Sikandar (1978).

Film