Besharam (1978)

Besharam: Directed by Deven Verma. With Sharmila Tagore, Amitabh Bachchan, Bindu, Helen. In order to prevent honest Ramchandra from being elected as Mayor, Digvijay Singh alias Dharamdas sets his men upon him, his son, Ram Kumar, and his wife, all in vain, as Ramchandra wins. Shortly after his election, Ramchandra is framed and is forced to quit office after a scandal, and he hangs himself. Ram, his mom, and his sister, Chanda, re-locate and are not heard from again. Then a young man, Prince Chandrashekar from Johanneburg, South Africa, surfaces, claims he is a multi-millionaire, and would like to go into business with Digvijay Singh. This Prince also meets with Digvijay’s sister and friend, Renuka, and Manju respectively and has an on-going affair with both at the same time. Digvijay is not happy with what’s going on, and he asks his men to investigate the background of this Prince, and what they find will change Digvijay’s life forever.

“This movie has all the signs of a project that everyone decided to can and then took it out of the dustbin maybe around the same time that Don became a huge hit.nBesharam has almost the same story and look and feel (Amitabh working for Iftekar to inflitrate the baddies), music by Kalyanji-Anandji, a Helen dance number – night-club disco-esque 70s feel – police and sirens everywhere but then the similarities end.nEverything else about the movie is 3rd rate – there is no Kishore Kumar, an ageing but still sexy Sharmila Tagore is no replacement for the storm that Zeenat cooked up in the 70s, the 3 songs are probably from the KAu0026#39;s dustbin, and all of the actors incl the great Amjad act embarassed to be here – and Big B unable to make up his mind if he is in Zanjeer or Don or Kasauti.nThis I guess is the last forgettable movie of Amitabh in what however became a next-10 year run of almost continuous hitsnStrictly Historical Museum value movie as a cautionary tale of how even th Giants can stumble !!!!nStrictly for diehard Bachchan fans for historical interest”