Bollywood's 1970s revenge dramas mixed action, romance, music and crime into one loaded package, and two films from that decade, seven years apart, ended up sharing a strange coincidence, the villain in both stories carried the exact same name. One film had he-man Dharmendra leading the charge, the other belonged to the newly arrived angry young man Amitabh Bachchan. Both had chart-topping music, both were written by the same writing duo, Salim-Javed, and both remain landmark titles from Hindi cinema's masala era, Yaadon Ki Baaraat and Shaan.
Yaadon Ki Baaraat set the template
Nasir Hussain, uncle of actor Aamir Khan, made Yaadon Ki Baaraat as one of the earliest true masala films of the 1970s. Salim-Javed wrote the story, while Hussain directed and produced it. The film starred Dharmendra, Vijay Arora, Tariq Khan and Zeenat Aman in lead roles, with Ajit playing the principal villain. Tariq Khan is Aamir Khan's cousin from his mother's side, and Aamir himself appeared in the film as the young version of Tariq's character.
R.D. Burman composed the film's music, and it has aged into an evergreen soundtrack. The film carried six songs in total, with lyrics by Majrooh Sultanpuri that turned into timeless favourites. The song Chura Liya Hai Tumne Jo Dil Ko became the film's calling card, sung by Asha Bhosle and Mohammed Rafi. In an unusual touch, the title track was sung together by two legends, Mohammed Rafi and Kishore Kumar.
Echoes of Waqt and the birth of Shakaal
Salim-Javed reworked elements of the 1965 film Waqt into a fresh narrative for Yaadon Ki Baaraat, which is why the two films share several similarities. In both, family members get separated early in the story and reunite only by the end, following the familiar khoya paaya, lost and found, formula. Yaadon Ki Baaraat layered a revenge angle on top of this structure, Dharmendra's character never sees the face of his father's killer and spends his entire life hunting him down. Ajit played that killer, and the character's name was Shakaal. Years later, in 1980's Shaan, the villain would also be called Shakaal, a role that Kulbhushan Kharbanda made iconic.
Yaadon Ki Baaraat was a box office sensation, collecting around 4.25 crore and finishing as the second highest earning film of that year. 1973 turned out to be a landmark year for Dharmendra, and interestingly, the same year introduced Bollywood to its angry young man, Amitabh Bachchan, who would go on to dominate the industry single handedly for years.
Shaan aimed to outdo Sholay
Salim-Javed later wrote another revenge driven script, which became Shaan, a film frequently compared with 1975's all time great Sholay. The star cast, the story beats and the villain all echoed Sholay in some way, and Shaan is regarded today as a cult classic. It actually earned more than several outright superhit films of its time, yet it was still labelled a flop. Its video cassettes triggered a rush of buyers in cities when they went on sale.
After Sholay's massive success, audiences expected something similarly grand from director Ramesh Sippy. Sippy asked Salim-Javed directly to write a story bigger than Sholay in every possible way. Shaan brought together Sunil Dutt, Shashi Kapoor, Amitabh Bachchan, Shatrughan Sinha, Rakhee Gulzar, Parveen Babi, Bindiya Goswami, Johnny Walker and Kulbhushan Kharbanda, with Kharbanda playing Shakaal and turning the character into an unforgettable one. While Sholay was set in a village, Shaan moved the action to a city.
A December 1980 release with the biggest ambitions
Shaan released in December 1980, and Amitabh Bachchan's screen presence carried echoes of his Sholay persona. It arrived in theatres with the biggest budget, the biggest cast and the biggest expectations of its time. The plot centred on revenge, with Bachchan's character avenging the murder of his elder brother. R.D. Burman composed the music again, this time across seven songs, with lyricist Anand Bakshi behind hits like Yamma Yamma, Pyar Karne Wale Jeete Hain Shaan Se and Jaanu Meri Jaan.
Shakaal's hideout in the film was shown as Steep Holm, a small, uninhabited British island in the Bristol Channel off the coast of Somerset, England. The editing, camera work and music in Shaan were all exceptional, but the film lacked emotional depth, and there was little for audiences to genuinely connect with. That gap ended up hurting the film's reception. The first week ran to houseful shows, but collections dropped sharply in the second week. With a budget of around 4.25 crore and collections roughly matching that figure, the film ended up being called below average. Despite the expensive sets and star studded cast, Shaan could not draw audiences the way its makers had hoped. It did, however, go on to perform very well in repeat theatrical runs, and it finished as the fifth highest earning film of 1980.
