Sacchai is a movie from 1968-69, starring Shammi Kapoor, Sanjeev Kumar and Sadhana. I like Sanjeev Kumar a lot, I like Sadhana too. And Shammi Kapoor is my all-time favorite actor!! The movie also stars Pran and Helen, two other people I always liked. But Sacchai is a REAL bad movie.
Long back, before all these Star & Z and Sony channels changed India, when we had only Door Darshan, Sacchai was shown on a Sunday in the weekly slot reserved for Hindi movies. But I didn’t remember anything except for 2 songs – “E dost mere maine Duniya dekhi Hai” and “Sau Baras Ki Jindagi se acche hai”. I remembered the tunes and words, but not the visuals – well I had an impression that in “Sau baras ki Jindagi” Sadhana and Shammi Kapoor are on an elephant!! But I wasn’t sure if I was remembering it quite right.
Being a Shammi Kapoor fan, I have been looking for whichever of his movies are available – in stores and on the net. I got this one after a lot of search on the web. With Shammi Kapoor and Sanjeev Kumar, I guess I expected the movie to be interesting. And then last weekend I watched this movie.
Sanjeev Kumar was a good actor, but not in Sacchai – in Sacchai he over acts!! I wouldn’t have believed it possible, if I had not seen this movie. Sadhana has very little scope to be good. She is drowned in the melodrama of the film. And Shammi Kapoor has no way to be Shammi Kapoor – he has couple of scenes where he has to be “fun” but these scenes seem forced, they do not go with the whole movie and these scenes by themselves are not good enough to make the movie anything more than what it is – a REALLY bad movie!!
As for the story, Shammi Kapoor and Sanjeev Kumar are two friends who start their lives in opposite directions – Sanjeev Kumar being an honest person and Shammi Kapoor being a crook. They part ways after college with different ideologies and decide to meet in three years and find out what has become of each other. As the story progresses, Shammi Kapoor falls in love with a girl (Sadhana, who happens to be Sanjeev Kumar’s sister but he does not this, she does not know that Shammi Kapoor is her brother’s friend and Sanjeev Kumar does not know that Shammi Kapoor and his sister are in love – this is because Sanjeev Kumar has left home and gone away because his father was a dishonest person) and then Shammi Kapoor becomes an honest person after seeing Sadhana’s mother suffer. Then he becomes a police inspector. Just like that. On the other hand, Sanjeev Kumar gets into bad company and becomes a don.
In three years when the two friends go to meet each other, Sanjeev Kumar is the biggest criminal and Shammi Kapoor is the inspector who is after the don. Both of them have vouched to kill each other. Oh did I not mention, that each of them don’t know who the other is? The name of the don is different from Sanjeev Kumar’s real name. And though he hears about an inspector “Ashok” he does not think it’s his friend with same name since his person was not honest, see? Anyway, so in true Hindi movie style, each of them goes to meet the friend singing the same song they had sung last time, when they parted ways.
And though you think the story has been happening in Mumbai all this while, suddenly they are singing in the Himalayas and running miles and miles to meet each other. They meet and find out what the other person has become and after a real convoluted climax in which first Helen and then Pran die, Sanjeev Kumar manages to get Shammi Kapoor to kill him – and of course he dies in arms of his friend!!
There is a lot of melodrama in the film that just does not touch you. And there is no logic!! Even Hindi film logic is missing!! Songs are nothing to talk about either.
I have seen many bad movies, but this one was very painful to sit through – maybe because its really terrible to watch your favorite actor in a bad role in a bad movie.
So DON’T watch this movie. Even if you are a diehard Shammi Kapoor fan, like me, do not watch this movie. Actually, I would say especially if you are a Shammi Kapoor fan, do not watch this movie!
Long back, before all these Star & Z and Sony channels changed India, when we had only Door Darshan, Sacchai was shown on a Sunday in the weekly slot reserved for Hindi movies. But I didn’t remember anything except for 2 songs – “E dost mere maine Duniya dekhi Hai” and “Sau Baras Ki Jindagi se acche hai”. I remembered the tunes and words, but not the visuals – well I had an impression that in “Sau baras ki Jindagi” Sadhana and Shammi Kapoor are on an elephant!! But I wasn’t sure if I was remembering it quite right.
Being a Shammi Kapoor fan, I have been looking for whichever of his movies are available – in stores and on the net. I got this one after a lot of search on the web. With Shammi Kapoor and Sanjeev Kumar, I guess I expected the movie to be interesting. And then last weekend I watched this movie.
Sanjeev Kumar was a good actor, but not in Sacchai – in Sacchai he over acts!! I wouldn’t have believed it possible, if I had not seen this movie. Sadhana has very little scope to be good. She is drowned in the melodrama of the film. And Shammi Kapoor has no way to be Shammi Kapoor – he has couple of scenes where he has to be “fun” but these scenes seem forced, they do not go with the whole movie and these scenes by themselves are not good enough to make the movie anything more than what it is – a REALLY bad movie!!
As for the story, Shammi Kapoor and Sanjeev Kumar are two friends who start their lives in opposite directions – Sanjeev Kumar being an honest person and Shammi Kapoor being a crook. They part ways after college with different ideologies and decide to meet in three years and find out what has become of each other. As the story progresses, Shammi Kapoor falls in love with a girl (Sadhana, who happens to be Sanjeev Kumar’s sister but he does not this, she does not know that Shammi Kapoor is her brother’s friend and Sanjeev Kumar does not know that Shammi Kapoor and his sister are in love – this is because Sanjeev Kumar has left home and gone away because his father was a dishonest person) and then Shammi Kapoor becomes an honest person after seeing Sadhana’s mother suffer. Then he becomes a police inspector. Just like that. On the other hand, Sanjeev Kumar gets into bad company and becomes a don.
In three years when the two friends go to meet each other, Sanjeev Kumar is the biggest criminal and Shammi Kapoor is the inspector who is after the don. Both of them have vouched to kill each other. Oh did I not mention, that each of them don’t know who the other is? The name of the don is different from Sanjeev Kumar’s real name. And though he hears about an inspector “Ashok” he does not think it’s his friend with same name since his person was not honest, see? Anyway, so in true Hindi movie style, each of them goes to meet the friend singing the same song they had sung last time, when they parted ways.
And though you think the story has been happening in Mumbai all this while, suddenly they are singing in the Himalayas and running miles and miles to meet each other. They meet and find out what the other person has become and after a real convoluted climax in which first Helen and then Pran die, Sanjeev Kumar manages to get Shammi Kapoor to kill him – and of course he dies in arms of his friend!!
There is a lot of melodrama in the film that just does not touch you. And there is no logic!! Even Hindi film logic is missing!! Songs are nothing to talk about either.
I have seen many bad movies, but this one was very painful to sit through – maybe because its really terrible to watch your favorite actor in a bad role in a bad movie.
So DON’T watch this movie. Even if you are a diehard Shammi Kapoor fan, like me, do not watch this movie. Actually, I would say especially if you are a Shammi Kapoor fan, do not watch this movie!
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