Adalat (1976) User Reviews

An Underrated movie with awesome performance by Amitabh in a double role..

[prabhat-shukla-1987 · 8/10 · 3 April 2010]

Directed by Narendra Bedi starring Amitabh Bachchan(double role),Waheeda Rehman,Neetu Singh,Kader Khan. the movie was a "semi hit" at the box office and Amitabh was nominated for FilmFare best actor for this film.

Adalat is a story of a brave village farmer Dharma(Thakur Dharam Chand) and his wife Radha(Waheeda Rehman)and the injustice done to Dharma and how he takes his revenge and becomes a Don ,Amitabh himself plays Dharma's son Raju educated in Britain with a Geeta Verma (Neetu Singh) as his love interest

Dharamchand, known as Dharma, an ameniable village farmer is thrilled when his wife, Radha, gives birth to a baby boy, who they decide to call Raju. Dharma heroically saves the lives of Ajit, Suresh, and Sujit, when they are being attacked by a tiger, and they graciously offer him a job in Bombay whenever he decides to visit. When the village experieces economic difficulty and drought, the family migrate to Bombay, where Ajit makes Dharma the manager of his warehouse in the city. Dharma is a success, until one day he is arrested by the police. His cries of innocence are ignored by the authorities and he is sentenced to 18 months in jail plus an additional six months for contempt of court. When he eventually returns home, everything has changed. His wife and Raju are near destitution; Laxmi has been raped by Sujit and has killed herself. Dharma decides to avenge her death and kills all three of them. He then joins forces with another gang, where he is rewarded for his loyalty and soon makes his way to the very top. He sends Raju for further education to Britain, and moves into a palatial home. Years later Raju returns home, and would like to marry Geeta Verma, who he met in Britain but is unable to meet his father's approval and comes into conflict. Unknown to Dharma, Ajit is still alive and has returned and it is time to avenge the past by trying to murder Dharma at any price.

Music by Kalyanji Anandji is decent with a couple of very good songs like "hum ka aisa waisa naa samjho" and "tumse door rehke"

Direction by Narendra Bedi is good,Dialogues are good,story is new and unpredictable. Amitabh gives a praiseworthy performance in the double role one of Dharma as a brave villager speaking in Awadhi who later becomes a Don and other of Dharma's son Raju a modern young guy educated in Britain. He shows an excellent range considering how diverse both the roles he plays are , this movie shows his talent as an actor to the fullest, Waheeda Rehman is natural, Neetu Singh adds glamour,Kader Khan is good as the honest cop, Anwar Hussain is alright as the villain.

Watch this movie for Amitabh...he's too good in this one..

Underrated

[IPyaarCinema · 8/10 · 19 May 2021]

Review By Kamal K

In our society we have certain rules to abide for. There is a certain way of social justice and most citizens follow that in getting justice. However, sometimes the so called social norms of giving justice fails and few troubled souls take law and court in their hand to deliver justice.

Numerous movies particularly in 70's and 80's deal with this issue. The angry young man persona of Amitabh Bachchan created by Salim-Javed in 70's was one such character. Owing to his image Amitabh touched the zenith of supertardom by 1975 owing to Zanjeer, Deewar and Sholay. However the angry young persona of Amitabh was not limited to films scripted by Salim-Javed. He did numerous other such flicks but they were somehow louder and more stylized rather than having real substance in them. However one non Salim-Javed film of this genre which stands apart is the 1976 hit Adalat. This Narendra Bedi film is a kind of cult film of Amitabh but somehow in the last 3 decades it has been ignored and now it does not get the acclaim it deserves, as compared to other Amitabh hit films.

Dharma(Amitabh Bachchan)is a simple villager. He is a farmer by profession and is a clean hearted man. He has a beautiful wife Ganga(Waheeda Rahman), a younger sister and a son. Once 3 rich men(Anwar Hussain, Sujit Kumar being 2 of them) from city visit the village. Dharma accompanies them to forest where they go for hunting but things take a twist when a tiger attacks them. Dharma kills the tiger and saves the life of those 3 men. In recognition of his bravery they ask him to come to city and settle there. Later when Dharma's bull dies and he is not able to reap an harvest he decides to move to city with his family. On his arrival he is given a job by them as promised. Later it is known that he is being entrapped in a conspiracy and he is soon jailed. His life gets from bad to worse when his sister is raped and she commits suicide. Dharma comes out of jail and swears vengeance against those 3 men. He is confronted on every corner by Inspector Khan(Kadar Khan), yet Dharma manages to take his revenge by bumping off all his enemies.

However his life changes as he becomes the king of underworld and controls the smuggling mafia. Many years later Dharma's son Raju(Amitabh again) grows up as a England returned suave young man who falls for a pretty gal(Neetu Singh). Raju's life takes a turn when he comes to know about his dad's criminal background and this creates a rift between the father and son. Dharma tries to change his image but this makes his counterparts his enemies. They join hands and kill his wife. Dharma eventually kills them and gets killed in the progress.

Needless to say its Amitabh's show all the way. Amitabh Bachchan has given superb performances as the mafia king in Deewar, Don in 70's, Kaalia in 80's, Agneepath in 90's and Sarkar in 2000's. Yet his performance in Adalat is as different from these as chalk is to cheese. He is simply superb as Dharma. As the village simpleton who is happy in his life to his transformation as a broken and cheated man and then as a revenge seeking guy and finally as a mafia don and a father-Amitabh makes Dharma one of his most memorable characters on screen. His outbreak in the court, the stylish killing of Anwar on the ship and finally his confrontation with his son and his death scene are all aces from the superstar. His critics who had some doubts that Amitabh could not do justice to a rural character can eat a humble pie after watching his splendid portrayal of a typical U. P. waala rural character as opposed to a Haryanvi villager in blockbuster Namak Halaal. Playing an older man in the second half of the film at the peak of his carrier was also brave and some justice is done by the younger double role. The role of the son Amitabh looks somehow fit for Shashi Kapoor and moreso Rishi Kapoor. The role of a young England return romantic young man who does not like violence is totally different from whatever Amitabh had/has. Yet Amitabh gets his due in the confrontation scenes with his dad and the scenes with Waheeda. He proves that he could do and get away with the typical Shashi Kapoor-Rishi Kapoor mould of roles alongwith his usual angry ridden roles. Infact Amitabh style of portraying.

After Amitabh Bachchan if there is any actor who stands apart in Adalat is Kadar Khan.he had done small roles in Daag and Bairaag, but it was with Adalat that he arrived with a bang as an actor besides making it big as a dialogue writer.caste in the role of Inspector Khan, Kadar gives what can be safely said as his best performance. His role is very important to the film and he does it without any loudness which became a trademark of his latter day.

On the whole, Adalat although looks date technically and the fact that films based/inspired from it became more famous, yet it can be disputed that it is one of Amitabh's best work and it deserves a viewing for viwers who have not watched it.

One of Amitabh's first father-son dual roles

[silvan-desouza · 1 October 2011]

Amitabh has done several double roles in his career, ADAALAT was one of his first ones after BANDHE HAATH(1973) In ADAALAT he plays a father-son

In the start he plays a simple villager who falls in problem and is arrested, then he takes revenge and then becomes a gangster His son returns from London and then there is a conflict between them

The movie starts well and slowly we are sweeped into the life of Dharma and keeps you engrossed throughout

Even the second half is handled well only flaws include the film tends to drag at times and also it's never shown who informs the Dharma The climax is well handled

Direction by Narendra Bedi is good Music is decent, Mukesh sings for Amitabh and the song BEHNA O BEHNA is superb, Kung Fu is good

Amitabh Bachchan excels in the dual role, this was the first time perhaps he played father-son followed by several more films The intensity in which he plays an AYM is matchless and he plays all facets of character superbly, as the son too he does a good job Waheeda excels, Neetu Singh does a decent job Anwar Hussain and the other villains are good in their roles Kader Khan excels

underrated Bachchan classic

[sharankandhai · 8/10 · 17 February 2010]

This movie is much better than many people think. Story : Amitabh is a simpleton in a village with a wife, Waheeda Rehman, and a sister. 3 guys from the city come (Anwar Hussain, Sujit Kumar and another one) andtell Bachchan to come to the city and they will help him. Bachchan and Waheeda get a son and movie to the city where the 3 guys rape his sister, sent Amitabh to jail and much more happens to him. Emotionally devastated Amitabh kills them and becomes an underworld don. Years later the son, Amitabh again, wants to marry his girlfriend Neetu Singh. That when things take a turn. Watch out for an yet unknown Kadar Khan as inspector Khan who wants to arrest bachchan senior but is also his friend as he has seen the transformation in Bachchan happen in front of his eyes. One of the few movies in which not Kishore but Mukesh sings for Bachchan. And the songs are known till date " Humka aisa waisa na samjho" , " Kung Fu" and the classic " Behna o Behna Teri Doli Main" are some of the songs. A tearjerker!