Shaan

Plot

DCP Shiv Kumar (Sunil Dutt), an honest, brave, and upright police officer, lives with his wife, Sheetal (Raakhee Gulzar), and their young daughter, Guddi, and soon gets transferred to Mumbai. Shiv has two estranged younger brothers, Vijay (Amitabh Bachchan) and Ravi (Shashi Kapoor), who reside in Mumbai together. They are both intelligent and capable youths, but spend their time conning wealthy individuals. In one of their scams, the duo convinces a corrupt hotel manager (Yunus Parvez) that Vijay has stolen diamonds worth ₹2.5 Lakhs, while Ravi, a police officer, is searching for the criminal. The opportunistic manager offers to purchase the diamonds stolen by Vijay for ₹10,000, when Ravi returns and threatens to arrest the manager as well for helping a criminal. In exchange for releasing him, the manager pays an additional bribe of ₹5,000 to Ravi, who then pretends to arrest Vijay for his crime. Later, at a restaurant, the duo meets a pretty young girl, Pushpa Bhargav (Bindiya Goswami), who owes a debt of ₹30,000 to a middle-aged, aggressive man (Johnny Walker). The due date is past and the debtor threatens to initiate legal actions against Pushpa. Ravi finds himself attracted to Pushpa, who offers her Porsche car against the debt to the debtor, the value of her car being at least ₹1 Lakh. As a result, the duo offers to help Pushpa by purchasing her car for ₹30,000 and clearing her debt to the debtor, much to Pushpa's relief and gratitude. However, after their departure from the restaurant, the duo finds themselves being arrested by the police, who reveal that the car was actually stolen and has a different owner. After their release from prison, the duo seek the aid of Abdul (Mazhar Khan), a legless, but dignified beggar, who is their regular informer about shady characters. Abdul informs the duo that Pushpa's real name is Renu and that the debtor is actually her own paternal uncle, whom she refers to as Chacha. The duo also tracks Renu and Chacha down, but manages to retrieve only ₹25,000 as the remaining ₹5,000 have been already spent. Impressed with their deceiving skills, the duo advises Renu and Chacha to join forces with them in conning individuals. The four con artists' next plan is to steal a diamond necklace from an erstwhile queen, Maharani (Bindu), who is attending a lavish party at a hotel one night. Nevertheless, a glamorous thief, Sunita (Parveen Babi), manages to steal Maharani's necklace before the four con artists can do so. The police arrive and begin a search of every individual at the hotel, when Vijay notices Sunita slipping the necklace into his pocket. However, he manages to escape by hiding the necklace in his walking stick and is now aided by Sunita. As a result, Vijay falls in love with Sunita and invites her to join his gang of con artists.

The following scam of the five con artists is that Vijay and Ravi are two elderly godmen, who claim to present the physically impossible, "superhuman" feat of walking on water. However, this scam backfires as the same day, Shiv arrives in Mumbai with Sheetal and Guddi and reads the advertisement posters for the "godmen" at the railway station. As a result, Shiv, who is the symbol of law, catches the five con artists red-handed and arrests them all, despite the fact of Vijay and Ravi being his own brothers. After serving their sentence in prison, the five con artists are all released soon and vow to reform together. Despite their earlier friction with the law, a generous Shiv forgives Vijay and Ravi and hopes to shape them both into a much honourable life. Meanwhile, a mysterious man (Shatrughan Sinha) attempts to shoot Shiv twice in Mumbai, but Shiv is fortunate to survive both times. Thus, Vijay and Ravi advise their brother to find a different line of work, stating that his profession is unpredictable, dangerous, and unsuitable for a family man, especially for a husband and a father. However, Shiv firmly refuses to resign from the police force, citing his undying patriotic commitment to his corps and his country. Meanwhile, Shiv is investigating a gang of international smugglers, and it eventually turns out that they are all working for Shakaal (Kulbhushan Kharbanda), a sadistic international crime lord, who is operating from a remote, high-technology island outside India, while funding crime in Mumbai and rejoicing in the pain of all his enemies and traitors. Shakaal is known for his eccentricities and innovations, for his island being equipped with hidden cameras, a variety of automatic gadgets, a pack of wild hunting dogs, and a man-eating crocodile in an artificial pond below a revolving table with seats. Shakaal eliminates Ranjeet (Sudhir), one of his own henchmen, by dropping him into the pond as a "prey" for the crocodile, having smartly discovered that Ranjeet was an informer to Shiv. Meanwhile, Shiv is progressively near to discovering the root of the smuggling in Mumbai. Thus, Shakaal cleverly has his henchmen kidnap Shiv and bring him to his island, where he informs Shiv that he had himself arranged the previous two attempts on his life. Moreover, the cunning Shakaal threatens to kill Shiv himself now unless Shiv agrees to join his criminal empire. However, Shiv attempts an escape from the island, choosing his own duty, principles, and dignity over wealth and success. Although Shiv manages to avoid the unleashed wild dogs, Shakaal eventually shoots him fatally on the beach nearby from his helicopter, and has Shiv's dead body dumped back to Mumbai.

Cast

Sunil Dutt as DCP Shiv Kumar

Shashi Kapoor as Ravi Kumar

Amitabh Bachchan as Vijay Kumar

Shatrughan Sinha as Rakesh

Raakhee Gulzar as Sheetal

Parveen Babi as Sunita

Bindiya Goswami as Renu

Johnny Walker as Chacha

Kulbhushan Kharbanda as Shakaal

Mazhar Khan as Abdul (Vijay and Ravi's informer)

Sudhir as Ranjeet (Shiv's informer)

Padmini Kapila as Roma (Rakesh's wife)

Yunus Parvez as Hotel Manager Saxena

Viju Khote as Police Inspector Damodar Awasthi

Helen in "Yamma Yamma"

Bindu as Maharani in "Pyaar Karne Wale"

Shakaal's henchmen

Mac Mohan as Jagmohan

Sudhir Pandey as Tiwari

Dalip Tahil as Kumar

Sujit Kumar as Raghunath

Manik Irani as Shyam

Goga Kapoor as Kirti

Sharat Saxena as Prakash

Production

Logistical issues relating to other projects in which the cast was involved meant that Shaan took three years to make. While Sholay drew its inspiration from the American Western and Spaghetti Western films, Shaan took its lead from the James Bond films with fancy sets and beautiful costumes. Shakaal, the bald villain (originally to be played by Sanjeev Kumar) played by Kulbhushan Kharbanda, was based on the James Bond villain, Blofeld.

A large golden eagle is prominent in Shakaal's island lair and in the Bollywood obligatory final song-and-dance. The eagle is reminiscent of the golden lamb in Cecile DeMille's Ten Commandments; construction on the golden eagle required outside experts to be flown in and cost (in Rupees) the equivalent of the chariot scene in Ben-Hur.

Sippy wanted to repeat the cast of Sholay (1975) for this film, but due to date issues, Sunil Dutt played the role initially offered to Sanjeev Kumar, Bindiya Goswami played the role initially offered to Hema Malini, and Shashi Kapoor played the role initially offered to Dharmendra and Shatrughan Sinha played the role which was offered to Vinod Khanna.The film was set and partially filmed on the island of Steep Holm.

Parveen Babi suffered a panic attack, after she completed shooting for the song "Pyar Karne Wale". Just after that song, there is a scene in the film, where Babi's character is inside the car and Amitabh Bachchan's character gets in the car. This scene was shot when Babi returned from the US and she recommenced work by shooting this scene.

Soundtrack

The music was composed by R. D. Burman and the lyrics were penned by Anand Bakshi.

Vocals were supplied by Kishore Kumar, RD Burman (both for Bachchan), Mohammed Rafi (for Kapoor and Khan), Asha Bhosle (for Babi), Usha Mangeshkar (for Goswami), and Usha Uthup.

Mohammad Rafi recorded a rehearsal for the song "Yamma Yamma", with a final recording scheduled for later. Due to Rafi's untimely death before the final recording, Burman used the rehearsal. This is the only song where Rafi and Burman sing a duet together.

Box office

The film grossed ₹12.5 crore during its lifetime theatrical run. Adjusted for inflation, the film has grossed ₹271 crore ($33 million) as of 2023.

Awards

28th Filmfare Awards:

Won

Best Cinematography – S. M. Anwar

Nominated

Best Music Director – R. D. Burman