Movies that take a long time to make are innumerable and
they do tend to fare miserably. Adhura Aadmi was not an exception. However, rarely
does one come across a movie that gets released twice – under different titles. Pancham had this distinction too.
In 1973, a Mumbai based builder, enamoured with the cinema
& related glamour produced a movie that was supposed to be anti-smuggling.
Unlike a multi – heroes, this was a movie with multi-villains - five to be
precise and all top notch in early 70s: Pran, Manmohan, Prem Chopra, Shatrughan
Sinha & Vinod Khanna – all pitted against one hero – who alone graced the posters
of the movie. Movie was aptly titled Paanch Dushman. The movie tanked, and
tanked big time.
Not to be deterred though, and perhaps because of the
misplaced notion of being ahead of the time, the producer re-released the movie
in 1982-83, this time with a new title – Daulat Ke Dushman. A few of the
dynamics though had changed in the intervening years, and hence Vinod Khanna
& Shatrughan Sinha got the top-most billing this time. Well, the change of
name of the movie or the billboards did not alter its fate – justifying that
Shakespeare was right when he wrote - What’s in a name?
Oh, yes, a few more trivia that I should have mentioned, the
producer of the movie also decided to cast himself as the
hero. Perhaps his success in his other business interests - involving
construction & hospitality – did make him feel eligible enough to take on
these 5 stalwarts actors. After all he also owned one of the key & an
iconic hotel of its time in Mumbai . This was Manu Narang – also known as
Manohar Lal Narang who owned Ambassador Hotel at Churchgate – the first one to
have a revolving restaurant in the country.
Getting back to the movie, it had two lovely compositions of
Pancham – a Kishore Kumar Solo & a duet featuring Kishore- Lata.
Let me play today the duet because once you see the
performance of the lead actors, you will understand the reason why even Pancham’s music could not help it survive – neither first
time nor in its re-christened avatar.
However, the song is an absolute gem with verse by Majrooh. Listen to it here:
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