Black Mail is watchable more than once because of brilliant direction, story telling, acting, and music.
The good thing is that the story mainly revolves around three characters Asha (Rakhee), Kailash (Dharmendra) and Jeevan (Shatrughan Sinha). All the three have done proper justice to their character. Rakhee stands out among them and the villainous Shatrughan Sinha shines. Dharmendra proves his mettle again in this female centered movie. I cannot imagine at that time if any one would have played the character of Kailash (containing a range of emotions) so effectively other than Dharmendra. Though, both Kailash and Jeevan love Asha, but in the end the director leaves to the judgment of the audience, Jeevan's love for Asha. Madan Puri as the scientist and Ifthekar as father of Rakhee have supported well.
One of the major attraction of the movie is the music of Kalyanji and Anandji. There are five songs (Mein Doob, Pal Pal dil Ke Paas, Asha o Asha, Naina mere and Mile do badan), all of them are very good (also quite famous), spaced appropriately and blend very well with the character and mood in the movie. All of them have been beautifully sung by Lata and Kishore. The songs also display the versatility of Lata and Kishore. Kishore's Pal do Pal is simply great. In Asha o Asha, Lata sings in two scales to capture the dilemma of Asha's mind. Lata beautifully changes the style of singing in the beginning of the song "Naina bhare rang bhare" to bring in the hesitant and excitement mood (for her acting part Rakhee does it well). The background music is very good, consistent, enjoyable and stands out. The title music pretty much covers the full spectrum of the background music. In the climax of the movie, the music directors have taken the liberty of using "Mission Impossible" theme.
The main strength of Black Mail is Vijay Anand's direction. The story is simple, novel, straight-forward and does not have subplots. If not for Vijay Anand's crisp, and no-nonsense direction and, story telling ability Black Mail would have been "yet another Bollywood movie". Vijay Anand gives enough time for the three main character's to develop and, for the audiences to associate with them. He has very effectively used the songs to move the story forward (thus saving meaningless love scenes and dialogues) and keep the story right on the track. All the songs have importance. Seldom in Hindi movies one can see that. "Mein Doob" depicts the love between Asha and Jeevan. "Pal Pal Dil ke Paas" tells how much Kailash loves Asha. When Jeevan leaves Asha, the song "Asha o Asha" covers the sorrowness, and dilemma of Asha; and eventually her heart accepting Kailash. "Naina mere rang bhare" is the most effective song of the all and covers a range of emotions. The first two stanzas of the song is all about how Asha eagerly awaits thinking that her husband Kailash will accept her and the third stanza depicts the turmoil in Asha when Kailash hesitates to accept her. Finally, how can a Hindi movie end without a duet between the main hero and heroine. The song "Mile Mile do Badan" in the climax of the movie compensates that appropriately.
Kudos to lyricist Rajendra Kishan for writing such beautiful songs.
The only weak point in the movie is climax which does not grabs the same attention as the rest of the movie. It could have been shortened.
Now for the story. Asha and Jeevan are in love. Jeevan's friend Kailash also loves Asha. Why Jeevan leaves Asha? How Asha changes her mind to marry Kailash? Why Kailash is not able to accept Asha after the marriage? How is it beneficial to Jeevan? How Kailash and Asha finally unite? For answer to all these questions, watch the movie. You would not be disappointed.
Overall, Black Mail is one of the better movies of the 70s. I would not mind to recommend it for personal collection.
