Dharmatma

Dharmatma (1975) : Brief Review -

This first-ever Indian adaptation of "The Godfather" actually makes things more accessible for Hindi audiences. Feroz Khan was heavily inspired by Hollywood flicks, mostly gangster flicks and Western flicks. You'll find many more adaptations and references in his filmography, but can you believe that he actually managed to pull The Godfather's adaptation in 1975, just a year after The Godfather's sequel? I still believe The Godfather is difficult to understand for mainstream Hindi audiences even today. Then let's just assume that the 70s audiences who were growing up with typical masala movies couldn't understand it properly. Those artistic references, dark theme, and heavily intense narrative-everything was new even for Hollywood audiences, then forget about Indian audiences. Feroz Khan picked the soul of The Godfather and put it in a desi body. It's much simpler and more accessible than the original, that is, for Indian audiences. He also gives a nice touch of patriotism to the main hero's character, as you see him giving up everything in the end. His main motive was revenge, not greed or money. That's the biggest strength of Dharmatma. We Indians can't really fall for the characters like Vito and Michael. We need sympathetic gestures and emotional boundings, which Dharmatms gets right. The past romance of Ranbir, i.e., Reshma, is sweet too. You get two memorable songs: "kya Khoob Lagti Ho" and "Tere Chehre Mein Wo Jadoo Hai." Hema Malini looks so gorgeous, and even Rekha plays such a cute character. Feroz Khan nails it as an actor, and Prem Nath as Dharmatma was nothing like Vito but far more localized and grounded. The supporting cast has also done well. Khan's direction is also good, actually much better than his acting. Overall, if you love The Godfather as a Hindi cinema audience, then you got to love Dharmatma.

RATING - 7/10*

By - #samthebestest.