Despite my blind purchase of this film (I only glanced at the plot summary before of buying the film), this film turned out to be worth the money and worth the time.
Dharmendra and Ajit play brothers Ranjit and Ajit who were forced to become dacoits thanks to the villain giving a false testimony against their father and throwing their mother out of the house. Tragic Hindi film fate, but what can you do. Vinod plays Sarju, a loyal member of the gang. Hema plays Asha, a girl who Sarju attempts to rape during a looting of a village, but Ranjit saves her. She makes him consider giving up life as a crook as they fall in love.
It's one of those complex Hindi film plots that just don't make any sense when explained. You have to watch it to understand it, and endure all the over-dramatic dialogues about revenge, blood, honor and so on and so forth. I happen to like the over-dramatic liners, even if they at times sounded like a first class delivery from Film Cliché Library. It just worked for me, the story and the performances.
Dharam was great as the dacoit with a heart in the right place. That's the thing about Dharmendra, those angry lines could sound so dumb coming from someone else's mouth but when he says he's going to hack someone into little pieces or swears revenge or something, it just works. It especially worked in this film, because of the character's nature. He had good chemistry with Hema, I especially loved the scene where she makes him consider his actions as a dacoit, looting places shamelessly. Hema's performance was not like her brilliant one in Khushboo, but still wonderful. The character wasn't helpless, but as a woman she was obviously overpowered by men in terms of strength - no SAG butt-kicking to be witnessed here.
What could be witnessed was some very lovely dancing by one of the industry's best ever dancers (that's Hema I'm talking, not Dharam). The music was okay, pretty catchy and maybe better with more listening, but overall I wasn't hugely impressed. The item number girl in Kaun Hoon Main I didn't even recognize. She had some of the skimpiest clothing I've ever witnessed in an oldie, though. Another interesting fact is that the film only had songs sung by Asha and Lata - no male singers had to open their mouths for this one! But back to actors. Vinod Khanna was good. This was the first full film I'd seen him in and definitely liked the guy. He was sleazy in just the right way.
I rate it 8/10 as a typical, yet good, 70's flick. It kept me entertained and had very little of those moments that just drag on and on.
