During the mid-seventies, when Amitabh Bachchan was on his way to become a superstar, he faced serious competition from Vinod Khanna. Old timers will recollect that at one point Khanna who was a wee bit ahead in the neck-and-neck race between the duo though later he decided to quit the industry for a spiritual quest.
What distinguished Khanna from his contemporaries was his eclectic choice of films, reflected in “Inkaar”, the 1978 remake of the Japanese movie “High and Low” (1963) directed by Akira Kurosawa (based on an “King’s Ransom” (1959) by Ed McBain). The debut venture of director Raj N. Sippy, “Inkaar” was in a different league from the ‘lost and found’ formula films helping the actor escape been typecast.
Produced by Romu N Sippy, it has a formidable support cast besides Vinod Khanna in the lead, along with the demure Vidya Sinha. Amjad Khan, who had earned his spurs just three years earlier as Gabbar Singh in “Sholay” is formidable as the psychopathic kidnapper, Raj Singh, who forms backbone of the fast paced crime thriller with the diabolical laughter and steely eyes lending credence to his role.
The films starts with Haridas Choudhry (Shreeram Lagoo), wealthy owner of a shoe company refusing to bow to the pressure of his business associates to lower the quality of the products. He reasons his honesty and hard work enabled him to achieve his present status from a cobbler thereby allowing him to provide a good life for his family consisting of wife Somu, son Guddu and sister Geeta (Vidya Sinha). To overcome this opposition he decides to buy the shares of his associates and raises funds to do so when he receives a ransom call for his son. Much to his relief, he finds that Bansi, son of his servant, Sitaram (Sadhu Mehar) had been wrongly kidnapped.
Instinctively, Haridas refuses to pay any ransom Nonetheless, on constant pleading by Geeta and Somu, the kind hearted Haridas, who has always treated Sitaram and his son as part of the family, relents, and decides to pay the ransom. The police team appears on the scene headed by CID inspector Amarnath Gill (Vinod Khanna) with whom Geeta was forced to sever here relationship by her brother who felt that he will not be able to take care of her needs and comforts.
It is from this stage that the cat and mouse game begins in the film as Raj Singh (Amjad Khan), had planned the crime carefully with the help of his two associates, Manmohan (Bharat Kapoor) and Preeti (Sheetal) thereby keeping him well ahead of the law enforcing agencies, till the hard work and diligent chase by Gill and his team bears fruit. Following a painstakingly laid out plan, they are able to capture the two and secure the freedom of Bansi, although the booty remains untraceable. A cornered Raj Singh who had hatched the conspiracy to settle an old grudge against Haridas, is able to see through all the traps laid by the CID and goes on a killing spree, before being killed by Gill.
The film is a tad long for the genre and could have been easily shortened. There were some tedious deviations in the otherwise taut screenplay byJyoti Swaroop while the dialogues by Sagar Sarhadi lacked punch, a necessity to add flavour and fire to the proceedings. The flashback romantic scenes between Gill and Geeta could have been curtailed.
Vidya Sinha does justice to her role. The music by Rajesh Roshan, set to lyrics by Majrooh Sultanpuri, could be dubbed as lacklustre with the exception of an item number “O Mungda Mungda” filmed on Helen. Sung by Usha Mangeshkar, it remains a chartbusters till date and a favourite of deejays. Cinematography by Anwar Siraj is slick, especially the fight sequences (composed by Veeru Devgun) as is the editing by Waman Bhosle and Gurudutt Shirali.
