Page 42 - Seniors Today - Oct 2019

Once Upon A Time
Films

The revolutionary seven

Well known as the Big B’s first step into filmdom, Saat Hindustani also
chronicles the struggles of an era, writes Deepa Gahlot

A small film with new actors might have been where Maria (Shahnaaz—daughter of Jalal
forgotten, but for the fact that one of them went Agha and wife of Tinnu Anand) awaits life-
on to become India’s biggest superstars. saving surgery, but wants doctor (AK Hangal)
Saat Hindustani, directed by KA Abbas was to hold off till her buddies arrive. This being
released on November 7, 1969, making it 50 the era before the telecom revolution, a nurse is
years since Amitabh Bachchan made his debut. dispatched to send off a bunch of telegrams to
The tall, lanky actor was deemed unsuitable for six men whose photographs are displayed on
mainstream Bollywood, and got his first break her bedside table.
from Abbas, an acquaintance of the family, who
also cast in the film a pick of theatre actors and
some kids of industry folk.
When the film came out, his angry young man
days were still a few years away—Zanjeer was
released in 1973—but that intensity was very
much on view in his role as a poet, and India’s
most famous hairstyle was in place.
The film also remains one of the few that
captures the Goa Liberation Struggle, a major
event in contemporary history.
Saat Hindustani starts in a Goan hospital, Amitabh was initially deemed unsuitable for films

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