Coolie (1983)

Coolie Movie Trailer 1983

Crew

Directed by     Manmohan Desai
Prayag Raj
Produced by     Ketan Desai
Written by     Smt. Jeevanprabha M. Desai ,Kader Khan,Prayag Raj,K.K. Shukla
Music by     Laxmikant-Pyarelal
Cinematography     Peter Pereira
Editing by     Hrishikesh Mukherjee
Distributed by     Aasia Films Pvt. Ltd.
M.K.D. Films Combine

Cast

    Amitabh Bachchan....Iqbal Khan
    Rishi Kapoor.... Sunny
    Rati Agnihotri .... Julie D' Costa
    Kader Khan .... Zafar Khan
    Waheeda Rehman.... Salma
    Amrish Puri ... D' Costa
    Om Shivpuri... Om Puri
    Tun Tun...Mother of 7 babies
    Shoma Anand...Deepa Iyengar
    Suresh Oberoi...Vicky Puri
    Goga Kapoor...Goga
    Eagle... Allah Rakha
    Puneet Issar.. as Zafar's Sidekick
    Nilu Phule.. as Nathu (Mama)


Story

A wealthy, but evil man named Zafar Khan (Kader Khan), has fallen in love with a girl named Salma (Waheeda Rahman) and wants to marry her, but she and her father do not let him. Zafar is arrested for various crimes and is imprisoned for 10 years, but when he is discharged, he sees that Salma is married to a good man named Aslam Khan (Satyendra Kapoor). Zafar Khan, wants to convince Salma to marry him but Salma refuses. Zafar plots his revenge by flooding the region in which Salma lives in, killing her father, injuring Aslam and Salma, causing her to lose her memory. During this catastrophe, Salma is also separated from her young son, Iqbal (Amitabh Bachchan). Zafar abducts Salma and tells the world she is his wife. He also adopts an infant from an orphanage in Kanpur, a boy named Sunny (Rishi Kapoor), for Salma to raise on the advice of a psychiatrist. Meanwhile, Iqbal is reunited with his uncle, who has lost his wife and son in the flood. The uncle will raise Iqbal as his own, as they have no more family.

Years pass, and Iqbal and his uncle work as coolies. Iqbal has grown up to a be a dashing, confident young man, and is considered the leader of the local coolies. He organizes a labor strike, which brings the station to its knees. Sunny, a young, budding reporter, is covering the story. While speaking to Sunny, Iqbal sees a picture of Sunny's mother who turns out to be Salma. Iqbal rushes to Salma's house to see her after all these years, but upon meeting her son, she has no recollection of him. Zafar is infuriated by Iqbal's trespass and has his guards severely beat him, while he takes Salma to the psychiatrist to administer electric shocks on her so that her memory never returns.

Iqbal and Sunny become friends, and both find love; Iqbal with a Christian girl Julie D'Costa (Rati Agnihotri) and Sunny with his childhood sweetheart, Deepa (Shoma Anand). Things are looking up, but the coolies uncover a banking and housing scandal against them. After a series of run-ins with the corrupt parties, Iqbal finds himself in a fight to the death with Zafar. Salma returns at a very pivotal scene in the film, with her old memories intact and she publicly testifies against Zafar and how he destroyed her family. In the crowd is an old man, who turns out to be Iqbal's long-lost father. Also, Iqbal's uncle recognizes a birthmark on Sunny, proving that Sunny was indeed the son he thought he had lost in the great flood. The family is reunited, much to the fury of Zafar. Iqbal is shot several times by Zafar, but he manages to throw Zafar off a building, killing him instantly. Coolies from all faiths pray hard for his recovery, and Iqbal recovers from his injuries.

Did you know?

1. While filming an action scene, Amitabh Bachchan was doing his own stunts. He had to fall onto a table and then on the ground. But when he jumped towards the table, the corner of the table hit his abdomen. He had a splenic rupture and lost a large amount of blood. He was flown out and needed urgent operation (splenectomy) and was critically ill for a while. A rumor spread that he had died from the accident. The nation (most of it anyway) mourned. Later there were mile-long queues of well-wishing fans outside the hospital where he was recuperating.
2. During the fighting scene where Amitabh Bachchan was injured, the moment is marked with a freeze frame, and a message is displayed in English, Hindi, and Urdu - "This is the shot in which AMITABH BACHCHAN was seriously injured".
3. A poster of the movie Gopichand Jasoos appears in the background of the railway platform when Iqbal has his first fighting encounter with Vicky. Gopichand Jasoos starred Raj Kapoor who is the father of 'Rishi kapoor' who plays the role of Sunny in Coolie.
4. Manmohan Desai originally proposed a sad ending for the film. Amitabh was to die in the climax, but it was decided that after Amitabh's real-life fight with death during the shoot, the audience would not accept his death in the movie. So the climax was changed and a happy ending was shot.