Zanjeer (Devanagari: ज़ंजीर, Urdu: زنجیر, translated as "Shackles") is a 1973 Hindi film directed and produced by Prakash Mehra, starring Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bachchan, Pran, Ajit and Bindu. The movie changed the trend from romantic films to action films and pioneered Amitabh's new image of a brooding but explosive person who fights back when cornered. He was now known as "The Angry Young Man." The film became a "super-hit", collecting 6 crores at the box office.^[1]

Plot summary[link]

The film opens on Diwali with the death of young Vijay Khanna's parents, done by a man of unknown identity with a white horse on his charm bracelet, "zanjeer". Because of this traumatic event, Vijay has recurring nightmares of a white stallion. Fast forward 20 years, and Vijay (Amitabh Bachchan) is now an inspector, an honest police officer in a town where few are just. He receives complaints about a local man, Sher Khan (Pran), who is running gambling dens. When he calls Khan in for questioning, Khan's superiority complex chafes against Khanna's police authority, as he scolds the officer, telling him he only orders him around due to the uniform he wears. Vijay takes him up on his challenge, and meets him in street clothes to fight him. At fight's end, Sher Khan not only closes his gambling dens, but has gained respect for Vijay. He becomes an auto mechanic, and reforms his ways.

Various dealings of the underworld continue unabated throughout the town, all tracing back to gang leader Teja (Ajit Khan). A mysterious caller continually phones Inspector Khanna to inform him exactly when a crime is about to take place, but hangs up before Khanna can extract any more information out of him. When a traffic accident perpetrated by gang members leaves several children dead, a witness, a street performer named Mala (Jaya Bhaduri), is bribed by Teja's men to keep quiet. When she is questioned by Vijay, he becomes enraged at her denying she knows anything, and, to sway her differently, takes her into the morgue to view the mangled bodies of the children. She has a change of heart, and comes clean, asking that the bribe be donated to an orphanage. She identifies the man behind the traffic accident.

Once it is known that Mala has broken her word, Teja's men come after her. She is chased through the night, narrowly escaping across the train tracks, and coming to Inspector Khanna's house, desperate for shelter. He lets her in, allows her to stay, and the two discover that they are both orphans, and discuss the fears associated with living alone. Khanna kindly takes her to his brother and sister-in-law, and, under the sister-in-law's tutelage, Mala begins to learn how to keep house, as well as English, and other refineries.

Eventually, Vijay is framed for bribery, stripped of his title and position as inspector, and jailed for 6 months on false charges, trapped by Teja. When he is released from jail, he plans to take revenge. Mala, by this time, has developed from a frightened stranger seeking his help to a romantic interest for him. She begs him, to seal their relationship, that he must stop being so vengeful. He agrees, but soon must come to terms with such a promise when he meets, in a Christian cemetery, the informant who had called him in the past when he was an inspector. The man, De Silva (Om Prakash), a Mangalorean Catholic, appears half-insane, holding onto an empty bottle. He says that on Christmas several years before, his three sons drank poisoned moonshine, and died from it. Until the killer is found, he will continue to wander with the bottle. When local criminals mocked him and called him crazy, he vowed to get back at them as he could: by phoning the inspector when a crime was about to happen.

After hearing this news, Vijay becomes depressed, torn between his desire to help the grieving De Silva, and his need to keep his promise to Mala that he would not take any more revenge on the lowlifes of the town. Eventually, along with a concerted effort by Sher Khan to cheer up Vijay, Mala relents, vowing she will not try to control him, and says he must do what is right.

The trail of tainted moonshine leads back to Teja and his men. Upon finally cornering the crook on Diwali, fireworks bursting overhead, Vijay also finds out that the person who murdered his parents, 20 years before, on the same night, is Teja, recognisable by the zanjeer on his wrist. Sher Khan helps him to fight Teja and his men, and take justice into their own hands, until the police arrive. When the hapless police inspector is held at gunpoint by Teja, Vijay manages to drop to retrieve a pistol from the ground, and shoots him dead, his body falling into the swimming pool.

Cast[link]

Actor/Actress	Character/Role	Notes
Amitabh Bachchan	Insp. Vijay Khanna
Jaya Bhaduri	Mala
Pran	Sher Khan
Om Prakash	De Silva
Ajit	Seth Dharam Dayal Teja
Bindu	Mona
Iftekhar	Police Commissioner Singh	as Iftikhar
Keshto Mukherjee	Gangu	as Kesto Mukherji
Randhir	Lala Ashok	Sherkhan's friend - Usurer
M. Rajan	Ranjeet	Vijay's father
Purnima[disambiguation needed ]	Sumitra	Vijay's mother
Nandita Thakur	Shanti Bhabhi
Satyendra Kapoor	Police Inspector	as Satyen Kappoo
Ashalata Wabgaonkar	Police Inspector's wife	Vijay's stepmother (as Asha Lata)
Yunus Parvez	Constable
Ram Sethi	Constable
Gulshan Bawra	Street Singer	Song Deewane Hain
Sanjana	Street Dancer	Song Deewane Hain
Amrit Pal	Man offered 'Sher Khan' money to kill	as Amrit Paul
Bhushan Tiwari	Smuggler, Teja's man	as Bhooshan Tiwari
Javed Khan	Smuggler, Teja's man	as Khan
Ranvir Raj	Smuggler, Teja's man	as Ranbir
Krishan Dhawan	Smuggler, Teja's man	as Dhawan
Mac Mohan	Man caught in Teja's liquor warehouse	as Mack Mohan
D. K. Sapru	Patil	as Sapru
Ram Mohan	Kabir
Goga Kapoor	Goga	as Goga

Crew[link]

• Director: Prakash Mehra
• Writer: Salim-Javed
• Producer: Prakash Mehra, Babboo Mehra
• Production Company: Prakash Mehra Productions
• Editor: [Ramchandra Mahadik (as R.D. Mahadik)
• Art Director: J. J. Bhende
• Cinematographer: N. Satyen
• Stunts: Ravi Khanna, Virendra Kumar
• Costume and Wardrobe: Vasant Mahajan, Shankar Jadhav
• Choreographer: Satyanarayan
• Music Director: Kalyanji Anandji
• Lyricist: Gulshan Bawra
• Playback Singers: Asha Bhosle, Manna Dey, Lata Mangeshkar, Mohammad Rafi

Soundtrack[link]

Awards and nominations[link]

• Filmfare Best Story Award - Salim-Javed
• Filmfare Best Screenplay Award - Salim-Javed
• Filmfare Best Lyricist Award - Gulshan Bawra for the song "Yari Hai Imaan Mera"
• Filmfare Best Editing Award - R. Mahadik
• Filmfare Nomination for Best Film
• Filmfare Nomination for Best Actor - Amitabh Bachchan
• Filmfare Nomination for Best Supporting Actor - Pran
• Filmfare Nomination for Best Music - Kalyanji Anandji
• Filmfare Nomination for Best Male Playback Singer - Manna Dey for the song "Yari Hai Imaan Mera"^[2]

Sequels and remakes[link]

In 2013, a remake of this film was made with the same name. Zanjeer features Ram Charan Teja as Vijay, Priyanka Chopra as Mala, Arjun Rampal as Sher Khan, Prakash Raj as Teja, Mahi Gill as Mona. Priyanka Chopra contracted the film for 9 crore indian rupee turning her the highest paid indian actress^[3].

References[link]

External links[link]

• Zanjeer at the Internet Movie Database