#Samadhi

Bandits can be so fine and romantic... especially when they are Dhamendra 😍😜

Let's throw it back to 1972's Samadhi! 

PLOT:

Lakhan Singh (Dharmendra) is the leader of a gang of armed robbers who are greatly feared in their locality. One evening they raid a village that was celebrating a child’s birth with the feisty Champa (Asha Parekh) dancing and singing. The celebration is interrupted by the arrival of Lakhan and his men who rob everybody. Lakhan takes one look at Champa and is smitten. He throws her onto his horse and rides away with her. 

Back in their cave, Jaggu and Kundan (members of Lakhan's gang) are displeased when Lakhan refuses to 'share' the girl with them. He talks them down and takes Champa to his room to assault her. She refuses him and even shoots him with his own rifle; this makes his respect for her overtake his lust and he decides to escort her home safe. 

When they reach her house, they overhear Champa's aunt and uncle talking about how glad they were to be rid of her and how all her property will now belong to them. This saddens Champa immeasurably and she decides to cast her lot in with Lakhan, who is now completely in love with her. 

They get married in a temple and Lakhan gives up his gang life to settle with her; he even changes his name to Laxman (but I will keep using Lakhan for easy reference). He buys a cart with the proceeds from selling Champa’s jewelry, which she forces him to accept, and they build a happy life (of course with some pretty songs in between 😊). Together, they have a son, Jaswant.

A few years into their new life, Champa becomes very ill with cancer and the doctor tell Lakhan that her treatment would be expensive. He approaches a local moneylender named Lalaji to borrow the money to treat his wife but the guy was just too callous (all Lakhan needed was 5,000 Rupees). 

On his way home from Lalaji’s, a desperate Lakhan sees a little boy (named is Ajay who is about the same age as his own son) playing in the courtyard of a big mansion and gets an idea (a bad idea, if I might add). He scribbles something on a paper and gives it to the maid who was with the boy telling her that his employer had sent it for her master; he tells her that he would watch the boy whilst she ran the errand.

Inside the mansion, Ajay’s father, Manoharlal is horrified to read a ransom note from Bandit Lakhan Singh instructing him to bring 5,000 Rupees to a temple that evening in exchange for his son. He does so, but tragedy strikes when Lakhan, who was in a hurry to return to Champa with the money, rushes down the rocky slope beneath the temple to meet Manoharlal, loses his footing and accidentally drop the boy, who rolls down the hill and die (I cried at this scene... it was just too painful and heartbreaking).

Manoharlal reaches the temple from another side and calls desperately for Lakhan to return his son. Feeling terrible, Lakhan hides until Manoharlal gives up and goes; he buries the boy under the rocks. He returns home dejected and finds Jaswant outside crying, Champa had died.

With the police now looking for him, Lakhan, takes Jaswant and returns to his life as a bandit; they welcome him back and his bad ways take a full swing. The gang members become fond of Jaswant, they even begin to teach him things like how to fire a rifle (which Lakhan didn't approve of). Years of looting pass and the police finally catch up with them; Lakhan escapes with Jaswant while the others are either arrested or killed. Lakhan ends up at the temple where little Ajay had died, he is suddenly reminded of his haunting past. He sees people who had just finished worshiping in the temple and notices a frail man get into his car. He meets with the temple's priest to enquire about the man. 

The man is Manoharlal, his wife had died from the shock of Ajay's kidnapping and he comes to the temple every day with the hope that he will find his lost son. Struck anew with guilt, Lakhan makes a decision that will profoundly affect the rest of his and Jaswant’s lives.He goes to Manoharlal's house and declares Jaswant as Ajay, convincing him that on the day the ransom was to be paid he had been forced to flee with Ajay because of the police. He tells him that he has brought Ajay up for the past eight years as his own son. 

Manoharlal's brother calls the police and Lakhan is arrested and sent to prison for 17 years. Jaswant (now Ajay) grows up (is his father's look alike) and fall in love with Rekha (Jaya Bhaduri). Lakhan is released from prison and he goes to Manoharlal's house to find his son; he is elated to see him but Ajay is not as happy referring to him as 'Daku Lakhan Singh' (Daku is hindi for Dacoit). Manoharlal scold him and tell him that Lakhan will live with them going forward. Ajay is pissed and walks away. 

Ajay does not trust Lakhan and shows it. He even slaps Lakhan during an incident when they found him with a gun. 

Ajay gets engaged to Rekha and Lakhan is very happy. He imagines that he is standing there at the venue as the father of the groom and also hands out sweets to the guest in excitement before Manoharlal's brother come to chase him out. 

Lakhan's grave past catches up with him as he meets Jaggu (a former gang member) who had also been released from prison but has not let go of his bad ways. Jaggu plans to rob Manoharlal much to the disapproval of Lakhan. Jaggu visits Lakhan at home and they have an arguement and a struggle which was broken by Manoharlal (he had heard their arguement and realised that Ajay was not his son). Lakhan leaves Manoharlal's house for good afterwards.

On Ajay's wedding day, Lakhan stands outside the mansion with some beggers watching the event from afar. He notices Jaggu and the other bandits pose as guests following the wedding procession. As he was about to stop them, some of them capture him and begin to hit him. Ajay's wedding is disrupted by the bandits who begin to rob but Ajay will have none of it as he swings into hero mode and begins to take them down one by one. Lakhan too fights for his life and defeats the two bandits that captured him; he enters the mansion and has a face off with Jaggu with the intention to kill him but he is stopped by Manoharlal.

As Lakhan and Manorhalal were talking, Jaggu picks his rifle and shoots Lakhan. Ajay shoots Jaggu from behind and kills him. As Lakhan lie on the floor breathing his last, Manoharlal reveals to Ajay that Lakhan was his real father. Lakhan dies and all are in despair.

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I really loved this film. It's my third film seeing Dhamendra play a double role. He looked really cute an as old man ...

And that scene where he dropped the real Ajay at the temple, it was oh so real and I truely cried. I felt so bad more for Lakhan than the boy who died.

When Champa died, the way that kid cried, he couldn't have been acting and if he was, he deserved the Filmfare award for that year.

The film was filled with a number of 'what the heck?' but it had the stellar performance of Dhamendra so I will pardon but still mention them 😃 

Anyways, it was the 70's and they did a great job! 

So here goes...

- Lakhan and Champa's love and marriage. Everything happened overnight. Literally!

- Manoharlal must really have a forgiving heart to accept Lakhan so easily. Who does that?

- Ajay grows up to be Lakhan's look alike and no one notices?!

- Oh yes, the magic beards of Bollywood that can disguise anyone beyond recognition 😝

My favorite song from the movie is 'Jab Tak Rahe Tan Mein Jiya'