''Coolie'' is a 1983 Indian

action comedy Action comedy is a genre that combines aspects of action and comedy. The genre is most prevalent in film with action comedy films, though several TV series fit this genre. Film The action comedy film is a film genre that combines aspects of actio ...

film, directed by

Manmohan Desai Manmohan Desai (26 February 1937 – 1 March 1994) was an Indian film producer and director. He was one of the most successful filmmaker of the 70s and 80s. Desai is now considered one of most influential film director of Bollywood and a pionee ...

and written by

Kader Khan Kader Khan (22 October 1937 – 31 December 2018) was an Indian actor, screenwriter and film director. As an actor, he appeared in over 300 Bollywood films after his debut film in the 1973 film '' Daag'', starring Rajesh Khanna, in which he ...

. The film stars

Amitabh Bachchan Amitabh Bachchan (; born as Amitabh Shrivastav; 11 October 1942) is an Indian actor, film producer, television host, occasional playback singer and former politician known for his work in Hindi cinema. He is regarded as one of the most succes ...

as Iqbal Aslam Khan, a railway

coolie A coolie (also spelled koelie, kuli, khuli, khulie, cooli, cooly, or quli) is a term for a low-wage labourer, typically of South Asian or East Asian descent. The word ''coolie'' was first popularized in the 16th century by European traders acros ...

, with supporting roles played by

Rishi Kapoor Rishi Raj Kapoor (4 September 1952 — 30 April 2020) was an Indian actor, film director and producer who worked in Hindi films. He was the recipient of several accolades, including four Filmfare Awards and a National Film Award. Born into t ...

, Rati Agnihotri, Shoma Anand,

Waheeda Rehman Waheeda Rehman (born 3 February 1938) is an Indian actress and dancer. Regarded as one of Hindi cinema's finest actresses, Rehman's accolades include a National Film Award and three Filmfare Awards. Rehman was honoured with the Padma Shri by ...

Suresh Oberoi Suresh Oberoi (born 17 December 1946) is an Indian actor and politician who appeared in Hindi films. He is a recipient of the 1987 National Film Award for Best Supporting Actor. He started his career in radio shows, modelling and later moving ...

and Puneet Issar. It was highest-grossing film of the year. The film was a major blockbuster upon release, considered All Time Blockbuster. The film is infamous for a fight scene with co-star Puneet Issar, during which Amitabh Bachchan had a near-fatal injury due to a miscalculated jump.

Plot

A wealthy, but evil man named Zafar Khan, has fallen in love with a girl named Salma and wants to marry her, but she and her father did not let him. Zafar was arrested for various crimes and was imprisoned for 10 years, but when he is released, he sees that Salma is married to a good man named Aslam Khan. Zafar Khan wants to convince Salma to marry him but Salma refuses. Zafar murders Salma's father and plots his revenge by flooding the region in which Salma lives, nearly killing Aslam and injuring Salma, causing her to lose her memory. During this catastrophe, Salma is also separated from her young son Iqbal. On a railway platform, Iqbal attempts to go after her on foot while Salma is on a train, but he slips and the train leaves the platform. 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, 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. In the process of a heated fight, Iqbal's uncle has lost his right arm, to which Iqbal tells him he will serve as his uncle's right arm from the present onward. 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 be a dashing, confident young man, and is considered the leader of the local coolies. During an incident with a man named Mr. Puri, a coolie is beaten up badly, to which Iqbal is infuriated. Mr. Puri is beaten up, but Iqbal is wrongfully imprisoned for his actions. On the same day, however, he is set free. 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. In another attempt to get Salma back, Iqbal rushes to her house to bring her back after all these years, but, to his horror, Salma does not recognize him. Zafar is infuriated at Iqbal's trespass. His crooks, disguised as police officers, near-fatally beat Iqbal, while he takes Salma to the psychiatrist to administer electric shocks on her so that her memory never returns. Sunny threatens to publish all of Zafar's crimes in the newspapers the following day if he does not return Salma to him. Iqbal and Sunny become friends, and both find love; Iqbal with a Christian girl Julie D'Costa and Sunny with his childhood sweetheart, Deepa. Meanwhile, Aslam has been imprisoned for a crime he did not commit. When he is finally let out, Julie tries to kill him in a graveyard because she thought he had murdered her father, John D'Costa, but, as the revolver is empty, she cannot fire. Aslam explains that Zafar had murdered her father, and framed Aslam, to which Julie believes him. 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, during the election standoff between the communist workers under Iqbal and the capitalist lords under Zafar 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 Aslam. 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, who then proceeds to shoot Aslam but accidentally shoots and kills Iqbal's beloved mamu (maternal uncle) who cared for him in his youth. Zafar then abducts Salma. Iqbal and Sunny both chase after the evildoers, killing Mr. Puri (who dies from a heart attack due to the mental pressure of the chase) and Vicky (who falls out of Zafar's car and is run over by an oncoming truck) in the process, until Iqbal corners Zafar in a

masjid A mosque (; from ar, مَسْجِد, masjid, ; literally "place of ritual prostration"), also called masjid, is a place of prayer for Muslims. Mosques are usually covered buildings, but can be any place where prayers ( sujud) are performed, ...

. The holy

shroud Shroud usually refers to an item, such as a cloth, that covers or protects some other object. The term is most often used in reference to ''burial sheets'', mound shroud, grave clothes, winding-cloths or winding-sheets, such as the famous Sh ...

from the

dargah A dargah ( fa, درگاه ''dargâh'' or ''dargah'', Turkish: ''dergâh'', Hindustani: ''dargah'' दरगाह درگاہ, bn, দরগাহ ''dorgah'') is a shrine or tomb built over the grave of a revered religious figure, ofte ...

shrine flies onto Iqbal's chest, and Iqbal defiantly faces Zafar with the belief in God's protection from harm with His name on his chest. He is shot several times by Zafar, but he continues to chase Zafar up the

minaret A minaret (; ar, منارة, translit=manāra, or ar, مِئْذَنة, translit=miʾḏana, links=no; tr, minare; fa, گل‌دسته, translit=goldaste) is a type of tower typically built into or adjacent to mosques. Minarets are generall ...

, saying a part of the

shahada The ''Shahada'' (Arabic: ٱلشَّهَادَةُ , "the testimony"), also transliterated as ''Shahadah'', is an Islamic oath and creed, and one of the Five Pillars of Islam and part of the Adhan. It reads: "I bear witness that there is no ...

with each shot. With the last of his strength, he cries the

takbir The Takbir ( ar, تَكْبِير, , "magnification f God) is the name for the Arabic phrase ' (, ), meaning "God is the greatest". It is a common Arabic expression, used in various contexts by Muslims and Arabs around the world: in formal Salah ...

and pushes Zafar off the

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an extension of the wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/breast'). ...

, killing him instantly, and Iqbal collapses into his mother's arms. Coolies from all faiths pray hard for his recovery, and Iqbal recovers from his injuries to the joy of all.

Cast

as Iqbal Khan / Lambuji *

as Sunny Khan / Tinguji * Rati Agnihotri as Julie D' Costa * Shoma Anand as Deepa Iyengar *

as Zafar Khan *

as Salma Khan * Puneet Issar as Bob *

Satyendra Kapoor Satyendra Kappu (born Satyendra Sharma; also credited as Satyen Kappu; 7 February 1931 – 27 October 2007), was an Indian character actor in Bollywood films. He has acted in 390 films. His most remembered role is Ramlal in the movie ''Sholay'' ( ...

as Aslam Khan (Iqbal's Father) *

as Vicky Puri * Om Shivpuri as Om Puri *

Nilu Phule Nilu Phule (Marathi pronunciation: iɭuː pʰuleː 4 April 1930 - 13 July 2009) was an Indian actor known for his roles in Marathi movies and Marathi theatre. Nilu Phule acted in around 250 Marathi and Hindi movies during his film career. He ...

as Nathu *

Mukri Mohammed Umar Mukri (5 January 1922 – 4 September 2000), popularly known as Mukri, was an Indian actor, who worked as a comedian in Hindi films. Born as Muhammad Umar Mukri in Uran, in Kokani Muslim Family. He started his film career with th ...

as Deepa's Father *

Tun Tun Tun Tun
Press Release, Goga Kapoor as Goga * Amrish Puri as John D' Costa (Julie's father) * Ballu Eagle as Allah Rakha Shabbir Kumar was used for the first time to provide playback for Amitabh Bachchan.

Production

The script was written by

, who also stars as the film's antagonist. In addition to having Bachchan play a

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abraha ...

protagonist, Khan incorporated elements of Islamic

Sufi Sufism ( ar, ''aṣ-ṣūfiyya''), also known as Tasawwuf ( ''at-taṣawwuf''), is a mystic body of religious practice, found mainly within Sunni Islam but also within Shia Islam, which is characterized by a focus on Islamic spirituality, r ...

mysticism into the script, including various Sufi motifs and references. Before the film started Bachchan asked Kannada legendary actor Rajkumar to make his cameo in the film. There was mutual respect between Amitabh and Rajkumar and they were both admirers of each other.

Accident

The film became famous even before its release when

was critically injured on 26 July 1982 in the intestines while filming a fight scene with co-star Puneet Issar at the Bangalore University campus, which almost cost him his life. In the fight scene, Bachchan was supposed to fall onto a table but miss-timed his jump. This resulted in an internal abdominal injury. He was transferred to a Mumbai hospital, where according to the actor, he went into a "haze and coma-like situation", and was "clinically dead for a couple of minutes". While he was in the hospital, there were reports of widespread mourning, and prayers were offered by many Indians in the country and abroad. According to reports,

Rajiv Gandhi Rajiv Gandhi (; 20 August 1944 – 21 May 1991) was an Indian politician who served as the sixth prime minister of India from 1984 to 1989. He took office after the 1984 assassination of his mother, then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, to beco ...

canceled a trip to the United States to be with him. Bachchan received 60 bottles of blood from 200 donors, one of whom was carrying the

Hepatitis B Hepatitis B is an infectious disease caused by the ''Hepatitis B virus'' (HBV) that affects the liver; it is a type of viral hepatitis. It can cause both acute and chronic infection. Many people have no symptoms during an initial infection. For ...

virus. Bachchan recovered from the accident but discovered in 2000 that the virus had resulted in

cirrhosis Cirrhosis, also known as liver cirrhosis or hepatic cirrhosis, and end-stage liver disease, is the impaired liver function caused by the formation of scar tissue known as fibrosis due to damage caused by liver disease. Damage causes tissue repai ...

of the liver, which damaged about 75% of his liver. Bachchan later spoke out about his experience to raise awareness about the Hepatitis B vaccine. Despite the critical injury, Bachchan recovered remarkably and resumed shooting on 7 January 1983. In the final cut of the film, the fight scene during which he got injured was frozen and a message appears marking the scene as the one in which he was injured. Manmohan Desai did this on Amitabh's wish. Due to Bachchan's injury, the ending was also changed. The original script showed Amitabh dying after Kader Khan shot him. But later on, after the injury-and-recovery episode,

, thinking that this would have a negative impact on the movie as well as a bad feeling in the audience, decided to change the ending. The modified ending has the hero recover after his operation.

Soundtrack

The music was by Laxmikant-Pyarelal and the lyrics were penned by Anand Bakshi. Manmohan Desai put Shabbir Kumar as a singer for multiple songs in the soundtrack due to the fact that his voice sounded like Mohammed Rafi's voice, who Manmohan admired as a singer.

Box office

It was the highest grossing Bollywood film of 1983, with in gross revenue. It was declared "super-hit" by Boxoffice India in 2009. The film made over per territory, a rare achievement for the time and was a huge blockbuster. In 1984, it was estimated that the film had sold 70million tickets. According to ''Bollyviewsyt.com'', the film was an "All Time Blockbuster" in reference to the time of its release.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Coolie (1983 Film) 1983 films 1980s Hindi-language films Films scored by Laxmikant–Pyarelal Films directed by Manmohan Desai Indian action comedy films Films shot in Bangalore 1980s action comedy films