'' Balidaan '' is a

1971 * The year 1971 had three partial solar eclipses (Solar eclipse of February 25, 1971, February 25, Solar eclipse of July 22, 1971, July 22 and Solar eclipse of August 20, 1971, August 20) and two total lunar eclipses (February 1971 lunar eclip ...

Bollywood Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, is primarily produced in Mumbai. The popular term Bollywood is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (former name of Mumbai) and "Cinema of the United States, Hollywood". The in ...

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

. The film stars Saira Banu and

Manoj Kumar Manoj Kumar (born Harikrishan Giri Goswami; 24 July 1937 – 4 April 2025) was an Indian actor, film director, screenwriter, lyricist and editor who worked in Hindi cinema. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most successful actors in t ...

. The film was directed by Ravi Tandon and the story as well as the screenplay/dialog were written by Manoj Kumar and Balkishan Mouj.

Plot

Central to the plot of ''Balidaan'' is a reworking of the legendary outlaw hero

Robin Hood Robin Hood is a legendary noble outlaw, heroic outlaw originally depicted in English folklore and subsequently featured in literature, theatre, and cinema. According to legend, he was a highly skilled archer and swordsman. In some versions o ...

, who is believed to have robbed from the rich and given to the poor. Numerous

films A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of Visual arts, visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are gen ...

have adapted the Robin Hood story and several real-life people who have also followed his ideology. In this Hindi-language adaptation, Raja (Manoj Kumar) is a dacoit, a bandit who robs and kills the wealthy and then distributes this wealth to the poor, to whom he feels this wealth rightfully belonged. A smart police officer, Ramesh Singh (Dev Kumar) is assigned by the Police Commissioner (Satyendra Kapoor) to the task of arresting Raja and bringing him to justice. Much of the movie revolves around the careful attempts made by Ramesh to capture Raja and the clever ways in which Raja and his accomplices (Bindu, Ranvir Raj, Mac Mohan) are able to retard these attempts and escape being caught by the police. During the course of these actions, a love interest develops between Raja and Sheela (Saira Banu). Will Raja be punished ultimately for being the dacoit who looted and killed the wealthy? Will he leave a legacy for being the savior who pillaged the wealthy and returned their wealth to the poor, to whom this wealth supposedly belonged? The movie progresses with letting viewers decide whether Raja was just another bandit or a savior of the poor.

Cast

as Raja * Saira Banu as Sheela *

Dev Kumar Dev Kumar (born 4 February 1972) is a Dalit writer and dramatist from India. A member of the Bhangi community, he established the Apna Theatre in April 1992. This has performed in Kanpur Kanpur (Hindustani language, Hindustani: ), origina ...

as Ramesh Singh * Bindu as an accomplice of Raja *Ranvir Raj as an accomplice of Raja *Mac Mohan as an accomplice of Raja *

Bharat Bhushan Bharatbhushan Gupta, better known as Bharat Bhushan (14 June 1920 – 27 January 1992) was an Indian actor in Hindi language films, scriptwriter and producer. He was born in Meerut, and brought up in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh. Career 1941– ...

as Suraj *

Purnima Pūrṇimā () is the word for full moon in Sanskrit. The day of Purnima is the day ('' Tithi'') in each month when the full moon occurs, and marks the division in each month between the two lunar fortnights (paksha), and the Moon is aligned exac ...

as Suraj's wife *Satyendra Kappor as the Police Commissioner *Man Mohan as Vijay Singh

Songs

Music was composed by

Shankar–Jaikishan Shankar–Jaikishan (also known as S-J) were an Indian composer duo of the Hindi film industry, working together from 1949 to 1971. They are widely considered to be one of the greatest music composers of the Hindi film industry. After Jaikisha ...

and

Verma Malik Verma Malik (13 April 1925 – 15 March 2009) was a Bollywood film songs lyricist. He was an active freedom fighter during the British Raj. He wrote many patriotic songs and bhajans and recited them immediately prior to penning lyrics for ...

wrote the lyrics .

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, id=0452143, title=Balidaan 1971 films 1970s Hindi-language films 1970s Indian films 1971 drama films Hindi-language drama films