''Mere Apne'' is a 1971 Indian

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

-language film written and directed by

Gulzar Gulzar (born Sampooran Singh Kalra; 18 August 1934) is an Indian Urdu poetry, Urdu poet, lyricist, author, screenwriter, and film director known for his works in Hindi cinema. He is regarded as one of greatest Urdu poets of this era. He starte ...

in his directorial debut and produced by Romu, Raj and N. C. Sippy. A remake of the 1968

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

film ''

Apanjan ''Apanjan'', or simply ''Aponjon'' (English: ''One's own people)'' is a 1968 Indian Bengali language socio-political drama film directed by Tapan Sinha. The film is produced by R.K Kapoor under the banner of K.L Kapoor Productions and is based o ...

'', it was the first movie of Vinod Khanna as Hero. This was also debut movie of Danny. The film stars

Meena Kumari Meena Kumari (born Mahjabeen Bano; 1 August 1933 – 31 March 1972) was an Indian actress and poet, who worked in Hindi films. Known as "The Tragedy Queen", she is regarded among the finest and greatest actresses in the history of Indian cinem ...

Vinod Khanna Vinod Khanna (6 October 1946 – 27 April 2017) was an Indian actor, film producer, and politician known for his work in Hindi cinema. He is regarded as one of the greatest actors of Hindi cinema. Recognised as a style and fashion icon, he wa ...

and

Shatrughan Sinha Shatrughan Prasad Sinha (born 15 July 1946) is an Indian actor and politician. He is a Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha from Asansol constituency as a member of All India Trinamool Congress (TMC). Earlier he was elected as Member of Parliament ...

in lead roles along with

Deven Verma Deven Verma (23 October 1937 – 2 December 2014) was an Indian film and television actor, particularly known for his comic roles, with Bollywood directors like Basu Chatterji, Hrishikesh Mukherjee and Gulzar. He also produced and directed fi ...

Paintal Paintal is an Indian surname. "Paintal" (Gotra) is a surname of Ahluwalias amongst Sikhs. This surname is native to Punjab. Persons having this surname include: Notable people * Paintal (comedian) (born 1948), Indian comedian * Autar Singh Paint ...

, Asit Sen,

Asrani Govardhan Asrani (born 1 January 1941), known popularly by mononym Asrani, is an Indian actor and director whose Bollywood career has spanned over five decades. He has acted in over 350 Hindi films. Asrani has played the lead roles, character ...

Danny Denzongpa Danny Denzongpa (born Tshering Phintso Denzongpa; 25 February 1948) is an Indian actor, playback singer, film director, and liquor baron. His film career was primarily in Hindi, but also occasionally in Bengali, Nepali, and Tamil films. In a ...

Keshto Mukherjee Keshto Mukherjee (7 August 1925 – 3 March 1982) was an Indian actor and comedian. He was born in Kolkata, Bengal Presidency, British India. He specialised in comic drunkard roles in Hindi films. Though he was famous for his drunkard typecast ...

A. K. Hangal Avtar Kishan Hangal (1 February 1914 – 26 August 2012) was an Indian freedom fighter and actor. His most notable roles are as Ram Shastri in '' Aaina'' (1977), as the Inder Sen in '' Shaukeen'', as Bipinlal Pandey in '' Namak Haraam'', as I ...

Dinesh Thakur Dinesh Thakur (1947 – 20 September 2012) was an Indian theatre director, actor in theatre, television and Hindi film, where most notably he appeared as one of the leads in '' Rajnigandha'' 1974 and directed by Basu Chatterjee, which won bot ...

Mehmood Mahmud is a transliteration of the male Arabic given name (), common in most parts of the Islamic world. It comes from the Arabic triconsonantal root Ḥ-M-D, meaning ''praise'', along with ''Muhammad''. Given name Mahmood *Mahmood Ali (1928� ...

and

Yogeeta Bali Yogeeta Bali (born 13 August 1952) is a former Indian Bollywood actress. She was active from the early 1970s to the late 1980s. Biography Yogeeta Bali was born on 13 August 1952, to actors Syed Irshad Hussain and Hardarshan Kaur. A cousin of ...

. The music of the film is composed by

Salil Choudhury Salil Chowdhury (19 November 1925 – 5 September 1995) was an Indian music director, songwriter, lyricist, writer and poet who predominantly composed for Bengali, Hindi and Malayalam films. He composed music for films in 13 languages. This inc ...

. ''Mere Apne'' was declared " Hit " at the box office.

Plot

Anandi Devi (

) is an old widow who lives in a village. One day, she is visited by a distant relative, Arun Gupta (Ramesh Deo), who persuades her to live in town with him, his wife Lata (

Sumita Sanyal Sumita Sanyal (9 October 1945 – 9 July 2017) was an Indian actress who is known for her work in Bengali and Hindi cinema. She made her debut opposite Uttam Kumar in Bibhuti Laha's '' Khokababur Pratyabartan'' (1960). She subsequently appeared ...

), and a small child. She later realizes that they were looking for a maid, which results in her expulsion from the house and befriending a child beggar who takes her to his dilapidated home. Being good-natured and caring, she slowly earns the title of "Nani Ma" (maternal grandmother) among groups of youths led by Shyam (

) and Chhenu (

), who were in a constant fight with each other. At one time in the movie, she asks them why don't they go to the "madarsa" to study, insinuating that a) colleges are not worth going since, as the movie-plot consistently points out, they witness strikes most of the time, and b) this killing of time could have been avoided. The movie ends with her death from accidental gunfire in one such response.

Cast

as Anandi Devi *

as Shyam *

as Chhenu *

as Niranjan, Anandi's deceased husband *

as Raghunath, Chhenu's team mate *

as Sanju * Yogesh Chhabra as Pandey part of Shatrughan Sinha’s team *

as Bansi *

as Billoo *Sudhir Thakkar as Ranbir *

Ramesh Deo Ramesh Deo (30 January 1929 – 2 February 2022) was an Indian film actor who worked in more than 285 Hindi films, 190 Marathi films and 30 Marathi dramas with over 200 showings in his long career. He also produced feature films, television s ...

as Arun Gupta *

as Lata *

as Sri Anokhelal * Asit Sen as Biloki Prasad *

Abhi Bhattacharya Abhi Bhattacharya (20 November 1921 – 11 August 1993) was an Indian actor of Hindi and Bengali cinema, who is most remembered for his roles in films of the 1950s and the 1960s, such as '' Yatrik'' (1952), ''Jagriti'' (1954), '' Anuradha'' (1 ...

as Freedom Fighter *

Leela Mishra Leela Mishra (1 January 1908 – 17 January 1988) was an Indian actress. She worked as a character actor in over 200 Hindi films for five decades, and is best remembered for playing stock characters such as aunts (''Chachi'' or ''Mausi''). She ...

as Gupta's maidservant *

Shashi Kiran Shashi may refer to: Places and jurisdictions China *Shashi City (), Hubei from 1949 to 1994 *Shashi District (), Jingzhou, Hubei (historically, Shashi City) since 1994 ** Apostolic Prefecture of Shashi ** Jingmen–Shashi railway, single-track ...

as Neelu *

as Jattu *Dev Kishan as Shyam's father *

as College Principal *

as Urmila *Kamaldeep as Urmila's father (as Kamal Deep) *Fatima as Julie *Amina Karim as Young Anandi

Production

After ''

'', directed by

Tapan Sinha Tapan Sinha (2 October 1924 – 15 January 2009) was one of the most prominent Indian film directors of his time forming a legendary quartet with Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak and Mrinal Sen. He was primarily a Bengali filmmaker who worked both ...

, is based on a story of Inder Mitra, was both a commercial and critical success. Screenwriter

was called to Kolkata to translate the script for a Hindi remake. However, subsequently Sinha insisted on using the same cast, and dropped out of the film. Then, Gulzar, who till then was assisting

Bimal Roy Bimal Roy (12 July 1909 – 7 January 1966) was an Indian film director. He is particularly noted for his realistic and socialistic films such as , '' Parineeta'', ''Biraj Bahu'', '' Devdas'', '' Madhumati'', '' Sujata'', '' Parakh'' and '' Ba ...

and

Hrishikesh Mukherjee Hrishikesh Mukherjee (30 September 1922 – 27 August 2006) was an Indian film director, editor and writer. He is regarded as one of the greatest filmmakers of Indian cinema. Popularly known as ''Hrishi-da'', he directed 42 films during his car ...

and penned screenplays of '' Khamoshi'' (1969) and ''

Anand Anand may refer to: People * Anand (name), a surname and given name (including a list of people with the name) * Anand (clan), a clan of an Indian caste * Anand (actor), Indian actor * Anand (Maoist), Indian communist * Anand (writer) (born 1936 ...

'' (1971), made his directorial debut with the film. Gulzar bought the rights of the story, and rewrote the screenplay removing the portions he felt were too formulaic and commercial.

, in an interview revealed that N. C. Sippy, the producer of the film, wanted actress

Nimmi Nimmi (born as Nawab Bano; 18 February 1933 – 25 March 2020), was an Indian actress who worked in Hindi and Urdu films. Considered as one of the leading actresses of the "golden era" of Indian cinema, Nimmi was among the highest paid actresses ...

in the grandmother's role. Gulzar however was keen on

Chhaya Devi Chhaya Devi (; 3 June 1914 – 25 April 2001) was an Indian actress known for her work in Bengali and Hindi cinema. She appeared in over two hundred films for over five decades. Her first lead role was in Debaki Bose's Bengali film ''Sonar ...

, who played that role in the original. It was

who was finally given the role of grandmother on Gulzar and Romu Sippy's insistence. Kumari who was ailing at the time, worked through her bad health in the film. The shooting was completed in 40 days. Only the song, ''Chand Katora Liye Bhikaran...'' couldn't be picturised on Kumari as she was in no condition to come to the sets, being on the last stage of her illness. ''Mere Apne'' was the last film she shot for and would often joke with the young actors, 'This director is pushing you so hard, at least you can ask him to host you a beer party'. However, that party never happened as she died soon after the release of the film.

Soundtrack

Footnotes

References

Bibliography

* *

External links

* * 1971 films 1970s Hindi-language films 1970s Indian films Hindi remakes of Bengali films Films scored by Salil Chowdhury Films directed by Gulzar 1971 directorial debut films {{1970s-Hindi-film-stub