''Ram Aur Shyam'' ( English: ''Ram And Shyam'') is a 1967 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 comedy-drama film directed by Tapi Chanakya. The film is a remake of Chanakya's 1964 Telugu film '' Ramudu Bheemudu''. It stars

Dilip Kumar Dilip Kumar (born Muhammad Yusuf Khan; 11 December 1922 – 7 July 2021) was an Indian actor and film producer, who worked in Hindi cinema. Credited with pioneering method acting in cinema, he dominated Hindi cinema from the 1950s throughout t ...

in a Double Role as Twin Brothers, alongside Waheeda Rehman, Mumtaz, Nirupa Roy, Pran. The music was composed by

Naushad Naushad Ali (25 December 1919 – 5 May 2006) was an Indian composer for Hindi films. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest and foremost music directors of the Hindi film industry. He is particularly known for popularising the use of ...

, with lyrics written by

Shakeel Badayuni Shakeel Badayuni (3 August 1916 – 20 April 1970) was an Indian Urdu poet, lyricist and songwriter in Hindi / Urdu language films. Early life Shakeel Badayuni was born in Badaun, Uttar Pradesh. His father, Mohammed Jamaal Ahmed Sokhta Qadi ...

. ''Ram Aur Shyam'' was the second highest-grossing Indian film of 1967, domestically in

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

and overseas. It was listed at number 15 in the "Top 50 Film of Last 50 years" list compiled by

Box Office India Box Office India is an Indian film website dedicated to tracking, reporting, and analyzing the financial performance of films released in the Hindi entertainment industry. Established in 2003, Box Office India has become a prominent source of ...

magazine in 2011 which featured all-time highest-grossing

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 ...

films by using

gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

-price inflation. The film received 3 nominations at the 15th Filmfare Awards, including Best Actress for Waheeda Rehman and Best Supporting Actress for Mumtaz and won Best Actor for

Plot

Ram lives with his sister Sulakshana and niece Kuku on his family estate. His brother-in-law Gajendra is a Ghar Jamai who looks after his factories and controls his property with an iron grip. Ram is shy and cowardly in nature and so he is always abused and brutally beaten by Gajendra. Sulakshana and Kuku try to protect Ram from Gajendra whenever he whips Ram. Everybody decides to get Ram married for his well being. Gajendra finds a rich girl Anjana with the aim of getting a huge dowry. Anjana dislikes Ram after he spills tea over her due to nervousness. Gajendra, angry at Ram's behaviour, conspires with the support of his mother and cunning Munimji to kill Ram and take over his property. Ram overhears this and escapes to the city to save his life. Meanwhile, Ram's long lost twin brother Shyam lives in a village with his adopted mother Ganga, whom he believes to be his biological mother. No one other than Ganga knows the truth about the twin brothers. Shyam is strong, brave and mischievous, unlike his brother. He has a love-hate relationship with Shanta. Shyam escapes to the city, after a mischievous conflict with Ganga, and meets Anjana, who is impressed by his personality. Anjana and her father confuse Shyam with Ram. Ram meets Shanta, who thinks he is Shyam and takes him forcefully to his mother. Ram and Shanta develop feelings for each other. Meanwhile, Shyam decides to take the place of Ram to face Gajendra. Shyam refuses to sign his property over, after which angry Gajendra attacks him. Shyam retaliates and whips Gajendra hard, shocking everybody. Sulakshana stops her brother to protect her husband. Gajendra is startled after being beaten up by Shyam, whom everybody believes as Ram. Shanta and Anjana meet and both claim the picture of Ram as their fiancé. Gajendra learns that Shyam has taken the place of Ram. He abducts Ram and Shanta, and plans to kill Ram. He frames Shyam for the murder of Ram though Ram is alive. Shyam is arrested by police. Anjana and her father learn from Ganga that Ram and Shyam are twin brothers lost in a village fair. They also learn about the true colour of Gajendra. Shyam escapes from police custody and battles Gajendra and his henchmen. Gajendra tries to shoot them, but both the brothers and Shanta manage to defeat him. At the end, the twin brothers are happily married and the family reunited.

Cast

as Ram / Shyam (Double Role) * Waheeda Rehman as Anjana * Mumtaz as Shanta * Nirupa Roy as Sulakshana * Pran as Gajendra * Nazir Hussain as Rai Sahib Gangadhar * Kanhaiyalal as Munimji *

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. He started his film career with the film ''Pratima'' along ...

as Gopal * Sajjan as Police Inspector * Raj Kishore as Restaurant Waiter *

Baby Farida Farida Dadi, also known as Farida Devi or Baby Farida, is an Indian actress in Hindi-language films and television serials. Career She started her career as a child actor in films in the 60s and was the most sought-after child actress. She ma ...

as Kuku * Laxmi Chhaya as Dancer *

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 Ganga * Zebunnisa as Gajendra's Mother

Reception

Dilip Kumar, who was known as "Tragedy-King" surprised the audience with his comic performance, which won him Best Actor at the 15th Filmfare Awards.

Box-Office

At the domestic Indian box office, ''Ram Aur Shyam'' grossed () nett. Adjusted for inflation, the film's domestic nett gross is equivalent to () in 2016. It was 1967's second highest-grossing film in India, after '' Upkar''. Overseas at the Soviet box office, ''Ram Aur Shyam'' was released with 1,160 prints and sold tickets in 1972. At the average Soviet ticket price of at the time,''Moscow Prime Time: How the Soviet Union Built the Media Empire that Lost the Cultural Cold War'', page 48
,

Cornell University Press The Cornell University Press is the university press of Cornell University, an Ivy League university in Ithaca, New York. It is currently housed in Sage House, the former residence of Henry William Sage. It was first established in 1869, maki ...

, 2011''The Routledge Handbook of the Cold War'', page 357
,

Routledge Routledge ( ) is a British multinational corporation, multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, academic journals, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanit ...

, 2014 the film grossed Rbls (), ). Adjusted for inflation, the film's overseas Soviet gross is equivalent to () in 2016. It was the second highest-grossing 1967 Indian film in the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

, after '' Hamraaz''. Worldwide, the film grossed () by 1972. Adjusted for inflation, its worldwide gross is equivalent to () in 2016.

Legacy

Dilip Kumar stated in an interview "The script of ''Ram Aur Shyam'' (1967) offered me endless stimulation. Each scene was sharply written to highlight the contrast between the characters and their predicaments." According to Rediff.com, the most famous twin act in India, remains to be Dilip Kumar's turn in ''Ram Aur Shyam.'' The film is also included in their list of "Landmark Film of 60s".

Soundtrack

Lyrics were written by

. Vocals were supplied by Mohd. Rafi &

Mahendra Kapoor Mahendra Kapoor (9 January 1934 – 27 September 2008) was an Indian playback singer. In a long career spanning decades, his repertoire included popular songs such as ''Chalo ekbaar phir se Ajnabi ban jayen hum dono'' ( Gumrah) and ''Neele Gagan ...

for Kumar, with

Lata Mangeshkar Lata Mangeshkar (; born Hema Mangeshkar; 28 September 1929 – 6 February 2022) was an Indian playback singer and occasional music composer. She is considered to be one of the greatest and most influential singers of the Indian subcontinent. He ...

for Rehman, and

Asha Bhosle Asha Bhosle (; ; born 8 September 1933) is an Indian playback singer, entrepreneur, actress and television personality who predominantly works in Indian cinema. Known for her versatility, she has been described in the media as one of the ...

for Mumtaz.

References

External links

* * {{Tapi Chanakya 1967 films 1960s Hindi-language films Indian comedy-drama films Films about twin brothers Films directed by Tapi Chanakya Films scored by Naushad Hindi remakes of Telugu films Twins in Indian films Films about twins