Awaaz

Awaaz heralds the return of Rajesh Khanna into Shakti Samanta movies after a long gap. The movie revolves around Rajesh Khanna, a lawyer who keeps saving criminals and ultimately punishes them with his own hands. A good movie, however its end was abrupt and without much anticipated action. Super Star Rajesh Khanna does his role with perfection and is ably supported by Jayaprada, Rakesh Roshan, Amrish Puri, Prem Chopra and Madan Puri. The music of R D Burman is good and some songs are catchy. However,it misses the softness which were there in Rajesh- Shakti movies. The movie was an average success as the movie has an abrupt end and similar type of movies were released earlier. However, it is a must see for Rajesh Khanna fans.

Awaaz is a routing saga of revenge. It marked the return of the Rajesh-Shakti combination which led to high expectations but it disappointed the viewers. As a result, it was only an average success.

The film has got a good cast - Rakesh Roshan, Suresh Oberoi Prem Chopra, Madan Puri, Amrish Puri & Jayaprdha. However, the director could have utilized them better. The chemistry between Rajesh & Jayapradha is very good & their romantic scenes are cute. Rajesh Khanna plays a lawyer who saves even criminals from punishment with his clever presenting of the case, if they are clients.

But when the villains rape his wife, he seeks revenge. The first half is fairly interesting but after the interval, the movie is on predictable lines. Rajesh goes after the villains & we all know whet the ending is.

Music by R.D Buram is good & other production vales are OK, but from a combination which gave Aradhana & Amar Prem, fans expected much more & when it did not come about, they were disappointed.

Anyway it can be watched once for Rajesh Khanna & Jayapradha.

Awaaz review :

Another Bollywood remake of Death wish (1974). The plot, revolving around rape revenge, had Rajesh Khanna as the avenger who takes on the corrupt system after his wife Jaya Prada is raped and driven to suicide by Monty Nath (legendary actor Premnath's dashing son). Ironically, Khanna is shown as an unscrupulous lawyer who had defended many cronies of Monty's smuggler father (Amrish Puri, bad as ever!!) earlier and is later blackmailed to defend Monty Nath as well.

Awaaz had a rare lovemaking scene between Rajesh Khanna and Jaya Prada which was also prominently featured in the film publicity and posters. Performance wise, both Rajesh and Jaya were efficient and looked good as a pair. This was Khanna's return to Shakti Samanta's camp after a brief gap of seven years. They had given huge hits like Aradhana (1969), Kati Patang (1970) and Amar Prem (1971) together but Awaaz, though a well executed revenge drama, couldn't succeed as much at the box office.

Interestingly, B. R. Chopra's similar sounding Aaj Ki Awaz, released around the same time with practically the same plot inspired from Death Wish, won the box office race that year. Naseeb apna apna. Kismat apni apni. Tee hee!!

Regards, Sumeet Nadkarni.