Kabhie Kabhie
Film poster
Directed by	Yash Chopra
Screenplay by	Sagar Sarhadi
Story by	Pamela Chopra
Produced by	Yash Chopra
Starring	Waheeda Rehman Shashi Kapoor Amitabh Bachchan Rakhee Gulzar Rishi Kapoor Neetu Singh
Cinematography	Romesh Bhalla Kay Gee
Edited by	Naresh Malhotra Pran Mehra
Music by	Khayyam
Production company	Yash Raj Films
Distributed by	Yash Raj Films
Release date	27 February 1976 (1976-02-27)
Running time	178 minutes
Country	India
Languages	Hindi Urdu[1]
Box office	est. ₹40 million[2]

Kabhie Kabhie (translation: Sometimes) is a 1976 Indian Hindi-language musical romantic drama film written by Pamela Chopra and directed and produced by Yash Chopra under the production banner of Yash Raj Films. Released on 27 February 1976, the film stars an ensemble cast of Waheeda Rehman, Shashi Kapoor, Amitabh Bachchan, Rakhee Gulzar, Rishi Kapoor and Neetu Singh. This was Yash Chopra's second directorial film with Bachchan and Shashi Kapoor in the lead roles after Deewaar (1975) and was particularly noted for its soundtrack compositions by Khayyam. The film received widespread critical acclaim upon release, with high praise directed towards its story, screenplay, direction, dialogues, soundtrack, and performances of the ensemble cast, and is regarded as a cult film over the years.

Kabhie Kabhie released on 27 February 1976 and earned an estimated ₹40 million at the box office, becoming the eighth-highest grossing Hindi film of the year.^[3] At the 24th Filmfare Awards, Kabhi Kabhie received a leading 13 nominations, including Best Film, Best Director (Yash Chopra), Best Actor (Bachchan), Best Actress (Raakhee), Best Supporting Actor (Shashi Kapoor) and Best Supporting Actress (Rehman), and won a leading 4 awards, including Best Music Director (Khayyam), Best Lyricist (Sahir Ludhianvi) and Best Male Playback Singer (Mukesh), the latter two for the song "Kabhie Kabhie Mere Dil Mein".

Plot

The film begins on a gentle, lyrical note with a shortlived romance between budding college poet Amit Malhotra (Amitabh Bachchan) and Pooja (Raakhee Gulzar). Amit meets Pooja when he recites his poetry in his college campus in Kashmir, but their relationship does not last long as Pooja's parents arrange her marriage with an architect, Vijay Khanna (Shashi Kapoor), without her consent. Amit tells Pooja that she should abide by her parents' wishes because she has no right to build the castles of her dreams on the foundations of her parents' tears and shame. Pooja reluctantly ends her relationship with Amit on a final request that he continues his poetry which he refuses to. Pooja and Vijay get married, while a heartbroken Amit returns home and takes over the quarry company of his elderly father (Iftekhar), who is now approaching retirement. Two decades later, Pooja is shown to have become the host of a television interview program, and one of her guests surprisingly happens to be Amit, who has become famous since the anthology he gifted Pooja on her wedding night. When asked why he stopped writing poetry, Amit responds by recalling how his sorrow drove him away. Vijay, seeing Amit and Pooja together afterwards, reveals that he is a big fan of Amit's poetry and accurately deduces that his discontinuance to poetry was caused by heartbreak, causing Amit to angrily storm off.

On the other hand, Pooja and Vijay's now-grownup son, Vikram (Rishi Kapoor), also known as Vicky, falls in love with Pinky (Neetu Singh), his college friend and the daughter of Vijay's friend, Dr. R. P. Kapoor (Parikshit Sahni), and the two plan to get married with their parents' consent. However, before they can tie the knot, Dr. Kapoor and his wife, Shobha (Simi Garewal), shockingly reveal to Pinky and that she is adopted and was born in illegitimacy because it is her right to know it and the sooner parents learn to trust their children with the truth, the better it is all around. Shaken to the core, a shattered Pinky severes ties with Dr. Kapoor and Shobha and now decides to track down her biological single mother and find out the truth about her birth and abandonment. Pinky's search takes her to the snow-clad hill station of Kashmir and is finally able to meet with her biological mother, Anjali (Waheeda Rehman), who, as fate would have it, happens to be none other than the wife of Amit. While secretly acknowledging Pinky's existence and showering her love on her reunited daughter, Anjali does not reveal their relationship to Amit and their now-grownup daughter, Sweety (Naseem), terrified of losing them both, and reluctantly introduces Pinky as her distant niece from Delhi.

To add to Pinky's miseries, Vicky, after being persuaded by Vijay, arrives in Kashmir in a bid to remain close to her and charms his way into Amit's house and office by flirting with the susceptible, giddy-headed Sweety. The situation further backfires when Sweety falls in love with Vicky in a tug-of-war between her and Pinky. On seeing Sweety happy alongside Vicky, Anjali and Amit bring forward the idea of marriage between the two, causing Pinky to storm off angrily to the guesthouse in which Vicky is staying. Anjali notices Pinky leaving from Vicky's guesthouse and questions her to which Pinky admits that Vicky is her fiancée. Shocked at learning that Pinky and Vicky are in love and already due to get married, Anjali attempts to convince Amit to marry off Pinky instead of Sweety to Vicky, but Amit responds by accusing Anjali of favouring Pinky over Sweety. Realising that Pinky is more than just a "niece" to Anjali, Amit demands to know the truth about Pinky's identity, forcing a distraught Anjali to confess that Pinky is her illegitimate daughter, and that she was forced to give her away for adoption to Dr. Kapoor and Shobha, after her fiancée tragically perished in an airplane crash during the time of her pregnancy.

In a show of abject male chauvinism, a horrified Amit becomes furious with both Anjali and Pinky and punishes them with sullen silences for concealing their past "misdeeds" from him. Ironically, to drive home his double standards, Amit meets with an architect in Kashmir, who happens to be Vijay, Pooja's husband. As Amit stops by to pick Vijay and Pooja up for dinner, Pooja and Amit reflect on their past love for each other, which Vijay overhears, and is shocked to realise that Amit's mysterious aforementioned heartbreak was none other than his own wife, Pooja. At Amit's house, an angry Vijay has a heart-to-heart conversation with Amit, but after a brief outburst, he chastises himself and inadvertently makes the audience conscious of the sharp contrast in Amit's behaviour, when he has to reconcile himself to his own wife's past. Amit, however, justifies his situation but not that of his wife which is overheard by both Anjali and Pooja. Realising that Amit also had a past just like she did, Anjali apologises to him for hiding the truth about Pinky from him for so long, but Amit angrily rebuffs her and a hurt Anjali decides to leave Amit.

Meanwhile, Sweety witnesses an intimate moment between Vicky and Pinky, and still in love with Vicky and unaware of his engagement, she cries and has a fit, causing Amit to slap her and call her a spoiled brat. Feeling neglected by everyone, Sweety decides to commit suicide by riding her horse into one of the dynamite explosions in the quarry. Vicky chases after her on horseback, while Amit and Pinky follow close behind on Amit's jeep, and Vijay on his motorcycle. A spark from the explosion catches a pile of dry twigs, igniting a forest fire. Sweety dismounts and runs into the fire, followed by Vicky who attempts to dissuade her, revealing that he and Pinky are already engaged, causing her to drop her anger. Amit rescues Vicky and Sweety, while Vijay rescues Pinky, and they all embrace. After the near-death experience, Amit realises his mistake and that he was wrong, and races home to stop Anjali from leaving him. He arrives just in time, and they both tearfully reconcile, admitting that they do love each other. Amit and Pooja put the past behind them and become friends anew, while Pinky and Vicky get married.

Cast

• Waheeda Rehman as Anjali Malhotra
• Shashi Kapoor as Vijay Khanna
• Amitabh Bachchan as Amit Malhotra
• Raakhee Gulzar as Pooja Khanna
• Rishi Kapoor as Vikram Khanna (a.k.a. Vicky)
• Neetu Singh as Pinky Kapoor
• Naseem as Sweety Malhotra
• Parikshit Sahni as Dr. R. P. Kapoor (Pinky's adoptive father)
• Simi Garewal as Shobha Kapoor (Pinky's adoptive mother)
• Iftekhar as Mr. Malhotra (Amit's father)
• Deven Verma as Rambhajan (Amit's quarry company manager)

Production

The film's concept came to Yash Chopra while he was reading a poem by his longtime friend (and also the film's lyricist) Sahir Ludhianvi. The movie was shot in Kashmir, and Yash Chopra has claimed this to be one of his happiest experiences and he described the production as a "honeymoon", since the entire cast worked together as a family.^[4] The film also led to the reinvention of Amitabh Bachchan as a romantic poet who loses his love, which was a major departure from his earlier "angry-young-man" roles such as Zanjeer (1973), Sholay (1975) and Deewaar (1975). The film had been written with Raakhee in mind, and she had agreed to do it during the making of Daag: A Poem of Love (1973) but before production started she married lyricist Gulzar, who wanted her to retire from acting. However, after some persuasion from Yash Chopra, Gulzar let her do the film.^[5]

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was composed by Khayyam with lyrics by Sahir Ludhianvi, both of whom won Best Music and Best Lyricist at the 24th Filmfare Awards.^[6] The song "Kabhie Kabhie Mere Dil Mein" (Duet Version) sung by Mukesh and Lata Mangeshkar, topped the year end Annual list 1976 of Radio Ceylon radio show, Binaca Geetmala. The soundtrack was listed at #7 on Planet Bollywood's list of 100 Greatest Bollywood Soundtracks.^[7] Rakesh Budhu of Planet Bollywood gave 9.5 stars out of 10 stating, "Kabhi Kabhie will remain an ode to brilliant melody".^[8]

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Planet Bollywood	[8]

Awards

24th Filmfare Awards:

Won

• Best Music Director – Khayyam
• Best Lyricist – Sahir Ludhianvi for "Kabhi Kabhie Mere Dil Mein"
• Best Male Playback Singer – Mukesh for "Kabhi Kabhie Mere Dil Mein"
• Best Dialogue – Sagar Sarhadi

Nominated

• Best Film – Yash Chopra
• Best Director – Yash Chopra
• Best Actor – Amitabh Bachchan
• Best Actress – Raakhee
• Best Supporting Actor – Shashi Kapoor
• Best Supporting Actress – Waheeda Rehman
• Best Lyricist – Sahir Ludhianvi for "Main Pal Do Pal Ka Shayar Hoon"
• Best Male Playback Singer – Mukesh for "Main Pal Do Pal Ka Shayar Hoon"
• Best Story – Pamela Chopra

Home media

DVD

• The release date of the DVD for this film is 1 November 1999.
• DVD is available at Amazon

Blu-ray

• The release date of the Blu-ray is 2 March 2010
• Blu-ray is available at Amazon

Satellite Rights and VOD

• The film's satellite rights are with Sony TV while it is available as VOD on Amazon Prime Video

References

External links

• Kabhi Kabhie at IMDb
• Kabhi Kabhie at Yash Raj Films