Ram Balram
Poster
Directed by	Vijay Anand
Written by	Vijay Anand
Produced by	Tito
Starring	Dharmendra Amitabh Bachchan Zeenat Aman Rekha Ajit Amjad Khan Prem Chopra Sujit Kumar
Cinematography	Fali Mistry
Edited by	Vijay Anand
Music by	Laxmikant–Pyarelal
Distributed by	Navjeevan Productions
Release date	28 November 1980 (1980-11-28)
Running time	171 minutes
Country	India
Language	Hindi
Budget	₹25 million[1]
Box office	₹95 million[1]

Ram Balram is a 1980 Indian Hindi-language action thriller film directed by Vijay Anand. The film stars Dharmendra, Amitabh Bachchan, Zeenat Aman and Rekha. The film marked the third time in which Dharmendra and Bachchan worked together after their previous films, Chupke Chupke and Sholay.

The film was started in 1975, but faced several delays due to production issues, health issues to Bachchan and Ajit and the Emergency. It was finally released on 28th November 1980 and was a critical and commercial success, earning ₹95 million^[1] at the box office and was the 3rd highest grossing film of 1980. It also remains the only film in which Rekha and Zeenat Aman acted together and where Dharmendra and Bachchan had equal screen sharing.

Plot

Ram and Balram are two young boys who live with their loving parents. Their scheming uncle, Jagatpal, however, kills the boys' parents. Jagatpal lies to the boys that their parents have been killed in an accident and promises to raise them himself.

He enrolls the younger brother Balram in school and eventually sends him off to join the police force. The older brother Ram becomes a mechanic. Jagatpal has a tight hold on the boys, even when Ram is an adult, he still gives all his wages to his uncle and is only allowed to keep a few rupees for pocket money.

When Balram returns as a fully fledged police officer, Jagatpal finally reveals his plan. He is going to use Ram to target the biggest smugglers in India. Now that Balram is a police officer, he will protect his brother from getting arrested. Balram has reservations, but Jagatpal threatens to beat him just as he did when he was a boy; he has a needle at the edge of his cane and whenever the boys would do something Jagatpal dislikes, he would put the pointy and dangerous needle on the boys' neck.

Balram is still unhappy with Jagatpal's plan, so he tells his superiors in the police force that his brother intends to infiltrate the smuggler's underworld so that Balram can arrest them. Ram becomes a police informer for Balram.

The plan goes well. Ram becomes one of the lieutenants of one of the biggest smugglers Sulaiman and Balram's excellent arrest rate makes him one of the force's most successful officers. Jagatpal becomes enormously wealthy from Ram's illicit gains. The brothers also find love. Balram with Shobha, the daughter of a college professor and Ram with Madhu, a girl who has moved to the area with her mother looking for her father. Unbeknownst to Ram, the girl believes her father to be Jagatpal. She, along with her courtesan mother, attempt to extort money for Jagatpal but he refuses to believe he is the father. His suspicions are confirmed when he catches the mother paying off a former customer. The man is confronted by Jagatpal and confesses that the girl is not Jagatpal's daughter.

Jagatpal's plan comes unstuck however when the boys' mother returns. She did not die after all. She reveals Jagatpal's actions to the two brothers and they unite to take him down.

Cast

• Dharmendra as Ram aka Bholu Ram
• Amitabh Bachchan as Inspector Balram
• Zeenat Aman as Madhu
• Rekha as Shobha
• Ajit as Jaggu / Chaudhary Jagatpal Singh
• Amjad Khan as Sulaiman
• Prem Chopra as Chandan Singh
• Sujit Kumar as Daku Satarawala
• Utpal Dutt as Professor (Shobha's Father)
• Asit Sen as Inspector Mukherjee
• Urmila Bhatt as Saraswati Devi
• Helen as Tarabai

Soundtrack

Music composed by Laxmikant-Pyarelal. Lyrics penned by Anand Bakshi.

References

External links

• Ram Balram at IMDb