Bluffmaster versus Doctor No

The most surprising thing about Shaan (1980) is how positively the police are portrayed. The fact that our hero, Shiv Kumar (Sunil Dutt), is a brave, dedicated and incorruptible police officer isn’t surprising, but the rest of the force are also cheerful, polite, competent, and honest, and they do not beat or torture any prisoners. For a viewer used to the typical casual brutality of movie policemen, it’s a little jarring.

After heroically ending a hostage situation, Shiv is transferred to Bombay. His wife Sheetal (Rakhee Gulzar) is thrilled, as this means they’ll be able to live with his brothers, Ravi and Vijay (Shashi Kapoor and Amitabh Bhachchan). Shiv isn’t so sure; he is a policeman, and if his brothers don’t give up their criminal ways, he’ll have to arrest them.

And with that, the focus switches to Bombay, and we get to see Ravi and Vijay’s criminal ways in action. The pair are free spirited con artists of the sort that you only see in the movies. They use clever disguises to con a hotel owner, and then are themselves conned by the lovely Rinu (Bindiya Goswami) and her uncle (Johhny Walker). With the help of crippled, street smart, but honorable beggar Abdul (Mazhar Khan), they confront Rinu and demand their money back, but the four soon decide to team up and con other people, starting with a plan to steal the necklace of a visiting princess.

The four dress up and arrive at the reception, but before they can put their plan into action, they are interrupted by a dance number.  And by the end of the night, they have the necklace and a new partner, Sunita (Parveen Babi).Vijay and Sunita become a couple, as do Ravi and Renu. The group proceed to merrily scam the people of Bombay until Shiv arrives in town and promptly arrests them. No one is brutally beaten, and when Vijay and Ravi are released from jail, a smiling Shiv is there to greet them. The wayward brothers happily renounce crime, and they all live happily together.

They would probably all live happily ever after, but there’s an insane supervillain living in a nearby island fortress. Shakal (Kulbhushan Kharbanda) is a kind of proto-Mogambo; rather than a pool of acid, he has a revolving conference table of doom which he uses to dump people into the pool where he keeps his unconvincing giant crocodile.

While he has a cool fortress and super science and legions of henchmen, Shakal doesn’t really qualify as a criminal genius because his schemes are so overly complicated, even by supervillain standards. Upon discovering that incorruptible supercop Shiv Kumar is disrupting his organization, he has the wife of carnival sharpshooter Rakesh (Shatrughan Sinha) kidnapped so that he can blackmail Rakesh into assassinating Shiv. When Rakesh proves to be a reluctant and ineffective assassin, he has the wife killed and leaves Rakesh alone to seek vengeance.

After the carnival assassin plan falls apart, Shakal has Shiv kidnapped and taken to his island so that he can be turned to the Dark Side. Shiv refuses and jumps out of a nearby window, so Shakal releases his pack of feral beagles (and no, I am not kidding) and when Shiv escapes from the dogs by climbing a nearby fence, Shakal finally shoots him.

It’s not hard to figure out what happens next. Vijay and Ravi swear vengeance. Henchmen are beaten up. There are “clever” disguises and explosions aplenty, and somebody gets dropped into the pool with the crocodile. It is glorious. This is old school Bollywood, gleefully eradicating genre boundaries and cramming in enough plot to fill three or four lesser movies. Everyone involved in the film seemed to be having a fantastic time, and I did too.