Qurbani   Producer: Feroz Khan Director: Feroz Khan Starring: Feroz Khan, Vinod Khanna, Zeenat Aman, Shakti Kapoor, Aruna Irani, Amjad Khan, Amrish Puri, Kader Khan, and intr. Natasha Chopra Music: Kalyanji Anandji Lyrics: Biddu, Indeevar, Faruk Genre: Action Recommended Audience: General Reviewed by: Tanmeet Kumar  - Rating: 9.0 / 10   Let us know what you think about this review

It is movies like Qurbani that make one angry with Indian cinema today. Released in 1979, this classic action thriller makes one yearn for those days when decent movies came out of Bollywood on a regular basis. Nowadays, many trashy movies infect movie theaters. Qurbani has everything an action thriller should have: a decent plot, a good starcast, suspense, good action sequences and of course, the all important memorable music.

Producer and director of the affair, Feroz Khan plays a thief named Rajesh who is blackmailed by villain Vikram (Shakti Kapoor) and his evil sister Jwala (Aruna Irani) into staking from crime boss Rakka (Amrish Puri). Jwala is Rakka´s ex wife and has been cheated by Rakka, who has stolen her fortune and divorced her. Jwala wants revenge and will stop at nothing to get it. If Rajesh does not do the job, Vikram will kill Rajesh´s lover, Sheela (Zeenat Aman), who is a cabaret dancer, and Rajesh´s best friend Amar´s (Vinod Khanna) daughter Tina (Natasha Chopra). The thief is continuously being stalled by Inspector Amjad Khan (Amjad Khan in a brilliant performance).

Qurbani is an action classic with good performances by the entire ensebmale cast. Aruna Irani plays the perfect vamp in her role as Jwala. Feroz and Vinod are excellent and perform magnificently in the action scenes. Feroz has managed to handle the film´s direction, production well while still adding his acting credits to it as well.

Zeenat looks beautiful and performs very well. Bollywood newcomer (at that tmie) Natasha Chopra does well as Vinod´s daughter. Amjad Khan deserves an award for his performance in this movie. He is absolutely perfect, flawless in the true sense. He has wit and charm and acts very very well. I have never seen any actor turn his otherwise worthless role into one that is award worthy, furthermore, considering the protege type flaky villians that have infiltrared Bollywood nowadays, Khan is a breath of fresh air. Amrish Puri and Shakti Kapoor are villainous and perform nicely. It is nice to see Amrish with hair (and an afro --at that).

The film is shot in London, with an exciting car chase through the English countryside that contains explosions and violence galore. The songs by Kalyanji - Anandji are fabulous, especially the title song. Lyricist Biddu does two of the songs from the soundtrack -- Aap Jaisa Koi, sung by the fabulously voiced Nazia Hasan and Laila O Laila. The impact of "Aap Jaisa Koi" on Bollywood and Hasan´s sultry voices have been magnanamous making it a tune unforgettable through the years. Both songs are fast paced cabaret numbers with sexy videos with Zeenat.

With great direction and all, Qurbani is obviously not the cinematic masterpiece that art films try to achieve but it is a superlative action entertainer that stands out, back then and certainly now. Definitely a movie that one will enjoy again and again.