Because the 1973 Bollywood hit movie Abhimaan, with famous person Amitabh Bachchan and his spouse Jaya within the lead, turns 50 this yr, the BBC examines the enduring attraction and affect of this film.

Amitabh Bachchan is best-known for his function because the indignant younger man of Bollywood who starred in such iconic movies as Deewar, Zanjeer and Sholay.

However many take into account Abhimaan (Delight) – the musical drama concerning the fragility of human relationships – to be amongst his best roles.

The actor performs a well-liked singer who convinces his new spouse to affix him on stage, however his ego is harm and jealousy takes over when she outshines him.

Director Hrishikesh Mukherjee paired Bachchan together with his spouse Jaya – the couple had been in love and had married only a month earlier than its launch – and she or he gained the celebrated Filmfare Award for Finest Actress for her efficiency.

Abhimaan, which completes half a century in July, has a particular significance for me – it was the first-ever Bachchan movie I noticed and it stays my favorite of all his movies even at this time.

It was amongst greater than half a dozen Bachchan movies to launch that yr. The listing included Saudagar, which was India’s official Oscar entry that yr, and Zanjeer, the blockbuster which established him as India’s prime motion hero.

However movie critic and creator Saibal Chatterjee informed the BBC that “Abhimaan was probably the most talked about movie of the yr” and “his largest hit that yr”.

Followers visited cinemas in droves, complete households together with mother and father and younger youngsters packed theatres, crowding the matinee and night reveals.

Theatre actress and a self-confessed “large Bachchan fan” Monisha Bhaskar says the “evergreen story” of the envious husband sad on the success of his spouse touched a chord with the audiences “as a result of it’s rooted in actuality”.

“Abhimaan’s story was very plausible as a result of ego usually comes between a pair, particularly in a society like India the place most males are uncomfortable with their wives doing higher.”

“Mockingly,” she says, “it was he who first inspired her to sing, however then could not deal with it when she turned extra standard than him. However she was not competing with him, she was simply extra gifted.”

Ms Bhaskar, who was 4 when her mother and father took her to look at the movie when it launched, in a Delhi cinema, has revisited it a number of instances since.

“In fact I did not perceive it the primary time, however I loved the music and the songs. I’ve watched it many instances since then and I’ve beloved it every time a bit extra,” she informed me.

Ms Bhaskar considers the function to be amongst “Bachchan’s best performances” and says that Jaya, because the struggling spouse, was “very plausible” and the “music was fabulous and the songs took the story ahead”.

Through the years, Abhimaan has gained excessive reward from followers, critics and Bachchan couple’s colleagues within the movie trade.

Filmmaker Karan Johar has referred to as it “one among my favorite movies” and says he cries “each time I see it”. A number of years again, actress Vidya Balan confessed to watching it for the “nth time” and described it as a “timeless” movie. In December 2022, the Kolkata Worldwide Movie Competition kicked off with this traditional.

Bachchan himself has spoken fondly about Abhimaan, describing it as “the movie that introduced Jaya and me collectively for a most memorable artistic in our respective careers” and stated that its songs nonetheless “stay haunting and a dream for a lot of”.

Mr Chatterjee says Abhimaan will at all times be mentioned as “a excessive level” of Bachchan’s profession as a result of it was “a movie the place he was not simply made to suit the masculine, indignant younger man template”.

“This was one function that confirmed a facet of him which was totally different. He performed a really actual hero, an actual man susceptible to insecurities and jealousies. And it demonstrated his versatility as an actor, it confirmed that he might play any function {that a} director wrote for him.”

The enduring attraction of the movie, he says, can also be as a result of Bollywood marital dramas “usually are typically very shrill and loud”, however Abhimaan was totally different, “it was very delicate and had an understated high quality to it”.

Through the years, many have speculated whether or not the movie was based mostly on the connection of its stars – Jaya was already a longtime actress whereas Bachchan was a beginner in Bollywood. Comparisons have additionally been made with sitar maestro Ravi Shankar and his first spouse Annapurna Devi, an equally gifted sitarist.

However director Mukherjee denied these hyperlinks – as a substitute, he stated his movie was based mostly on the lifetime of legendary Bollywood singer Kishore Kumar and his first spouse Ruma Devi, a profitable actress and singer in Bengali movie trade.

“Ruma was no much less gifted and since Kishore had a little bit of a wrestle early in his profession, he was at all times aware of her items as a performer,” Mukherjee informed an interviewer.

Though Mukherjee by no means acknowledged it, his movie has additionally drawn comparisons with A Star is Born – the story of the insecure husband has been adopted by Hollywood 4 instances, from its first outing in 1937 to the most recent model in 2018 starring Woman Gaga and Bradley Cooper.

Mr Chatterjee says Mukherjee was “an avid movie watcher” and “should’ve seen” A Star is Born.

“But it surely’s a narrative that’s common and possibly as outdated because the establishment of marriage itself. And what’s vital is that Mukherjee made it an Indian story. He gave it the Indian-ness that it wanted. The movie does not appear to be a western import, it is culturally rooted, which supplies it worth.”

Right now, some feminists criticise the movie for portraying Jaya as a meek and submissive spouse, who does not arise for her personal rights, and for whom her husband at all times comes first.

However Ms Bhaskar says that within the time interval the movie was made, it had a message for each women and men which stays related even at this time, 50 years later.

“I do not know what number of males received it however Abhimaan’s message was clear – that jealousy and ego have penalties. And the message for girls was to not take garbage from their husbands past a degree.”

She factors out that Jaya’s character leaves him and returns to her village when he behaves badly.

“She’s unhappy and depressed, she has a miscarriage, however she has sufficient self-respect to not attain out to him or plead with him to take her again. She goes again with him on her personal phrases – solely when he involves take her, when he acknowledges that he is been flawed.”

Within the time interval it was set in, she says, it was “normal” for movies to have a contented ending and the audiences would not have accepted in any other case, however Abhimaan was “uncommon” within the sense that “it confirmed the person to be the weaker of the 2, he is the one who cannot cope when the limelight shifts to his spouse”.

And Bachchan, together with his remarkably actual efficiency of a “very flawed” character, made it his personal.