Johny Mera Naam

About the film

Johny Mera Naam (transl. Johny is my name) is a 1970 Indian Hindi-language action spy film directed by Vijay Anand. The film stars the director's brother, Dev Anand and Pran in the roles of brothers separated in childhood. Hema Malini, Jeevan, Premnath, I. S. Johar, Iftekhar, Padma Khanna also star in pivotal roles.

At the 18th Filmfare Awards, Vijay Anand won the Filmfare Best Screenplay Award for this film, while I.S. Johar received his first Best Performance in a Comic Role for his triple roles: a steward in an aeroplane, an associate of criminals and a police officer. The film was remade in Tamil as Raja (1972), in Telugu as Eduruleni Manishi (1975) and in Kannada as Apoorva Sangama (1984).

Synopsis

The story revolves around Mohan and Sohan, who are the sons of a police inspector. The kids excel in boxing. Their father is killed by a goon following orders from Ranjit. Upon seeing this, Mohan stabs the goon, mistakenly thinks that he has committed murder, takes refuge in Ranjit's car boot, and goes missing.

Years later, Sohan goes on to become a CID officer called Sohan Kumar, who solves his cases, taking up different guises. He takes the identity of Johny, a petty thief and gets himself in jail, befriends Heera, solves a case, woos Rekha and finds the criminal. Finally, Rekha finds her father, who was imprisoned in Ranjit's place and with Sohan's help, rescues him from Ranjit, who is handed over to the police. Heera informs Mohan about Johny's real identity, leading to a confrontation between Mohan and Sohan. In the midst of this conflict, they both realise that they are long-lost brothers. In the end, they are reunited with their mother, and the stolen jewels from the Radha Krishna temple are also returned.

Production

The song "O Mere Raja" was shot on location at the ruins of Nalanda and the peace pagoda of Rajgir, both in Bihar.

Box office

It was the highest grossing Bollywood film of 1970.

Soundtrack

The music was composed by the duo Kalyanji-Anandji and lyrics were penned by Indeevar and Rajendra Krishan.

Popular culture

The song "Pal Bhar Ke Liye" was used at the end of The Simpsons episode "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bangalore" (2006).

A scene of the film is shown in the 2007 thriller Johnny Gaddaar, prompting a character to give Johnny as a fake name and hence the film title.

Awards

Best Female Playback Singer – Lata Mangeshkar for "Babul Pyaare"

Key details