Kabhi Kabhie

About the film

Kabhie Kabhie (translation: Sometimes) is a 1976 Indian Hindi-language musical romantic drama film written by Pamela Chopra and directed and produced by Yash Chopra under the production banner of Yash Raj Films. The film was released on 27 February 1976 and stars an ensemble cast of Waheeda Rehman, Shashi Kapoor, Amitabh Bachchan, Raakhee, Rishi Kapoor and Neetu Singh. This was Yash Chopra's second directorial film with Shashi Kapoor and Bachchan in the lead roles after Deewaar (1975), and was particularly noted for its soundtrack compositions by Khayyam.

Rehman, Shashi Kapoor, Bachchan and Raakhee went on to star together in Chopra's next release, Trishul, two years later.

Plot

Amit Malhotra (Amitabh Bachchan), a budding poet, recites his poetry at his college campus in Kashmir, where he meets fellow student, Pooja (Raakhee Gulzar), and they fall in love. However, destiny has other plans as Pooja's parents arrange her marriage with an architect, Vijay Khanna (Shashi Kapoor), against her wishes. Before ending their relationship, Pooja requests Amit to promise her that he will also get married and continue his poetry. Pooja and Vijay get married, and in a twist of fate, Vijay gifts Amit's first anthology book to Pooja on their marriage night for he is a big fan of Amit. While the couple is blessed with a son, Vikram, also known as Vicky, a heartbroken Amit gives up poetry and takes over the quarry company of his elderly father (Iftekhar). 20 years later, spanning over to the next generation, Pooja is shown to have become the host of a television show, where she surprisingly introduces Amit as a famous poet to the audience. This is the first time Amit and Pooja, the two ex-lovers, have reunited after several years, but as strangers. When asked why he stopped writing poetry, Amit responds by recalling how his sorrow drove him away. Seeing Amit and Pooja together, Vijay invites Amit home for a drink and accurately deduces that his discontinuance to poetry was caused by heartbreak, causing Amit to angrily storm off.

Meanwhile, the now-grownup Vicky (Rishi Kapoor) falls in love with Pinky (Neetu Singh), his college friend and the daughter of the Vijay's doctor, Dr. R. P. Kapoor (Parikshit Sahni), and his wife, Shobha (Simi Garewal). However, before the two can get married, Pinky learns the shocking truth about her adoption and her biological illegitimate mother. A shattered Pinky severs ties with Dr. Kapoor and Shobha and decides to track down her biological single mother and investigate the truth about her birth and abandonment. Pinky's search takes her to Kashmir and is finally able to meet with her mother, Anjali (Waheeda Rehman), who, as fate would have it, turns out to be none other than the wife of Amit. Shocked at seeing Pinky at her doorstep, Anjali secretly acknowledges her existence and showers her love on her reunited daughter. However, fearing for her marriage with Amit, she does not reveal their relationship to him and their daughter, Sweetie (Naseem). Instead, Anjali introduces Pinky as her distant niece from Delhi, leaving Pinky anguished as Anjali would not let her address her as her mother. To add to Pinky's troubles, Vicky, after being encouraged by Vijay, arrives in Kashmir in order to support her emotionally, but Pinky requests him to maintain his distance from her.

However, Vicky charms his way into Amit's household by flirting with Sweetie, so that he can continue to meet Pinky. Sweetie requests Amit to employ Vicky in his company, so that he can sustain himself while living in the town. Pinky begins working as Amit's secretary while Vicky is becomes the trolley operator by Rambhajan (Deven Verma), Amit's quarry supervisor. The situation further backfires when Sweetie falls in love with Vicky, due to which Anjali and Amit decide to arrange their marriage. As a result, Pinky confronts Vicky and instructs him not to play with Sweetie’s life and betray Amit and Anjali's trust in him. Anjali notices Pinky leaving from Vicky's guesthouse and questions her when Pinky confesses that Vicky is her fiancée. Understanding the situation, Anjali attempts to convince Amit that Vicky should be married to Pinky instead of Sweetie, but Amit responds by accusing Anjali of favouring Pinky over Sweetie. Realising that Pinky is more than just a "niece" to Anjali, Amit demands to know the truth about Pinky's identity, forcing Anjali to reveal that Pinky is her daughter from a premarital relationship. Pinky's biological father was a test pilot for the Indian Air Force, and was tragically killed in an airplane crash while Anjali was pregnant with Pinky, forcing her to give Pinky away for adoption to the childless Dr. Kapoor and Shobha. A horrified Amit becomes …

Production

The film's concept came to Yash Chopra while he was reading a poem by his longtime friend (and also the film's lyricist) Sahir Ludhianvi. The movie was shot in Kashmir, and Yash Chopra has claimed this to be one of his happiest experiences and he described the production as a "honeymoon", since the entire cast worked together as a family. The film also led to the reinvention of Amitabh Bachchan as a romantic poet who loses his love, which was a major departure from his earlier "angry-young-man" roles such as Zanjeer (1973), Sholay (1975) and Deewaar (1975). The film had been written with Raakhee in mind, and she had agreed to do it during the making of Daag: A Poem of Love (1973) but before production started she married lyricist Gulzar, who wanted her to retire from acting. However, after some persuasion from Yash Chopra, Gulzar let her do the film.

Key details