Kishen Kanhaiya

About the film

Kishen Kanhaiya is an Indian Hindi action comedy film directed by Rakesh Roshan, released in 1990. The film stars Anil Kapoor (in dual roles), Shilpa Shirodkar and Madhuri Dixit. It was commercially successful and became the fourth highest-grossing Bollywood film of that year.

Plot

Leela and Bholaram are a childless couple. Leela is a midwife to a wealthy couple (Sunder Das), and helps Sunder's wife with the labour and delivery. His wife gives birth to twin boys, there are complications for the mother however, and she passes away without seeing her children. Leela, realizing the father won't be able to care for both kids, decides to keep one baby for herself. While Bholaram is anxious about getting found out and dealing with Sunder's consequences for taking his kid, he eventually gives in to his wife. They present Sunder with good and bad news, that his wife has given birth to a child, but he is now also a widower.

Sunder attempts to bring up Kishen in comfort, but is unable to be a proper parent due to grief. He decides to marry Kamini, who is supposed to help him raise Kishan, but she also has a brother- Gendamal. He comes along with her child named Mahesh, born out of wedlock, to live with her in her new home. When Sunder learns of this, he becomes angry that it was not disclosed to him prior to the marriage and suffers a heart attack from the stress. While he is having the attack, Gendamal seizes the opportunity and makes him have an "accident due to the heart attack" resulting in Sunder becoming paralyzed and somewhat mute. Kishen is brought up by Kamini and Gendamal with a lot of abuse and intimidation, while Sunder can only look on hopelessly. Despite making Kishan traumatized and timid, he remains kind and full of love. He is kept uneducated so that he can blindly do what they want and get what they need from him to stay in the power position.

Leela and Bholaram raise Kanhaiya, in a different part of the region, with a meager lifestyle. Kanhaiya is brought up to be a street-smart, tough, clever, movie loving young man. He soon meets an girl, Anju, who is equally in love with movies as well as rich, and pampered. The one thing that ties the brothers together is their twin connection. If one is injured, hurt or sick, the other can feel the pain, too. Only Bholaram makes this connection at a vital point in the story.

Production

Madhuri Dixit notably parodied Madhubala in this film.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack contains six songs. The music is composed by Rajesh Roshan, with lyrics written by Indeevar and Anwar Sagar. The album includes songs sung by top singers like Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, Sadhana Sargam, Mohammed Aziz, Amit Kumar, Manhar Udhas and Nitin Mukesh.

Key details