Parinda

About the film

Parinda (transl. Bird) is a 1989 Indian Hindi-language crime thriller film directed, produced and distributed by Vidhu Vinod Chopra. The film stars Jackie Shroff, Anil Kapoor, Nana Patekar and Madhuri Dixit. The story and scenario were written by Chopra, while Shiv Kumar Subramaniam and Imtiyaz Husain wrote the screenplay and dialogues, respectively. R. D. Burman composed the music and Khurshid Hallauri wrote the lyrics. Binod Pradhan served as the film's cinematographer and Renu Saluja was its editor.

Parinda's story is loosely inspired by Marlon Brando starrer On the Waterfront. Parinda follows Kishan (Shroff), who works for the underworld chieftain Anna (Patekar). Kishan's brother Karan (Kapoor) returns home after completing his studies in the United States. The two brothers are caught on different sides of a gang war after Karan decides to avenge his friend's death by Anna.

Plot

Kishan and Karan are orphaned brothers who grew up on the streets of Bombay. To provide Karan with a better upbringing and education, Kishan works for Anna Seth, a gangster who owns an oil factory as a front for his illegal activities. Unaware of his brother's affiliation with a gang, Karan returns to Bombay after completing his studies in the United States. Inspector Prakash, Karan's friend, knows Anna is a gangster, but he is unable to arrest him due to lack of evidence. Anna plans to have Prakash killed during his reunion with Karan. Attempting to prevent this, Kishan books an earlier flight for Karan, but it is delayed and Anna's henchmen shoot Prakash, who dies in Karan's arms.

Paro, Prakash's sister and Karan's childhood friend, believes Karan is responsible for her brother's death. Karan learns from Anna's former messenger Iqbal that Anna is Kishan's boss and that Anna orchestrated Prakash's murder. He is also told that Anna burned his wife and developed pyrophobia. Karan tells Paro that Anna and Kishan killed Prakash; they fall in love with each other.

A few days later, Abdul is arrested and Karan recognises him as one of Prakash's killers. Kishan warns Karan against testifying, and is wounded when Anna's henchmen shoot at Karan. When Karan is summoned to identify the assailants at police headquarters, Abdul extorts his silence, threatening that Kishan will be killed by his home nurse if Karan testifies. Karan decides not to testify, and instead joins Anna's gang to get close to the crime boss. Anna tests Karan's resolve by ordering him to shoot Iqbal, who shoots himself so Karan can continue his plan without guilt.

Production

In 1985, director Vidhu Vinod Chopra made the suspense thriller film Khamosh, starring Naseeruddin Shah, Shabana Azmi and Amol Palekar. The film failed to find distributors and Chopra released a single print at Mumbai's Regal Cinema. In retrospect, Chopra expressed his frustration that nobody would buy Khamosh and he decided to make a more commercial Hindi film about two brothers on the streets of Mumbai, which became Parinda. The story was based on two non-fictional brothers who worked for a gangster named Ashwin Naik. Chopra cast Nana Patekar in the elder brother's role after he saw him in a play called Purush. Anil Kapoor, who was cast in the role of Karan, told Chopra that Patekar was not suitable for the role of his elder brother. Patekar was then offered the role of Anna, the film's antagonist. Shah and Patekar were considered for the role of Kishan, which later went to Jackie Shroff. Kapoor asked Shroff to play his elder brother. Shroff was initially hesitant to do the film because he did not want to get typecast in the elder brother role. Later, Kapoor made Shroff listen to the songs and he agreed to do the film.

The location where Musa (Tom Alter) meets Kishan in the film was a water tank on Antop Hill, which was spread with the scrap of nearby slum dwellers. Chopra had rented the site from Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation for ₹500 (US$5.20). The film was initially named Kabutarkhana (pigeon accommodation), but was later changed to Parinda. While filming the final scene's fire sequence, the film's crew lost control of a fire they built using rubber solution and petrol, leading to Patekar suffering from serious burns. He was critically injured and hospitalised for nearly two months, and returned to filming after a year. The set was rebuilt in Film City, where the fire sequence was re-shot under more controlled conditions.

Scenes were shot in natural lighting with light coming through the windows or candles in the indoor scenes. Binod Pradhan, the cinematographer, decided to use shadow lighting as he was tired of the way Hindi films were lit. His main inspiration for the visuals of Parinda was Gordon Willis's cinematography in The Godfather (1972). He had put diffusion materials, like a piece of white cloth or tracing paper, in front of the light to make it softer and more natural. According to Chopra, the use of natural lighting was a way for them to function on a limited budget. To decide the look and texture of the film, Chopra and Pradhan looked at the paintings of Rembrandt, Vincent van Gogh and Leonardo da Vinci.

Music

The film score was composed by Manohari Singh and Babloo Chakravorty while the songs were composed by R. D. Burman with their lyrics written by Khurshid Hallauri. The album consisted of seven songs, including two versions of "Kitni Hai Pyari Pyari"—one sad and one slow. The song "Tum Se Milke" also had a sad version. The vocals were performed by Asha Bhosle, Suresh Wadkar, Sadhana Sargam and Shailendra Singh. The soundtrack album of the film was released in January 1989 under the banner of Weston Musicassettes (now Tips Industries Limited). It marked the debut of Shantanu Mukherjee (later known as Shaan) and Sagarika Mukherjee as an adult playback singer.

Key details