Swarg

About the film

Swarg (transl. Heaven) is a 1990 Indian Hindi-language drama film directed by David Dhawan, released in 1990. It stars Rajesh Khanna, Govinda, Juhi Chawla, Madhavi in lead roles. The film is loosely based on the 1967 film Mehrban starring Ashok Kumar and Sunil Dutt, which itself was a remake of the 1960 Tamil film Padikkadha Medhai which in turn was a remake of 1953 Bengali film Jog Biyog. based on the novel of same name by Ashapoorna Devi. Swarg was remade in Telugu as Indra Bhavanam, in Odia as Bhai Hela Bhagari, in Bengali as Annadata and in Nepali as Izzatadar, twice in Bangladesh as Sneher Protidhan and Ke Apon Ke Por (2011).

Plot

Living in a luxurious mansion named Swarg, this is the story of Mr. Kumar, or Sahabji, a rich businessman and landowner. His family consists of his wife, sister Jyoti, two brothers, Vicky and Ravi, and a sister-in-law. He also has a loyal servant, Krishna, who considers the former akin to a father.

Sahabji has a clash of ideals with Dhanraj, an immoral businessman, regarding a business matter, and Sahabji dissolves the venture. In vengeance, Dhanraj schemes with Sahabji's two brothers to usurp Sahabji's wealth and businesses. He sets fire to Sahabji's factory, citing a short circuit as the reason, and takes over the luxurious mansion and vast business empire, leaving Sahabji virtually penniless and devastated by the death of his wife. His brothers have now taken over the money, the mansion, and his business. When Krishna confronted the brothers of his master, he was instead brutally fired by Sahabji himself because he was charged with stealing Jyoti's necklace by Sahabji's brothers and sister-in-law. Later, he learns that Sahabji intentionally banished him so that he can do something better in life and not be held down by Sahabji's own misfortunes. Krishna moves to Bombay and meets a man called Chadda, or Airport, and they become friends. His hard work in the city makes him a popular film star, which enables him to accumulate enough wealth to make him a rich man on the scale of his former master, and he returns to his town after several years as a mysterious but wealthy businessman.

In the guise of a golden offer, Krishna sends Chadda to buy Sahabji's mansion, which is now owned by Dhanraj, for the price of 90 lakh INR (USD$529,000), to which the greedy Dhanraj readily agrees and signs over the deeds of ownership of the land and the mansion, unaware of the buyer's actual identity. In the process of storing the cash payment in his personal vault, he is informed his own factory has mysteriously caught fire, causing him to hurry to the site in time to see his factory crumble to ashes. At this point, Krishna confronts him and reveals himself to be the mystery buyer, and also implicitly confesses to being responsible for the "accidental" fire, similar to the scheme Dhanraj perpetrated against Sahabji. Krishna then reminds Dhanraj of him selling the mansion for 90 lakh INR (USD$529,000) and then rhetorically wonders what if Dhanraj were to lose that 90 lakh INR (USD$529,000) as well. True enough, Dhanraj finds his safe empty of cash upon rushing back, effectively rendering him homeless and ruined.

Music

The soundtrack of the film contains 5 songs. Lyrics were by Sameer and music was conducted by the duo Anand–Milind.

Key details