Beta (film)

Beta (Translation: Son) is a 1992 Indian Hindi drama film, directed by Indra Kumar and written by Naushir Khatau and Kamlesh Pandey. It featured Anil Kapoor, Madhuri Dixit and Aruna Irani in pivotal roles.

Beta
Theatrical release poster
Directed byIndra Kumar
Produced byIndra Kumar
Ashok Thakeria
Written byKamlesh Pandey (dialogues)
Naushir Khatau
Screenplay byGyandev Agnihotri,
Rajiv Kaul,
Praful Parekh
Story byK. Bhagyaraj
StarringAnil Kapoor
Madhuri Dixit
Aruna Irani
Laxmikant Berde
Anupam Kher
Music byAnand-Milind
CinematographyBaba Azmi
Edited byHussain Burmawalla
Production
company
Maruti International
Release date
  • 3 April 1992 (1992-04-03)
Running time
172 mins
CountryIndia
LanguageHindi

The movie is an official remake of 1987 Tamil movie Enga Chinna Rasa, whose story was inspired by the Kannada novel Mallammana Pavada, by B. Puttaswamayya, which incidentally had been adapted into a 1969 Kannada movie Mallammana Pavaada, with screenplay by Telugu director P. Pullaiah, based on his 1955 Telugu movie with similar story titled Ardhangi, which was based on Maddipatla Suri's Telugu translation of Bengali novel Swayamsidda, written by Manilal Banerjee. Swayamsiddha went on to be made into a 1975 Bengali movie of the same name.[1] Ardhangi was remade in Tamil as Pennin Perumai and in Hindi twice as Bahurani in 1963 and as Jyoti in 1981. Enga Chinna Rasa also went on to be remade in Kannada as Annayya, in Telugu as Abbaigaru and in Odia as Santana (1998).

Beta was the highest-grossing Bollywood film of 1992. It won five Filmfare Awards. Kapoor and Dixit won the Best Actor and Best Actress awards, respectively. Anuradha Paudwal won the Best Female Playback Singer Award for the item number "Dhak Dhak Karne Laga," while Saroj Khan won the Filmfare Award for Best Choreography and Irani won the Best Supporting Actress award.[2]

The item number "Dhak Dhak Karne Laga" remains one of the most popular Hindi songs of the 20th century. The music for this number was originally composed by Ilaiyaraaja for the song "Abbanee Teeyani" in the 1990 film Jagadeka Veerudu Atiloka Sundari.

Plot

Raju (Anil Kapoor) is the only son of his rich landlord father Prem (Akash Khuranna). Raju had lost his mother at birth and feels deeply deprived of a mother's love.

On Raju's 5th birthday party, as a promised birthday gift, Prem brings home a new mother Laxmi (Aruna Irani), hoping that she will be a doting and caring mother for Raju. However, Laxmi turns out to be greedy, shrewd and cunning. She married Raju's father only for his vast fortune, money and property. Joining with her brother Totaram (Anupam Kher) and his wife Mynavati (Bharati Achrekar), they conspire on how to transfer all property to Laxmi's name. However, Laxmi and Totaram are enraged when they find out that Prem's first wife had prepared a will before her death transferring all property to Raju. And that Prem is only a trustee to all the wealth. In the will, it has been written that Raju will have full control of his property only after marriage and unless his wife jointly consents with him, he will not be able to transfer his wealth and property to another name.

Laxmi begins her vile schemes. On the front, she puts up an act of being a very loving mother for Raju, who exhilarated for a mother's love, becomes a devoted son. He showers Laxmi with love and respect, ever-ready to obey her every word. In the process, unknowingly, he allows Laxmi to manipulate him. She very cunningly misleads Raju to give up his education. When his father finds out that Raju stopped going to school at Laxmi's instructions, he called out to her to question her. Laxmi and Totaram, hearing Prem, pours oil on the steps causing him to fall down the flight of stairs and hurting his head severely. Using this opportunity, they proved that Prem had become mentally unstable and locked him up in a corner room of the house.

Raju being naïve and uneducated, believed every word of his step-mother and her brother. Over the years, Laxmi increasingly isolated his aging father from the family and mainly Raju.

One day, Raju meets Saraswati (Madhuri Dixit) at a wedding and falls head over heels in love with her. After some pursuing and an intense incident in her village, Raju and Saraswati gets married. In the meantime, Laxmi fixes an alliance for Raju with an equally uneducated girl from their own village, so that she too can be manipulated and can finally succeed in transferring the property in Laxmi and her son, Ramesh (Adi Irani), Raju's step brother's name.

Laxmi is shocked to learn about Raju and Saraswati's marriage. Because Laxmi knew that Saraswati was not only educated but also a very intelligent girl. As usual, Laxmi puts on an act of a doting mother in front of Saraswati also. But Saraswati soon discovers that Laxmi, Totaram, Mainavati, Ramesh and his wife Kunika (Kunika) are all scammers and that their love for Raju is only a ruse. She challenges to expose their deceit to Raju.

First thing, Saraswati takes Prem to the temple thus releasing him from the confined room of 20 years. This bold step of Saraswati antogonised Laxmi. Laxmi clearly disapproved of her guts. But Saraswati successfully proved to all that his father was normal. Initially, Saraswati had to bear the brunt of Raju's anger when she tried to convince him of his mother's conniving intentions. After which, Saraswati cleverly exposed every one who had been cheating Raju over the years. For every attempt of Laxmi's schemes, Saraswati wittingly played and backfired their plans ensuring that Raju gets the message and yet not offended.

In one incident, Saraswati, along with Prem and their faithful servants Pandu (Laxmikant Berde) and Champa (Priya Arun), planned for Laxmi to slip and fall, forcing her to be bedridden. Promptly, the responsibility of the entire household is handed over to Saraswati. Laxmi is infuriated and plots to get rid of Saraswati for good.

When Saraswati becomes pregnant, her father, Shyamlal (Satyen Kappu) comes home with hoards of sweets for her in-laws and a box of saffron. He requests that a pinch of saffron be mixed with milk and be given to Saraswati. Laxmi, adds poison to the box of saffron. She prepares the milk and tells the unaware Raju to give Saraswati the milk along with a pinch of the poisoned saffron. Champa, who witnessed Laxmi mixing the poison, runs to Saraswati's rescue, narrating everything that happened and warns her against drinking the poisoned milk. A devastated Saraswati informs Raju the same. But blinded by Laxmi's love, Raju not only refuses to believe her, he even accuses her of conspiring stories against his mother. In defense, Raju drinks the poisoned milk to prove to Saraswati her error. Raju's world comes crumbling down when he coughed up blood.

He, then recollected and realised that everything he had heard about Laxmi all these years from others were eventually true. Yet, Raju could not bring himself to hate Laxmi. His words to Laxmi before dying touched her deeply. Laxmi repented that her greed for wealth stretched a bit too far this time to the point of killing a son who had loved her with a true heart.

Saraswati, in the meantime, rushed to get a doctor. On returning she is told that if she wants Raju alive she will have to sign the property transfer papers. Saraswati agrees immediately. However, Laxmi forbids Saraswati from signing it and apologizes to her. A fight ensues between Laxmi and Ramesh. Totaram and Mynavati also joins with Ramesh. Ultimately, it required Raju himself to come forward to save Laxmi from being killed by Ramesh.

Eventually Raju recovers and hands over the signed property papers to Prem. He bids good-bye to his father, Pandu and Champa. He boards the vehicle with Saraswati to leave his home for good, when Laxmi begs him not to leave. To prove her remorse she rips up the papers and tells him that all she wants is nothing more than "her son". The family is happily reconciled.

Cast

Soundtrack

All songs sung by Anuradha Paudwal with male Co-singers The soundtrack of Beta was the second best selling album of the year.[3] Anand-Milind were nominated in the Filmfare, Best Music Directors category, but lost out to Nadeem-Shravan for Deewana. Anuradha Paudwal won her third consecutive Filmfare award for Best Female playback singer. Music directors Dilip Sen–Sameer Sen, Amar-Utpal and Naresh Sharma's compositions are included in the album but not in the film, nor are they credited in the film titles. Audio is available on T-Series.

Ilaiyaraja's music for the song "Abbanee Teeyani" from the film Jagadeka Veerudu Athiloka Sundari in 1990, has been used for the song "Dhak Dhak Karne Laga".

#TitleSinger(s)LengthDistinction(s)
1 "Dhak Dhak Karne Laga" Udit Narayan, Anuradha Paudwal 05:20
2 "Koyal Se Teri Boli" Udit Narayan, Anuradha Paudwal 05:38
3 "Saiyan Ji Se Chupke" Udit Narayan, Anuradha Paudwal 07:30
4 "Sajna Main Teri" Anuradha Paudwal, Vipin Sachdeva 07:14
5 "Dhadkane Saansein Jawani" Pankaj Udhas, Anuradha Paudwal 05:20 Music by Dilip Sen – Sameer Sen and lyrics by Dilip Tahir.
6 "Yeh Do Dil Hain Chanchal" Babla Mehta, Anuradha Paudwal 06:52 Music by Amar-Utpal and lyrics by Naqsh Lyallpuri.
7 "Bhool To Maa Se" Udit Narayan 02:17
8 "Kushiyon Ka Din Aaya Hai" Anuradha Paudwal 05:57
9 "Kitna Pyara Yeh Chehra" Anuradha Paudwal, Indrajeet 04:40 Music by Naresh Sharma and lyrics by Dev Kohli.
10 "Nach Mudiya" Anuradha Paudwal, Vipin Sachdeva 06:48 Music by Naresh Sharma and lyrics by Dev Kohli.

Awards

38th Filmfare Awards

Won

Nominated

Other versions

The story line has been inspiration for various movies and has had various remakes in Indian film industry.

YearTitleLanguageDirectorCast
Step-motherSonWife
1955ArdhangiTeluguP. PullaiahSantha KumariAkkineni Nageswara RaoSavitri
1956Pennin PerumaiTamilP. PullaiahSantha KumariSivaji GanesanSavitri
1963BahuraniHindiT. Prakash RaoLalita PawarGuru DuttMala Sinha
1969Mallammana PavaadaKannadaPuttanna KanagalAdvani Lakshmi DeviRajkumarB Sarojadevi
1975SwayamsiddhaBengaliSushil MukherjeeRanjit MallickMithu Mukherjee
1981JyothiHindiPramod ChakravortyShashikalaJeetendraHema Malini
1987Enga Chinna RasaTamilK. BhagyarajC. R. SaraswathyK. BhagyarajRadha
1992BetaHindiIndra KumarAruna IraniAnil KapoorMadhuri Dixit
1993AbbaigaruTeluguE. V. V. SatyanarayanaJayachitraVenkateshMeena
1993AnnayyaKannadaD. Rajendra BabuAruna IraniV. RavichandranMadhoo
1998SantanOriyaSnigdha MohantySiddhanta MahapatraRachana Banerjee
1998Shundori BodhuBengaliNasima KhanRiazShabnur
1998SatvaparikshaMarathiSmita JaykarLaxmikant BerdeResham Tipnis
2006Dikro kahu ke devGujaratiPratima THiten kumarPranjal bhatt
2007Sakkha savatraMarathiPriya ArunMakarand AnaspureKranti redkar
2006Oji Re Diwana RajasthaniPushpa VermaArvind VaghelaNilu Vaghela

References

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