Andhera (1975)
Cast: Sameer Khan, Vani Ganpati, Imtiaz Khan, Satyen Kappu, Helen, Tun Tun
Directors: Shyam Ramsay & Tulsi Ramsay
Nutshell: Early Ramsays foray into thriller and horror territory paid dividents paving the path for a long and successful journey.

 

Andhera was made by the Ramsay Brothers in 1975 at a time when horror movies and Giallo-like thrillers were few and far between in Indian cinema. They gambled on producing a film that wasn’t the usual Bollywood formula and it paid off, scoring decent enough numbers at the box office for them to keep experimenting with genre movies. It wasn’t long ago they hit paydirt with Do Gaz Zameen Ke Neeche, which preceded Andhera by three years and further encouraged them to follow a path laden with mystery, horror and chills.

The film starts with carefree, happy-go-lucky Deepak (Sameer Khan), a skilled driver having some fun on the road with another car and getting into a skirmish. Villainous Imtiaz Khan and his lovely sister are the victims of his prank, but while Imtiaz admires Deepak’s driving skills, his sister can’t hide her infatuation with the handsome young man.

Notorious smuggler Imtiaz offers the struggling Deepak a job which initially he doesn’t take up, but with the burden of paying for his brother’s police entrance examinations, he decides the only way forward is to accept the offer. Aasha, Imtiaz’s swooning sister, is delighted and completely smitten by Deepak’s charm and good looks. While Imtiaz is away on a business trip, romance blossoms in a serious way and Aasha ends up pregnant.

When Imtiaz returns, he is furious to discover his sister’s pregnancy and decides to teach Deepak a lesson he will never forget. His goons attack Deepak and brutally chop off his arms, leaving the young fellow devastated and suicidal as his future is snatched away by this horrific act of cruelty.

He struggles to survive with his ailing mother, frustrated that he can’t provide for her as their circumstances deteriorate. Worse still, he is viciously mocked and insulted by Imtiaz’s posse of goons but is unable to fight back. He also has to watch his mother being ill-treated and derided because of their desperate situation. Aasha remains devoted to him but is now imprisoned in her brother’s home, recovering from an accident in which she loses her unborn child.

Life is a living hell for Deepak and there seems no way out. He is restless, suffers constant nightmares and burns with vengeance, but there is nothing he can do.

Days later, one of Imtiaz’s accomplices is stalked by a shadowy figure with metallic arms and hands. This shrouded figure plunges a dagger into the man, setting off panic among the entire group of smugglers, who begin to believe that someone is out to get them. Another is struck down in the same way by the same metal-armed figure, then another. The police are clueless and unable to find a suspect and, of course, there are no fingerprints to be found, which doesn’t help their cause. Later, Satyen Kappu, another accomplice, is murdered in a swimming pool and Deepak is finally revealed as the killer with the metal arms.

Meanwhile, Aasha comes to Deepak when he is suicidal and begs him to marry her despite his condition, further infuriating Imtiaz. Amar, Deepak’s brother, returns from his police training and is assigned the task of finding the killer.

Eventually the police find clues that lead to one of Imtiaz Khan’s molls. In jail she confesses that she supplied the metal arms and that Deepak was acting on her instructions. She was motivated by her mad love for Deepak and her hatred for the smugglers who had exploited her.

Gradually the film reaches its climax. The question is whether there can be any redemption for Deepak, even though he was a victim before he turned to murder. Will Aasha forgive and embrace a man who has now become a murderer? Finally there is a confrontation between Imtiaz and Deepak, a battle to the bitter end.

It’s a decent effort by the Ramsay Brothers, even if it really isn’t an out-and-out horror movie. There are elements of the Giallo style in the stalking scenes featuring the shrouded killer with metal arms and hands and a sharp dagger with which he slays his enemies. Things keep moving along without dragging, which is a credit to the direction of Shyam and Tulsi Ramsay.

Sameer Khan, known largely as the unsuccessful brother of superstars Feroz and Sanjay Khan, actually plays his part very well indeed. He sinks his teeth into the role with conviction and does a fine job. Dashing and with distinctly good features, he is undeniably handsome, and yet he never clicked in Bollywood despite a handful of films.

Perhaps he didn’t have the required machismo or possess the baritone voice and style of dialogue delivery which made superstars out of people who were far less pleasing on the eye. Maybe he simply didn’t have that elusive screen presence demanded by audiences to elevate him to the ranks of his brothers. Shashi Kapoor managed to have a long and successful career despite also having to negotiate the age of the Angry Young Man, but he found a way. Sameer didn’t and ultimately floundered.

Yet in Andhera he carries the film well. It’s far from being a great movie, but it’s an adequate one that manages to keep the audience engaged and invested. The film went on to do solid business and, considering its tiny budget, made a good profit for the Ramsays. More importantly, it was enough for them to persist with thrillers and horror movies, something which would soon pay off very well for them indeed.

Andhera must therefore be considered something of a spark that helped ignite the beginning of a long and ultimately enormously successful journey for the Ramsay family, one which won them admirers in all corners of the world as well as considerable box-office success. Pity that Sameer was not quite so fortunate.

Helen appears for a saucy little dance and Tun Tun lights up the screen in a bit part, while Imtiaz is suitably cold and the rest of the supporting cast perfectly adequate — even though the actor playing Amar wears the most preposterous wig.  There is also one song by Kishore which is catchy and tuneful in a "happy" and a "sad" version.  The scene where the sad version plays is one of the most poignant scenes of the film with the Ramsays showing they can do emotion just as well as they do horror.  A solid effort all around.