The year 1967 was all about thrillers in Bollywood, as films like Dev Anand’s iconic Jewel Thief to Shammi Kapoor’s An Evening in Paris, and even Nargis’ Raat Aur Din became box office blockbusters. Among the thrillers, Shashi Kapoor-Sharmila Tagore starrer Aamne Samne stands out for using an unreliable protagonist—a narrative choice ahead of its time.
While in the other films, there is an inkling of who could be the mastermind behind a crime, director Suraj Prakash manages to hoodwink his audience till the very end, with a new red herring at every turn.
Aamne Samne begins with a court verdict where Deepak Verma (Kapoor) is acquitted of the murder of his wife. But no one believes his innocence.
Deepak decides to leave his life behind and reaches Mumbai, and takes on the alias of Gopal Mittal. He soon meets his wealthy neighbour Sapna (Tagore), whom he also saves from an accident at a local carnival. Sapna, who was earlier dating her brother Pran’s (Madan Puri) friend Prem (Prem Chopra), falls for the man who saves her life.
When Sapna declares her intention of marrying Gopal, both Pran and Prem threaten to kill her. But she defies them and elopes with Gopal. The two lovebirds leave for their honeymoon in Kashmir. But Sapna is attacked by someone, and she soon discovers her charming husband’s dubious past. The second half of the film then deals with the mystery of who the person is behind the attack on Sapna’s life.
Killer hiding in plain sight
Prakash had earlier delivered the hit Jab Jab Phool Khile (1965), set against the backdrop of Kashmir. With Aamne Samne, the duo recreated box office magic and also set a majority of the film’s action in Kashmir.
Aaamne Samne is a rare thriller that manages to keep the audience guessing till the very end about the intentions of each of the male characters. The film places Deepak/Gopal under a cloud of suspicion right from the start.
As he walks out of the court, lawyers whisper that his money saved him from the gallows. Even his brother-in-law disowns him.
In a scene after the attack on Sapna, she tells Gopal that her back is hurting. “The person who attempted to kill you was a novice. He should have tried to strangle you instead of pushing you down the hill,” says Gopal as he massages Sapna’s back. Even the police are convinced that Gopal is a repeat offender who wants to kill Sapna for her money.
Slowly, Sapna develops the growing suspicion that Gopal is going to kill her for her inheritance.
Except for her, almost every other character behaves dubiously at one point or another. But David Jeffries and Brij Katyal’s screenplay builds up a narrative that is almost overwhelmingly against Gopal. As the film nears the climax, the director slowly reveals the motive of each of the characters in the film.
Also read: Gharana wasn’t just any family drama. It exposed a hypocrisy at the heart of Indian homes
The thriller treatment
What holds the film together is the performance of Kapoor and Tagore. Kapoor manages to switch from the wrongfully accused man to a charming husband to a possible killer, with just a slight shift in his smile. Tagore complements him with her act of a carefree young heiress who slowly starts living in fear and suspicion as she starts getting paranoid about her husband’s behaviour and past.
The music, composed by Kalyanji Anandji, establishes the love story between the two. But as the film takes a sharp turn toward being a thriller, there are no more songs or overly dramatic background score to distract the audience.
It is the constant tug of war of faith and suspicion between the two leads, peppered with a series of suspicious incidents, that makes the 137-minute film a fine thriller.
Kapoor and Tagore worked together in 11 films and were close friends who would often commute to Film City together. This comfort also shows in the way the two actors manage to deliver pitch-perfect performances together.
“One of Shashi’s greatest traits was that he thought of everyone, and cared about the small things. This also made him very popular with people in the film industry. He would greet everyone on the sets with a namaskar and drink tea with the electricians and the make-up team, asking after them,” said Tagore, remembering her friend fondly in an interview when Kapoor was awarded the Dadasaheb Phalke award in 2014.
Cast: Shashi Kapoor, Sharmila Tagore, Rajendra Nath, Prem Chopra.
Director: Suraj Prakash
Music director: Kalyanji–Anandji
(Edited by Ratan Priya)