The lesser known shelved Amitabh Bachchan film directed by Mahmood

The lesser known, shelved Amitabh Bachchan film directed by Mahmood. (Rare Bollywood Facts by Bobby Sing)

11 Dec, 2019 | Articles on Cinema / BTC Exclusive / Did You Know!

Digging into archives often surprises you and reminds that there is a lot hidden in the past which is still not there in the nostalgic TV programs and online sites/sources, waiting to be found and presented before the lovers of Hindi cinema.

While studying some old journals of the late ‘70s, I just found this valuable info about a film that was announced around 1978 starring Amitabh Bachchan and Rekha aptly titled LAMBU DADA, but was shelved soon because of some unknown reasons.

Though a project getting shelved is not any unusual happening in the film business and there is a long list of shelved films of all the stars including Amitabh Bachchan. But this film’s rare news is special as it was publicized to be directed by Mahmood and also had music by Basu-Manohari (close associates of R.D. Burman) with lyrics by Majrooh Sultanpuri.

Besides there was Raakesh Roshan playing the second lead and a whole team of comic artists included Keshto Mukherjee, Mohan Choti, Sunder, Mukri and Mahmood himself, playing a key role. Another unique feature of the project was a credit saying ‘Introducing GoGa Pehalwan from Karnataka’ that must have been something extraordinary getting a special mention in its poster published in the reputed SCREEN magazine in the year 1978.

Produced by Amarlal P. Chhabria, the original film was written by Ram Govind as mentioned in its poster, but it has to be a completely different script as the cast doesn’t match with the actual film that was later made after a decade with the same title.

In the late 80s or around 1990, LAMBU DADA finally got made with Kabir Bedi in the lead role (perfectly suiting the title) along with Madhavi, Paresh Rawal, Aruna Irani, Kiran Kumar, Mahesh Anand and more. It now had music by Rajesh Rohsan and lyrics by Indeevar, Anwar Sagar, Payam Saeedi and Maya Govind.

Presented by the same Balajii Films and produced by Amarlal. P. Chhabria, the new film was written and directed by Sharad Chaudhary, which revolved around a goon called Lambu Dada (Kabir Bedi), a young girl and Madhavi.

It was a poor film, made in the typical style of the 80s with template pieces of background score and different voices dubbed for its various artists. Probably the 1990 film also faced several obstacles in its making resulting in a bad product that is really tough to watch for more than two hours of duration. However, after watching it, one conclusion can surely be made that this was certainly not based on the same script earlier written for the Amitabh-Rekha starrer initially planned in 1978.

Not sure but the new LAMBU DADA must have released in 1991 (as per its Censor Certificate). The film is now available on Youtube, but many of its songs have been strangely muted for no known reason.

Cheers!

Bobby Sing (Harpreet) – 11th December 2019

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Tags : Rare Bollywood Facts by Bobby Sing at bobbytalkscinema.com, The lesser known shelved Amitabh Bachchan film directed by Mahmood, Amitabh Bachchan in and as Lambu Dada. Amitabh Bachchan's shelved films.

11 Dec 2019 / Comments ( 4 )

Mustafa Raja

submitted on 12 December 2019

Thanks for such interesting information. There are a lot of articles online on Shelved projects starring AB but none had this one mentioned.Around late 70's and beginning of 80's there were a lot of films which either canned after little shoot or never begun. Interestingly 2 films of 78' having some non filmi icon as special appearance both were shelved... One mentioned above and another was Prakash Mehra titled Shiva with Boxer Mohammed Ali's Sp.Aprnce.

Reason for muted songs of Lambu Dada might be R.Roshan fees being unpaid or something due to financial reasons.

Bobby Sing

submitted on 14 Dec,2019

The pleasure is all mine Mustafa.
Actually Prakash Mehra's film still finds a mention at many places without the title but this I never found mentioned anywhere till date.
Thanks for writing in and Keep Visiting,
Cheers!

Chinmay1987

submitted on 14 December 2019

Wow...Mehmood directing Amitabh in 1977 at peak of his career would have been treat to watch..Unfortunate that it got shelved..

Bobby Sing

submitted on 14 Dec,2019

Thanks Chinmay for writing in and yes it surely would have been a treat.
Keep Visiting for more.
Cheers!

The lesser known, shelved Amitabh Bachchan film directed by Mahmood. (Rare Bollywood Facts by Bobby Sing)

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