''Mere Apne'' is a 1971 Indian

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

-language film written and directed by

Gulzar Sampooran Singh Kalra (born 18 August 1934), known professionally as Gulzar, is an Indian Urdu poet, lyricist, author, screenwriter, and film director known for his works in Hindi cinema. He is regarded as one of greatest Urdu poets of this ...

and produced by Romu, Raj and N. C. Sippy. It was Gulzar's first directorial venture and was almost a frame by frame remake of the National Award-winning

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

film ''

Apanjan ''Apanjan'' (also ''Apan Jan''; roughly translated in English as "One's own people") is a 1968 Bengali film directed by Tapan Sinha. Set against the backdrop of the political violence that rocked India, and West Bengal in particular, in the late ...

'', which was directed by

Tapan Sinha Tapan Sinha (2 October 1924 – 15 January 2009) was one of the most prominent Indian film directors of his time forming a legendary quartet with Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak and Mrinal Sen. He was primarily a Bengali filmmaker who worked both ...

. This was the first movie of Vinod Khanna as Hero. This was also debut movie of Danny. The film stars

Meena Kumari Meena Kumari (born Mahjabeen Bano; 1 August 1933 – 31 March 1972) was an Indian actress and poet, who worked in Hindi films. Popularly known as ''The Tragedy Queen'', she was active between 1939 and 1972. Kumari is widely considered one of ...

Vinod Khanna Vinod Khanna (6 October 1946 – 27 April 2017) was an Indian actor, film producer and politician who is best known for his work in Hindi films; while also being a notable spiritual seeker. In Bollywood, he was the recipient of two Filmfare awa ...

and

Shatrughan Sinha Shatrughan Prasad Sinha (born 9 December 1945) is an Indian actor and politician. He is a Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha from Asansol (Lok Sabha constituency), Asansol constituency as a member of All India Trinamool Congress (TMC). Earlier he ...

in lead roles along with

Deven Verma Deven Verma (23 October 1937 – 2 December 2014) was an Indian film and television actor, particularly known for his comic roles, with Bollywood directors like Basu Chatterji, Hrishikesh Mukherjee and Gulzar. He also produced and directed fi ...

, Paintal, Asit Sen,

Asrani Govardhan Asrani (born 1 January 1940), popularly known simply as Asrani, is an Indian actor and director whose Bollywood career has spanned five decades. He has acted in over 350 Hindi films. Asrani has played the lead roles, character roles, ...

Danny Denzongpa Tshering Phintso "Danny" Denzongpa (born 25 February 1948) is an Indian actor, singer and film director who primarily works in Hindi films. He has acted in over 190 films since 1971. In 2003, Denzongpa was awarded the Padma Shree, India's four ...

Keshto Mukherjee Keshto Mukherjee (7 August 1925 – 2 March 1982) was an Indian actor and comedian. He was born in Kolkata,Bengal Presidency, British India. He specialised in comic drunkard roles in Hindi films. Though he was famous for his drunkard typecast ...

, A. K. Hangal,

Dinesh Thakur Dinesh Thakur (1947 – 20 September 2012) was an Indian theatre director, actor in theatre, television and Hindi film, where most notably he appeared as one of the leads in ''Rajnigandha'' 1974 and directed by Basu Chatterjee, which won both Fi ...

Mehmood Mahmud is a transliteration of the male Arabic given name (), common in most parts of the Islamic world. It comes from the Arabic triconsonantal root Ḥ-M-D, meaning ''praise'', along with ''Muhammad''. Siam Mahmud *Mahmood (singer) (born 1 ...

and

Yogeeta Bali Yogeeta Bali Chakraborty (born 13 August 1952) is a former Indian Bollywood actress. She was active in the late 1970s and through the 1980s. Biography Yogeeta Bali was born on 13 August 1952. She is the niece of actress Geeta Bali. Bali mar ...

. The music of the film is composed by

Salil Choudhury Salil Chowdhury (19 November 1925 – 5 September 1995) was an Indian music director, songwriter, lyricist, writer and poet who predominantly composed for Bengali, Hindi and Malayalam films. He composed music for films in 13 languages. This incl ...

. ''Mere Apne'' was declared " Hit " at the box office.

Plot

Anandi Devi (

) is an old widow who lives in a village. One day, she is visited by a distant relative, Arun Gupta (Ramesh Deo), who persuades her to live in town with him, his wife Lata ( Sumita Sanyal), and a small child. She later realizes that they were looking for a maid, which results in her expulsion from the house and befriending a child beggar who takes her to his dilapidated home. Being good-natured and caring, she slowly earns the title of "Nani Ma" (maternal grandmother) among groups of youths led by Shyam (

) and Chhenu (

), who were in a constant fight with each other. The movie ends with her death from accidental gunfire in one such response.

Cast

as Anandi Devi *

as Shyam *

as Chhenu *

as Niranjan, Anandi's deceased husband *

as Raghunath, Chhenu's team mate *

as Sanju * Paintal as Bansi *

as Billoo *Sudhir Thakkar as Ranbir *

Ramesh Deo Ramesh Deo (30 January 1926 – 2 February 2022) was an Indian film and television actor who worked in more than 285 Hindi films, 190 Marathi films and 30 Marathi dramas with over 200 showings in his long career. He also produced feature films, ...

as Arun Gupta * Sumita Sanyal as Lata *

as Sri Anokhelal * Asit Sen as Biloki Prasad *

Abhi Bhattacharya Abhi Bhattacharya (20 November 1921 – 11 August 1993) was an Indian actor of Hindi and Bengali cinema, who is most remembered for his roles in films of the 1950s and the 1960s, such as ''Yatrik'' (1952), ''Jagriti'' (1954), '' Anuradha'' (1 ...

as Freedom Fighter *

Leela Mishra Leela Mishra (1 January 1908 – 17 January 1988) was an Indian actress. She worked as a character actor in over 200 Hindi films for five decades, and is best remembered for playing stock characters such as aunts (''Chachi'' or ''Mausi''). She ...

as Gupta's maidservant *

Shashi Kiran Shashi may refer to: Places and jurisdictions China *Shashi City (), Hubei from 1949 to 1994 * Shashi District (), Jingzhou, Hubei (historically, Shashi City) since 1994 ** Apostolic Prefecture of Shashi ** Jingmen–Shashi railway, single-trac ...

as Neelu *

as Jattu *Dev Kishan as Shyam's father * A. K. Hangal as College Principal *

as Urmila *Kamaldeep as Urmila's father (as Kamal Deep) *Fatima as Julie *Amina Karim as Young Anandi

Production

After ''

'', directed by

, is based on a story of Inder Mitra, was both a commercial and critical success. Screenwriter

was called to Kolkata to translate the script for a Hindi remake. However, subsequently Sinha insisted on using the same cast, and dropped out of the film. Then, Gulzar, who till then was assisting

Bimal Roy Bimal Roy (12 July 1909 – 8 January 1966) was an Indian film director. He is particularly noted for his realistic and socialistic films such as ''Do Bigha Zamin'', ''Parineeta (1953 film), Parineeta'', ''Biraj Bahu'', ''Devdas (1955 film), D ...

and

Hrishikesh Mukherjee Hrishikesh Mukherjee (30 September 1922 – 27 August 2006) was an Indian film director, editor and writer. He is regarded as one of the greatest filmmakers of Indian cinema. Popularly known as ''Hrishi-da'', he directed 42 films during his car ...

and penned screenplays of '' Khamoshi'' (1969) and '' Anand'' (1971), made his directorial debut with the film. Gulzar bought the rights of the story, and rewrote the screenplay removing the portions he felt were too formulaic and commercial.

, in an interview revealed that N. C. Sippy, the producer of the film, wanted actress

Nimmi Nawab Bano (18 February 1933 – 25 March 2020), better known by her stage name Nimmi, was an Indian screen actress who achieved stardom in the 1950s and early 1960s in Hindi films. She was one of the leading actresses of the "golden era" of Hin ...

in the grandmother's role. Gulzar however was keen on

Chhaya Devi Chhaya Devi ( bn, ছায়া দেবী; 3 June 1914 – 25 April 2001) was an Indian actress known for her work in Bengali and Hindi cinema. She appeared in hundreds of films for over five decades. Her first lead role was in Debak ...

, who played that role in the original. It was

who was finally given the role of grandmother on Gulzar and Romu Sippy's insistence. Kumari who was ailing at the time, worked through her bad health in the film. The shooting was completed in 40 days. Only the song, ''Chand Katora Liye Bhikaran...'' couldn't be picturised on Kumari as she was in no condition to come to the sets, being on the last stage of her illness. ''Mere Apne'' was the last film she shot for and would often joke with the young actors, 'This director is pushing you so hard, at least you can ask him to host you a beer party'. However, that party never happened as she died soon after the release of the film.

Soundtrack

References

Bibliography

* *

External links

* * {{Gulzar 1971 films 1970s Hindi-language films Hindi remakes of Bengali films Films scored by Salil Chowdhury Films directed by Gulzar 1971 directorial debut films