''Salaam Memsaab'' is a 1979

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

comedy drama Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and Drama (film and television), drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple co ...

film directed by

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, ...

Story

Radha (Zarina Wahab) and Sunder (Asrani) and a child (Master Jeetu), are street singers, who earn their living singing and dancing on streets, especially in the posh area near the Taj Mahal Intercontinental Hotel opposite Gateway of India in Bombay, India. Radha is pretty much down to earth and is content with living this life, working hard. But Sunder has big dreams of becoming rich, wealthy, and famous - quickly. Sunder's dreams do come true, albeit temporarily, when he wins an all-paid week's stay at a five star hotel, and comes in contact with the rich, the wealthy, and the famous.

Cast

Sunil Dutt Sunil Dutt (born Balraj Dutt; 6 June 1929 — 25 May 2005) was an Indian actor, film producer, director and politician. Dutt was one of the major stars of Hindi cinema in the late 1950s and 1960s and continued to star in many successful film ...

as Naresh Sarit *

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 ...

as Sunita Sarit *

Rishi Kapoor Rishi Raj Kapoor (4 September 1952 — 30 April 2020) was an Indian actor, film director and producer who worked in Hindi films Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry base ...

as Ramesh *

as Sunder *

Zarina Wahab Zarina Wahab is an Indian actress who predominantly worked in Hindi and Malayalam films. Known for critically acclaimed roles in ''Chitchor'' and '' Gopal Krishna'' in Hindi and Malayalam cinema with films like ''Madanolsavam'', ''Chamaram'', ...

as Radha *

Ranjeet Ranjeet Bedi (born 13 September 1942 as Gopal Bedi) popularly known as Ranjeet, is an Indian actor and film director born in Jandiala Guru near Amritsar (Punjab), best known for his work in Bollywood.Singh, Nonika (1999)Ranjeet's triple love" ...

as Gopal *

Rehman Rehman may refer to a Muslim surname which means, "Merciful", "King", " Lord". It's an honorary title used by some Muslims of Sheikh or Sayyid Caste of Middle Eastern Origin, it is a common surname or middle-name among some Pashtun tribemen. It is a ...

as Mr. Mehra *

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 Mausiji *

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 ...

as James *

Tom Alter Thomas Beach Alter (22 June 1950 – 29 September 2017) was an Indian actor. He was best known for his works in Hindi cinema, and Indian theatre. In 2008, he was awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India. Early life Born in Mussoorie i ...

as John *

Dalip Tahil Dalip Tahil (born as Dalip Tahilramani; 30 October 1952) is an Indian film, television and theatre actor. He studied at Sherwood College in Nainital, India. After attending Aligarh Muslim University for a year, he graduated from St. Xavier's Co ...

as Arab Smuggler * C.S. Dubey *Arvind Rathod

Soundtrack

The music of the film was composed by

R. D. Burman Rahul Dev Burman (27 June 1939 – 4 January 1994) was an Indian music director who is considered one of the most influential composers of India. From the 1960s to the 1990s, Burman composed musical scores for 331 films. Burman did major work w ...

and lyrics were penned by

Majrooh Sultanpuri Asrar ul Hassan Khan (1 October 1919 − 24 May 2000), better known as Majrooh Sultanpuri, was an Indian Urdu poet and lyricist in India's Hindi language film industry. He wrote Hindustani lyrics for numerous Hindi film soundtracks. He was ...

Controversy and Delayed release

Three months before the releasing of the film in 1978, an author filed a case in Bombay Session Court against the producer of the film, Mr. V.D. Kalra, for copying his story in his film. The case took 6 months to complete and was ruled in favour of the producers, the film released then in 1979 in Bombay and in a few other Mass circuits; the film was a houseful in places like

Gujarat Gujarat (, ) is a state along the western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the fifth-largest Indian state by area, covering some ; and the ninth ...

and

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...

. Still, after such response, the film failed to pick up in

Bihar Bihar (; ) is a state in eastern India. It is the 2nd largest state by population in 2019, 12th largest by area of , and 14th largest by GDP in 2021. Bihar borders Uttar Pradesh to its west, Nepal to the north, the northern part of West Be ...

and also got a limited release in other parts of India. On this note, the film performed below average. Also, this was the last film by the banner Roshan Films Pvt. Ltd. and Producer V.D. Kalra.

External links

References

1979 films 1970s Hindi-language films Films scored by R. D. Burman Films directed by Kalpataru Indian comedy-drama films {{1970s-Hindi-film-stub