''Laawaris'' () is a 1981 Indian

masala film Masala films of Indian cinema mix multiple genres into one work. Masala films emerged in the 1970s and are still created as of the 2020s. Typically these films freely mix action, comedy, romance, and drama or melodrama. They also tend to be ...

directed by

Prakash Mehra Prakash Mehra (13 July 1939 – 17 May 2009) was a legendary Indian film director and producer known for his work in Hindi films. He was one of the pioneers of masala films, along with Nasir Hussain, and Manmohan Desai. His collaborations wit ...

. The film became known for its song "Mere Angene Mein Tumhara Kya Kaam Hai" (roughly translated as: "In my courtyard, what is your purpose?") rendered twice: the first time by a young Alka Yagnik, who earned her first Filmfare nomination as best female playback singer, and the second time by Amitabh Bachchan. The second version became very popular due to Bachchan's comedic performance in drag. The lyrics pay tribute to every type of wife, be they fat, tall, short, dark, or fair skinned. Even today, the song is popular among audiences. ''Laawaris'' starred Amitabh Bachchan,

Zeenat Aman Zeenat Khan (born 19 November 1951), better known as Zeenat Aman, is an Indian actress and former fashion model. She first received recognition for her modelling work, and at the age of 19, went on to participate in beauty pageants, winning both ...

, Amjad Khan in lead roles. In Hindi, "Laawaris" loosely means bastard or orphan. Although the word still has negative connotations, they are not as extreme as in English. The story revolves around an orphan who stumbles over reality in search for his parents. The film was declared "super-hit" at box-office according to

Box Office India Box Office India is an Indian film website. Its traffic ranking in India is 83,665 . A new Box Office India website went live on 20 January 2014. About Box Office India was launched on 10 June 2003. Its uses Whois privacy to anonymize its ow ...

. It was the fourth-highest grossing Bollywood film of 1981. It earned additional Filmfare nominations for Best Actor ( Amitabh Bachchan) and Best Supporting Actor (

Suresh Oberoi Suresh Oberoi (born 17 December 1946) is an Indian actor and politician who appeared in Hindi films. He is a recipient of the 1987 National Film Award for Best Supporting Actor. He started his career in radio shows, modelling and later moving ...

Plot

Vidya (

Raakhee Raakhee Gulzar (born Rakhee Majumdar on 15 August 1947 and known as Raakhee) is an Indian actress who has appeared in many Hindi films and Bengali films as well. In four decades of acting, she has won three Filmfare Awards and one National Fil ...

) is a famous singer and she is in love with Ranvir Singh ( Amjad Khan), a leading business man. She gets pregnant with his child but Ranvir Singh wants it to be aborted. Vidya who doesn't want to abort her child decides to break up with Ranvir Singh and she leaves with her brother without informing Ranvir Singh. Vidya dies while giving birth to a baby boy but her brother takes away the baby and gives it to his driver, Gangu Ganpat, asking it to be killed. Meanwhile, Gangu Ganpat, a drunkard decides to raise the baby on his own instead of killing with the intention of making some money with the help of baby. He names the baby as Heera. Many years later, when a grown up Heera ( Amitabh Bachchan) refuses to give Gangu liquor, an angry Gangu reveals his status as an orphan and an angry Heera leaves him. Heera gets a job in a factory which is owned by Mahendar Singh (

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" ...

), who happens to be the son of Ranvir Singh (with his legally wedded wife and half-brother of Heera) . It is shown that Ranvir Singh leads an unhappy life with his wife in an estate. He feels guilty about his betrayal to Vidya thinking she is dead. Once employed at Mahendar Singh's factory, Heera understands that workers are not paid properly in Mahendar Singh's factory and decides to fight against it which angers Mahendar Singh. Mohini (

) the daughter of Kailashnath, falls in love with Heera without knowing his true identity. Mahendar Singh transfers Heera to work in his estate present at a hill station with plans of killing him. Heera meets Ranvir Singh in the estate and gets into his good books. During a function, Mahendar Singh plans to kill Heera, but accidentally Ranvir Singh gets hurt. In the climax Ranvir Singh accepts Heera as his legitimate son and unites with his whole family.

Cast

* Amitabh Bachchan as Heera *

as Mohini *

as Mahendra Singh * Bindu as Kamini Singh * Amjad Khan as Ranveer Singh * Jeevan as Lala *

Om Prakash Om Prakash (born Om Prakash Chibber 19 December 1919 – 21 February 1998) was an Indian film actor. He was born in Jammu as Om Prakash Chibber and went on to become a well-known character actor of Bollywood. His most well-known movies are Na ...

as Dr. Goel *

Mukri Mohammed Umar Mukri (5 January 1922 – 4 September 2000), popularly known as Mukri, was an Indian actor, who worked as a comedian in Hindi films. Born as Muhammad Umar Mukri in Uran, in Kokani Muslim Family. He started his film career with th ...

as Gafoor *

Shreeram Lagoo Dr.Shriram Lagoo (16 November 1927 – 17 December 2019) was an Indian film and theatre actor, in Hindi and Marathi, in addition to being an ENT Surgeon. He was known for his character roles in films. He acted in over 250 films including Hind ...

as Gangu Ganpat *

as Ram Singh *

as Vidya (Special Appearance)

Soundtrack

The music of this movie was composed by

Kalyanji–Anandji Kalyanji–Anandji are an Indian composer duo: Kalyanji Virji Shah (30 June 1928 – 24 August 2000) and his brother Anandji Virji Shah (born 2 March 1933). The duo are known for their work on Hindi film soundtracks, with many evergreen songs ...

, while the lyrics were written by Anjaan and Prakash Mehra. The movie features some popular songs like "Apni Toh Jaise Taise" sung by

Kishore Kumar Kishore Kumar (born as Abhas Kumar Ganguly (); 4 August 1929 – 13 October 1987) was an Indian playback singer and actor. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest, most influential and dynamic singers in the history of Indian music. He ...

and "Mere Angne Mein", whose male version was sung by Amitabh Bachchan. The song "Mere Angne Mein" was recreated by

Tanishk Bagchi Tanishk Bagchi (born 23 November 1980) is an Indian music producer, composer, singer and lyricist in Hindi films. He is known for tracks like "Bolna", "Ve Maahi", "Aankh Maarey"(recreated), " Dilbar" (recreated), "Jehda Nasha" (recreated) and "L ...

in the year 2020 in the voice of

Neha Kakkar Neha Kakkar Singh (; née Kakkar; born 6 June 1988), is an Indian playback singer. She is the younger sister of playback singer Sonu Kakkar. She began performing at a very early age at religious events. In 2005, she participated in the second ...

and

Raja Hassan Raja Hasan is an Indian playback singer who was born in December 1982 in the city of Bikaner, Rajasthan, India. He was a finalist on '' Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge 2007'', in which he finished as runner-up to Aneek Dhar. Recently he was a judge ...

. The song "Apni Toh Jaise Taise" was recreated by Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy in the voice of

Mika Singh Mika Singh (born 10 June 1977) is an Indian singer. His songs include "Bas Ek King" ('' Singh Is Kinng''), "Mauja Hi Mauja" ('' Jab We Met''), "Ibn-e-Batuta" (''Ishqiya''), and "Dhanno" ('' Housefull''). He has released several solo albums and ...

and Sunidhi Chauhan in the 2010 film '' Housefull''. Both the music videos starred Sri Lankan actress

Jacqueline Fernandez Jacqueline Fernandez (born 11 August 1985) is a Sri Lankan actress and model. She has worked in Indian films, predominantly in Hindi, besides appearing in reality shows and music videos. Debuting with ''Aladin'' in 2009 she has since then es ...

Remakes

''Laawaris'' was remade as *''

Naa Desam ''Naa Desam'' () is a 1982 Indian Telugu-language film, produced by K. Devi Vara Prasad and S. Venkataratnam and directed by K. Bapayya. It stars N. T. Rama Rao and Jayasudha, with music composed by Chakravarthy. The film is a remake of the Hi ...

'', in

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode S ...

in 1982, starring NTR,

Kaikala Satyanarayana Kaikala Satyanarayana (25 July 1935 – 23 December 2022) was an Indian actor, producer, director, and politician who predominantly worked in Telugu cinema. He appeared in over 750 films and served as the Member of Parliament in the 11th Lok Sa ...

and Jayasudha. *''

Panakkaran ''Panakkaran'' () is a 1990 Indian Tamil-language masala film directed by P. Vasu. A remake of the Hindi film '' Lawaaris'' (1981), it stars Rajinikanth and Gautami. The film was released on 14 January 1990, Pongal day, and ran for more tha ...

'', in

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nativ ...

in 1990, starring Rajinikanth, Vijayakumar and

Gautami Gautami Tadimalla (born 2 July 1969), known mononymously as Gautami, is an Indian actress and politician who has worked mainly in Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam films in addition to Hindi, and Kannada films. She was one of the leading South India ...

. Both films were massive hits in their respective languages.

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* * https://web.archive.org/web/20131014090332/http://www.boxofficeindia.com/showProd.php?itemCat=125&catName=MTk4MC0xOTg5 {{Prakash Mehra 1980s Hindi-language films 1980s masala films 1981 films Films about orphans Films directed by Prakash Mehra Films scored by Kalyanji Anandji Hindi films remade in other languages