''Ram Aur Shyam'' (

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

: ''Ram And Shyam'') is a 1967 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

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

directed by

Tapi Chanakya Tapi Chanakya (1925–1973), professionally known as Chanakya, was an Indian film director and writer. He is son of the famous writer Tapi Dharma Rao Naidu. He has worked as Radio Telegraphist for the Indian Army. Filmography # Palletoori Pilla ...

. The film is a remake of Chanakya's 1964

Telugu film Telugu cinema, also known as Tollywood, is the segment of Indian cinema dedicated to the production of motion pictures in the Telugu language, widely spoken in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Telugu cinema is based in Film Nagar, Hy ...

Ramudu Bheemudu ''Ramudu Bheemudu'' is a 1964 Indian Telugu-language film, produced by D. Ramanaidu under the Suresh Productions banner and directed by Tapi Chanakya. It stars N. T. Rama Rao, Jamuna and L. Vijayalakshmi , with music composed by Pendyala. Th ...

''. It stars

Dilip Kumar Mohammed Yusuf Khan (; 11 December 1922 – 7 July 2021), better known by his stage name Dilip Kumar, was an Indian actor who worked in Hindi cinema. Credited with pioneering method acting in cinema, he dominated the Indian movie scene from ...

in a double role as twin brothers, alongside

Waheeda Rehman Waheeda Rehman (born 3 February 1938) is an Indian actress and dancer. Regarded as one of Hindi cinema's finest actresses, Rehman's accolades include a National Film Award and three Filmfare Awards. Rehman was honoured with the Padma Shri by G ...

Mumtaz Mumtaz ( ar, ممتاز) is a name commonly used in various countries in the Muslim world, mainly Afghanistan, Brunei, Malaysia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, India and Turkey. It can also be used as a female name. ''Mumtazah'' is a related female versio ...

Nirupa Roy Nirupa Roy (born Kokila Kishorechandra Bulsara; 4 January 1931 – 13 October 2004) was an Indian actress who had appeared in Hindi films. Noted for her portrayals of tragedy and sorrow, Roy was known for her acting ability, and was uncharitab ...

, Pran. The music was composed by

Naushad Naushad Ali (25 December 1919 – 5 May 2006) was an Indian music director for Hindi films. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest and foremost music directors of the Hindi film industry. He is particularly known for popularising the ...

, with lyrics written by Shakeel Badayuni. ''Ram Aur Shyam'' was the second highest-grossing Indian film of 1967, domestically in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

and overseas. It was listed at number 15 in "Top 50 Film of Last 50 years" list compiled by

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 ...

magazine in 2011 which feature all-time highest-grossing Bollywood films by using the relative price of

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...

in different years to arrive at a hypothetical current value of box-office collections of past films. The film received 3 nominations at the

15th Filmfare Awards The 15th Filmfare Awards were held in 1968, celebrating the best in Hindi cinema in 1967. '' Upkar'' led the ceremony with 10 nominations, followed by ''Milan'' with 9 nominations. ''Upkar'' won 7 awards, including Best Film, Best Director ...

, including

Best Actress Best Actress is the name of an award which is presented by various film, television and theatre organisations, festivals, and people's awards to leading actresses in a film, television series, television film or play. The first Best Actress aw ...

for

and Best Supporting Actress for

and won Best Actor for

Plot

Ram (

) lives with his sister Sulakshana (

) and niece Kuku in his family estate. His brother-in-law Gajendra ( Pran) is a ghar jamai who looks after his factories and controls his property with an iron hand. Ram is shy and cowardly in nature. He is always abused and brutally beaten by Gajendra. Sulakshana and Kuku try to protect Ram from Gajendra whenever he whips Ram. Everybody decides to get Ram married for his well being. Gajendra finds a rich girl Anjana (

) with the aim of getting a huge dowry. Anjana dislikes Ram after he spills tea over her due to nervousness. Gajendra, angry at Ram's behaviour, conspires with the support of his mother and cunning Munimji to kill Ram and take over his property. Ram overhears this and escapes to the city to save his life. Meanwhile, Ram's long lost twin brother Shyam (also

) lives in a village with his adopted mother Ganga, whom he believes to be his biological mother. No one other than Ganga knows the truth about the twin brothers. Shyam is strong, brave and mischievous, unlike his brother. He has a love-hate relationship with Shanta (

). Shyam escapes to the city, after a mischievous conflict with Ganga, and meets Anjana, who is impressed by his personality. Anjana and her father confuse Shyam with Ram. Ram meets Shanta, who thinks he is Shyam and takes him forcefully to his mother. Ram and Shanta develop feelings for each other. Meanwhile, Shyam decides to take the place of Ram to face Gajendra. Shyam refuses to sign his property over, after which angry Gajendra attacks him. Shyam retaliates and whips Gajendra hard, shocking everybody. Sulakshana stops her brother to protect her husband. Gajendra is startled after being beaten up by Shyam, whom everybody believes as Ram. Shanta and Anjana meet and both claim the picture of Ram as their fiancé. Gajendra learns that Shyam has taken the place of Ram. He abducts Ram and Shanta, and plans to kill Ram. He frames Shyam for the murder of Ram though Ram is alive. Shyam is arrested by police. Anjana and her father learn from Ganga that Ram and Shyam are twin brothers lost in a village fair. They also learn about the true colour of Gajendra. Shyam escapes from police custody and battles Gajendra and his henchmen. Gajendra tries to shoot them, but both the brothers and Shanta manage to defeat him. At the end, the twin brothers are happily married and the family reunited.

Cast

as Ram / Shyam (Double Role) *

as Anjana *

as Shanta *

as Sulakshana * Pran as Gajendra *

Nazir Hussain Nazir Hussain (15 May 1922 – 16 October 1987) was an Indian actor, director and screenwriter. He was famous as a character actor in Hindi cinema and acted in almost 500 films. Dev Anand starred in a large proportion of the films he acted i ...

as Rai Sahib Gangadhar * Kanhaiyalal as Munimji *

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 Gopal * Sajjan as Police Inspector *

Raj Kishore Raj Kishore (1933 - 7 April 2018) was an Indian actor who played roles in the Indian films such as '' Sholay'' (1975), '' Padosan'' (1968), '' Deewaar'' (1975), '' Ram Aur Shyam'' (1967), '' Hare Rama Hare Krishna'' (1971), ''Karishma Kudrat Ka ...

as Restaurant Waiter *

Baby Farida Farida Devi, also known as Farida Dadi or Baby Farida, is an Indian actress in Hindi-language films and television serials. Career She started her career as a child actor in films in the 60s and was the most sought-after child actress. She mad ...

as Kuku *

Laxmi Chhaya Laxmi Chhaya (7 January 1948 – 9 May 2004) was an Indian actress, dancer and teacher, who was known for her distinctive character roles and appearances in Hindi films. Following a series of roles as a child actor, Chhaya earned recognition ...

as Dancer *

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 Ganga *

Zebunnisa Zeb-un-Nissa ( fa, زیب النساء ) (15 February 1638 – 26 May 1702) was a Mughal princess and the eldest child of Emperor Aurangzeb and his chief consort, Dilras Banu Begum. She was also a poet, who wrote under the pseudonym of "Makh ...

as Gajendra's Mother

Reception

Dilip Kumar, who was known as "Tragedy-King" surprised the audience with his comic performance, which won him Best Actor at the

Box-Office

At the domestic Indian box office, ''Ram Aur Shyam'' grossed () nett. Adjusted for inflation, the film's domestic nett gross is equivalent to () in 2016. It was 1967's second highest-grossing film in India, after '' Upkar''. Overseas at the Soviet box office, ''Ram Aur Shyam'' was released with 1,160 prints and sold tickets in 1972. At the average Soviet ticket price of at the time,''Moscow Prime Time: How the Soviet Union Built the Media Empire that Lost the Cultural Cold War'', page 48

Cornell University Press The Cornell University Press is the university press of Cornell University; currently housed in Sage House, the former residence of Henry William Sage. It was first established in 1869, making it the first university publishing enterprise in t ...

, 2011''The Routledge Handbook of the Cold War'', page 357

Routledge Routledge () is a British multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanities, behavioural science, education, law, and ...

, 2014 the film grossed Rbls (), ). Adjusted for inflation, the film's overseas Soviet gross is equivalent to () in 2016. It was the second highest-grossing 1967 Indian film in the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

, after ''

Hamraaz ''Hamraaz'' () is a 1967 Indian Bollywood suspense thriller film, produced and directed by B. R. Chopra and written by Akhtar-Ul-Iman. It stars Raaj Kumar, Sunil Dutt, Vimi, Mumtaz in lead roles, with Balraj Sahni, Madan Puri, Jeevan, Iftekh ...

''. Worldwide, the film grossed () by 1972. Adjusted for inflation, its worldwide gross is equivalent to () in 2016.

Legacy

Dilip Kumar stated in an interview "The script of ''Ram Aur Shyam'' (1967) offered me endless stimulation. Each scene was sharply written to highlight the contrast between the characters and their predicaments." According to

Rediff.com Rediff.com (stylized as ''rediff.com'') is an Indian news, information, entertainment and shopping web portal. It was founded in 1996. It is headquartered in Mumbai, with offices in Bangalore, New Delhi and New York City. , it had more than 300 e ...

, the most famous twin act in India, remains to be Dilip Kumar's turn in ''Ram Aur Shyam.'' The film is also included in their list of "Landmark Film of 60s".

International DVD release

The movie was dubbed in Russian and released as Рам и Шиам.

Soundtrack

Lyrics were written by Shakeel Badayuni.

References

External links

* * {{Tapi Chanakya 1967 films 1960s Hindi-language films Indian comedy-drama films Films about twin brothers Films directed by Tapi Chanakya Films scored by Naushad Hindi remakes of Telugu films Twins in Indian films Films about twins