''Charas'' (

Hashish Hashish (; ), usually abbreviated as hash, is a Compression (physics), compressed form of resin (trichomes) derived from the cannabis flowers. European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, Lisbon, As a Psychoactive drug, psychoactive ...

) is a 1976 Indian

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

-language

action thriller film The action film is a film genre that predominantly features chase sequences, fights, shootouts, explosions, and stunt work. The specifics of what constitutes an action film has been in scholarly debate since the 1980s. While some scholars such as D ...

produced and directed by Ramanand Sagar. It is set against the backdrop of the expulsion of Indian community from Uganda by its dictator

Idi Amin Idi Amin Dada Oumee (, ; 30 May 192816 August 2003) was a Ugandan military officer and politician who served as the third president of Uganda from 1971 until Uganda–Tanzania War, his overthrow in 1979. He ruled as a Military dictatorship, ...

in 1972. The film stars

Dharmendra Dharmendra Kewal Krishan Deol (born 8 December 1935), known mononymously as Dharmendra, is an Indian actor, producer, and politician who is primarily known for his work in Hindi films. Dharmendra is widely considered one of the greatest, most h ...

Hema Malini Hema Malini Dharmendra Deol (born 16 October 1948; ) is an Indian actress, director, producer, and politician who is currently serving as a member of the Lok Sabha from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), representing Mathura constituency since 2 ...

, Ajit, Amjad Khan,

Sujit Kumar Sujit Kumar (7 February 1934 – 5 February 2010) was an Indian actor and producer. He appeared in over 150 Hindi films in the 1960s through the 1990s, and in at least 20 Bhojpuri films. Sujit played the major lead actor in many films in ...

Aruna Irani Aruna Irani (born 18 August 1946) is an Indian actress, who has acted in over 500 films throughout Hindi, Kannada, Marathi and Gujarati cinema, playing mostly supporting and character roles. She received two Filmfare Awards for Best Support ...

Asrani Govardhan Asrani (born 1 January 1941), known popularly by mononym Asrani, is an Indian actor and director whose Bollywood career has spanned over five decades. He has acted in over 350 Hindi films. Asrani has played the lead roles, character ...

Keshto Mukherjee Keshto Mukherjee (7 August 1925 – 3 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 ...

and

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 ...

in lead roles. The film's music is by Laxmikant–Pyarelal.

Cast

as Suraj Kumar *

as Sudha * Ajit as Kalicharan * Amjad Khan as Robert *

as Nimmu * Nazir Hussain as Seth Vrindavan *

Manmohan Krishna Manmohan Krishna (26 February 1922 – 3 November 1990) was an Indian film actor and director, who worked in Hindi films for four decades, mostly as a character actor. He started his career as a professor in Physics and held master's degree i ...

as Sudha's Father *

as Police Inspector Rustom *

as Police Inspector Golmes *

as Lawrence / Shaikh Abdul Sattar * Paidi Jairaj as Police Officer Hameed (as P. Jairaj) * D.K. Sapru as Watson (as Sapru) * Sajjan as Jango *

Viju Khote Viju Khote (17 December 1941 – 30 September 2019) was an Indian actor best known for his role as Kaalia, a dacoit in the 1975 film ''Sholay'' with the iconic dialogue, “Sardar, maine aapka namak khaya hai.” His career spanned six deca ...

as No 10, Henchman of Kalicharan *Sailesh Kumar *Madhumati as Laila * Agha as Head Police Constable, special appearance * Sunder as Police Constable Pandu, special appearance

Plot

Vijay Ramniklal was a NRI living in Uganda with his son Suraj and daughter Radha. They are planning to move back to India because of the civil war in the country. The night they were about to move, their home is attacked by rebels and set on fire. Suraj jumps in the fire to save his sister. He carries a woman out, but she turns out to be the housemaid in his sister's clothes (Radha asked the maid to choose the clothes she liked before she left and the maid asked her for the clothes she was wearing). Suraj's father dies from the trauma of losing his daughter. Suraj too believes that Radha burned with the house, but when no body is found he feels that there is something fishy. Nevertheless, he leaves for India alone as the country is embroiled in civil war. Upon reaching India Suraj realises that the caretaker of their property Kalicharan, has sold most of it and is not willing to return it while using it for illegal purposes. Kalicharan tries to kill Suraj who, while escaping from his enemies, hides in the car of Sudha. After a gruesome car chase, the goons of Kalicharan are chased off by an unknown man. The person claims to be a rival mafia don to Kalicharan and invites Suraj to join his gang in order to regain his ancestral property and find his sister Radha. Suraj declines, saying he would rather suffer all his life than to become a criminal. Sudha takes him to his home and he contacts the police. It is revealed that the person who claimed to be a mafia don was actually a police officer. Suraj is invited by DIG Police to join them in combating Kalicharan's international drug racket. Sudha, a renowned dancer and stage performer, has a shady past. She is blackmailed by Kalicharan who frames her as a murder suspect. He uses her to smuggle drugs. Suraj's mission takes him to Rome and then Malta where he again bumps into Sudha. His sister is in the same island, held captive by human traffickers associated with Kalicharan. Suraj rescues her when they try to capture him using her as bait. With the help of local police, Suraj and Indian narcotics division is able to get hold of most of Kalicharan's men, but he holds Sudha as a hostage in his Bond villain style underground lair. Now it all lies in Suraj's hands to save Sudha and book Kalicharan.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack of the film is composed by the duo of Laxmikant–Pyarelal and the lyrics were written by the veteran lyricist

Anand Bakshi Anand Bakshi (21 July 1930 – 30 March 2002) was an Indian poet and lyricist. He won Filmfare Award for Best Lyricist 4 times during his career. He wrote over 6000 film songs in more than 300 films. Early life Anand Bakshi (Bakshi Anand Pr ...

Track listing

References

External links

* {{Sagar Arts 1976 films 1970s Hindi-language films 1970s Indian films Films scored by Laxmikant–Pyarelal Films directed by Ramanand Sagar Films about the illegal drug trade Indian films about cannabis Films about the Narcotics Control Bureau Indian crime drama films