Shaan (1980 film)

Shaan (translation: Grandeur) is a 1980 Indian Hindi language action crime film directed by Ramesh Sippy and produced by G. P. Sippy under the production banner of Sippy Films with a story written by Salim–Javed after the blockbuster success of their previous venture, Sholay (1975). The film was released in India on 12 December 1980 and stars an ensemble cast of Sunil Dutt, Shashi Kapoor, Amitabh Bachchan, Shatrughan Sinha, Raakhee Gulzar, Parveen Babi, Bindiya Goswami, Johnny Walker and Kulbhushan Kharbanda. The music was composed by R. D. Burman. It was the most expensive Indian film made until then. The film was an average performer upon its initial release. However, it did good business during re runs. Burman's songs bagged a Best Music nomination at Filmfare Awards. Shaan was one of the last films to feature the vocals of playback singer Mohammed Rafi. The character of Shakaal was inspired from the Ernst Stavro Blofeld's character from the James Bond film series.

After diffusing a hostage situation, DCP Shiv Kumar (Sunil Dutt), an honest, brave and upright police officer, returns home to his wife named Sheetal (Raakhee Gulzar) and their young daughter named Guddi, and announces that he has been transferred to Mumbai. Shiv has two younger brothers, Vijay (Amitabh Bachchan) and Ravi (Shashi Kapoor) living in Mumbai. The two are intelligent and capable youngsters but spend their time indulging in crooked schemes and conning unsuspecting people. In one of their schemes, Vijay and Ravi convince a corrupt hotel manager (Yunus Parvez) that Vijay has stolen diamonds worth ₹2.5 lakh and Ravi, a police officer, is searching for him. The manager makes a deal with Vijay to purchase the diamonds stolen by him for ₹10,000 when Ravi returns and threatens him with arrest for helping a criminal. The manager pays an additional ₹5,000 as bribe to Ravi who then pretends to arrest Vijay for his crime. Later, Vijay and Ravi meet a beautiful young girl named Renu (Bindiya Goswami), who is a damsel is distress and owes money to a moneylender whom she refers to as Chacha (Johnny Walker). The due date is past and Chacha threatens to initiate legal actions against Renu. She offers her car against a loan of ₹30 thousand as the car is worth at least ₹1 lakh. Vijay and Ravi (who is besotted with Renu) overhear the conversation and offer to help Renu by purchasing the car for ₹30 thousand but it turns out the car was stolen and Vijay and Ravi are arrested. After their release from prison, Vijay and Ravi ate helped by a legless street beggar named Abdul (Mazhar Khan) in tracking down Renu and Chacha, who return them the ₹25 thousand but have already spent the remaining ₹5,000. Vijay and Ravi are impressed with Renu's work and ask her and Chacha to join forces with them in conning people. Their next idea is to steal a diamond necklace from an erstwhile queen (Bindu) when she attends a party at a hotel, but a glamorous thief named Sunita (Parveen Babi) manages to steal the necklace before them. However, the police condones off the hotel and begin a search of every individual when Vijay notices Sunita hiding the necklace in his pocket. He escapes by hiding the necklace in his walking stick and invites Sunita to join their gang. However, Vijay and Ravi's following scam as two godmen claiming to walk on water backfires as Shiv reads the advertisement posters and is forced to arrest his own brothers, but later gets both Vijay and Ravi released from prison in hopes to shape them into much honourable life. Elsewhere, a mysterious man (Shatrughan Sinha) attempts to shoot Shiv twice in the city, but Shiv survives both times. After learning about the two attempts on Shiv's life, Vijay and Ravi advise him to find a different line of work, arguing that his profession is unpredictable, dangerous and unsuitable for a family man. However, Shiv stands firm by citing his undying patriotic commitment to his corps and his country. Meanwhile, Shiv is investigating a gang of international smugglers and it eventually turns out that they were all working for an international crime lord named Shakaal (Kulbhushan Kharbanda), who is operating from a remote island outside India. The island of Shakaal is equipped with hidden cameras and all sorts of automatic gadgets, including a pack of hunting dogs and a man eating crocodile in a pool below a rotating table. Shakaal kills Ranjeet (Sudhir), one of his own henchmen, by throwing him into the pool as the prey of the crocodile as Ranjeet was an informer of Shiv. Due to the fact that Shiv is progressively getting close to finding out the source of crime in Mumbai, Shakaal has Shiv captured and brought to his island by his henchmen, where he reveals that he had only arranged the previous two attempts on Shiv's life. Shakaal attempts to influence Shiv to join his criminal forces, but Shiv attempts an escape from the island and is chased by the pack of hunting dogs. Eventually, Shakaal shoots Shiv fatally on the beach from his helicopter and has his dead body dumped back to Mumbai. As Vijay, Ravi and Sheetal lament the tragic loss of Shiv, the mysterious man, who attempted to assassinate Shiv twice in the city, approaches them and introduces himself as Rakesh, a marksman and former circus performer who used to shoot targets blindfolded. Rakesh confesses that Shakaal had held his wife named Roma (Padmini Kapila) hostage and blackmailed him to shoot Shiv, but he had deliberately missed on the two previous occasions in hopes of buying time to save his wife. However, Shakaal had already deduced this and released Roma in a car with faulty brakes in retaliation, resulting in Roma's tragic death in a fiery car accident which Rakesh tried to prevent but failed to do so. On learning this, Vijay and Ravi team up with Rakesh with the intention to defeat Shakaal and pursue justice for both Shiv and Roma. To that end, the trio seeks the aid of Abdul, who provides them with information about Shakaal's contraband warehouse in Mumbai. Even though the trio manages to destroy the warehouse, Shakaal retaliates by having his henchmen target Sheetal and Guddi on a remote bridge, but Rakesh manages to save them with the help of some horses in the stable of a nearby farmhouse. After this unsuccessful attempt in seeking revenge, Abdul is chased by Shakaal's henchmen in the middle of the night and his death occurs after being mercilessly thrown off a bridge. A furious Vijay breaks into a bar where Shakaal's henchmen spend time playing cards and beats them all up severely for Abdul's death. A frustrated Shakaal swears death on the trio and orders his henchmen to capture Sheetal and imprison her at his island. Meanwhile, the trio is approached by one of Shakaal's henchmen named Jagmohan (Mac Mohan), who offers them his help to gain entry in Shakaal's island as he was mercilessly beaten by Shakaal for his previous failure. Posing as a dance troupe, the trio, along with Sunita, Renu and Chacha, manages to enter the island and performs for Shakaal, who later shockingly captures them all and reveals that he had sent Jagmohan (who was faking his injuries) to trap them in reality. However, Chacha creates a commotion that allows the trio to be freed and beat Jagmohan and Shakaal's remaining henchmen to death. Further, Vijay is able to kill the crocodile after being thrown into the pool, while Ravi and Rakesh also kill Shakaal's two henchmen having worn gas masks in a poisonous gas filled chamber. Just as the trio finally succeeds in capturing Shakaal after avoiding all the booby traps and is about to kill him, Sheetal intervenes and refuses to let them do so, pointing out that their action will be disrespectful to the law that Shiv upholds. The arguing commotion allows Shakaal to free himself and attempt to shoot everyone, forcing the trio to shoot Shakaal fatally in self defense. With his last breath, Shakaal pulls the lever and sets the island to self destruct, however, the trio, Sunita, Renu, Sheetal and Chacha are all able to escape from the exploding island and fly off safely in a helicopter, satisfied that they have beaten Shakaal in his tracks for good.

Logistical issues relating to other projects in which the cast was involved meant that Shaan took three years to make. While Sholay drew its inspiration from the American Western and Spaghetti Western films, Shaan took its lead from the James Bond films with fancy sets and beautiful costumes. Shakaal, the bald villain (originally to be played by Sanjeev Kumar) played by Kulbhushan Kharbanda, was based on the James Bond villain, Blofeld. A large golden eagle is prominent in Shakaal's island lair and in the Bollywood obligatory final song and dance. The eagle is reminiscent of the golden lamb in Cecile DeMille's Ten Commandments; construction on the golden eagle required outside experts to be flown in and cost, in Rupees, the equivalent of the chariot scene in Ben Hur. Sippy wanted to repeat the cast of Sholay (1975) for this film, but due to date issues, Sunil Dutt played the role initially offered to Sanjeev Kumar, Bindiya Goswami played the role initially offered to Hema Malini, and Shashi Kapoor played the role initially offered to Dharmendra. The film was set and partially filmed on the island of Steep Holm. Parveen Babi suffered her first anxiety attack when she completed shooting the song "Pyar Karne Wale". Just after the shooting of that song, there was a scene in the film where Parveen Babi is inside the car and then Amitabh Bachchan gets in the car. The scene was later shot when Parveen Babi returned from the US and she recommenced work by shooting this scene.

The music was composed by R. D. Burman and the lyrics were penned by Anand Bakshi. Vocals were supplied by the late Mohammed Rafi (for Kapoor and Khan), Kishore Kumar, RD Burman (both for Bachchan), Usha Mangeshkar (for Goswami), Asha Bhosle (for Babi) and Usha Uthup. Mohammad Rafi recorded a rehearsal for the song "Yamma Yamma", with a final recording scheduled for later. Due to Rafi's untimely death before the final recording, Burman used the rehearsal. This is the only song where Rafi and Burman sing a duet together.

The film grossed ₹12.5 crore during its lifetime theatrical run. Adjusted for inflation, the film has grossed ₹271 crore ($33 million) as of 2023.