Naam review :
Director Mahesh Bhatt's first commercial sucess was Rajendra Kumar's Naam which was written by Salim Khan - his first script post split with Javed. The film was an emotional drama with top notch performances from Nutan, Amrita Singh and Sanjay Dutt and became a highly successful enterprise at the box office.
Produced by Rajendra Kumar as a relaunch for son Kumar Gaurav who had delivered multiple flops after a promising debut in Love Story (1981), Naam ended up reviving Sanjay Dutt's career instead whose performance was lauded by critics and audience alike. Amrita Singh made a good pairing with Dutt and they are shown to be in a live in relationship - quite bold for 80s Bollywood.
Paresh Rawal played the villain with his cacophonic laughter while Anupam Kher dubbed for the person playing Poonam Dhillon's father. Poonam, by the way, was Kumar Gaurav's love interest who supports him when he loses his job for no fault of his. Character actor Ghanshyam, normally seen in comic roles, played the bad employer whose wife Shehnaz Anand makes sexual advances at Gaurav.
The bromance between Kumar Gaurav and Sanju Baba is the films highlight and their camaraderie is just fantastic. Sanju Baba's swag is another factor which works here - something he used effectively in his subsequent hits.
Musically, Naam is known for the Pankaj Udhas sung "Chitthi Aayi Hai Watan se Chitti aayi hai" - which struck the right chord with non resident Indians of those time. The song became a runaway hit.
Overall, Naam is a well packaged entertainer which can make for an ideal Sunday afternoon watch. Recommended!!
Regards,
Sumeet Nadkarni.
