Khaan Dost

So, yet another film where the otherwise great Raj Kapoor is typecast as the simple-minded, kind-hearted and innocent man. In most films of this kind, Kapoor would meet a smart sophisticated woman who would change his life. Here, the twist is that it's his friendship with a man that carries the narrative. And it is a weird friendship at that - Kapoor is a policeman who befriends an imprisoned criminal named Khan. The latter actually uses Kapoor's innocence to escape from jail by emotionally manipulating through fake stories. A middle-aged Raj Kapoor looks like Kader Khan looked in the 1990s - he plays the role with sincerity and inevitably attracts empathy from the viewers. The devious prisoner is played by a very young Shatrughan Sinha, who is good but loud. Now to the film itself, Khaan Dost is a very poor movie, almost unwatchable to be frank, and I wonder what made Kapoor take up this role at this stage of his career when he was hardly acting in movies and his production house did so well. The story is highly melodramatic and sentimental, and the director just can't make it cohere and resonate with a thinking viewer. A shame because had it been handled by a better director, this story could have been made into a much more absorbing human story.