Jeete Hain Shaan Se

Jeete Hain Shaan Se review :

The legendary Manmohan Desai's lost and found multistarrer formula was given a deserving tribute by his one time assistant Kawal Sharma in Jeete Hain Shaan Se - a film which draws deep influence from Desai's Amar Akbar Anthony (1977) and Naseeb (1981). Mithun Chakraborty played Johny, the lovable tapori inspired from Bachchan's Anthony. Amusingly, Govinda was cast as Iqbal while Sanjay Dutt was called Govinda.

Though the lost and found plot was a decade too old, it was fun to see the three stars together (their only film till date). Mithun da, in fact, has a double role of the street smart Johny as well as actual Mithun Chakraborty who joins the heroes in their basti celebrations. Dont know if there was a budget constraint to get another star in this cameo but this is probably the only time Mithun played himself as well as the character in a lead role. Tee hee!

Anu Malik's music was another positive factor of this multistarrer and the 'Julie Julie' song became so popular that some folks still call this Julie Julie wala picture. Mithun Chakraborty and Mandakini really make this number special and I simply loved the chemistry between the two. In fact, Manda looks like a baby doll here and interestingly, one of her suitors in the movie (Monty Nath) is named Dawood!!

As a '80s kid, I caught Jeete Hain Shaan Se with my parents at Matunga's Badal Bijlee cinema on its first Sunday. The audience response was so euphoric that we didnt get to hear some of the dialogues and so went there again in the second week. The film was a bonafide hit and ran for multiple weeks at Badal Bijlee. Those were the days when multistarrers invariably worked and the lost and found formula provided the added tadka to box office success!!

Regards, Sumeet Nadkarni.