Indian films particularly Hindi ones had a great fan following in 1970s and early 1980s. Amongst other factors one of the biggest factors was the phenomenon of AMITABH BACHCHAN and of course SALIM-JAVED-the creators of his "ANGRY YOUNG MAN" image. A film credits saying WRITTEN BY SALIM-JAVED for close to 1.5 decade meant that the film will be dollops of larger-than-life entertainment, dramatic scenes and paisa vasool dialogues. To be fair to the legendary duo they also tackled lost and found, romantic, serious and comedy scenes very well, but it was their angry young man discovery became their ticket to Bollywood history.
Amazon Primes 3 episodic documentary "Angry Young Men" directed by film editor Namrata Rao is a well-made tribute to the brilliant and most popular Hindi film writers Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar. The series is jointly produced by the companies of their sons Salman Khans S. K. Films as well as Farhan Akhtar's Excel entertainment and is a homage to their amazing journey. The series covers a series of interviews of the duo, their families, and inputs by Amitabh Bachchan, Ramesh Sippy, Yash Chopra, Hema Malini, Jaya Bhaduri, Dharmendra, Aamir Khan, Prem Chopra, Raj Kumar Hirani, Shatrughan Sinha, Yash amongst lot of others. It starts with their childhood, their struggle, their initial individual works, their success, their peak, their arrogance, their fall, their redemption, their breakup and finally their lives as of now.
The show is full on nostalgia, many known facts, some unknown incidents, and re-creates the magic of their blockbusters particularly Deewaar, Sholay, Zanjeer and Don. The failure of Imaan Dharam also is covered very well. The starting animations mixing characters and situations from their films is excellent!! The painful memories of personal loss and financial low by Salim Khan and Javed bring a lump to their fans.
However, there is flip side too, as one feels that there should be 1-2 episode more to discuss more about their other films -Trishul, Shakti, Kaala Pathar, Kranti, etc. Also, total ignorance of films like Majboor and the grand finale Mr. India was surprising. I felt the makers should have touched the success they got after their separation Salim Khan in Naam and Javed in Arjun, Betaab, Meri Jung and later as legendary lyricist. As die-hard fans of the duo who have read a lot about them in last many decades will feel "Hey its good but we already knew most about them already"!
Having said that I cannot deny that I fully loved the series for a celebration of a golden phase of Hindi cinema and for the duo who proved for long that "A film without a good script will fall flat"!!!!
