Kalicharan: Ghai's entry to Bollywood in style

“Sara shehar mujhe Lion ke naam se jaanta hai!” says Ajit aka Lion. I had heard and sometimes repeated this dialogue (in undisclosed situations) without knowing that it belonged to the movie Kalicharan. Kalicharan was the directorial debut of Subhash Ghai and is a gem of a movie. Ghai started his career with acting but found his true calling as a Director and thus Bollywood found it's Showman.

With the core theme as changing of heart of a rotten criminal, Kalicharan combines many twists in story telling which Ghai crafted together like a master storyteller. It has the drama of identical looking men (not long separated twins); Prabhakar, an honest police officer, and Kalicharan, a hard-core criminal spending his days behind bars. Both men find their archenemy in Din Dayal, a reputed socialite, aka Lion, a high-handed criminal. 

A successful movie has many things that go right with it and I feel that for Kalicharan it is the casting and character development of Shatrughan Sinha and Ajit. Dialogues written for both these actors were high quality and delivered with excellence. Ajit is famous for his one-liners and Kalicharan does contribute to that list. Kalicharan also takes it's audience through a typical drama of change of heart of a criminal when he finds love and is placed in company of good people. Although it is funny to see Shatrughan Sinha, as Kalicharan, wave his hands and make faces like a mad man. 

Reena Roy has done better roles and her performance is forgettable. Kalicharan is a typical male dominated movie and role of heroine is insignificant to the storyline. Prem Nath plays the role of I G Khanna who is a great friend of Din Dayal and plays a father figure to Prabhakar and Kalicharan. Prem Nath's english in the movie has the influence of American accent. I often found that weird and wondered if that's how Prem Nath actually spoke or if that was part of the role. Danny Denzongpa plays a guest role but does add to the storyline by being an aide in Kalicharan's fight against Lion.

Kalicharan is overall an enjoyable movie but may require skipping through the songs. I did not quite enjoy the songs and at times found the movie to have over dramatization and emotions typical of Bollywood dramas. Subhash Ghai excelled in direction and proved his mettel in his debut film. I would definitely recommend watching Kalicharan.


Release Date :7 February 1980

Watch Kalicharan Online on YouTube