Dharmatma
Encyclopedia
Dharmatama is a 1975 Hindi movie and the first ever Bollywood film to be shot in Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...

. It was produced and directed by Feroz Khan
Feroz Khan
Feroz Khan was an Indian actor, film editor, producer and director in the Hindi film industry...

. The movie is the first attempt in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

 to localise The Godfather
The Godfather
The Godfather is a 1972 American epic crime film directed by Francis Ford Coppola, based on the 1969 novel by Mario Puzo. With a screenplay by Puzo, Coppola and an uncredited Robert Towne, the film stars Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duvall, Sterling Hayden, John Marley, Richard...

. This film's protagonist Premnath was based on the character of Matka king Ratan Khatri
Ratan Khatri
Ratan Khatri is considered by many to be the pioneer of the gambling/betting movement in India. Khatri, who hails from a Sindhi family, started from humble beginnings and like most Hindu Sindhis living in India, he came to Mumbai from Karachi, Pakistan when he was a teenager during the 1947 partition...

. It is said that Feroz Khan sat down with Ratan Khatri in order to learn more about the man and understand the nuances of matka (form of Indian gambling). The film cast includes: Feroz Khan, Rekha, Hema Malini
Hema Malini
Hema Malini is an Indian actress, director and producer, as well as a Bharatanatyam dancer-choreographer. Making her acting debut in Sapno Ka Saudagar , she went on to appear in numerous Bollywood films, most notably those with actor and future-husband Dharmendra. She was initially promoted as...

, Premnath
Premnath
Premnath Malhotra was an actor in Indian films.-Personal life:Born in Peshawar in a hindkowan Punjabi family, his family moved to Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh after partition, he then had moved to Bombay....

, Danny Denzongpa
Danny Denzongpa
Tshering Phintso Denzongpa , widely known by his acting name "Danny" Denzongpa, is an Indian actor of Sikkimese ancestry working in Bollywood films....

, Farida Jalal
Farida Jalal
- Career :Farida Jalal, a native of New Delhi, started her career in the 1960s, when she won the United Film Producers Talent Hunt sponsored by Filmfare. She usually played the sister or rejected fiancée of the male lead, but almost never the female lead...

, Ranjeet
Ranjeet
Gopal Bedi is an actor in Indian films and television, born in Jandiala Guru near Amritsar . He has played mostly character roles, with roles as the villain dominating his over 200 Hindi films...

, Helen, Madan Puri
Madan Puri
Madan Puri was an actor in Hindi and Punjabi films.-Early life:Madan Singh Puri was born in Nawanshahr, Punjab to S. Nihal Singh Puri and Ved Kaur...

, Iftekhar and Dara Singh
Dara Singh
Dara Singh Randhawa is a wrestler and Indian film actor. He was born in a Jat Sikh family of Punjabi background.He was a wrestler before he started acting in Hindi films in 1962....

. The location in the movie is Band-e Amir
Band-e Amir
Band-e Amir is a series of six deep blue lakes separated by natural dams made of travertine, a mineral deposit. The lakes are situated in the Hindu Kush Mountains of Central Afghanistan at approximately 3000 meters of elevation, west of the famous Buddhas of Bamiyan.They were created by the carbon...

, Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...

 and the music is by Kalyanji Anandji
Kalyanji Anandji
Kalyanji Anandji is a name used by Indian composer duo known for its work on Hindi film soundtracks, particularly action potboilers in the 1970s. The name comes from first names of the two Gujarati brothers that formed the duo, Kalyanji Virji Shah and Anandji Virji Shah...

.This film took Feroz Khan to new heights in his career as this was one of the block buster movies of all times. The same year, Sholay and Deewar were also released, both of which had great photography, especially Sholay's director of Photography Dwarka Dwivecha was to get the Filmfare Award for Sholay, but Dharmatma's Director of Photography Kamal Bose won the race for eye-pleasing locations as well as breath-taking action scenes and got this award.

In this movie, Producer-Director and Actor Feroz Khan showcased the female lead of the film in a glamorous look first time. It is being said that actress Hema Malini was so impressed with the Feroz Khan's method of filming the female lead and she always wanted to work with Feroz Khan. But Feroz Khan, like his all movies, never repeated her in his movie. All the songs of the movie including 'Tere Chahere Main Woh Jadu Hain' were huge hit. The film earned name and fame to Feroz Khan.

Synopsis

Wealthy, powerful and influential Seth Dharamdas(Prem Nath) leads a financially secure life in a palatial mansion. He is known to come to the aid of all people who are beyond any hope of assistance, and this leads to him being known as "Dharmatma". But Seth Dharamdas does have a number of skeletons in his closet, and a parallel life as a gangster and a matka king.The only person who he hates and fears is his own son Ranbir(Feroz Khan
Feroz Khan
Feroz Khan was an Indian actor, film editor, producer and director in the Hindi film industry...

).
One day after a heated argument over Dharmatma's matka business,Ranbir leaves home and goes to Afghanistan,where he stays with a friend of his father and manages his business.One day in a forest while riding a horse,he finds a nomadic man named Jankura(Danny Denzongpa
Danny Denzongpa
Tshering Phintso Denzongpa , widely known by his acting name "Danny" Denzongpa, is an Indian actor of Sikkimese ancestry working in Bollywood films....

) and a woman named Reshma(Hema Malini
Hema Malini
Hema Malini is an Indian actress, director and producer, as well as a Bharatanatyam dancer-choreographer. Making her acting debut in Sapno Ka Saudagar , she went on to appear in numerous Bollywood films, most notably those with actor and future-husband Dharmendra. She was initially promoted as...

)fighting.He defends beautiful Reshma and falls for her.Reshma too falls for him.
Meanwhile in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

,his sister Mona(Farida Jalal
Farida Jalal
- Career :Farida Jalal, a native of New Delhi, started her career in the 1960s, when she won the United Film Producers Talent Hunt sponsored by Filmfare. She usually played the sister or rejected fiancée of the male lead, but almost never the female lead...

) is all set to marry Kundan,son of their father's old friend.She invites Ranbir to attend her wedding and give them his blessings through a letter stating that "he has a conflict with their father not with her".Ranbir accepts her proposal and arrives there while seven rounds around fires are going on.The marriage commerces and the Mona departs.While in the car,she gifts her husband a steel ring with "I Love You" inscribed beneath it.
Meanwhile,Ranbir leaves back for Afghanistan.He proposes to Reshma,which she accepts.Her foster-father also reluctantly agrees to their marriage.A fortune-teller present there predicts that Reshma will bring death to Ranbir which makes Reshma worried.
Meanwhile in India,a business-rival by the name of 'Anokhelal' propose to deal relating to Narcotic
Narcotic
The term narcotic originally referred medically to any psychoactive compound with any sleep-inducing properties. In the United States of America it has since become associated with opioids, commonly morphine and heroin and their derivatives, such as hydrocodone. The term is, today, imprecisely...

 to Dharmatma,which he refuses.His son-in-law tries to force him to accept the scheme but is unsuccessful.Dharmatma recognises the nature of his son-in-law and apologises for his mistake of letting her daughter marry him.He misses Ranbir and orders his assistant Vikram Singh(Iftekhar
Iftekhar
Iftekhar was a character actor in Bollywood films, especially known for his roles as police officers in several films.-Career:...

)to bring Ranbir back from Afghanistan.Vikram Singh agrees but while in the way he is kidnapped by drug-addict sons-Natwar & Rishi of Anokhelal and his brother Biradar.
Meanwhile in Afghanistan, Ranbir and Reshma prepare for their marriage.On the day of marriage,they left to take blessings from god from temple.While in they both are in temple,Natwar & Rishi plant a bomb in their jeep which will explode once the car is started.Rabir & Reshma arrive back from the temple to the jeep.Reshma starts the jeep and it explodes,killing Reshma leaving Ranbir heartbroken.
Meanwhile in India,Natwar & Rishi attack a matka centre of Dharmatma,injuring him and Kundan.They both order a nurse, to help Kundan in killing Dharmatma.
Meanwhile in Afghanistan,Ranbir gets the news of attack on his father and returns back to India.
Meanwhile in India,Kundan kills Dharmatma assisted by the nurse but looses his steel ring given to him by his wife in Dharmatma's hands.Ranbir arrives and finds that his father is dead.He promises to his father that he will find out his murderer and punish him.
Some days later,Ranbir along with Sonia,a childhood friend who secretly loves him,goes out for a drive where he is attacked by goons send by Anokhelal & Company.
The doctor who operated his father,gives him the steel ring which he found in Dharmatma's hand while postmartum of his body and also tell him that his father died because of suffocation caused by pressing neck.Ranbir suspects an hospital employee to be a part of conspiracy to kill his father and asks the doctor about the nurse on duty that night and they both visit to her house only to find her killed by Natwar & Rishi.He tries the ring on her hand but it doesn't fits.
After that Kundan arrives and lies to him that Vikram Singh killed his father because his mind got filled with greed after hearing about Anokhelal & Company's drug deal which his father refused and he killed his father.He asks Ranbir to kill Vikram Singh.
Meanwhile,at Anokhelal's place,they raise a toast for dead Dharmatma.Ranbir arrives there suddenly.Kundan,Natwar & Rishi hide themselves upstairs and position a sniper to kill Ranbir.
Meanwhile downstairs,Ranbir accepts the drug deal which his father declined and provides them with 50 lac rupees but on a condition that they will give him Vikram Singh,dead or alive,to which Anokhelal agrees.Anokhelal signals Natwar to stop Kundan from firing at Ranbir,which makes Kundan very very angry.He returns home,drunk with a prostitute which makes Mona furious.Drunk Kundan gets angry and beats Mona.Ranbir comes to know about this and gets furious.He arrives at their place and beats Kundan but Mona stops him pleading him not to make her a widow.
Meanwhile,kidnapped Vikram Singh is killed by Anokhelal & Company.
Then they take his dead body in a coffin and meet Ranbir in burying ground of a church.Ranbir tries the ring on hands of Vikram Singh but it doesn't fits.Then Anokhelal laughs at him and confessing that he got his father killed.His hiden goons try to kill Ranbir but cops present already saved him,killing Anokhelal and his brother Biradar but Ranbir is injured during that.
He thanks cops for saving his life and departs.
At his place,while bandaging his wounds,Sonia asks him to leave this place and travel to a safer place to which he disagrees.After which Mona arrives,tieing rakhi to Ranbir's wrist.She sees the steel ring in Ranbir's hands and saying that she given one to Kundan also but he has lost it.Ranbir realises that Kundan is the main culprit behind the death of his father.He wants to kill him but is in a fix because he is his sister's husband and he doesn't want to make her a widow.
After that,Mona and Kundan return home where find Natwar & Rishi already present there.Kundan signals Mona to go upstairs.Natwar & Rishi blackmail Kundan that they will expose that he was the main culprit behind his father-in-law's death.They demand him to find a path for Rabir's Death.Mona hears this conversation and informs about this to Ranbir.Kundan sees her doing all this.
Ranbir along with Shakti Singh(Dara Singh
Dara Singh
Dara Singh Randhawa is a wrestler and Indian film actor. He was born in a Jat Sikh family of Punjabi background.He was a wrestler before he started acting in Hindi films in 1962....

),a top henchman of his father,arrives at their place and finds Mona dead.A mourning Ranbir receives a call from Kundan in he asks Ranbir,if he has the guts to meet him at his hideout in Madh Island
Madh Island
thumb|Madh fortMadh Island is a group of several quaint fishing villages and farmlands in northern Mumbai.-Description:Madh Island barely escapes being called a peninsula since only a small creek, bounded by mangroves, cuts it off from the mainland near Aksa...

 to take revenge of his sister's death from him.Meanwhile he plans to kill him and Shakti Singh.
Ranbir accepts and arrives there only find a bunch of goons with machine guns present there to kill him and Shakti Singh.
Meanwhile Kundan lands in helicopter a hilly place with a small cottage where Natwar & Rishi are present.They ask him about their safehouse to which he says that a ship in the sea waiting for their arrival and then he asks them about the narcotics.They reply that it is in cottage.He asks its worth to which they reply that it is full 50 lacs.Then he kills them and takes the carton of drugs from cottage back to the helicopter where he finds Ranbir.He is astonished to see him alive and confesses him about the plan according to which he killed his father.Then commits a suicide by jumping of from the hill.
After that,Ranbir closes all Matka racket across the world which was led by his father and handles over all the black money earned by his father to the police.He,then leaves with his mother and Sonia,now his wife,to Afghanistan to continue his old work there.

Cast

  • Prem Nath ... Dharamdas 'Dharmatma'
  • Feroz Khan
    Feroz Khan
    Feroz Khan was an Indian actor, film editor, producer and director in the Hindi film industry...

    ... Ranbir
  • Hema Malini
    Hema Malini
    Hema Malini is an Indian actress, director and producer, as well as a Bharatanatyam dancer-choreographer. Making her acting debut in Sapno Ka Saudagar , she went on to appear in numerous Bollywood films, most notably those with actor and future-husband Dharmendra. She was initially promoted as...

    ... Reshma
  • Rekha ... Anu
  • Danny Denzongpa
    Danny Denzongpa
    Tshering Phintso Denzongpa , widely known by his acting name "Danny" Denzongpa, is an Indian actor of Sikkimese ancestry working in Bollywood films....

    ... Jankura
  • Farida Jalal
    Farida Jalal
    - Career :Farida Jalal, a native of New Delhi, started her career in the 1960s, when she won the United Film Producers Talent Hunt sponsored by Filmfare. She usually played the sister or rejected fiancée of the male lead, but almost never the female lead...

    ... Mona
  • Ranjeet ... Rishi
  • Sudhir ... Natwar
  • Imtiaz Khan ... Kundan
  • Madan Puri ... Ranbir's Uncle
  • Jeevan ... Anokhelal
  • Satyendra Kapoor ... Anokhelal's brother Biradar
  • Helen ... Dancer
  • Iftekhar ... Vikram Singh
  • Faryal ... Medical sister
  • Sulochana Latkar ... Shanti
  • Seema Kapoor
  • Jagdish Raj ... Dr. Jagdish
  • Krishnakant
  • Habib ... Baron
  • Anand Pal
  • Major Anand ... Police Commissioner
  • Brahm Bhardwaj ... Dr. Roy
  • V. Gopal
  • Hercules
  • Dhanraj
  • Rafiq
  • Zaheera
  • Nadira ... Gipsy
  • Alka ... Rani
  • P. Jairaj
  • Yashraj
  • Nana Palsikar ... Purshottam
  • Nasir Hussain ... Rani's dad
  • Krishan Dhawan ... Kishanlal - Anu's dad
  • Gurnam
  • Mohan Choti
  • Himmat Sinh Chauhan
  • Dara Singh ... Shakti Singh

Soundtrack

Kalyanji Anandji
Kalyanji Anandji
Kalyanji Anandji is a name used by Indian composer duo known for its work on Hindi film soundtracks, particularly action potboilers in the 1970s. The name comes from first names of the two Gujarati brothers that formed the duo, Kalyanji Virji Shah and Anandji Virji Shah...

 had composed all the songs of the film.This was their second collaberation with Feroz Khan
Feroz Khan
Feroz Khan was an Indian actor, film editor, producer and director in the Hindi film industry...

 after Apradh
Apradh
Apradh is a 1972 Hindi film produced and directed by Feroz Khan. It was Feroz Khans debut as a producer and a director. The film stars Feroz Khan, Mumtaz, Prem Chopra, Iftekhar, Helen, Faryal and Madan Puri. The films music is by Kalyanji Anandji...

.Indeevar
Indeevar
Shyamalal Bahu Rai, known professionally as Indeevar, was one of the leading Hindi film lyricists in the 1960s...

 penned the lyrics.The music of this film was superhit is recognised as cult classic today.All the songs of the film were superhit.
Track # Title Singer(s) Length
1. "Kya Khoob Lagti Ho" Mukesh
Mukesh
Mukesh Chand Mathur was an Indian playback singer of Bollywood. He, alongside Mohammad Rafi, Manna Dey and Kishore Kumar, left such an impact on the Hindi film industry that they are still remembered to date....

 , Kachan
Kachan
Kachan is a village development committee in Saptari District in the Sagarmatha Zone of south-eastern Nepal. At the time of the 1991 Nepal census it had a population of 3072 people living in 468 individual households....

 
04:07
2. "Meri Galiyon Se Logo Ki Yaari" Lata Mangeshkar
Lata Mangeshkar
Lata Mangeshkar is a singer from India. She is one of the best-known and most respected playback singers in India. Mangeshkar's career started in 1942 and has spanned over six and a half decades. She has recorded songs for over a thousand Hindi films and has sung songs in over thirty-six regional...

 
05:24
3. "Tere Chehre Mein Woh Jaadu Hai" Kishore Kumar
Kishore Kumar
Kishore Kumar , born Abhas Kumar Ganguly, was an Indian film playback singer and an actor who also worked as lyricist, composer, producer, director, screenwriter and scriptwriter.Kishore Kumar was one of India's greatest performers of the late 20th century...

 
04:11
4. "Tum Ne Kisi Kabhi" Mukesh
Mukesh
Mukesh Chand Mathur was an Indian playback singer of Bollywood. He, alongside Mohammad Rafi, Manna Dey and Kishore Kumar, left such an impact on the Hindi film industry that they are still remembered to date....

 , Kachan
Kachan
Kachan is a village development committee in Saptari District in the Sagarmatha Zone of south-eastern Nepal. At the time of the 1991 Nepal census it had a population of 3072 people living in 468 individual households....

04:01
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