Abhimaan: Celebrating 43 Years of Success

Directed by Hrishikesh Mukherjee and starring Big B, Jaya Bhaduri, Bindu and Asrani, Abhimaan was the winner of 2 Filmfare awards.

Jaya Bhaduri & Amitabh Bachchan got married on June 3, 1973 and just after a month, Abhimaan got released. Jaya Bachchan won the Filmfare Best Actress Award for Abhimaan. After marriage, the couple appeared together in Chupke Chupke (1975), Mili (1975), Sholay (1975) and Silsila (1981). Later, Jaya Bachchan gave up her acting career to raise kids.

Abhimaan is a movie that the audience fondly remembers because of the amazing on-screen chemistry between Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bachchan. It dealt with a very common human trait - Jealousy.

Amitabh Bachchan plays Subir, a famous singer who gets married to Uma (Jaya Bachchan), a village girl who happens to be a singer too. He convinces Uma to enter show-business as a singer. She starts singing professionally and does very well but Subir's career falters. His pride gets wounded when Uma outshines him.

What worked for Abhimaan was not only the story that people could relate to but also a beautiful music album that was composed by S.D. Burman. In fact, S.D. Burman won Filmfare Award for Best Music Director for this movie. Mohd. Rafi and Lata Mangeshkar duet 'Teri Bindiya Re' was extremely popular and so were the other songs like "Loote Koi Mann Ka Nagar" and "Tere Mere Milan Ki Yeh Raina".  Majrooh Sultanpuri had penned the lyrics for this album. Song "Tere Mere Milan Ki Yeh Raina" was listed at No. 16 on Binaca Geetmala annual list 1973 and the song "Meet Na Mila Re Man Ka" was listed at No. 23 on Binaca Geetmala annual list 1973.

Interestingly, Abhimaan was a major blockbuster not only in India but also in Sri Lanka as well. It  was screened continuously for 590 days in the same cinema, Empire, Colombo.