Home | Movies By Year | Movies from 1991
Henna (film)
Buy Henna (film) now from AmazonFirst, read the Wikipedia article. Then, scroll down to see what other TopShelfReviews readers thought about the movie. And once you've experienced the movie, tell everyone what you thought about it.
Wikipedia article
'Henna' is a 1991 Indian romance drama film, written by Khwaja Ahmad Abbas, produced and directed by Randhir Kapoor. It stars Rishi Kapoor, along with Pakistani actress Zeba Bakhtiyar in the title role and Ashwini Bhave. This film was planned and started by director Raj Kapoor, but due to his death during the filming, the remaining portions were directed by his eldest son Randhir. It is considered as the last film of Raj Kapoor. The dialogues of the film were written by the Pakistani writer Haseena Moin. The film was a critical and a commercial success and was also India's submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, but was not accepted as a nominee.Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
Plot
Chandar Prakash (Rishi Kapoor), who lives in Srinagar, is about to get engaged to Chandni Kaul (Ashwini Bhave), whom he calls Chand. On the day of his engagement, he meets with an accident and mistakenly strays into the Pakistani side of Kashmir. A native girl, Henna (Zeba Bakhtiar), falls in love with him, amidst the controversial Indian-Pakistani tension on Kashmir, which leads him to be suspected by the Pakistani police of being an Indian spy.
Beautiful Henna Khan lives the life of a gypsy near the river Jhelum, in Pakistan with her widowed dad, Khan Baba and three brothers Ashraf, Razzak and Zaman. One day she comes across an unconscious man who has been washed ashore. Khan Baba, Gul Bibi and Henna take this male in, nurse him back to health, only to find out that he has lost his memory. The man, in his sleep, cries out the name of "Chand" and everyone starts calling him by that name. Soon he is well enough to walk around and starts working for Gul Bibi and helping her make clay pots. Henna falls in love with him and would like to marry him, much to the chagrin of Daroga Shahbaaz Khan (Raza Murad), who has already been married twice, but according to Shariat law, he can marry twice more. Khan Baba arranges the marriage of Henna and Chand and a day is set for the marriage. On the day of marriage, Chand regains his memory. The trio finds out that Chand is neither a Muslim nor from Pakistan. He is from India and strayed over to Pakistan during a car accident. The tribe decides to create a safe passage for Chand to get back home.
The first attempt is foiled due to one of the brothers colluding with Shahbaaz Khan. The second attempt succeeds, but Henna is killed in the climax.
The film ends with Chander asking why war happens.
Cast
*Rishi Kapoor as Chandar Prakash
*Zeba Bakhtiar as Henna Khan
*Ashwini Bhave as Chandni Kaul
*Kulbhushan Kharbanda as Devraj Kaul
*Reema Lagoo as Anuradha Kaul
*Saeed Jaffrey as Khan Baba
*Farida Jalal as Gul Bibi
*Mohnish Behl as Captain Surendra
*Kiran Kumar as Ashraf
*Shafi Inamdar as Pak Police Superintendent Iqbal
*Dilip Dhawan as Razzaq
*Arun Verma as Zaman
*Arun Bakshi as Pak Police Constable Nawabdin
*Raza Murad as Pak Police Daroga Shahbaaz Khan
Production
The Kashmir part of the film was shot in Manali, Himachal Pradesh. Some parts were shot in Pakistan (Murree, Islamabad), Switzerland and Austria.
Soundtrack
Lyrics by Ravindra Jain, Naqsh Lyallpuri and Maulana Qudsi.
Reception
The film was a hit, especially for the locations it was shot in and the excellent musical score by Ravindra Jain that included hit songs like "Main Hoon Khush Rang", "Anaaradana" and "Der Na Ho Jaaye Kahin".
Zeba Bakhtiar's performance in the title role was much acclaimed and fetched her a nomination under the Best Actress category at the Filmfare Awards. She alongside Salma Agha and Saba Qamar; is one of the only Pakistani actresses to be nominated at the Filmfare Awards.
Farida Jalal's performance as Bibi Gul was also much appreciated; she won the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress. The film also picked up several other nominations including Best Film and Best Director.
The film marked the Hindi film debut of Actress Ashwini Bhave; who played a prominent role in the film and she gained much popularity from the success of the film.
Awards
; 37th Filmfare Awards
'Won'
* Best Supporting Actress Farida Jalal
* Best Cinematography Radhu Karmakar
'Nominated'
* Best Film Randhir Kapoor, Rajiv Kapoor
* Best Director Randhir Kapoor
* Best Actress Zeba Bakhtiar
* Best Supporting Actor Saeed Jaffrey
*Best Female Debut Zeba Bakhtiar
*Best Lyricist Ravindra Jain for "Main Hoon Khushrang"
See also
* List of submissions to the 64th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film
* List of Indian submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
References
Buy Henna (film) now from Amazon
<-- Return to movies from 1991