Nagin (1976)

User Rating:

6.2/10   

Director:

Rajkumar Kohli

Writers:

Inder Raj Anand (dialogue)
Jaggi Rampal (screenplay)

Release Date:

19 January 1976 (India)

Genre:

Fantasy | Thriller | Action | Musical

Plot:

According to a myth, when snakes are of certain age, they can assume human form. Thus, the film begins with a male and a female in their human forms...

Cast

Sunil Dutt	...	Professor Vijay
Feroz Khan	...	Raj
Vinod Mehra	...	Rajesh
Kabir Bedi	...	Uday
Anil Dhawan	...	Kiran
Sanjay Khan	...	Suraj
Rekha	...	Sunita
Yogeeta Bali	...	Rita (as Yogita Bali)
Prema Narayan	...	Woman in forest
Neelam Mehra	...	Sheela
Reena Roy	...	Nagin (female serpent)
Prem Nath	...	Sage
Aruna Irani	...	Dancer
Ranjeet	...	good Samaritan
Heena Kausar	...	Meena

Country:

India

Language:

Hindi

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Filming Locations:

Chandivali Studio, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

Company:

Shankar Films

Movie Connections:

References Bobby (1973)

Soundtrack:

Tere Sang Pyar Main Nahin Todna

Awesome Bollywood supernatural thriller

This is an awesome Bollywood thriller based on the premise that certain cobras can take human form. Our film begins with one such cobra (in human form) being attacked by either vultures or eagles, hard to say, but a man with a gun saves Nag by shooting the bird. This man (Vijay) then tells of his quest to find these cobras, and Nag tells him he knows something of this, and shows that by turning into a cobra and slithering away after the promise that he & the female Nagin will dance. And dance and sing, they do, of course. Reena Roy is quite beautiful and makes a very slinky cobra in human form. Of course, Vijay tells his friends of this and they think he's crazy, till he talks them into coming with him and seeing this very rite again, and during this rite Nag, the male, turns into a cobra and thinking that Nagin is threatened, one of Vijay's friends shoots him and kills him. Not a good move, of course, since now Nagin will have her revenge on each and every one of the men involved. Since this is a Bollywood movie, there is of course a long and somewhat meandering road to the finish, but this is never boring. A lot of character development of these doomed men is explored. These men eventually ask the help of a holy man, to protect them from this vengeful cobra woman, and they're given amulets to wear to protect them, but Nagin is very clever and manages to work her way though them by hook or crook. The music in this is very beautiful at times, especially the song with the male & female cobra dancing. There's also a rather interesting disco song of sorts, that has fantastic instrumentation & is unlike anything I've ever heard. This film is also in Eastmancolor, so it has beautiful saturated colors as well. Sadly enough, before I saw this film I saw a rather cheesy (and abbreviated) remake called "Pyaasi Nagin" a couple weeks ago, with the same haunting snake song but with the character of Nagin played by a young woman who was, uh, rather plump, OK, she looked like Petunia Pig. Accept no substitutes, Reena Roy is light-years better. Anyway, if you're an adventurous sort and like foreign films, check this out. The special effects are somewhat silly at times (come on, this was 1976) but other than that this is quite good. 9 out of 10.