Sachaa Jhutha (1970)

Director:

Manmohan Desai

Writers:

Smt. Jeevanprabha M. Desai (story)
Prayag Raj (dialogue)

Genre:

Action | Comedy | Crime | Drama | Musical | Family

Plot:

A penniless musician is unwittingly forced to trade places with a look-alike diamond merchant/thief causing a comedy of errors by everyone involved.

Plot Keywords:

Abusive Stepmother

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Rajesh Khanna	...	Bhola / Ranjit Kumar
Mumtaz	...	Leena / Rita
Vinod Khanna	...	Inspector. Pradhan
Faryal	...	Ruby
Kumari Naaz	...	Belu (as Naaz)
Prayag Raj
Jagdish Raj	...	Inspector. Jagdish
Kamal Kapoor	...	Commisioner of Police
Ratnamala	...	Miss Malti Mehra (as Ratanmala)
Praveen Paul	...	Bhola's Foster Mother (as Pravin Paul)
Rashid Khan
Kirti Kumar
Viju Khote
Santosh Kumar
Jullian

Also Known As:

Truth and Falsehood (India: English title)

Runtime:

143 min

Country:

India

Language:

Hindi

Color:

Color (Gevacolor)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Filming Locations:

Basant Studio, Chembur, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

Company:

V.R. Films

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Eena Meena Deeka (1994)

A Manmohan Desai Masterpiece

Before he started making Bacchan blockbusters, Manmohan Desai had a try with many other good actors as well, namely Shammi Kapoor ("Bluffmaster") and Rajesh Khanna with this movie ("Saccha Juttha") amongst others.

There is a nice plot here and you can feel the Manmohan Desai touch throughout. Rajesh Khanna plays in a dual role, as a simple-tom who comes from a village into Bombay to make it big but instead falls upon his conniving double. A lot of intrigue and also good acting from Rajesh Khanna (who won a Best Actor for this film) and Mumtaz.

But to me, the voice of Kishore really steals the whole show, namely in the song "Meri Pyaari Behena". Kishore really transcends himself here and the end product is nothing but pure magic. Maestros Kalyandji Anandji are also to be commended for the composition, but the sincerity that Kishore brings to the song is nothing short of breathtaking. Not that Rafi and Lata did not have good songs (the duet "Yuhi Tum Mujse Baat" is spellbinding), but you have to understand that, at that time in his career, Kishore had reached almost perfection in his voice.

"Saccha Juttha" is a must for movie lovers with a keen ear for melody. It belongs to a golden period that isn't going to come back soon, unfortunately...