Haathi Mere Saathi (1971)

Orphaned Raju, in the company of four elephants, has to perform with them at street corners, in order to keep alive. Slowly he amasses a fortune, and is able to build his own private zoo, ... See full summary »

Director:

M.A. Thirumugham (as M.A. Thirumugam)

Writers:

Javed Akhtar (screenplay) (as Saleem-Javed), Inder Raj Anand (dialogue)

Stars:

Rajesh Khanna, Tanuja, David Abraham

2 wins.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Rajesh Khanna	...	Raj Kumar 'Raju'
Tanuja	...	Tanuja
David Abraham	...	Johnny Chacha (as David)
Sujit Kumar	...	Gangu
K.N. Singh	...	Sarwan Kumar
Madan Puri	...	Ratanlal
Abhi Bhattacharya	...	Mr. Kumar - Raju's father
Randhir
Bihari	...	(as Behari)
Gurnam Singh
Devar
Mehmood Jr.	...	Chhote / Jhamurey
Kumari Naaz	...	Paro (as Naaz)
Jaya Kumari
Udaya Kumari

Storyline

Orphaned Raju, in the company of four elephants, has to perform with them at street corners, in order to keep alive. Slowly he amasses a fortune, and is able to build his own private zoo, housing tigers, lions, bears, and of course the four elephants. He treats all the animals as his friends. He meets with Tanu, and both fall in love. Tanu's dad, Ratanlal, is opposed to this alliance, but subsequently relents, and permits the young couple to get married. Tanu is unhappy with the amount of time Raju spends with his animal friends, and this causes some bitterness between them. Things do not improve when a child is born, as Tanu fears that one day the child will be harmed by one of the animals, and hence Raju is told to make a choice between his animal friends or his wife and son.

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Plot Keywords:

elephant | fear | baby | zoo | love | 

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Genres:

Drama | Family | Musical | Romance

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Details

Country:

India

Language:

Hindi

Release Date:

1 May 1971 (India)

Also Known As:

A Força do Destino

Filming Locations:

Vauhini Studios, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

Company Credits

Production Co:

Devar Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

170 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Did You Know?

Trivia

Haathi Mere Saathi is Hollywood star Lucy Liu's favorite movie from childhood. She use to always sing the song "Chal Chal Chal Mere Haathi".

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Connections

Featured in Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah: Anand Ka Safar (2012)

User Reviews

Entertaining if clichéd

As a kid, I loved Haathi Mere Saathi. Today, I'm not particularly eager to revisit it though it's definitely a memorable picture. The film portrays a friendship between a young orphaned and wealthy man and his group of elephants, who had once saved him when he was lost in a jungle. The film was generally well made and several Indian movies were inspired by this story afterwards. The script is well written and the movie has its share of enjoyable moments even if the concept itself is hard to believe. The songs, the proceedings and the development were pretty fun to watch, despite being a bit melodramatic at points. Rajesh Khanna stars as Raj and he is a good hero for this film. This was the year when his performance in Hrishikesh Mukherjee's Anand wowed audiences. His work here does not even deserve a comparison to the latter, but he is the main reason the movie works, and frankly speaking I've never been a big fan of his films and liked very few of his performances. Tanuja is very pretty as his wife. The supporting cast is good but the elephants are those who leave a mark. Their loyalty and wisdom were funny and inspiring at the same time. Haathi Mere Saathi is a nice film. It has many moments of comedy, drama and heartwarming fun, and despite having its flaws, it's worth watching, particularly for lovers of Hindi films.