Trishul

A film set in India. R. K. Gupta owns a large construction company. Rich, respected and hard. Years ago he left a woman. Shanti was pregnant and he did not marry her; he took a wife from a rich family. She raised the child alone. As she is dying she tells her son something. Vijay goes to Delhi. His purpose is set: to destroy everything his father built. From there the film is a story about business. Vijay goes into construction. He has no money. He takes the first plot of land from a gangster by force. Then he starts taking Gupta's contracts. He cuts prices, draws away labour, and squeezes the company. His method is hard and entirely calculated. Gupta does not know who he is. The man has two children. Shekhar and Babli; neither can stand up to their father. Vijay builds relationships with them too. There is trouble between Shekhar's father and the girl he loves, and Vijay steps in. What the narrative is interested in is not revenge but inheritance: its idea is that Vijay, hating his father, works exactly as he does and uses the same ruthlessness. The narrative does not say it outright but shows it in every scene. The truth opens at the end. Gupta learns who his son is. The screenplay is by the Salim-Javed pair, the writers who set the shapes of Indian cinema in that period. Amitabh Bachchan plays the part entirely cold. He does not smile, does not raise his voice, and relaxes in no scene. Yash Chopra made this before moving into his romantic period. Amitabh Bachchan, Shashi Kapoor, Sanjeev Kumar, Waheeda Rehman, Hema Malini and Raakhee are in the cast. Who it is for: anyone who likes 1970s Indian cinema and the angry young man shape. Who it is not for: anyone looking for pace; the film is long and the business sections drown in detail.