Sanjeev Kumar and Farooq Sheikh acted well in Basu Chatterjee's film Lakhon Ki Baat.

Sanjeev Kumar and Farooq Sheikh acted well in Basu Chatterjee’s Lakhon Ki Baat.

Basu Chatterjee directed the film Lakhon Ki Baat in 1984. Basu Chatterjee had been famous for his off-beat films in the 1970s and 1970s. All his films like Chitchor, Choti Si Baat, Baaton Baaton Mein and others created a social message and were related to the lives of the middle-class persons. There were no larger than life image created in his films. Music of the film was composed by Manas Mukherjee. Sanjeev Kumar and Farooq Sheikh had been famous for playing the next door neighbour roles. All these characters are very difficult to play. They maintained the natural shade of the character which they played. In Lakhon Ki Baat, Farooq Sheikh played the role of a journalist who went to the photography relating to a hockey match. Anjali Sen the captain of the hockey player hooked a ball which struck Farooq Sheikh and he got hospitalised. At that time, Sanjeev Kumar, the brother in law of Farooq Sheikh, and a clever lawyer hatched up a plan. He told Farooq Sheikh to act in the bed and pretend that he got serious injury in his spinal cord, so that a compensation worth rupees 20 lakhs can be claimed from the newspaper company. Anita Raj was his wife who had left the house after giving divorce to Farooq Sheikh. When she came to know that Farooq Sheikh was hospitalised she came to see him. Farooq Sheikh had weakness and thought his relationship can be regained. Pinchoo Kapoor, the owner of the newspaper company did not intend to pay any money. So he wanted to come to a compromise with Sanjeev Kumar. He also employed a spy played by Utpal Dutt who used a camera man and recorded the affairs taking place in Farooq Sheikh’s house. Anjali Sen felt guilty about the injury to Farooq Sheikh and bought a wheel chair for him. Later on she was insulted by Anita Raj and then lost temper and for bad conduct in a game got arrested and send to police custody. Farooq Sheikh felt very bad about everything. He understood that Sanjeev Kumar, Anita Raj and others were very greedy and dishonest. He disclosed the truth relating to his non-injury to Utpal Dutt. In the last scene he met Anjali Sen, because she was the girl who truly loved him. The film was comedy oriented. But through the comedy, the huge amount of deceit and treachery practiced in the society was depicted by Basu Chatterjee. The songs composed by Manas Mukherjee were impressive and Anuradha Paudwal, Alka Yagnik sang well. The film should be restored.