Laawaris (1981 film)


Laawaris is an 1981 Indian drama film directed by Prakash Mehra. The film became known for its song "Mere Angene Mein Tumhara Kya Kaam Hai" rendered twice: the first time by a young Alka Yagnik, who earned her first Filmfare nomination as best female playback singer, and the second time by Amitabh Bachchan. The second version became very popular due to Bachchan's comedic performance in drag. The lyrics pay tribute to all kinds of wives, be they fat, tall, short, dark, or fair skinned. Even today, the song is popular among audiences.
Laawaris starred Amitabh Bachchan, Amjad Khan, Zeenat Aman and Raakhee. In Hindi, "Laawaris" loosely means bastard or orphan. Although the word still has negative connotations, they are not as extreme as in English. The story revolves around an orphan who stumbles over reality in search for his parents.
The film was an "All Time Highest Earner" that year, got the highest verdict present at that time from the Trade Guide, and was among those rare movies which crossed 2 Crore per territory. There were only 13 All time earner movies till 1984, and Laawaris was among them.
It earned additional Filmfare nominations for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor.

Plot

Laawaris is a story of an orphan Heera, played by Amitabh Bachchan who is disowned by his father before birth and the struggles he goes through to establish his legitimacy in society.
Vidya is a famous singer and she is in love with Ranvir Singh, a leading business man. She gets pregnant before the wedding but Ranvir Singh wants it to be aborted. Vidya who doesn't want to abort her child decides to break up with Ranvir Singh and she leaves with her brother without informing Ranvir Singh. Vidya gives birth to a baby boy but her brother takes away the baby and gives it to Gangu Ganpat asking it to be killed and lies to Vidya that the baby was a stillborn. Vidya leaves the hospital without informing anyone and nobody knows about her whereabouts.
Meanwhile, Gangu Ganpat, a drunkard decides to raise the baby on his own instead of killing with the intention of making some money with the help of baby. He names the baby as Heera. One day, Heera breaks the liquor bottles with the hope of stopping Gangu Ganpat's alcohol habit. But Gangu Ganpat gets furious seeing this and reveals that Heera is an orphan which makes Heera angry and he leaves Gangu Ganpat's home.
Heera gets a job in a factory which is owned by Mahendar Singh, who happens to be the son of Ranvir Singh . It is shown that Ranvir Singh leads an unhappy life with his wife in an estate. He feels guilty about his betrayal to Vidya thinking she is dead.
Once employed at Mahendar Singh's factory, Heera understands that workers are not paid properly in Mahendar Singh's factory and decides to fight against it which angers Mahendar Singh. Mohini, falls in love with Heera without knowing his true identity. Mahendar Singh transfers Heera to work in his estate present at a hill station with plans of killing him. Heera meets Ranvir Singh in the estate and gets into his good books. During a function, Mahendar Singh plans to kill Heera, but accidentally Ranvir Singh gets hurt.
In the climax Ranvir Singh accepts Heera as his legitimate son and unites with his whole family.

Cast

The music of this movie was composed by Kalyanji–Anandji, while the lyrics were written by Anjaan and Prakash Mehra. The movie features some popular songs like "Apni toh jaise taise" and "Mere Angne Mein" whose male version was sung by Amitabh Bachchan.The song Mere Angne Mein was recreated by Tanishk Bagchi in the year 2020 in the voice of Neha Kakkar and Raja Hassan. The song Apni toh jaise taise was recreated by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy in the voice of Mika Singh and Sunidhi Chauhan in the 2010 film Housefull. Both the music videos starred Sri Lankan actress Jacqueline Fernandez.

Remakes

Laawaris was remade as
Both films were massive hits in their respective languages.

Awards and nominations