Kaala Patthar - Synopsis

Synopsis

Vijay Pal Singh (Amitabh Bachchan) is a disgraced Merchant Navy captain who is branded a coward, humiliated by society and disowned by his parents for abandoning ship risking the lives of over 300 passengers (perhaps inspired by Joseph Conrad's Lord Jim). Feeling guilty over his cowardice and with low self-esteem, he starts working as a coal miner to forget his past. He meets and becomes friends with Ravi (Shashi Kapoor), an engineer incharge of the mine. He also makes an enemy in another co-worker named Mangal (Shatrughan Sinha) who is an escaped criminal working in the mine to avoid the police. Vijay's past comes to haunt him as he sees Mangal causing trouble for the coal miners and angry over his cowardice over what happened when he was in the navy, Vijay tries to defend the miners against Mangal. Ravi eventually gets Vijay and Mangal to be friends after circumstances surrounding the mine force Mangal to change himself. The one person who supports Vijay him in his life is Dr Sudha Sen (Raakhee Gulzar) who tries to make Vijay face up to his past and move on. Ravi and Mangal also get involved in their own romances with Anita (Parveen Babi) and Channo (Neetu Singh) respectively.

When Seth Dhanraj (Prem Chopra) makes lives difficult for the coal miners by giving them poor equipment, less than sufficient medical supplies and lack of facilities, Vijay, Ravi and Mangal forcefully come together to fight for justice against Dhanraj when water floods the mines endangering the lives of hundreds of workers including that of Shatrughna Sinha. The disaster actually took place at a place called Chasnala in erswhile Bihar (now Jharkhand).

The film, though not a commercial hit then, had its own intensity and fire in it. Especially for the character Vijay Pal Singh played by Yash Chopra's favorite Vijay Amitabh Bachchan. He didn't have much dialogues and he rather emoted with his fiery eyes. His base baritone set the right tone for the content and his various emotions come out in the form of frustration, anger, love, compassion and disgust. His character was neatly supported by many other legends of that time like Shashi Kapoor, Shatrughan Sinha, Raakhee Gulzar, Parveen Babi, Prem Chopra etc. The movie is now termed as a Yash Chopra classic.