Kaalia

Kaalia
Promotional poster
Directed by	Tinnu Anand
Written by	Inder Raj Anand Tinnu Anand Santosh Sah Shahjahan Taher
Produced by	Iqbal Singh
Starring	Amitabh Bachchan Parveen Babi Asha Parekh Kader Khan Amjad Khan Pran
Cinematography	Pravin Bhatt
Edited by	A. Habib
Music by	Rahul Dev Burman Lyrics: Majrooh Sultanpuri
Distributed by	Bobby Enterprises Polydor
Release date	25 December 1981 (1981-12-25)
Country	India
Language	Hindi

Kaalia is a 1981 Indian Hindi-language action thriller film, written and directed by Tinnu Anand, and produced by Iqbal Singh. The film stars Amitabh Bachchan (in the title role), Parveen Babi, Asha Parekh, Kader Khan, Pran, Amjad Khan, K.N. Singh and Jagdeep. The music is by R.D. Burman, while the lyrics are by Majrooh Sultanpuri.

The film was the 8th highest grossing Indian film of 1981.^{[citation needed]}

It was later remade in Kannada in 1984 as Huliyaada Kaala starring Tiger Prabhakar and in Tamil in 1987 as Cooliekkaran starring Vijayakanth.

The film was another classic from Bachchan's "angry young man" era and helped cement his status as a superstar. The film is also remembered for having the classic upbeat song "Jahan Teri Yeh Nazar Hai" (sung by Kishore Kumar). It continues to be played at parties and nightclubs, along with being considered one of the most iconic songs of the 1980s.^[1] This was the only film that featured Amitabh Bachchan and Asha Parekh together, although they were never paired opposite each other.

Kaalia lives with his older brother Shamu, sister-in-law Shanti, and their little daughter Munni. He is intelligent but spends his time idly playing with the neighbour's kids. His older brother gets into an accident while at work at the mill and loses his arms. He loses his job and needs money for his treatment. Kaalia begs his brother's boss, Shahani Seth, for monetary help, but he refuses. Kaalia breaks into Shahani's safe to get the money, but it proves to be too late as Shamu dies. Shahani then throws Kaalia in jail for nine months, where he meets the men that teach him crime.

After his release, Kaalia is a different, stronger man. He and his accomplices steal the gold that the boss had been smuggling at the mill. Then he burns down the mill as retribution for his brother's death. He goes to jail again, this time for two years. His accomplices lie to his sister-in-law by telling her that he is in America earning money for her and her daughter. They move from poverty to riches. In jail, Kaalia meets the jailor Raghvir Singh, a smart, ethical, strong man, whose daughter was kidnapped by one of the prisoners as a child. After Kaalia is released from prison, he is bent on seeking vengeance and eventually pairs up with a woman named Shalini.

The boss kidnaps Kaalia's niece and forces her mother to testify against Kaalia at a murder trial. He is found guilty for a murder he didn't commit and escapes from prison to find his niece. At first, the warden chases him, but once he knows the true story, decides to help him. They go to the boss's place and not only find the little girl, but also the sister-in-law about to die. The boss reveals to the warden that he was the one who had kidnapped his daughter 20 years ago and now it is the grown up Shalini. They fight with him, the boss gets beaten up, and Kaalia finally chops Shahani's arm off.

Lyrics were by Majrooh Sultanpuri.

Amitabh Bachchan has claimed credit for composing the song "Jahan Teri Yeh Nazar Hai."^[2] The song "Jahan Teri Yeh Nazar Hai" influenced the song "Palat – Tera Hero Idhar Hai", featured in the 2014 film Main Tera Hero.^[3]

• Kaalia at IMDb