Today, 40 years back, Muqaddar ka Sikandar had released and went on to make cinematic history. It was the biggest hit of the year (1978) and along with Sholay and Bobby, was among the top three hits of the decade.

Lets celebrate 40 years of this superhit Movie with a trivia journey of nostalgia to recollect some integral aspects of the movie and the main characters.

The magical partnership; Mr Amitabh Bachchan and Prakash Mehra

The terrific journey started with Zanjeer and continued for several movies, Muqaddar ka Sikandar being one of them. Other blockbuster movies were Khoon Pasina, Hera Pheri, Lawaaris, Namak Halaal and Sharaabi. Their last movie together was Jaadugar which was a flop and they never worked again. One Urban legend has it that Prakash Mehra had said that the day his movie with Mr Bachchan does not do well, he will not make another movie with the megastar. Another urban legend has it that they fell out. Whatever be the reason, they did not work together again.

The terrific duo- Mr Amitabh Bachchan and Mr Vinod Khanna

Muqaddar ka Sikandar was the 4th movie in a row which had these two top stars in parallel hero roles, the other three being Hera Pheri, Khoon Pasina and Parvarish. Along with Rishi Kapoor, they also acted together in Amar Akbar Anthony, which is also an iconic movie.

A tale of various unrequited love

In the movie there are many unrequited love stories. Amitabh for Raakhee, Rekha for Amitabh and Amjad Khan for Rekha.

One of the best Amitabh-Rekha movies

Amitabh-Rekha are one of the best pairs ever and this is one of their best movies together. Sikandar and Zohra Begum are magic in the duet, Salaam-e-ishq meri jaan, which is also one of the best ever Lata-Kishore duets.

Same song by Kishore and Rafi

This too was an innovation. The song Rote hue aate hai sab must have been sung by millions on bikes, copying Amitabh who sang it in the movie. Kishore Kumar singing , always amazing, was magic in this song. The same song had a sad version, Zindagi to bewafa hai sung in Mohd Rafi’s voice for Vinod Khanna in Sikandar’s death scene. This was on insistence of music directors Kalyanji Anandji though Rafi who had great respect for Kishore da (and vice versa of course) was convinced Kishore Kumar would sing the sad version brilliantly.

2 Memorable characters; Master Mayur; Highest paid child artist and Ram Sethi; Pyarelal

Muqaddar ka Sikandar saw Mayur Verma, known as Master Mayur, play the role of the young Amitabh. He also played Amitabh’s childhood parts in several other movies and became the highest paid child artist.

Similarly Ram Sethi who played the role of Pyarelal is one of the lovable characters of Hindi cinema. He was a close friend and associate of Prakash Mehra as well and acted in over 100 movies. With Amitabh he formed a comical pair and was also seen in Zanjeer, Kaalia and Namak Halaal.

Immortal songs and music

No review or recollection of Muqaddar ka Sikandar is complete without a brief mention of its songs. Music was by Kalyanji Anandji and lyrics ware by Anjaam. Kishore Kumar had two terrific solos, namely, Rote hue aate hai sab and O saathi re. The female version of O saathi re was sung by Asha Bhosle while as mentioned above the sad version of Rote hue was sung by Mohd Rafi. For the duet Salaam-e-ishq by Kishore-Lata, the lyrics were by Prakash Mehra himself. Lata had a solo Dil to hai dil while one of Rekha’s solo’s, the song Wafa to na ki was sung by Hemlata. Finally the song Pyar zindagi hai was a big hit too, and it was sung by Mahendra Kapoor, Asha and Lata.

This iconic movie released 40 years back will be remembered even 40 years later in my view. Do u agree ?