General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

Pratiggya

Pratiggya (प्रतिज्ञा) is a 1975 Hindi-language action comedy film directed by Dulal Guha, starring Dharmendra as a truck driver who avenges his parents' murder at the hands of a dacoit (an armed bandit or gang robber in South Asia), with Hema Malini as his love interest and Ajit as the villain¹. The film's music was composed by Laxmikant-Pyarelal, and its song "Main Jat Yamla Pagla Deewana" became one of Dharmendra's signature numbers and later gave its title to the 2011 film Yamla Pagla Deewana²^•³.

Key fact	Detail
Release	June 1975; sources give 22, 23, or 26 June 1975⁴^•⁵
Director / writers	Directed by Dulal Guha; story by Ajit Singh Deol (credited as Kanwar Ajit Singh), screenplay by Nabendu Ghosh, dialogues by Shafiq Ansari⁶
Lead cast	Dharmendra (Ajit Singh), Hema Malini (Radha Thakur), Ajit (Bharat Thakur)⁶
Music	Laxmikant-Pyarelal; lyrics by Anand Bakshi; playback by Lata Mangeshkar and Mohammed Rafi²
Box office	Bollywood Hungama lists a lifetime India collection of 35 million (3.50 crore) with a Super-Hit verdict⁷
Signature song	"Main Jat Yamla Pagla Deewana", sung by Mohammed Rafi, later lent its title to the 2011 film Yamla Pagla Deewana³

Spoilers

Plot

Ajit Singh (Dharmendra) is an illiterate truck driver who learns from his dying adoptive mother that he is the only surviving son of an honest policeman whose entire family was killed by the dacoit Bharat Thakur (Ajit), and he swears revenge⁸. On his way to Dinapur, the dacoit's hideout, he meets the grievously injured Inspector D'Souza (Satyendra Kapoor), who was traveling to the village to set up a police station with his men and a cache of ammunition; the dying inspector leaves the weapons at Ajit Singh's disposal⁸.

Using this stash of machine guns and grenades, Ajit Singh poses as a policeman and sets up a police station in the village with the villagers' help, to trap the dacoit and spy on his movements⁸^•¹. His love interest is the village belle Radha (Hema Malini), the niece of Bharat Thakur, who hates his ways and supports Ajit Singh⁸. Bharat Thakur plants his man, the village drunkard Chandi (Keshto Mukherjee), as a spy within the police-station circle, and the film follows the struggle between the two men until Ajit Singh fulfills his pratigya, or promise, of revenge⁸.

Production and release

The film emerged from a one-line story by Ajit Singh Deol, Dharmendra's brother, who is not to be confused with the actor Ajit who played the villain; a dacoit kills an entire family and the surviving child seeks revenge, and Guha decided to turn this into a comedy⁹. According to a Cinemaazi feature by the film historian Anirudha Bhattacharjee, the film was completed in a very short time and was meant for release toward the end of 1974 or in early 1975, but censorship-related issues and the Emergency declared in June 1975 delayed it; after cutting a few fights, it opened at the Ganga, New Excelsior, Palace, and other theaters⁹.

The release date is reported differently across databases: Bollywood Hungama gives 26 June 1975⁵, Letterboxd and Filmweb list 23 June 1975⁴^•¹⁰, and Digit Binge gives 22 June 1975¹¹. Runtimes also vary by source, from 2 hours 20 minutes on JustWatch¹² to 2 hours 30 minutes on Indian Film History¹.

Music

Laxmikant-Pyarelal composed the score and Anand Bakshi wrote the lyrics². The four songs listed on streaming databases are "Main Jat Yamla Pagla Diwana" (Mohammed Rafi), "Morni Re Morni" (Lata Mangeshkar), "Uth Neend Se Mirzia Jaag Ja" (Mangeshkar and Rafi), and "Pardesi Aaya Des Mein" (Mangeshkar)¹¹. "Main Jat Yamla Pagla Deewana" became the film's most remembered number, and a Cinemaazi feature notes that with it Dharmendra more or less introduced new dance moves into Hindi cinema⁹. The 2011 comedy-drama Yamla Pagla Deewana, also starring Dharmendra, took its title from this song³.

Box office and reception

Bollywood Hungama's trade table records a lifetime India collection of 35 million (3.50 crore) and classifies the film as a Super-Hit⁷. An NDTV report on a viral 1975 ticket photograph states that the film was made on a budget of 15 million rupees (1.50 crore rupees) and earned about 70 million rupees (7 crore rupees), that a ticket at the Ganga theater cost 3.30 rupees (a net rate of 1.42 rupees plus 1.58 rupees tax and 0.31 rupees surcharge), and that an October-dated ticket shows the film ran in theaters for four months, overlapping with the 15 August 1975 release of Sholay, which also starred Dharmendra¹³.

The film sits alongside Sholay, Deewaar, and Chupke Chupke in 1975, a year widely noted as a peak for Hindi commercial cinema⁴. On IMDb it holds a rating of 7.7¹².

Other uses of the title

A different Hindi film titled Pratigya (प्रतिज्ञा) was released in 1943, directed by Nandlal Jaswantlal for Chitra Productions, Bombay, with Motilal, Swarnalata, and a young Meena Kumari (credited as Baby Meena) among its cast; the Hindi Film Database notes that a film with this title was also passed by the Censor Board in 1975, corresponding to the Dharmendra film¹⁴.

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Indian films (individual works) › Hindi films of the 1970s › Released 1970 to 1975

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 21, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

Notice something wrong?