General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

Suhaag (1979 film)

Suhaag is a 1979 Indian Hindi-language action drama film directed by Manmohan Desai, starring Amitabh Bachchan, Shashi Kapoor, Rekha, and Parveen Babi, with Nirupa Roy, Amjad Khan, Kader Khan, Ranjeet, and Jeevan in supporting roles.¹ It was released on 16 November 1979 and finished the year as the highest-grossing Hindi film in a trade ranking, with a verdict of Hit.²^•³

Key fact	Detail
Director	Manmohan Desai¹
Release	16 November 1979; some databases list 29–30 October 1979²^•⁴
Lead cast	Amitabh Bachchan, Shashi Kapoor, Rekha, Parveen Babi¹
Music	Laxmikant-Pyarelal; lyrics by Anand Bakshi⁵
Writers	Kader Khan, Prayag Raj, and K.K. Shukla⁶
Runtime	2 hours 44 minutes (164 minutes)¹
Box office	Net gross of 50,000,000 rupees, ranked first among 1979 Hindi releases, verdict Hit³

Spoilers

Plot

The film follows a pair of twins separated at birth. Durga (Nirupa Roy) and Vikram Singh are married, and Vikram has taken to crime, antagonizing a rival gangster, Jaggi (Kader Khan). In revenge, Jaggi steals one of the newborn twins and sells him to a bootlegger, Pascal. Vikram abandons Durga, who raises the remaining son, Kishan (Shashi Kapoor), alone.⁷

The two brothers grow up on opposite sides of the law. Kishan becomes a dedicated police officer, while Amit (Amitabh Bachchan), raised by Pascal, is kept illiterate, turned to petty crime, and becomes an alcoholic.⁷ The brothers meet without knowing their relationship, settle their differences, and become friends.⁷ The plot turns when Vikram, unaware that his wife and both sons are alive, hires Amit to kill Kishan during Navratri.⁸

The official press booklet summarized by Cinemaazi adds later turns: Amit fakes the killing, but Vikram shoots Kishan, who is blinded; Amit gives up drinking, joins the police force, and promises Kishan's girlfriend Annu to avenge the blindness; Vikram is shot by Amit, escapes by helicopter without knowing Jaggi has planted a time bomb aboard, and Durga pleads with her sons to save her suhaag, the word for a married woman's marital state that gives the film its title.⁵

Cast and characters

The credited roles include Amitabh Bachchan as Amit, Shashi Kapoor as Kishan Kapoor, Rekha as Basanti, Parveen Babi as Anu, Nirupa Roy as Durga Kapoor, Kader Khan as Jaggi, Amjad Khan as Vikram Kapoor, Ranjeet as Gopal, Jeevan as Bhaskar, Hercules as Raghu dada, and Jagdish Raj as a police officer.⁹ The wider cast also includes Jagdish Raj, Jeevan, Kader Khan, Ranjeet, and Amjad Khan among the named performers listed by trade databases.⁶

Production and music

Manmohan Desai directed the film, with a story by Prayag Raj and J.M. Desai, screenplay by K.K. Shukla, and dialogue by Kader Khan; Mukhtar Ahmed edited it.⁹ The music was composed by the duo Laxmikant-Pyarelal, that is Laxmikant Shantaram Kudalkar and Pyarelal Ramprasad Sharma, with Anand Bakshi as lyricist.⁵ Playback singers credited on the film include Lata Mangeshkar, Mohammed Rafi, Asha Bhosle, Shailendra Singh, and Shashi Kapoor.⁹

Producer credits differ across databases. Gadgets 360 and FilmiBeat list Rajinder Kumar Sharma, Ramesh Sharma, Shakti Subhash Sharma, and Prakash Trehan,⁶^•⁴ the film's poster credits Prakash Trehan and Subhash Sharma,¹⁰ and the Quebec film registry records Prakash Mehra as producer.¹¹ The banner was Suresh Desai & Associates, Bombay, according to Cinemaazi,⁵ while Apple TV lists the studio as Sharma Cine Associates.⁸

Release and box office

Most trade databases give the release date as 16 November 1979,²^•⁶ while BollywoodMDB, FilmiBeat, and FMDb list 29 or 30 October 1979.⁴^•⁹ The film ran 2 hours 44 minutes in most listings; the Quebec registry records 170 minutes for its classified version.¹¹

A retrospective trade ranking places Suhaag first among 1979 Hindi releases, with a net gross of 50,000,000 rupees and a gross of 100,000,000 rupees, ahead of Jaani Dushman and Sargam, and carries the verdict Hit.³ Bollywood Hungama's box office page likewise records a lifetime India net collection of 50 million (5 crore) and classifies the film as a Hit.¹²

Reception and context

On IMDb the film holds a rating of 6.5 out of 10 from about 1,400 votes.¹ A 2019 retrospective marking forty years since the release described Suhaag as among the most successful films of 1979 because it was, in that account, a complete package of entertainment, and highlighted addiction and the conflict of good against evil as its central themes, noting that Amit, a worshipper of the goddess Durga, stops drinking on certain days for religious reasons.¹³ The same retrospective observes that after Bachchan and Rekha worked together in the 1978 film Muqaddar Ka Sikandar, audiences and directors wanted to see more of the pair.¹³ Suhaag was one of twelve films Shashi Kapoor made with Amitabh Bachchan, a list that also includes Deewar (1975), Trishul (1978), and Kaala Patthar (1979).¹⁴

The film remains available on streaming services; as of recent checks it streams free with ads on The Roku Channel and Tubi in the United States, and can be rented or bought on Apple TV and Google Play.¹⁵^•¹⁶

References

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