Bobby is a 1973 Indian
Hindi-language musical romance film, produced and directed by Raj
Kapoor, and written by Khwaja Ahmad Abbas. The film stars Raj Kapoor's
son, Rishi Kapoor, in his first leading role,
opposite Dimple Kapadia in her debut role. The film
became a blockbuster securing the position of highest grossing Indian film of
1973, the second highest grossing film of the 1970s at the Indian box
office, and one of the top 20 highest-grossing Indian films of all
time. It also became an overseas blockbuster in the Soviet
Union, making it one of the top 20 biggest box office
hits of all time in the Soviet Union.
Thematically and stylistically inspired by the Archie comics Raj Kapoor was
fond of, the film became a trend-setter. It was wildly popular and widely
imitated. It introduced to Bollywood the genre of teenage romance with a
rich-versus-poor clash as a backdrop. Numerous films in the following years and
decades were inspired by this plot. Bobby was Dimple Kapadia's
first and only film of the 70s era. As she left the film industry following her
early marriage, before returning back to proper movies in the mid-80s till the
present date.
The story is about the love between two Bombay teenagers
of different classes and religions—Raja 'Raj' Nath (Rishi Kapoor), the son
of a rich Hindu businessman
Ram Nath (Pran),
and Bobby Braganza (Dimple
Kapadia), the daughter of a poor Goan Christian fisherman
Jack Braganza (Prem Nath).
Raj returns from his boarding school and upon his return, his parents
throw a party to celebrate his birthday. Raj's former governess Mrs. Braganza (Durga Khote) comes by
with her granddaughter Bobby to give him a present, but Raj's mother Sushma
Nath (Sonia Sahni) ignores
Mrs. Braganza, which leads her to leave the party with Bobby in a rush.
Raj opens his gifts the next day and finds Mrs. Braganza's gift, so he
decides to meet her in person. Reaching there, Bobby opens the door for him,
and it is love
at first sight for him. During that visit, he mixes his
book with Bobby's, so he goes to meet her at the library to exchange the books,
and from there starts their friendship. Raj and Bobby decide to go to see a
movie, but find out it is a full house. Then Raj gets an idea to go to a party.
At the party, Bobby sees Raj talking to Sushma's dance partner Nima (Aruna Irani) privately
and thinks he is in love with her, so she breaks off her relationship before
running off to Kashmir. However, Raj comes by to Kashmir and clears up the
misunderstanding, prompting Bobby to resume her relationship with him. Despite
Jack and Mrs. Braganza being very supportive of Raj and Bobby's relationship
due to Raj's friendly nature, Raj learns that the matter is not taken kindly by
Ram, who abhors the idea of his son falling in love with the daughter of a poor
fisherman. Upon Raj's insistence, Ram invites Jack over to initiate talks of
Raj and Bobby's relationship. But instead, a feud ignites when Ram insults Jack
and accuses him of using Bobby's beauty and charm to trap Raj for his money; he
even offered Jack a bribe of cash to stop Bobby from seeing Raj. Jack gets offended
by this accusation and retaliates by insulting Ram before leaving in a huff
with Bobby, forbidding her to hang out with Raj again. To ensure Bobby's
distance from Raj, Jack sends her and Mrs. Braganza to live in Goa.
Raj gets angry at Ram for driving Bobby away; this was further intensified
when he learns that Ram intends to have him marry a mentally-challenged wealthy
girl named Alka 'Nikki' Sharma (Farida Jalal)
to establish business ties with her rich father Mr. Sharma (Pinchoo Kapoor) without
even consulting Raj; Sushma and Nima are not supportive of the idea as well. On
the advice from Nima (who sympathizes with Raj on the issue), Raj cuts off all
ties to his father and drives off to Goa to reunite with Bobby, who runs away
with him. As Sushma blames Ram for driving Raj away, the latter advertises a
reward of Rs. 25,000 for anyone who can help find Raj. Upon spotting Raj and
Bobby while seeing the reward on a local newspaper, a local greedy goon named
Prem Chopra (Prem
Chopra) decides that he wants the money so he and his goons
kidnap Raj and Bobby. When the teens try to escape, Prem starts beating up Raj
while having his goons to restrain Bobby. Eventually, Jack comes to the rescue
by attacking Prem, who orders his goons to beat up Jack in retaliation.
However, this was witnessed by an arriving Ram and the police, who furiously
beat up and arrest Prem and his goons while Raj and Bobby escape. Deciding that
they don't want their fathers to interfere in their relationship anymore, Raj
and Bobby attempted to commit suicide by jumping over a waterfall after chewing
out Ram for antagonizing Jack and starting the feud in the first place.
However, a horrified Ram and Jack dive in and rescue both teens from being
drowned.
Having realized the folly of the feud that almost drove both teens to
death, a remorseful Ram and Jack agreed to end the feud by giving their
blessings to Raj and Bobby's relationship, promising never to interfere with it
again. With their relationships reconciled, the teens and their fathers happily
head back home to their families.
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