Naastik (1983)

Naastik ("the non-believer") is a 1983 Amitabh Bachchan drama from Pramod Chakravorty, the producer-director behind Jugnu, Azaad and Barood. Bachchan plays a man who, after suffering grave injustice, loses his faith and hardens into someone who trusts only his own strength, with Hema Malini as the woman in his life and veteran Pran in a key supporting role. The film mixes the angry-young-man revenge drama that was Bachchan's signature at the time with a devotional undercurrent about belief and redemption, a combination popular in early-1980s Hindi cinema. It shares its title with a well-known 1954 film but is a separate story. Worth watching for Bachchan at the height of his stardom and his pairing with Hema Malini, one of the most frequent screen couples of that period.