Indian (1996)

Director:

S. Shankar

Writers:

S. Shankar (screenplay)
S. Shankar (story)

Release Date:

23 August 1996 (India)

Genre:

Action | Drama | Musical

Tagline:

The Biggest Indian Film Ever Made...

Plot:

Senapathy, a veteran freedom fighter, is angry. He is angry against the rampant corruption at every level of the bureaucracy. He will clean it up at any cost.

Plot Keywords:

One Word Title

Awards:

2 wins

Cast

Kamal Hassan	...	Senapathy / Chandra Bose
Nedumudi Venu	...	Krishnaswamy
Manisha Koirala	...	Ishwarya
Urmila Matondkar	...	Sapna
Sukanya	...	Senapathy's Wife
Aruna Irani	...	Gulabo Ram. Khilawan
Kasturi	...	Kasthoori (Senapathy's Daughter)
Goundamani
Crazy Mohan	...	Parthasarathy
Manorama
Senthil	...	Pannerselvam
Ajay Ratnam
Nizhalgal Ravi
Bala Singh

Also Known As:

Bharateeyudu (India: Telugu title) (dubbed version)
Hindustani (India: Hindi title) (dubbed version)

Runtime:

India:185 min

Country:

India

Language:

Tamil | Hindi | Telugu

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS

Certification:

UK:12 | India:UA

Filming Locations:

India

Trivia:

Chosen as the official entry for the Oscars from India for the year, though it didn't get nominated.

It's not a great film, but very good entertainment with elements that make it something special in the flood of Indian exploitation films.

Wow! I couldn't believe it! The Internet Movie Database even had Indian exploitation films like the Kamala Haasan-starring epic action-adventure-musical-crime-drama INDIAN included in their database. I was very surprised and happy to find out, that the Indian Cinema wasn't such an isolated cultural phenomenon like I once thought.

Well, I'm not an Indian, but I'm an Tamilan, and INDIAN comes from the Tamil Nadu-Area of Indian Cinema. I've seen the movie many times and I don't agree with the average rating of 9 out of 10 the movie got from those who voted for the movie. Let's stick to the facts.

The movie is an epic that covers many genres, stories and issues like many Indian entertainment films, but far more ambitious than any other movie did before. It's about the historical and very blood-shedding War of the Indians against the Whites (no Gandhi-refuses-to-eat-and-everybody-puts-his-gun-down-silliness, sadly!), the moving love of a Father to his daughter, the big issue of corruption throughout the country, the conflict between a righteous father and a corrupt son and some subplots like a sweet "triangle" romance, moments of comedy and more, all mixed up in a big crime investigation full of action and suspense.

What makes the movie pretty much above-average and extraordinary by the standards of Indian movies aren't the said-to-be-spectacular special-effects, who are mostly hilariously unbelievable (when our young hero Haasan crosses a Formula-One-race-track he lays down and the racer doesn't hit him as if a racer is as equally big as a truck) and are used to attract audiences rather than serve the plot. It's the whole spectacular mix of excellent and lavishly staged song interludes by the actual hot Indian composer Rahuman, eye-popping production design, beautiful cinematography, great on-location-shots, a complex, and sometimes fascinating and sometimes overwrought script and last but not definitely not least Kamala Haasans superior acting of the two main characters of the story (father and son). While he's doing his usually cool portrayal of the hero with great dance moments and good-looks, it's actually his awesome performance of the father what makes this movie unmissable.

Wearing a heavy make-up and looking really, really old he gives the performance of a lifetime through his eyes. Like every great actor (Brando, Pacino, De Niro, Bogart etc.) he expresses the feelings and thoughts of his character through the eyes, the - to speak like a poet - windows to our souls. And he's unbelievably cool as old man, who with his martial arts knowledge sets out to destroy corruption in India, which indirectly killed his daughter.

Another remarkable thing about the film is how it ignores the cliché of good-guy-vs.-bad-guy. By introducing two main characters who are hardly to categorise as good or bad, the movie makes it somewhat hard for the viewer, who in the spectacular and aeroplane-exploding finale is thorn between the two very good fleshed out characters. Great supporting cast, too!

In the end, INDIAN isn't a great film, but very good entertainment with elements that make it something special in the flood of Indian exploitation films. My Verdict: 7 out of 10.