Apaharan (2005)

User Rating:

7.6/10   

Director:

Prakash Jha

Writers:

Prakash Jha (dialogue)
Prakash Jha (screenplay)

Release Date:

2 December 2005 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Crime | Drama

Plot:

Story of a tumultuous and complex relationship between a father (Mohan Agashe) and son (Ajay Devgan), set against the backdrop of a thriving kidnapping industry in the Hindi heartland of Bihar.

Plot Keywords:

Kidnapping | Bihar | Break Up | Politician | Criminal

Awards:

3 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Ajay Devgan	...	Ajay Shastri
Nana Patekar	...	Tabrez Alam
Bipasha Basu	...	Megha Basu
Ayub Khan	...	Kashinath
Mohan Agashe	...	Professor Raghuvansh Shastri
Mukesh Tiwari	...	Anwar Khan
Yashpal Sharma	...	Gaya Singh
Anup Soni	...	Akash Ranjan (as Anoop Soni)
Chetan Pandit	...	Dinkar Pandey
Akhilendra Mishra	...	Brijnath Mishra
Daya Shankar Pandey	...	Daya Shankar (as Dayashankar Pandey)
Murli Sharma	...	Murlidhar
Ehsan Khan	...	DSP Shukla
Mukul Nag	...	Usman
Radhakrishna Dutta	...	Seth Soorajmal

Also Known As:

Kidnap (International: English title)

Runtime:

173 min

Country:

India

Language:

Hindi

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

UK:15 | Australia:M | India:UA

Filming Locations:

Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

Company:

Entertainment One Pvt. Ltd.

Movie Connections:

References Company (2002)

A near excellent movie

A couple of things I knew before seeing the movie were:

* It was based on the Bihar kidnapping (industry ?!). * ..and Nana Patekar, Ajay Devgan and Bips acted in it.

Point 2 was the prime motivator, a serious subject sounded even better :).

The characters in the movie are not something new to movie watchers. An aspiring son, an idealist father caught in a cruel world of the good, bad and the ruthless. The story is told in an elegant fashion without any sleaze or exaggerations. At no point of time does the movie glorify a character to make them look larger than life. Falling a genre of crime/drama, more focus is laid on the 'Clash of Titans' than on blood spatters and gunshots (there were a few, but way less than you would expect).

The characters were a perfect fit and the script made sure they don't get too focused as well. Nana Patekar who plays Tabrez Alam had that subtle ruthlessness written in his eyes was simply a class act. His dialogues were short and powerful. His character is a lesson modern day villains need to learn. Ajay Devgan (one of my favorites :) ) shows a lot of versatility as an innocent, aspiring, angry, calm and broken character of Ajay Shastri. The scene where he refuses to 'run away from reality' was the pick of scenes. Bips did'nt have much to do, I thought she'd play something similar to her role in Footpath and turns out more like Katrina's in Sarkar. Ajay's father character was good, but not the perfect, executed what he was sent out to do. If Amrish Puri was alive today, I wish he have played the father character.

One more feather to the cap, there are no songs and no romantic scenes, so if you are a 'Mills and Boons' fan..stay away ;) .

The movie has a few flaws too, not that it disturbed the flow, but kind of looked odd in such a well made movie. Ajay's friends involvement in the kidnapping did'nt look believable at all. Nevertheless the movie had many positives to still hold it high.

Overall A 40% script, 40% performance, 15% violence and 5% flaws is one step short of perfect and three steps ahead of very good. Needless to say me liked the movie, the only sad part was I could'nt understand all the dialogues. I would see it again if I get a version with subtitles.