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Shabd (2005)
Sizzling chemistry between Sanju and Ash
Few will be aware that before she became Miss World Aishwarya Rai had shot for a magazine cover with Sanjay Dutt - the topmost star in the early 1990s.
The chemistry was evident then. It is evident in Shabd, their only film as a lead pair.
It is without doubt Aishwarya's best performance till date. She gives the maturity her role needs and her pairing with Sanju is perfect.
Sanju puts in a bravura effort, displaying amazing control and restraint in a role that goes against his image. Here's an actor whom the Indian audience and critics are so busy slotting in gangster roles that they fail to appreciate the maturity he displays in different roles in films like Saajan, Sadak, Mission Kashmir, Shabd, Zinda and Shootout.
Zayed Khan is the only weak link among the cast. He lacks the maturity his character requires, and we all know his acting capabilities.
Vishal - Shekhar's music is a big plus.
Director Leena Yadav chooses a difficult subject for her debut film but where she and her producers went wrong is in pitching and promoting this movie.
Shabd was never a commercial movie. It should have been promoted in the international circuit and taken to film festivals round the globe.
The script of an award winning author suffering from writer's block now finds a deserved place in the Academy Awards library. It could have fetched a few awards had the makers been aware of its strengths and promoted it likewise.
Lamhaa: The Untold Story of Kashmir (2010)
One of Dutt's best, deserved better publicity and response
Honestly, this is one of Dutt's best works in terms of script, execution and performance.
Dutt not only looks great but also gives a measured performance.
Rahul Dholakia's direction is first rate, as is his research. But their is also a nehative side to this. The problem is, because the director did such extensive research, he tries to cover too many topics in one film. This could have been avoided to make the film more pertinent and compact.
Besides, there are casting issues. Bipasha Basu is completely miscast. Either Kangana Ranaut or Preity Zinta would have been more convincing as Aziza (the female protagonist).
Kunal Kapoor's weak voice undermines his effort. Anupam Kher, Murali Sharma, Vipin Sharma and Yashpal Sharma are good in their respective roles.
The music by Mithoon is first rate, as are the technical aspects like cinematography, sound and background score.
Unfortunately few people saw Lamhaa. For an audience that loves, and is fed, masala movies this was probably a tad too serious topic to see, let alone understand. The makers were guilty of not promoting the movie well, or taking it to the festival circuit at the least to grab more eyeballs.
It's poor box office performance and consequence lack of adulation notwithstanding, Lamhaa will always remain one of Sanjay Dutt's best films.
P. S. Like he has done throughout his career Salman copied Dutt's look in Lamhaa for Ek Tha Tiger.
Kartoos (1999)
Stylishly shot with a good looking cast
French film La Femme Nikita and its English remake, Point of No Return are the reference points for Mahesh Bhatt's Kartoos/Cartridge (1999).
The storyline is typical and predictable, and such was Bhatt's disinterest that producer Feroz Nadiadwala shot large parts of the film himself, with Ishq Vishk director Ken Ghosh directing the Teri Yaad number. The project took 30 months to make and the continuity jerks are evident.
That said, what works wonderfully well for the film is its start cast and the stylish manner in which it is shot.
Sanjay Dutt and Jackie Shroff both look great, come of with bravura performances and share amazing camaraderie, packing a punch. Bhatt is one of the few directors that has always succeeded in getting the best out of Dutt, and Kartoos is no exception. There are many emotional scenes where Dutt shines. Long before Aamir and Shah Rukh marketed their well-toned eight pack abs in one or two there was Dutt, who displayed his chiseled body and eight packs without showing off.
Jackie has underplayed his character well. Manisha is miscast as a Punjaban but she looks a million bucks, and that more than makes up in a male-centric movie.
Nusrat Saab's Ishq da Rutba and Bally Sagoo's O Rabba pack a punch as regards the music but the much hyped Teri Yaad is a disappointment - quite clueless what Ghosh wanted to show in the sing. The special effects in the song are tacky like in most Bollywood movies.
The action sequences are well shot and the locales of South Africa is a major plus.
Add to that the fact that the movie is not very long makes this stylish offering a good watch.
Hathyar: Face to Face with Reality (2002)
Hathyar's story is better than Vaastav but...
The biggest misfortune for Hathyar is it is the sequel of Vaastav.
The Indian audience isn't mature enough to see the two films separately. So Hathyar was compared to Vaastav - which is a cult fil of course.
As it is comparisons are anything but objective.
99 per cent of the people who have seen Hathyar found that Vaastav is better.
And that is the problem. Had Hathyar been construed as a standalone film it would have got more appreciation.
For starters, Hathyar has a better story than Vaastav.
Yes, the latter is a well-made film, with some remarkable scenes and dialogues but the basic storyline of a simple man taking to crime after an incident has been done to death in Indian cinema.
Hathyar's story is original. It's about how a father's legacy has a lasting impact on his son's prospects. It is about how the society cannot objectively view a talented individual and judges him by his father's name and profession. Just like the audience judged Hathyar in comparison to Vaastav.
Dutt has so many powerful scenes. The one in which he kills Sachin Khedekar in a fit of rage only to realize his mistake immediately after, the one where he confesses to Shilpa Shetty that he has stopped thinking about marriage and the pre-climax scene where he explains Shilpa that he is actually not the person that he has become over the years are examples of cinematic brilliance.
It's one of Dutt's best performance. Unfortunately for him his effort in Hathyar went completely unnoticed. Just like JP Dutta's Hathyar (1989), another brilliant film that the Indian audience failed to appreciate, and Dutt's performance was ignored. The Khans have been nominated for awards even for pathetic films. However, a handful of promising performances by Dutt have been conveniently and ruthlessly neglected by critics and the award jury alike.
This is without doubt Shilpa's best. Gulshan Grover is very good as is Sharad Kapoor and Khedekar. Vineet Kumar Singh (Mukkabaaz) makes an appearance as Dutt's sidekick.
Yes, there are many loopholes but even the best of films have glaring loopholes that is conveniently ignored.
All said, Hathyar suffered because it was Vaastav's sequel. Had it been a standalone film it would probably have got the attention it deserved.
Besides, before the film released a satellite channel advertise that it will be showing it soon. The Indian audience preferred saving their money so that they could spent it on some commercial potboiler Bollywood regularly churns out.
Watch it without preconceived notions, and you will enjoy Hathyar.
Yalgaar (1992)
Dutt's bravura performance covers up for Feroz Khan's casting blunders...well almost
First things first. Sanjay Dutt's role in Yalgaar is one of the best written roles in Hindi cinema. Amazon's web series Mirzapur's Munna Bhaiya takes inspiration from Dutt's Vishal.
Dutt does most of the heavy-lifting and puts in a bravura performance as the errant son, who in his many desperate attempts to impress a stubborn father unwittingly commits one error after another, eventually sacrificing his life in order to get his dad's approval, and save his life. Not to forget his ever present charisma, screen presence and swag. Yalgaar is without an iota of a doubt one of Dutt's best efforts. That Dutt wasn't even nominated yet again proves award functions in India are about anything but performance.
Unfortunately Feroz Khan killed a promising script with some pathetic casting decisions.
First he plays a much younger character, one in his early 30s. Mukesh Khanna, almost 20 years younger, played his father. There's even a dialogue that mentions Dutt and Khan being of the same age.
Second Feroz Khan casts some unknown chap opposite Manisha. Third, he makes Kabir Bedi prefer that unknown over Dutt. It was too preposterous an idea for the audience to digest. Aamir, SRK etc wouldn't have played second fiddle but imagine a Saif, Salman or even Aditya Pancholi in that younger brother's role. It was fireworks guaranteed.
If Feroz wanted a chap with a weak voice he could have gone for son Fardeen, who was around 20 then. Then again, when a director is hell-bent on pressing the self-destruct button - his next directorial was a classic named Prem Aggan - how can he see sense. Later on, Feroz couldn't even remember the chap's name.
Had the casting been right this movie would have been a super-hit. It was a cracker of a story and very stylishly shot. Even the music was good, especially the power-packed ditty by Udit Narayan - Aakhir tumhe aana hai...
Dutt was at the peak of his career then with monster hits like Thanedaar, Saajan and Sadak. Even some of his poor films of that time like Ilaaka, Fateh, Adharm, Khatarnaak and Tejaa had made money. However, Yalgaar was a major disappointment during the actor's prime. Not to forget the 'other' damages that it did to his personal life and career. All thanks to an obstinate actor/director who refused to either age well or understand the basic mistakes he was making.
Kshatriya (1993)
A pathetic film in every aspect
Sample this.
Meenakshi Seshadri plays a motherly character to Raveena Tandon, and is kinda mother-in-law to Sunny Deol's character - her lead in at least five films.
When Meenakshi's character dies while saving Sunny's character the latter has a wooden and expressionless face, zero emotion and leaves the scene with immediate effect. Absolutely no reaction to a person's death, let alone one who dies saving his life.
The scene sums up everything that is wrong with Kshatriya. It is wooden, expressionless, sans emotion and totally pointless.
If assembling a constellation of stars tantamounts to making a movie then JP Dutta has done a good job.
However, if film making is about a good story, etching out each character perfectly and extracting good performances then Kshatriya is JP Dutta's weakest film in his prime. Mind you he has directed quite a few forgettable films in his twilight years, the turn of the millennium that is.
Irrespective of its box office fate Kshatriya was a poor film in every aspect.
Dutta had given Sanjay Dutt a good role in Hathyar (1989), a well-intentioned, well-executed and critically acclaimed movie that failed at the box office.
However, in Kshatriya Dutta cast Dutt just to bolster the film's star appeal. Dutt was the No.1 star of the time, with major hits like Thanedaar, Saajan and Sadak. Even some of his weaker films like Ilaaka, Fateh, Tejaa, Khatarnaak and Adharm had made money. Dutta exploited this star status to the hilt, while playing the favorite's card and giving the plum role to Sunny. Nothing wrong with playing favorites but a director has to write it in a manner to suit his fav hero. When it comes acting to Sunny he is a limited performer, only convincing with one emotion - anger.
Give him comedy, dance, drama or romance and his limitations as an actor is clearly visible. Add to that his fake, perennially constipated and extremely irritating smile, and it becomes intolerable cruelty. Being uncomfortable while dancing or romancing can be attributed to shyness but how does one explain a person who doesn't have an honest smile? If one is not comfortable in front of camera he may as well choose a different profession.
Kshatriya seems more like a nautanki with bhaands than a movie with actors. Not one actor is convincing. And there are at least 25 of them.
The fact that Dutt looks disinterested during the bulk parts of the movie owes to two factors,
1. He was clearly not happy with his role
2. The fact that he found it difficult to accept that someone had yet again taken advantage of his lack of seriousness about his own career, a fact that is explained in his biopic Sanju (2018). That Dutt signed every second film offered to him hindered the growth of his career at every stage. It is only while working in the movie that Dutt would realize he is not enjoying working in the film, and it is too late to get out.
A decade later Dutta would exploit Dutt again in LoC: Kargil, giving better roles to Ajay Devgn, Abhishek Bachchan, Akshaye Khanna and even Saif Ali Khan, even as Dutt remained a space filler.
In fact the director had planned to cast Dutt in Jackie Shroff's role in Border (1997). How good or lengthy that role was, anyone who has seen the film knows.
Zamane Se Kya Darna (1994)
Watch it for the lead pair
In terms of story Zamane Se Kya Darna (ZSKD) is a rehash of Reena Roy's Sanam Teri Kasam, that released 12 years earlier.
While Anand Milind's music is not of the same level as RD Burman's track in Sanam...most of the songs are still hummable, Aankhon Se Hum Baatein and Maine Tujhe in particular.
The paralysis of ideation and thought in Bollywood is blatantly visible when you see Guddi Maruti playing Raveena's friend, the actress having played the Reena's friend in Sanam Teri Kasam a dozen years earlier.
That said, what works for ZSKD is the lead pair.
Sanjay Dutt and Raveena Tandon make for a classy, extremely good looking and perfectly well-matched couple - a rarity in Bollywood films. This is one pair that deserved more films than they eventually appeared in.
It is their crackling chemistry that makes ZSKD an interesting watch.
Dutt was the No.1 star at the time this film released, in fact at the peak of his career, and his star power ensured this film made good money. Though not a huge hit it made a lot more than the amount invested in making it, and was not a flop as many are quick to label a film that is not a big hit.
Aatish: Feel the Fire (1994)
Successful effort...could have been a blockbuster though
Aatish was way ahead of its time, in terms of execution.
In terms of story line it may have been a rehash of John Woo's A Better Tomorrow but technically it is one of the best to come out of Bollywood, and definitely one of the most stylish. It introduced quite a few things in terms of the technical aspect.
Sanjay Dutt, Raveena Tandon and Aditya Pancholi are perfectly cast.
Truth be told it is a fairly successful movie but could have done better at the box office had it got the cast right.
Atul Agnihotri and Karisma Kapoor are completely miscast. So is Shakti Kapoor. Debutant director Sanjay Gupta in his effort to give equal screen space to all goofed up big time. The 'Ya Dilruba' number is a perfect example of this goof up. The perfect chemistry between Dutt and Tandon is lost amidst close-ups of Agnihotri and Kapoor.
Agnihotri didn't have the personality to stand up against Dutt. Mind you, the film is a face-off between the two. Had the former been consigned to a bit part, like Mehul Kumar cleverly did in Krantiveer - allowing the formidable Nana Patekar to take centrestage - it would have been okay. Alas it wasn't the case. In what was meant to be a serious role Agnihotri looked (and acted) comical.
Besides, when you are making a big budget, stylish film, your antagonist has to have style. While Gupta got it right giving supporting parts to Ajit saab - an epitome of style and class - and even Gulshan Grover, he got it wrong with the main villain.
Shakti Kapoor doesn't belong to this ecosystem, lacks class and comes across as cheap and petty. You can put him in an earthy, rustic film (Tohfa, Raja Babu, Gunda etc) but not one that is classy and elitist.
The movie also got it wrong as regards the selection of songs. While the album has eight songs in total, the three most hummable, 'Baarish Ne', 'Bolo Kahaan Gaye The', and the power-packed ditty 'Hasratein Hain Bahut Magar' don't find a place in the movie.
Instead the director was happy with average numbers like 'Aa aa meri Janiya' and 'Kaash Tum'.
With three of the six principal characters seemingly out of place, you have lost half the battle. And the best songs, that could have helped control the damage, were also absent. This is what happened with Aatish. What could have been among the year's top three hits was relegated to outside the top 10.
Still, it remains one of Dutt's best (albeit underrated) works, and most certainly Pancholi's best.
Hero (1983)
Simple and Sweet
Subhash Ghai's Hero is a perfect example of a simple yet sweet film, something that is difficult to comprehend in this era of artificial films. A typical story of love winning against all the odds, the movie strikes a chord mainly because of good direction and a super musical score -- "Ding Dong" and "Tu mera janoo hai" are just two of the melodious numbers that still remain hummable even after all these years. There's a certain degree of simplicity in this movie that makes watching it a memorable experience. Performance wise it is Sanjeev Kumar -- in an interesting comic role -- and Meenakshi Seshadri -- her innocent face and somewhat gullible, somewhat strong character remains in the mind long after the movies is over -- who deserve all the praise. Jackie Shroff, in the title role is good but watching the movie one cannot help but think that Mr Ghai should have stuck to his first choice for the lead -- Sanjay Dutt. Sanju was the best man for this role and, moreover, after all these years he still is a successful "HERO" unlike Jackie. All in all a simple, sweet musical love story and one of Subhash Ghai's best works.
Mera Haque (1986)
An Entertaining Movie
One of Sanjay Dutt's earlier movies that is quite entertaining. It released somewhere in between "Naam" and "Inaam Dus Hazaar" and is nowhere close to the above mentioned movies. Yet it is good fun and makes for interesting viewing. It has a decent storyline and good performances by all the principal actors. Anu Malik's music is passable, save for the Kishore Kumar -- Anuradha Paudwal duet "Kaala Kauwa Dekhta hai." Action sequences are quite good but the production values are pretty ordinary. Can't blame it on the makers though. The movie was made in the 1980s where few makers dared to spend money. It was a plus movie though and was later remade as "Chhupa Rustam" -- a Sanjay Kapoor-starrer.
Damini (1993)
Meenakshi is simply too good
First things first, a great movie. Not because it boasts of an original story -- in fact the story is quite predictable -- but because of the characterisations, the performances and the dialogues. The movie is essentially about the trials and tribulations of Damini Gupta (Meenakshi Seshadri), a witness to an incident of rape involving her own in-laws, and how she fights for justice and emerges victorious against all the odds. Damini is special because of an out-of-the-world performance by Meenakshi. As a naive but honest woman, who is pushed too far, she makes a remarkable impact. Sunny Deol, in a crowd pleasing role he also pitches in with a good performance) and some powerful dialogues, may have walked away with all the credit but this movie is a Meenakshi vehicle and there are no two ways about it. She deserved more credit for the same. It is difficult to digest that Juhi Chawla won the best actress award that year for her role (???) in "Hum Hain Rahi Pyaar Ke," while Meenakshi's performance went unnoticed. But deserving people rarely get awarded in Bollywood. Anyways, three cheers to your performance Meenakshi.
Satyamev Jayate (1987)
A good crime thriller
Raj Sippy was known as a good commercial director in his heydays. Movies like Inkaar, Satte Pe Satta, Andar Baahar, Loha, Thanedaar and Satyamev Jayate were not only well made but also had repeat value.
This movie, made in 1987, was a simple story of the life of a honest police officer, his fight against the system, against his own past and against a failed love life.
Vinod Khanna, in the lead role, gets to portray a gamut of emotions and this is easily one of his better movies. However, he is somewhat miscast. While watching the film I felt the lead character should have been younger, maybe a Sanjay Dutt or a Sunny Deol. In fact Dutt used to work frequently with Sippy and the role would have suited him, rather he would have suited the role more. And if Sippy wanted Mr Khanna he could have opted for an older heroine considering the relationship between the two leads is intimate. Mr Khanna looks like Meenakshi's father when he is supposed to be opposite her. The age difference between the hero and the heroine has perennially been a major issue in Indian cinema as a whole.
Tthe best performance in the movie certainly comes from Meenakshi Seshadri. She has the role of a harassed woman, who's treated rather contemptuously by everyone including the lead actor, and her character evokes sympathy among the viewer. Meenakshi has only a few scenes in the movie but almost all of them are powerful (and emotional) and she has acted very well in them.
Shakti Kapoor is good as the villain while Vinod Mehra is commendable in a supporting role.
Overall an entertaining movie, especially considering the fact that it was made in the 1980s.
Inaam Dus Hazaar (1987)
A Great Movie
In terms of sheer entertainment value, Jyotin Goel's Inaam Dus Hazaar (1987) is a perfect 10. It's probably the most entertaining Hindi film ever made, containing a bit of everything --- thrills, comedy, romance, drama and suspense. No doubt the movie is inspired by Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest but then what matters is the fact that it is a cleverly made film, and it did good business when it's released. The plot is about mistaken identity wherein the villains (led by Amrish Puri) assume the hero (Sanjay Dutt) to be a undercover police officer and the events that follow. There are many scenes in the movie which are unforgettable and the dialogues are also first rate. The highlight of the movie is the sizzling chemistry between Dutt and the leading lady (Meenakshi Sheshadri). They made a great pair for sure. Not to forget a memorable musical score by the legendary RD Burman (one of his scores that never got its due). Both Sanjay Dutt and Meenakshi Seshadri are highly underrated and unfortunately, the only movie they starred together, is also very underrated, even though it was a box office winner. Nonetheless this movie is a must watch for its sheer entertainment value. Trust me, it is a great cinematic experience. I first watched it in 1994 and it has stayed with me since. I've lost count of the number of times I've watched it thereafter. Guess it is one of those movies which you can watch repeated and enjoy again and again. Perhaps, like vintage stuff that gets better with age.