Apaharan (2005)

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.

Director:

Prakash Jha

Writers:

Prakash Jha (dialogue), Prakash Jha (screenplay)

Stars:

Ajay Devgn, Nana Patekar, Bipasha Basu

5 wins & 6 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Ajay Devgn	...	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

Storyline

Ajay lives with his stern, honest, disciplinarian and Gandhian widowed father, Prof. (retd.) Raghuvansh Shastri. Ajay works as a salesman, but soon finds himself out of work. He applies for a position with the Police, but is turned down, even though he always makes it to the merit list. Finally he borrows 5 lakh rupees to bribe his way on the merit list, & soon his name is shown on the shortlist. Just before his selection, major differences crop up between Home Minister Dinkar Pandey and his dad, with the later threatening to expose the corruption within the State Ministry. Dinkar ensures that Ajay's name is dropped from the shortlist, and the money-lender sends his goons after him, giving him 3 days to come up with the money. A desperate Ajay decides to be part of the lucrative kidnapping scheme in Bihar, abducts a Government official and demands a ransom so that he can re-pay his loan. Unfortunately, this Government official was under the protection of underworld Don, Gaya Singh, ...

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Plot Keywords:

man slaps a man | kidnapping | bihar | corruption | prison | 

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Genres:

Action | Crime | Drama

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Did You Know?

Trivia

Nana Patekar got praised for his role and won accolades for his role as Tabrez Alam.

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Connections

Referenced in Journey Bombay to Goa: Laughter Unlimited (2007)

User Reviews

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.

Details

Official Sites:

Official site Watch apaharan on Disney+ Hotstar

Country:

India

Language:

Hindi

Release Date:

2 December 2005 (USA)

Also Known As:

Abduction

Filming Locations:

Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$25,168, 4 December 2005

Gross USA:

$44,133

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$44,133

Company Credits

Production Co:

Entertainment One India Ltd., Holy Cow Pictures, Prakash Jha Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

173 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color