Ghayal and Agneepath

Date: 16 Jul 2003 06:32:03 -0700
Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.local.indian
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I think these movies were released within nine months of each
other.Ghayal in 1990 and Agneepath in late 1989.Sunny D received the
Filmfare award and Amitabh the National award for their work ,although
over more deserving candidates like Pankaj Kapoor. You know its odd that I never liked Ghayal when I first saw.I
considered it a routine action movie with a usually objectionable
Sunny Deol.But when I saw it recently again on TV,I was convinced
otherwise.Direction by RK Santoshi is pretty taut and gripping.Sunny
Deol was actually pretty tolerable ,in some cases even good.Action
scenes particularly were well executed.Only a couple were
unbeleivable.Raj Babbar and Om Puri lend rock solid support are quite
beleivable as the desperate and the hardhead respectively.I never
liked Meenakshi S ,so I am glad she had a short role.Overall a decent
vigilante action movie which did well in a relatively high
crime,corruption prone nation like India.I will ignore the bad
music,especially the song copied from Lambada theme to convey a happy
family atmosphere!!! Agneepath (the title which is based on a stoic,honor drenched poem
by Harivansh Rai Bachchan and is invoked at the beginning and the end
of the movie)OTOH had the inverse effect on me.I loved it before now I
think it is average barely.It is said that this is based on a true
story of a vegetable vendor turned gangster,I forget his name..The
first forty minutes however are very good.Especially when we see young
Vijay Dinanath Chauhan(played by Manjunath of Malgudi Days fame)
learning the tricks of the trade just by passive observation and in
one great scene he scares off theives and hoods just by playing with a
knife without even making eye contact.In a more proactive sequence he
slices Bob Christos face open ,which elicits admiration from the Roman
Catholic hood played by Sharad Saxena and promptly gets him into the
gang despite the honcho Shetty's initial objections.If such sequences
remind of Mani Ratnams Nayakan,Im afraid I cant congratulate for your
perception as it is bloody obvious.Of course a tribute to MR would be
incomplete with having South Indian gangsters.Some unknown dude as
Anna Shetty and Mithun C as Krishnan Iyer Yem Yay camp it up big
time.In one sequence Krishnan reprimands Anna in Tamil.Never mind that
Shettys speak Tulu and not Tamil. Speaking of camp,Amitabh Bacchan is wonderfully overthetop as the
older VD Chauhan,who confesses to what we assume ,a very surprised
nurse(played by Madhavi) that despite whatever his initials may
suggest,he is a 36 year old virgin."Yahaan saala telephone ki ghanti
bahut bajta hai....Galat cheez banaya aadmi...yeh telephone...aadmi
sochta kuch hai,bolta kuch hai aur karta kuch aur....jaisa ki tum
log!" Mukul Anand,being from the ad world,shouldve have been given greater
creative control of the film ,cutting out redundant stuff like
songs(this movie really didnt need them) and making it under two hours
long.It couldve been a classic but probably still a camp classic as
the script is still faulty.
If you have also noticed traces of Scarface,Im afraid once more I cant
congratulate you on your perception.ABs mannerisms,his relationship
with this mother and sister all bear strong resemblances to those of
Al Pacino in Scarface.Of course the character in Agneepath is dumbed
down a great deal.While in the original character Tony Montana is a
satire of Reagan era excesses and alleged calousness ,not to mention a
searing indictment of Teddy Roosevelt era American adventurism in and
its subsequent relationship with Cuba(Tony is an illegitimate
offspring of an American father and a Cuban mother),Agneepath doesnt
seem to have much to offer in any political and social message,however
trivial.It has taken a true story,inspirations from two other
movies(in the case of Nayakan ,a nested inspiration since much of
Nayakan is inspired by the Godfather).I have tried to see if there
more to this movie than meets the eye,I think I managed to in the
recent Bhoot but it appears I overestimated Agneepath. I should mention that I grouped these two movies together because
they both quite casually lifted Hans Zimmer theme for Ridley Scotts
Black Rain(1989).Oh and Agneepath also pilfers Giorgio
Moroder's(Flashdance) theme for Scarface.Al though Black Rain is much
better,because,like most Moroder's stuff,Scarface ages very badly.
PS:- About five years ago,me or my alterego Selvan had a flame war
with a certain poster in which I praised Agneepath.Well
Topgandu/Tambidude whoever you may be, I guess you have the last
laugh.Enjoy it while it lasts old man!...Just kidding..