Agneepath

Made in 1990, this movie won a few awards. I was in school, and had somehow got affected by that piece of information and by the few rare trailers of the movie which showed an intense expressioned Amitabh Bacchan with his eyes dabbed with soorma and that induced huskiness of his voice. On top of that, I had a friend of mine, a great researcher and a notable intellect, also an avid fan of Amitabh, always introduce himself as Dashrath Dinanath Chauhan -- that's the name of the character Amitabh plays in the movie. Among many many little wishes that I had become deft in suppressing thanks to my middle class small town upbringing of the 80s and early 90s, the wish to watch Agnipath was also one.

Recently, I was surfing through the CD collection in a shop, and I spotted Agnipath VCD available for a mere Rs. 69/-. Rs. 4 discount for a Tata Institute student. The suppressed wish flared up.

I bought the VCD and watched it at home. I didn't quite like it. It exuded the technological backwardness that one could expect from any movie of the pre-liberalisation era. That is OK, especially because I know plenty of movies of earlier ages which are eminently entertaining, musical, meaninful and artistic. However, it was that artistic bankruptcy of the 80s which pervaded all movies made in india, particularly Bollywood, which was also a prominent characteristic of this movie.

That was the age when the worst in everything ruled. The leading actors were Mithun, Govinda, Jackie, and an aging but unyielding Dharmendra. They are good actors in their own right, but they starred in awful movies. Leading heroines -- Neelam, Madhavi, and some such non-descript faces. Then the leading singers were Shabbir Kumar, Mohammad Aziz, Udit Narayan and Amit Kumar. Leading music directors were Bappi Lahiri and Laxmikant Pyarelal. Leading movies -- Disco Dancer, Jalwa, Loha, Paap ko Jalaakar Raakh Kar Doonga...

In short, it was one of the ebb times for Hindi films. That was the time when Agnipath came and won its accolades. It might have been better than the other movies, but turned out to be no good.

The story is a typical revenge story:
Hero's father, who's a clean man, gets disgraced and killed in the hands of bad guys. Hero, a growing child then, gives away nice ways and takes to being a rowdy vowing revenge. That's also meant to protect his mom and sister who all bad men are out to get their hands on. And of course, the main reason is to reach the main bad guy. Which the hero eventually does, after making a lot of cutting and killing. The villain gets killed. The hero -- in the spirit of 'main ab bahut aage nikal chuka hun; ab mera wapas lautna mumkin nahi' -- dies too. That's it. Paisa wasool because the audience gets his share of blood and gore in the name of fighting for a cause. What more do you want!

There were some things which were particularly disgusting about the movie:
- Agnipath, Harivansh Rai Bacchan's poem with whose recital the movie starts. Well. I didn't like the poem first of all. Including it in a movie which would show a load of violence and nothing else, disgraced it further.
- Tinu Anand spewing swear words at everyone. It might have been aimed at adding intensity to the scenes. I felt, it was only making the film more vulgar.
- Mithun's acquired south Indian accent was no good.
- What purpose did Amitabh's putting soorma in his eyes serve? How did his voice suddenly turn husky?
- The high pitched crooning of Shakti Kapoor in that disgusting item song at the bad guy's place was ugly! The music of the movie was anyway no good.
- In the scene where Amitabh and his wife are arguing over aborting their child, the wife had a gaudy make up on. While she was trying to emote up a very intense sadness, my eyes were counting her eyelashes which were so carefully done. What the hell was the relation between this makeup and the kind of scene?
- Archana Puran Singh -- why did they have to have a story attached to her betrayal of Danny (that she was the daughter of the village slut who was involved in framing the hero's father). Wasn't the movie already cracked enough that they went out so far to close this little hairline? She played a slut-girl in the movie. And who cares if such a girl changes her loyalty? I don't think that explanation did any good.

Well! Don't watch the movie. It's not worth Rs. 69 - 4.