Star cast: Mishti, Kartik Tiwary, Rishabh Sinha, Rishi
Kapoor, Mithun Chakraborty, Chandan Roy Sanyal,
Mita Vashisht
Director: Subhash Ghai
A fiery young girl from the hills takes up cudgels on
behalf of her people and fights off the bad guys. This
is the burden of Subhash Ghai’s new film, and he tells
it in the same manner that made his films so
watchable in the ’80s, and so outdated in 2014.
Kaanchi (Mishti) is headstrong, but also foul-mouthed.
Which apparently endears her to her well-meaning,
well-built beau (Tiwary), as well as spoilt, rich brat
(Sinha). The latter belongs to a family headed up by a
wily politician (Mithun), and a playboy businessman
(Rishi). The battle lines are drawn between the good
villagers and the evil sheharis, who are in the hills to
grab land and increase their ill-gotten wealth.
to help us personalise your reading
experience.
When did you last hear of a plot like this? Creak,
groan. The innocent gaon-walas sing and dance, the
bad city dwellers lie about a pool and lust after bikini-
clad babes. Rishi Kapoor who starred in Ghai’s terrific
rebirth-revenge drama Karz in 1980 returns as the
sleazy businessman who is made to shout: “maaro
saaley ko”. He does himself no favours. Nor does
Mithun, who is made to twist his mouth and utter all
kinds of banalities. Wasted in this tripe are Adil
Hussain and Mita Vashisht.
New girl Mishti who plays Kaanchi is in the mould of
Ghai heroines: fair, buxom, long tendrils teasing the
face. But in his heyday, no Ghai heroine would have
been made to sully her mouth with the word “jhand”
so very frequently. Its borderline vulgarity has been
blunted by common usage but it still sounds offensive.
The girl is “jhalli”, and the boy is “jhand”: that word is
also used to describe Mishti by Chandan Roy Sanyal’s
“bika hua” cop, and you wonder what happened to the
kind of racy dialogue that was the hallmark of all good
Ghai films, full of the right mix of masala and
melodrama, right for their time.
This is Ghai mining his usual patriotic “this is my
India” self, leavened by the recent political
developments in the country. The second half moves
from the hills to Mumbai, into a youth organisation
which takes out morchas: in a corner I saw a board
stating, “India Against Corruption”. And a line which
says, “in the past 10 years, all politicians have made
money”, or words to that effect. Aha, so this is a Kejri-
via-Kaanchi fight against the bhrashtachari netas of
the current dispensation?
This may have had power 40 years back. Now it is just
tired, and jaded.
Kapoor, Mithun Chakraborty, Chandan Roy Sanyal,
Mita Vashisht
Director: Subhash Ghai
A fiery young girl from the hills takes up cudgels on
behalf of her people and fights off the bad guys. This
is the burden of Subhash Ghai’s new film, and he tells
it in the same manner that made his films so
watchable in the ’80s, and so outdated in 2014.
Kaanchi (Mishti) is headstrong, but also foul-mouthed.
Which apparently endears her to her well-meaning,
well-built beau (Tiwary), as well as spoilt, rich brat
(Sinha). The latter belongs to a family headed up by a
wily politician (Mithun), and a playboy businessman
(Rishi). The battle lines are drawn between the good
villagers and the evil sheharis, who are in the hills to
grab land and increase their ill-gotten wealth.
to help us personalise your reading
experience.
When did you last hear of a plot like this? Creak,
groan. The innocent gaon-walas sing and dance, the
bad city dwellers lie about a pool and lust after bikini-
clad babes. Rishi Kapoor who starred in Ghai’s terrific
rebirth-revenge drama Karz in 1980 returns as the
sleazy businessman who is made to shout: “maaro
saaley ko”. He does himself no favours. Nor does
Mithun, who is made to twist his mouth and utter all
kinds of banalities. Wasted in this tripe are Adil
Hussain and Mita Vashisht.
New girl Mishti who plays Kaanchi is in the mould of
Ghai heroines: fair, buxom, long tendrils teasing the
face. But in his heyday, no Ghai heroine would have
been made to sully her mouth with the word “jhand”
so very frequently. Its borderline vulgarity has been
blunted by common usage but it still sounds offensive.
The girl is “jhalli”, and the boy is “jhand”: that word is
also used to describe Mishti by Chandan Roy Sanyal’s
“bika hua” cop, and you wonder what happened to the
kind of racy dialogue that was the hallmark of all good
Ghai films, full of the right mix of masala and
melodrama, right for their time.
This is Ghai mining his usual patriotic “this is my
India” self, leavened by the recent political
developments in the country. The second half moves
from the hills to Mumbai, into a youth organisation
which takes out morchas: in a corner I saw a board
stating, “India Against Corruption”. And a line which
says, “in the past 10 years, all politicians have made
money”, or words to that effect. Aha, so this is a Kejri-
via-Kaanchi fight against the bhrashtachari netas of
the current dispensation?
This may have had power 40 years back. Now it is just
tired, and jaded.