Dacait(1987)- Sunny Paaji in Chambal
/* Spoilers In Post
The camera pans over the desolate landscape, littered with ravines, valleys, criscrossing streams. Forbidding, haunting, the dreaded Chambal Valley, India’s own Wild West frontier, a name that spelt terror during the 70’s. A place synonymous, with backwardness, opression, dacoits, poverty. Immortalized in movies like Mujhe Jeene Do, Chambal Ki Kasam, Ganga Ki Saugand, Mera Gaon Mera Desh, and countless other daku genre movies of that time. As Amitabh Bachan’s deep baritone voice, narrates the Chambal legend, the camera takes a trip over the valley, exploring every nook and corner of it. The valleys , the ravines, seem empty, but still a sense of fear lurks around the corner. Amitabh narrates about how dacoits are not born, but created by the circumstances around them, and just as he ends it with “ aur Jeevan ki Pahiya chalti rahegi”, the camera cuts to the wheel of a bullock cart, on which our city educated hero Arjun Yadav( Sunny Deol) is returning to his village.
That in effect sets up the mood for Dacait, one of the best movies, made in the dacoit genre, and clearly one of the more superior flicks, that dotted the 80’s. The story deals with the city educated Arjun Yadav, returning to his village, his family, consisting of his mother Devi Chaudhrain ( Rakhee), his farmer brother Amritlal Yadav( Suresh Oberoi), his teen sister Shanta( a certain Ms. Matondkar), and Bhabi. In effect a happy family, bonding well, sharing affectionate vibes. However the local Thakur Bhanwar Singh( Raza Murad) runs a reign of terror, grabbing the farmers lands, taking advantage of their ignorance. He is aided and abetted by his brother Badri( Dan Dhanoa), the money lender Tola Ram( Harish Patel) and the corrupt thanedaar, Bishnu Pandey( Paresh Rawal). Bishnu in particular is a scumbag of the worst kind, killing innocent villagers and claiming them as dacoits, selling arms to the dacoits, and doing the Jee Huzoori to Thakur.
Devi, and her son Amrit, are a thorn in the side of Thakur, for their refusal to accept his oppression, and standing up to him often. Arjun, however is a pacifist, who believes in a peaceful resolution of issues, and tries to convince Thakur. During one such ocassion, when the Thakur is confronted by Devi, Amrit and Arjun about his misdeeds, he promises to change, and return the land back to the villagers. However its only a mere ploy to lull the villagers into a false sense of security, and during one of the nights, when the villagers are celebrating, the Thakur and his men attack.
In what must be one of the most hard hitting and terrifying scene, Arjun and Amrit, are tied up, his Bhabi and nephew are gunned down. But the real horror is yet to come, Thakur and his men, capture Devi
Thakur: Chaudhrain, bees saal pehle humne tujhe vidhwa bana diya, aaj hum tujhe vidhwa ki shakal be denge.
And as the villagers, Arjun, and his brother looks on horrified, her hair is cut off , and she is further humiliated by asking to dance in front of the village. The protests from Arjun and Amrit are met with the force of the lathi’s hitting them harder. After the humiliation of Devi, Thakur again grabs her daughter Shantha, and tells to one of his henchmen
Bahut tak gaye ho tum, chalo is ke saath aaram karo
Shantha breaks free of their clutches, and to save her honor, jumps into the well committing suicide. The entire chain of events drives Shanta insane. Dacait surely had some excellent scenes, but for me this would be one of the best in the movie. It was the turning point in the movie, and also is the cataylst for transforming the hitherto peaceful Arjun into a violent Dacait.
As the story of Dacait goes its more or less predictable, wronged hero, turns into a dacoit, to avenge the oppression, takes revenge, and either meets his end, or goes to prison. More or less, like any other dacoit movie made during that time. And it has all the stock characters one has in a movie of this genre, the greedy moneylender, the oppresive Thakur, the child hood sweetheart Javli( Meenakshi Seshadri), the happy family torn apart, the honest cop S.P.Srivastava( Shafi Inamdar) sent to catch the hero, the village elder Bighu Chacha( A.K.Hangal) , the hero’s good friend Ahmed. But where Dacait scores above other movies in this genre, is it’s treatment and realism.
Take the portrayal of the dacoits themselves. The standard Tilak sporting, dhoti wearing, turbaned dacoit, in a den, with the Maa Durga idol gives way to a more realistic depiction. Dressed in army fatigues, the cartridges drapped across them, stubbled, young, most of the dacoits look like actual dacoits, the ones you had read about. Even their hide out is not some kind of den, with torches, but an open space, hidden by the hills around, and they are depicted more as nomads, escaping the cops. A far cry from the caricatures we generally see on the screen. Also in the way the director, Rahul Rawail, sets up the boundary between the villagers and the dacoits, for a greater amount of time, we don’t really see them, but its something we can feel.
On one side of the river, is the village, filled with people, mostly farmers, leading a simple life, the ravines lying on the other side, a place where none really ventures, for those who do rarely come back. There are however villagers like Bhighu Chacha, who know those hideouts, and who can contact the dacoits. Most of them ordinary youth from the villages around, driven to take the gun, due to the oppression unleashed by the likes of Thakur. As we see it in the first time Arjun goes into the dreaded territory. One of his childhood friends, has now turned into a dacoit. This is again another brilliant scene. When the two friends meet after a long time, there is no running into each other’s arms, bear hugs, flowery dialogue, Arjun looks at his friend, smiles, casually asks “kaise ho”, just as one would on meeting a friend after a long time. The dialog that follows is equally effective, as Arjun tells his friend that having seen him with an oar in his hand( his friend being a boatman), the gun does not look as good. And that’s when his friend reveals, how he was harassed by the Thakur, and his stooges, and his only means of livelihood, his boat snatched away from him, very well shot.
Couple of more scenes that really are haunting. Sunny meeting Rakhee, at the funeral pyre, of her family, he taps her shoulder , calling out “Maa”, she turns back, a look of terror on her face, and then goes into a frenzy, shouting “Naacho Re naacho”, haunting. And the scene where Rakhee again regains memory is equally well shot, she is sitting lost, holding a doll, a knife sharpener outside, begins to sharpen some knives, the sounds of the wheel, the sparks from the knife, everything bringing back her memories of the terrible night she had to endure. This surely would be one of Rakhee’s best performances ever. Her transition from a loving mother to a woman traumatized by the events and has gone insane is brilliant. Watch it in the scene, when the Thakur asks her to tell her the whereabouts of her son, nothing spoken much, just a mixture of disgust, rage, fury as she spits back.
Apart from the dramatic moments, Dacait, has some of the best action sequences ever seen, in Indian cinema. Even now they still are as effective, and don’t look dated. One really brilliant scene, involves Sunny escaping from the cops, through a camel herd. The set up is excellent here, Shafi Inamdar, frustrated at lack of progress in nabbing the dacoits, and berates his men, asks for water. As he picks up the bottle, he gets an idea, we really don’t know what it is. Camera just pans in on him, and cuts to a shot of the blazing sun, with Sunny and his men shown walking in the harsh terrain. And then the plan is revealed, at all the numerous lakes and streams, from where the dacoits, generally take their water, cops have been stationed. Its a lose lose situation, without water they sure are going to die of thirst in the Chambal, and if they go for water, they face the risk of facing the police bullets. That’s when Sunny, spots a camel herd, asking his men to take guard, he manages to sneak through the herd, and get the water, dodging the bullets. Nerve wracking, tense, edge of the seat, exactly the kind of scene, that would please the hearts of any action lover.
In fact most of the action scenes, would do any Hollywood movie proud. Be it Sunny rescuing Meenakshi , or the gun battle between the cops and the dacoits at the thana, or the scenes of the cops combing the Chambal for the dacoits, all of them are brilliantly picturized, and look realistic. Rajan Kothari’s camera work, captures the harsh, desolate feel of the Chambal landscape in a brilliant manner, you can actually feel the atmosphere, the fear, the valleys every moment. Unfortunately can’t really say the same about R.D.Burman’s score. While the BGM is good in places, the songs are mediocre, none of them really stay with you. Most of the other technical values are good, especially the way a typical village in the Chambal area is recreated, right down to the police thana.
Sunny, Rahul Rawail and Javed Akhtar had earlier come together for Arjun, a hard hitting expose of political corruption and the relationship between political leaders, gangsters, criminals, again one of the best movies of the 80’s. The grim, serious drama was in sharp contrast to Sunny’s debut movie Betaab, a standard rich girl, poor guy love story, which had some excellent songs. Javed Akhtar came up with some really hard hitting dialogues for both Arjun, and also Dacait. For me however the best dialogue comes right in the end, when Shafi Inamdar is standing, looking at Sunny who has been shot, A.K. Hangal walks up to him and says
Badhai ho, Inspector Saab, ab sarkaar aap ko medal dengi, inaam dengi, taraki hogi ki aap ne ek khatarnak dacait ko maar diya, par yaad rakhna, jab tak zulm hai, tab tak dacait paida hi rahegi.
Just makes me wonder whatever happened to the art of dialogue writing. Earlier Hindi movies were not masterpieces but they had some fabulous dialogue, they had that bite, that zing, you loved them, loved to quote them. In sharp contrast, most of the dialogues i get to hear today, are so wannabe, so banal, that makes me want to go and bang my head.
Dacait also has some fabulous performances. Raza Murad, with his deep baritone voice, is suitably menacing as the Thakur. Shafi Inamdar, normally seen in comic roles, does well in the role of the honest cop, sent to nab Arjun. Paresh Rawal for me though would be the scene stealer, in one of his earlier roles, playing the scumbag cop, with elan, effortlessly slipping into the role, making you detest him, so much that you celebrate when he meets his end. Meenakshi in a role sans glamour, is decent. This is one of Sunny’s best performances, should be ranked right up there with Arjun, Ghayal, Damini, Ghatak. Combining rugged machismo, vulnerability and an emotional core, Sunny effortlessly switches from a peace loving youth to a violent revenge seeking killing machine. This is in fact a very different Sunny we see here, not much dialogue, conveying more through his expressions. In the scene, where he shots down, Harish Patel, does not speak much, just catches him, drags him down, the stairs, ties him up , and shoots him. Not much dialog here, but you feel the anger in him. Even in the climax scene, when the inspector asks him to surrender, does not speak much, just looks at him, and then begins to shoot the Thakur, again you feel all the rage from him being released. It’s sad that Sunny post Gadar has been trapped in an image, where he has to scream and bellow to make a point. Movies like Dacait, Ghayal show the actor, who conveys a lot without really shouting about it.
It just beats me though why the movie flopped, it was entertaining, had all the necessary elements( drama, romance, songs, emotion) in the right doses, some excellent performances, and was much better than the average Hindi movie that time. I guess maybe the tragic ending did not go down too well with the audiences. Had Dacait been a success, i am sure it would have made at least some of the movie makers to come up with better quality products. Sadly it’s failure gave an excuse for movie makers, to come up with even more shoddier movies. After Dacait, Rahul Rawail’s career itself went down hill, Samundar was a decent watch, but the rest of the movies, were rubbish. Or maybe the fact that Betaab, Arjun and Dacait were scripted by Javed Akhtar made a difference, after all there is only so much a director can do with a pathetic script.
Tags: 80's Bollywood Movies, Dacoit Movies, Meenakshi Seshadri, r d burman, rahul rawail, Rakhee, sunny deol
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Sunny Deol has acted in 2 of the best Dacoit movies,This one and Yateem which is another brilliant movie. But to be frank,Paresh Rawal was the scene-stealer of the movie. That performance of his was pure class….In fact even today in Interviews,He says that he values this role way over any other role,Even Hera Pheri…..Even Shabana Azmi once said in an interview that Paresh Rawal’s role was the 2nd most perfect role she’s ever seen,the most perfect being Balraj Sahni in Garam Hawa.
And for me,3 scenes stand out in the movie,The whole family massacre and the look of terror on Rakhee’s face, The scene where Shafi Inamdar gets the water idea and the climax where Arjun is walking towards the Thakur’s mansion with the torch in his hand with that look on his face….Brilliant stuff!
Vikram, liked Yateem too, J.P.Dutta was one of the better directors of the 80’s, very few directors have been able to capture the harsh desert terrain as well as he does. The climax in Yateem was superb, where Sunny shots Danny, and leaves him to die a miserable death in the desert.
Paresh’s performance in Dacait, was class. I remember that time, every one who had watched this movie were bowled over by it, and discussing his performance.
Hey Ratnakar, you have refreshed this movie in my mind so well. Cant recollect the number of times i have watched it; as was the time of VCR’s and the only one which VHS that i owned….It was shown to anybody coming to our home and my repeat view for this film was countless…Later it was taken over by Mukul Anand’s Insaaf but have to admit Dacait is a masterpiece on its own…Cant believe Rahul Rawail making a Mast Kalandar or Budhha Mar Gaya if he directed this.
@ Ajay, i guess Javed Akhtar made a difference, he was the common factor for Betaab, Arjun and Dacait. Dunno why they split up later. Also after failure of Dacait, i think Rahul Rawail wanted to go fully commercial, however he was not successful there also. Samundar was actually quite slick, and well shot, not great but decent, movie however was a flop.
Mast Qalandar, Yodha, Jeevan Ek Sungursh each more terrible than the other.
To add a few more…Bekhudi, Anjaam, Aur Pyaar Ho Gaya, Kuch Khatti Kuch Meethi, Jo Bole So Nihaal….i think he should rest in peace now…But desperately seeking to see Sunny in same major form…Cant mention anything to look forward in future prospects too….
I believe Sunny and Raj Kumar Santoshi are about to team up again.Hope it turns ouyt, Anil Sharma/Guddu Dhanoa have done to Sunny, what TLV Prasad/Rajiv Babbar did to Mithun.
But i think he got an average earner with Arjun Pandit..and per reports it was a remake from some Kannada film.
Remake of Upendra’s Om. It did decent business.
Hope so they really work..As in 80’s when Paap Ki Duniya put him back to reckoning..90’s Ghayal & 2000 Gadar..He is one actor who deserves strong roles & character…
Yes Ajay, really tired of the Bacche Log on Screen, missing the Asli Mard.
Yes he is sorely missed in such roles now… His Comic acts are too monotonous now with occasional flash of brilliance like Mumbai Meri Jaan…He had that quality to annoy a viewer in such roles for pathetic films too, a case in point being Sunil Shetty starrer Anth.
MMJ showed what Paresh could do, away from the Priyadarshan stuff.
Apart from Dacait, another memorable role during that time was in Naam for Paresh, especially his hyena like laugh. But more than his baddie roles, his performance in Sardar was a revelation, after some time it was like watching Sardar Patel on screen, what a performance. In Satya too, he is on the screen for a brief time, but still manages to grab your attention, especially in the scene, where he handles the press conference about encounter killings.
And for Rakhee..After Shakti…I think this movie started it all Ram lakhan..Karan Arjun..Khalnayak…Subhash Ghai, JP Dutta, Rahul Rawail must be seriously cursing new age cinema and multiplex revolution…
Rakhee again got stuck in a rut, as often happens, every one wanted her to do the same old revenge seeking Momma act.
Hmm Rahul Rawail, i think he went bust in the 90’s itself.
Subash Ghai is trying to please both the multiplex crowd, as well as the single screen audiences, and ending up somewhere in No Man’s Land( Taal, Yaadein, Yuvraaj).
The Alligator scene in Yaadein will remain one of the most historic moments in Indian Cinema…For the unintentional guffaws..
Regards JP Dutta, LOC-Kargil did him in, the intent was good, but problem was putting a backstory and song, for every character. It worked in Border, because you had just 3 main characters there-Sunny, Sunil Shetty and Akshaye Khanna. But doing the same for around 14 odd characters was insane, it just bloated up the movie, and also the battle scenes in LOC, its like every scene was replica of previous one.
LOC…Oh my God…i recall a fantastic joke said by somebody..i think Sajid Khan..That audience who entered the movie clean shaven came out with a full blown beard…
LOC… man… every man had to mouth 3-4 lines of a song, correspondingly his heroine has to sing, every man had to have a back story, every man had to be shown dreaming about his home once and every corresponding actress still waiting with no sleep … and then to top it up, every man when at the death bed had to again go thru memory flashes, and the heroines had to appear again, before the hero has his share of ‘bharat mata ki jai’ … LOC had gone wrong from the first frame of the movie… the intent might ve been good, but the movie had everything else apart from the Kargil war… i cant remember the war at all … interestingly i think JPD thought audience is more or less bothered or evoked by the chracater’s personal lives more than other factors (wch is also true) but then for an audience to be interested in the personal life of a character, you need to create the chracter as well build him and then go ahead…
Yateem was awesome..I think Oz had done a write up on it….The best scene in the movie is the shootout at the entrance of the mosque :D..
But JP’s best was Ghulami…Amazing performances and like you said,the way the desert was captured. Even Batwara and Kshatriya weren’t bad.
Actually liked Border also.
One movie of JP, i really liked was Hathyar, set against backdrop of Mumbai’s underworld, story of an innocent young person, who gets sucked into it. Had some fabulous performances from Sanjay Dutt, Dharmendra, Rishi Kapoor, surely one of the better movies, however came at a time, when trashy flicks were dominating, and so went unnoticed.
Umrao Jaan was bad though, Aish was nowhere close to Rekha, and AB Jr was a complete misfit in that role.
aur Sir Refugee?
I thought there was too immature acting in it.
Watched Refugee in bits n pieces, and found it boring enuf. Aby Baby was wooden, and nothing great on Kareena Kapoor.
There were talks that JP was to direct movie with Dilip sabah and Abhishek …?
It had an excellent piece of BGM too…Though i am sure it was inspired by a western soundtrack…But never heard of it in any movies later…
I was saying about Hathyaar…
Border …
Yaar kya dialogues the usme … fantastic
Vikram you are right about J.P.Dutta…I think he was born to make movies on desert..Batwara has shown quite dark image of desert…the scene where both Dharam ji and Vinad Khanna meet after long time and get reunited was superb…everybody has given superb performances in Batwara….
Hathyar is one JP movie i’ve never been able to find. Yateem i couldn’t find the DVD or VCD,but then they show it sometimes on Zee Cinema so it’s all right. But Hathyar,never ever….
Agree on Umrao Jaan…I remember there was some major hype coz apparently AB Jr’s role was modified to be something like AB Sr’s Pathan persona in Khuda Gawah….But,unfortunately it didn’t work out.
@ Vikram, zee cinema sometimes shows hathiyar, I have seen hathiyar on zee cinema…u can buy dvd of hathiyar from music division of relaine mart…
On Moserbaer,There was a listing for this Hathyar,but when i ordered it,I got the sequel to Vaastav :(
And Rahul Rawail’s Arjun….One mind-blowing movie….Especially that electrifying background music and the Mamaiyya Kairo Mama….
That movie and N Chandra’s Ankush brought out the angst of the unemployed youth brilliantly..
Arjun was one of the the best shot movies i’ve ever seen…The scene where his best friend is killed on a rainy day among all the black umberellas…The scene where he’s had a bad day and finally loses it by whacking Ranga’s agent…When Ranga’s men confront him and he fights back with his own friend….All Goosebump inducing scenes
Arjun was a classic, first time i saw it, just blew my mind away, never seen such kinda raw action in mainstream cinema before. The first time Sunny releases his pent up anger, when he sees a guy beating up a kid, awesome. The scene where his friend is killed. Another one where he exposes Paresh Rawal at his matka den. Also loved the scene, where he goes to Goga Kapoor’s adda, and then thrashes him.
The chase in the pool of umbrellas was brilliant too but it kinda seemed bit forced and odd seeing every man/woman carrying black umbrellas in the rain. There wasn’t even bit space among them.
Wow…Arjun is in for discussion…here I go…also my fav.movie….
I think the chase scene on the road was like cult, after that chase there were many movies showing chases on road in broad daylight in public view….the same scene in Tamil-Sathya(remake of Arjun) had excellent background…
RGV’s Shiva was mostly based on Arjun and the chase scene idea(when Nag chases JD) is inspired from the chase scene in Arjun……
Yes RGV claimed Arjun was a big inspiration for him.
Satya too was a good remake of Arjun, director Suresh Krishna, adapted it well to the Chennai millieu, and it had some great music by IR.
The Telugu version of Arjun however was rubbish, and deservedly flopped.
There was a Telugu version too? Who starred in it?
Malik
Arjun pe ek blog likh do
@ Vikram, Telugu version was Bharatamlo Arjunudu. Starred Venkatesh, however the serious tone of the original was not maintained, had all kinds of sundry masala, and movie ended up like a cartoon.
Ratnakar ji I have no doubt that you are also big fan of Sunny Paaji…BTW no doubt Dacait is one of the best DAKU based films and Sunny was superb in it..purani yaadein taaza hogayi… ek tammanna hai to see Sunny paaji once again in such kind of roles…
You just reminded me, I’ve to finish this movie. Haven’t watched it completely.
Ratnakar ji you too seems to be a true fan of sunny paaji… you reminded me one of the best performance of sunny. Dacait is no doubt one of the best DAKU based film…One of my big time wish is to see Sunny again in some superb performance…
Well not just me, all my family members too.
Anyway there is news of Sunny-Santoshi coming together again, lets hope the old magic is ignited. I just hope its not diluted for Multiplex audiences. We need that full desi tadka style.
itna Ghatak cinema banao ki sab Ghayal ho jaaye
Movies like Arjun, Dacait, Ghulami, Yateem were one of a kind, they presented a more realistic narrative, at the same time keeping the commercial elements( songs, emotions) in tact. Of course Mani Ratnam and RGV took this to perfection later, movies like Nayagan, Shiva, Thalapathy, Satya blending both of them in the right proportion. Currently for me directors like Vishaal Bharadwaj, Dibakar Banerjee are doing this very well.
Vishal is a huge high in such terrain…Raw, Gritty & Commercial…Dibakar will be interesting to watch in such genre..Hopefully Mani should be in great form with Raavan, really looking forward to it next year….Others will be Sriram Raghavan & Sanjay Khanduri…Last heard even Priyadarshan is trying out one with Ajay Devgn & Akshaye Khanna..God Help us already..
Thank you very much Sir.
It felt really good after reading your post.
I absolutely adore Sunny pajji’s movies especially likes of Arjun, Dacait, Yateem,
I feel sunny paaji has always delivered his best in serious, brooding, kind of roles with an explosion at some point in the film. However, most people always end up casting him in loud-from-word-go kind of roles. Even today I get confused between Ziddi and Salakhein.
Sudip in Ziddi he tears a man’s arm out of his socket, and in Salakhen, he holds a man by his legs, and hammers him on a dhobi’s stone(sachi mein).
But honestly, Guddu Dhanoa, and Anil Sharma, have created this can do no wrong Super Hero image for Sunny, RKS i feel was the director who exploited Sunny’s potential to the best.
Absolutely right Ratnakar…just goes to show how sometimes one hit can do more harm than good. Both Ziddi and Gadar(none were great films by any means) were hits but see where they took Sunny Paaji. I think Apne was his last decent film in the recent past.
IMHO sunny’s best yest underrated perfromance is BORDER
right from his entrance in movie to his tough army major attitude was simply PERFECT
I cannot see any other actor in Major kuldeep singh role
I still get good goosebumps when i see climax of movie where sunny lifts that rocket launcher and attacks paksiatni army and whil hindustaan meri jaan song playing in background. Back then people in theater really went crazy during that scene
IMO sunny is or was MASSES actor he sure knows how to make masses cheer for his character
we don’t see sma erecation from masses in srk’s movies
i m sure sunny will be back in RKS’S NEXT YEAR
Border sure had a super performance from Sunny, but not sure if its underrated. His performance was highly appreciated by all and sundry. In fact my Dad, not a very big fan of Sunny, totally loved his acting in Border. He looked like a true, tough as nails Army Major. Of course apart from Sunny, Akshaye put in a good performance too, and i guess this was one of the few movies where I could bear Sunil Shetty on screen.
unfortunately i got tired of him in border as well … how does Sunil Shetty manage ya… does he pay the producer or something to sign him up for a movie… SS shud actually be doing movies with TLV Prasad and Rajiv Babbar… he suits that image..loud shouts, face tremblong with anger, body to suit that anger, and upar se tashan alag, the kinds where he is aurton ka rakhwala, gaon ka padha likha (the bad versions of daciats that we get … somehow he is always there with quite a few big directors..
@Ratnkar donn”t woory Sunny paaji is coming back with RKS
sab bache loggo ki chutti ho jayegi
kaash aisa ho…it will be good for both RKS and Sunny paaji and also for us (Sunny paaji fans). RKS has delivered good movies with other actors but he create the same magic, as he has done with Sunny…so lets hope that they will come together…
hopefully they also know that the age factor has caught in as well and not try to make another ghayal … for some reason our actors are seen to be fit only till they are in 40s… hopefully Sunny Deol RKS dont kick out the bachcha log but instead create a new market… the Rocky Balboa kinds… the kind AB almost created with Viruddhh… the man can grow older but the man is alive kinds… m not saying show Sunny Deol as a fading away man who will suddenly shift gears, but more as he is a middle aged man in the story and how life around revolevs him to get back to the language he knew the best when he was in his 30s… and how he is still the baap of all those who are still coming in … insteading of making another Om Shanti Om, or go the Sanjay Dutt way of either being a part of everybody’s cinema or come out with characters totally out of the ‘blue’ (tee hee) … like Musa Bhais… Sunny Deol and RKS strength has always been characters who are common people and situations made them into wherever they are at the climax… hopefully the same tone will be carried out, and we wont see a Sunny Deol trying to outdo a Saif..
also Arjun was ineed classic. Interstingly i thik RGV mentioned that Arjaun was his insipiration to make Shiva
@ Arjun indeed was one of the inspirations for RGV’s Shiva, in fact the movie does have a lot of similiarities.
BTW…does anyone here think the role Salman played in Wanted would have suited Sunny Paaji more…except of course the romance track…
Don’t think so, Sunny generally is not very comfortable in the Mumbai tapori style lingo, yeah maybe if the character had been altered to make it a Haryanvi Jat/Sardar kind, it would have been right up Paaji’s lane.
mmm… guess not… Wanted was about effortless mindless action with the ishtyle….salman khan is probably the only guy who fit into that role… already established…. still regarded as the baap of em all, and still all that tashan…. to think about it, had salman been serious about his career all this while Akshay Kumar might have never made it big…. we would had one khan for each purpose any which ways… Romance big flicks – SRK, new/fresh/detailed/thought- Aamir leave ur minds at home, come watch some masala – salman…
Mujhe jeene do and Ganga Jaumna would be the top 2 daku movie for me. Dutt sahab ki woh aankhein.. and Yusuf sahab ki adakari..by god! Bachchan ji didnt do an out-and-out Daku movie, or has he?
Ganga Ki Saugand, was an out and out Daku movie, and shot mostly in the Chambal area. And even Sholay was a Daku movie.
BTW many believe Ganga Jamuna to be ghost directed by Dilip Kumar himself. Truly one of Dilip Saab’s greatest performances. One memorable scene i recall in Ganga Jumna, Dilip being chased by the villagers, he stumbles on an old rifle, and picks it up to shield himself, more in a desperate attempt, and accidentally pulls the trigger. The rifle goes off, and the scared villagers back away, this is the scene that shows the power of the gun, and that’s what motivates him to become a daku. Also 2 action scenes were really well shot,one is the attack on the train, and another one is the shootout at a police station.
Sunny Deol was destroyed by the success of Damini and Ghayal. No doubt they were very good movies and he was smashing. But he kept on repeating himself after that and stopped growing as an actor.
I think more than anything else, it was Dacait’s failure that did Rahul Ravail in. If you’ve made a really good movie, and it is a disaster, you can lose your self confidence. I think thats what happened to him.
However, I did enjoy Buddha mar gaya, even if I was the only one in the world to do so. I thought it was really funny. If he hadn’t treated it so farcically, it would’ve been a gem of black humor.
Jeevan ek sangharsh was also scripted by Javed Akhtar, but I guess by that time he was also losing it. It was the beginning of his burnt out phase.
Yeah and it culminated with Roop Ki Rani, Choron Ka Raja, one of the worst movies ever scripted by JA. Did not see Prem.
Rahul Rawail, was done in by twin failures, Dacait and Samundar. Then he tried to go the K.C.Bokadia/Pahlaj Nihalani way with Mast Qalandar, Yodha but there also he tasted failure.
Well i think success of Gadar, more than anything affected Sunny. Post Gaddar, every movie maker wanted him to mouth fiery dialogue, beat up 20 people, indulge in super heroic stunts, scream at the top of his voice. Its like he became a cartoon.
yep … there was no build or aura’s sunny’s character anymore.. all he was supposed to do was shout shriek n mouth dialogues..
About Buddha Mar Gaya after reading reviews I felt it might be a horrible movie,but to my surprise found it be a better than average one..This is one instance when reviews don’t do justice to a decent movie..
as usual ratna sir.. nice post…! 80s had a fire in their movies… call it pot boiler or masala, or whatever.. those flicks were a genre of their own … meatily enjoyed… the movies that are out today are no doubt good, but when you talk of Dacait it makes me see the difference like a lavish juicy tandoori chicken legs smeared with masala (the sight makes me drool thought m a vegeterian) vs. the organic food that we get today, with Pastas and artichokes… Dacait, Arjun, and followingly movies in early 90s with Jackie Shroff had a different world of cinema altogether… the summary always being the hero walks out of it all … Dacait takes me back to thinking of how 80s was one heck of 10 years, where in hindi cinema moved into 4-5 genres within 10-12 years, each star dominating his 3-4 yr period… Rishi Kapoor, Feroz Khan can be seen as the early 80s, Mithun and Govinda somewhere in the middle phase, and then Sunny Sanjay Jackie as another different phase… to top that there were the Farooq Sheikhs and Naseeruddin Shahs…. one heck of a decade that was…
Yaar hopefully Right Ya Wrong turns out to be good
PS i belive 80’s was good time to be growing up
we used to have so many amazing movies and shows to watch
my favourite includes CR’s Superman movies, He man cartoon, Gi Joe, walt disney shows
in bollywood Mr India (every child remember Mogambo’s lines) Shenshah(first superhero movie in bollywood), Ajooba, Ghayal
These days sadly ypounger genration watch Miley cyrus *shudder*
80s/early 90s had their share …for sure… as much as I can never understand the days without electricity, the new gen will never understand how cable tv happened in India… of course each gen will always have their own moments… just that I dont buy the arguement when people say 80s was the lowest phase in India….
Add Arnie’s Commando, Predator, Sly’s Rambo, Rocky series. I guess this was the time, AB used to come in a cartoon series, forgot the name. Shahenshah was bad though, i mean AB’s superhero version was fine, but the normal version was boring, i think Shahenshah, clearly marked the beginning of AB’s decline as a leading hero.
to me 80s will always have Nagina and Mr India… 2 characters that 90s or 70s never had…
@ PS, Nagina was based on the whole lot of Ichadhari Nagin movies, before that, i mean the original Nagin in 60’s, and then the Reena Roy starrer in 70’s. I think there was some attempt to do this genre in the 90’s, but then with Tum Mere Ho turning out to be a clunker, it faded away. Of course there was Jaani Dushman-Ek Anokhi Torture, but that is another story altogether.
Again Mr. India, had its genesis, in a very early movie of Kishore Da- Mr.X in Bombay. Thanks to Zee TV, used to catch all these movies on cable,
true… but all the other ichadhaari nag movies were never really close (maybe naagin is an exception) .. which had every character being popular be it the snake lady or amrish puri, the songs still can be heard and the ‘been sound’ is still dead famous…
“Mr X in Bombay” was during times when movies were art man… when people came out to tell stories… and not try to make a story out of a subject… though in terms of the mania.. Mr India and mogambo are etched into Indian cinema for ever…
and why did zee ever stop those series man … they were awesome to catch very old movies once in a while
Zee still shows those oldies, but in late night slot, commerce dictates, I mean who really watches them, except some die hard movie fans, and our parents. B4U still telecasts some of the oldies too. One thing i prefer watching those oldies at the late night slot, no disturbance, less ad breaks.
Please do a post on “Jaani Dushman-Ek Anokhi Torture”
…I guess this is one of the very few so-bad-it’s-good movie in recent times…even today when I catch it playing on some channel I do stop for a minute…it just somehow never ceases to amaze me…and what more it has Sunny paaji too.
as for icchadhari nagin what happened to Hiss…saw a promo long back but then nothing
Hmm Sudip, have already written on it elsewhere, BTW after Gunda, its the second most popular movie with Netizens.
MyALterEgo… wherever u r, this request is for u …
Recently watched Nagina and enjoyed it tremendously. Written about this movie, hope to get it published soon.
PS i agree SUnny/RKS’s next should be like Rockey 6 type
which is struggle of middle age man against system with old school type masal entertainment but with realsitic action
i heard long time ago sunny wanted sequel of ghayal maybe that can work
in sequel of ghayal this time it is sunny’s son who gets in trouble or something like that
how about sunny deol has been released off the jail by after ### years of service, but he is still contstantly profiled in as a criminal, society, jobs, whatever, and how he is now expected always to keep his head low and bent, and whenever he does get remotely angry people may start pointing fingers towards his ‘criminal ways’ … till one fine day again his past and the image that it has created starts getting misused by some authorities who pin things up on him and kinds, and how he gains his position in the socieity back … or something of those kinds.. what say ?
One interesting story, i can think of is Robert De Niro’s directorial venture A Bronx Tale, where he plays a honest bus driver, preventing his son from getting attracted to the Mafia, its a story that can be adapted to Indian context, with few changes.
perfect… on both the ideas, (a bronx tale and braveheart)… Sunny boss can definately create a different niche in hindi cinema… only if he could think like Sylvester Stallone, Sunny as well could ve just earned on royalties and carrying out 2 title roles forever… thats the kind of impact the characters he played used to have…
Perfect plot for Paaji’s come back film…another angle which could be added is that Meenakshi Sheshadri has died while delivering doughter of Paaji and now Paaji facing all such societal problems, he is also in search of his doughter and when he finds her, he discovers that his doughter is indulged in prostitution…and he makes his life mission to finish this prostitution mafia from Bombay….
Akash- this sounds somewhat like Kamal Haasan’s Mahanadi
of course but then Sunny Paaji can actually do a decent remake of Mahanadi itself I guess!!!
Sethu- I have’nt seen mahanadi…
but it sounds interesting..i will catch mahanadi soon..chalo remake hi sahi, paaji ki koi decent movie to aaye…
Sunny deol doing a mahanadi …man .. that will be a task … it will take while to get sunny deol act in that way… to garner that sympathy evoking from audience… his actin is generally the way where in audience just expects him to stand up and fk sm happiness.. mahanadi has none of it.. rather desperation from hero to avoid the present bad situation… till the end it never had the moment of lets kill this eveil once n for all… though SD doing this movie would be KICKASS!!!!!
also Sunny’s entry in Damini is one of the best enetry by an actor i have ever seen
that scene was simply pure class act specailly when sunny light his ciggeret with bloddy hand
sir ji 16 aane such baat…phata poster nikla hero…very true…best entry award goes to Paaji in damini…
And the expression on his face, says so much without a single dialogue uttered. Dialogs in Damini were pure gold
“Kadam, tune kabhi chidiya ghar gaye kya? Wahan sher ko bhi Pinjare rakhte hai, aur Pinjare mein sher pe bache bhi pathar dalte hai. Khule Maidan mein sher ka saamne karonge, tab asli mard hoge”.
“Judge Order, Order chillathe rahoge, aur tum pit the rahoge”.
Chadha samjaho ese…aise khilone bazaar mein bahut milte hai…lekin inko chalane ke liye jo jigar chahiye hota hai na… woh kisi bazaar mein nahi milta..use mard leke paida hota hai…or sun agar tune adalat mein koi badtamizi ki to wohin marunga…judge order order karta rahega or tu pit ta rehega…superb…no body can say this better then Paaji…
PS that’s good idea too
also i think sunny deol woulkd have also suited pankj kapoor’s role in Halla boll
pankaj kapoor is great actor no doubt but i thought sunny would have been much better choice for that role in Halla boll
of course they would have made that character little younger because sunny is not that old yet
Not too sure about Sunny Deol doing the PK roke yaar… that character sketch itself was like a man who had spent the better half of his life running, escaping, and cheating death that he had gone beyond the zones of fear, aggression, anger…. he looked more like ‘I do what I know is right and I give it the best you come on the way and get crushed so be it’… it will take sunny a couple of years to even get to that image… n yeah pretty much a sunny fan .. i still dont think he can do that role.. he is more of the ‘haath lgaya toh aag faila dunga’ kind of an actor than a ‘dont trespass he can be a volcano’ …. more or less SD movies will eventually have him bring that fire out, while halla bol needed that potent weapon, which hasnt burned yet… but nobody knows what will happen when it burns… lekin of course all my opinion… maybe SD could do HB in a few years…
also i saw that new melibson’s movie trailer here
and Rks’s remaking that movie with sunny deol will be simply awesome
I would love to see Sunny in a Braveheart kinda period epic, something deal with life of Sikh warriors like Banda Bahadur, Guru Gobind Singh or Hari Singh Nalwa, Paaji would be a perfect fit for that role.
Or maybe something on the lines of what Liam Neeson had done in Taken, its a role right up Paaji’s lane, not too super heroic, enough action, emotional angle( Father searching for daughter).
^^^ or how about somthing like Gladiator
sunny will also suit that role
also 300 type movies
sunny will simply kick major a** in king leonidas type role
also i think sunjay dutt would be Much better choice for liam neesons role in Taken
for some reason sunjay dutt always excel in these roles more than sunny
ratnkar i disagree on shehnshah
the movies was Pure masala entertaiunment with Superhero theme added to it which was first in bollywood
I liked amitabh bachan’s double identity one bumbling inspector another batman type viggilante characte
i will take shehnshah over kirrish anyday
kirrish was a crap… only bad performance of Naseer bhai…i dont know why he did that
only 15 min of special effect and rest of the film was a totaly a waste of everything…
Krissh was more of a love story, masquerading as a super hero flick.
Krish was never really anything….it was more of Hrithik can play a masked hero and we can publicise and make the movie a hit… that was all to it… somehow I have always kind of liked Naseerudding Shah in certain masala roles… prefereably non main leads… but in every other role he does infuse some energy, either as an over excited friend, side hero, villian… in this movie as well he did well as a manical greedy scientist but the script neevr had something for him … it was this wierd movie where the villian has to do nothing but wait n die after the superhero comes… that just spoilt it all…
Shenshah, the first super hero flick????? No way. What about Shiva ka Insaaf et al.
Shiva Ka Insaaf- the much hyped 3D flick, in fact we used to say, u cud see the movie in 2D and it made no difference. BTW in one of the songs, there is a close up shot jamuns in the air, and the thread can be clearly seen.
anyone remember Bollywood version of Superman
it starred puneet issar as superman and movies scene to scene copy of original superman
only diffrence was this superman was in India instead of USA and his sings songs with his leading actress
dharmpaaji was Jor el
good memories
There was a Telugu version of Superman, starring the late NTR, here there is no Jor El, he gets his superhuman strength, from Hanuman. Basically as a kid, he sings a song in front of Hanuman Idol, and the lord grants him super powers, i guess maybe to get relief from the song.
And so we had NTR as Superman, paunch and all.
the telugu one was hilarious…. NTR in those tracks going to save jayaprada… and then the song… “SOOOPERMAN”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJsQgKCTucM&feature=PlayList&p=F4BCF5A4889284DA&index=58
this one was hilarious…. the other funny part about all the superman editions made in india… there will be a song in the air…. wherein superman and heroine will dance all fine in the air, suddenly the hero playfully will drop the heroine from the air… same air she was dance ing 2 mins back independently … and now she is all paniced while our superman laughs to himself before en route to get her back in his arms… HILARIOUS!!!
Superman Returns, was more like a Bollywood flick, the opening credits were good, the opening action scene was good, but that romance part was such a bore. Did not expect it from Bryan Singer. I was half expecting Superman and Lois Lane, to burst into a duet.
Well Ratnakar I certainly enjoyed the post and the discussion.Dacait is one of the better films of the 80’s and one of the best from the Sunny-RR combo.After Gadar’s phenomenal success somehow Sunny Paaji hasnt been able to get back into his groove.I remember when I was in B.School apart from Gadar I even saw his movies like Indian, Maa Tujhe Salaam ( doodh maangoge to kheer denge hum, Kashmir maangoge to cheer denge hum
)etc.Later I continued to watch his movies on the big screen like Jaani Dushman- Ek Anokhi Kahani, Jaal-The Trap, The Hero- Love Story of a Spy, Khel,Jo Bole So Nihaal etc.Probably The Hero was the last movie of his to make any impact before making duds like Teesri Aankh, Big Brother etc.
Just when I had almost given up on Paaji he came back with a reasonably restrained performance in Apne ( a movie which seriously was better than what I expected ).In Heroe’s the tile breaking fight scene and the scene where he chases the aircraft on his wheelchair gave glimpses of the vintage Sunny Paaji.Hope the Sunny-RKS combo is able to bring back the old days in a new avatar.
BTW has anybody seen/heard of a Punjabi movie called Punjab Gold which is supposed to have Sunny Deol & Preity Zinta and music by Sukhwinder Singh.Its supposed to have released on 23rd Aug,2009.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punjab_Gold
No idea about Punjab Gold, Apne was the last good performance i liked from Paaji, and the movie was decent, except for Bobby Deol and Katrina Kaif( 2 actors, who have been in industry for years and still can’t act).
Jaal was Rubbish, just don’t understand how Sunny agreed to such a stupid story. Sunny was the only redeeming factor in Khel, yet another Yucky movie, Jadeja should stick to commenting.
Ratnakar- jaal is one of the worst movie of paaji..only one scene was good when paaji discovers real identity of Tabbu and Anupam Kher..and rest of the movie..
Apne certainly was good with Dharam Paaji and Sunny Paaji doing well.Bobby Deol will always remain a flopiya I guess and Katrina will continue to remain eye candy
Jaal- The Trap was a torture movie, the only thing good was the twist regarding Tabu’s character.Khel- ROFL movie with Sunil Shetty hamming to glory and Ajay Jadeja looking out of place.
BTW Ajay Jadeja was slated to make his filmy debut with none other than Madhuri Dixit- they had a photo shoot & all, but thankfully the movie didnt take off.Another movie which Ajay Jadeja did was Pal Pal Dil Ke Paas ( Mahi Gill’s debut movie ) which was lying in the cans and got released during the multiplex strike,this summer.
Bobby deol is not too much of a bad actor… nothing great in him, but he also bascially ruined his career doing movies with people who had no idea how to market their movies… Samir Karnik for eg… his movies have generally been good, with an over dose of honey … fine.. still reasonable, but never marketed well, Sangeeth Sivan.. Ek was even publicisied like everybody should already know Athadu, so this is in hindi and thats why you should watch it, then of course he had to sell out to YRF and KJ to play second fiddle to AB Jr… and again spend time with people who were responsible for getting Akshay Kumar to a reasonable levels but also kept him mediocre, Sunil Darshan… his choices have been real bad…
PS- in Jhoom Barabar Jhoom or even Dosti ( the movies you are refering to ) Bobby Deol hardly left a mark.So even he has to blamed for the same
true… but neither in dostana nor in JBJ was he ever given ample coverage… of course he could ve done so much better in both the roles… his fault … but yaar we have John Abraham who couldnt perform one surprised look expression ever… and with ample focus is turning into a decent actor… bobby on the other hand I guess lost out on trying to be a nice guy and leaving directos and editors to do whatever they wish to with his role unlike Akshay or aamir who even in their medicore days tried to intervene and get their best shots to the movie..
Ratnakar agree on SR
movie was BIG letdown given almost 300 mil budget bryan singer could have given us EPIC movie
i mean we are taking about superman here who is global literature icon but movie was 2+ hour of soap opera
within 3 years Batman became a much bigger hero than superman… despite batman being hugely popular heros always meant a thought of the “S” in red on a blue covered chest… between singer and nolan, they just turned the concept upside down
Hmm another 100 after Disco Dancer, looks like Mithun Da, and Sunny Paaji have good number of fans on PFC,
BTW thanks Akash, PS, Movie Fan, Vikram, Sudip and Ajay for the wonderful discussion, guys.
thank you sire for opening up such topics that our heads work round the clock
post gadar i think one decent sunny movie was The Hero
it had nice action sequence and good visuals
and sunny was restrained there with less screaming
annd songs were good too and i found movie much better than Gadar
gadar was raw… it was not greatly made, but it was like touching the hardcore raw nerve with people… it was exactly at the other end of the spectrum compared to the other release the same day Lagaan … both had their own ways and strengths and both had their success in their own ways.,.,
right niw from deol clan Abhay deol is doing better
he maynot be mainstream but he is very likable actor
and people are starts noticing him after OLLO and Dev d
his Rooadmovie also doing well in internntaional festival and I hope movie releases in india
also i HIGHLY recommend JOSHILAY
movie was directed by Shekar Kpoor and starred sunny deol and anil kapoor
It was bollywood’s take on WESTERN GENRE
Shekar Kapoor directed only one half of Joshilay, he left movie in the middle, and later it was directed by some random guy, it took around 4 years in making. First half is good, second half is complete let down, the difference can be seen.
I think Shekhar directed some parts of Dushmani too…& Barsaat too was previously supposed to be directed by him…Unfortunately their alliance could not continue for a long time and neither could make it to the credits..
Shekhar’s perfectionist ways, and tendency to take his own sweet time, did not work well with Bollywood producers.
there was some news about shekhar Kapoor directing dushmani…dont know the inner story about it…
Directed it partly, had some differences with producers i think. Its another thing, that after Elizabeth, have not seen anything really good from SK.
even i felt the same.. SK has had possibly 2-3 real good movies but ever since then its a living in the glory of past… nothing to take away from him..
Sibte Rizvi Hasan right the producer who later directed it
We should start a discussion where we feel Sunny Paaji could have added more zing and that tadka as rightly mentioned by Ratnakar. 2 films that come straight to my mind is Gardish & Vansh.
1.Gardish though acted briliantly by Jackie, no offence to him; would have been mind blowing with Sunny in the lead if kept with the charm of its original Malayalam film “Kireedam”.
2. The other had to be Vansh, with Sunny in the role of inspector & Sanjay Dutt as the vagabound…unfortunately 2 jokers were part of this Mani Ratnam remake, which could have been awesome with Sunny & Sanjay spitting fire.
Spot on Ajay…in Gardish even though Jackie did well Sunny could have done wonders.As for Vansh…I wasn’t aware that it was remake of a Mani Sir movie…though I always maintained it had tremendous potential as a script…but was completely destroyed by , as you said, 2 jokers Siddharth(was also seen in Baazigar) and Sudesh Berry. It had some nice songs though.
It had really good songs…Thanks to Illaya Raja who shaped up Anand Milind’s career for a very long time…If Rahman would not have made a mark in the national scene, Anand Milind still could have given current music directors a run for their money…
Well Vansh is a remake of Manirathnam’s Agninakshatram.Even I was surprised at the star cast of the Vansh.The songs were certainly popular.I especially loved ” aake teri baahon mein”. Sunny Paaji in Gardish would have certainly made it even more memorable indeed.
Agninakshatram was directed by Mani Ratnam, Vansh was directed by Pappu Verma, EOD.
pappu verma…
Pappu Verma was a famous stunt director and he directed one more rocking film by the name of Policewala Gunda with Dharam Paaji…Thankfully Sunny never got in any association with him or his career was doomed before Gadar could happen.
Was Tinnu Verma, this Pappu’s brother? Sunny escaped Pappu, but he got caught with Tinnu, Maa Tujhe Salaam. Sunny Paaji and Tabu were fine in it, but giving Arbaaz Khan, more footage sucked. MTS however was more preferable to Tinnu’s next movie, Baaz, aargh, such a rubbish movie.
Ratnakar- I think Tinu verma made Maa tujhe salaam to re establish himself as main villian after his disaster of mela…
with Vansh, they wanted to get the next gen actors, people who were seen as the potential stars as per the conventional hero list … they wanted the young bloods similar to the way it was in tamil, and Sudesh Berry with his closeness to the AB style of acting anf Siddarth with his sweet yet moustached so the mard wala look were expected to strike big… who ever thought 3 young fair boyish actors and 3 dark young macho actors standing on bikes or doing martial arts will take the whole picture away …
Well Sudesh Berry and Siddharth never filled any gap.Atleast Sudesh Berry is still hanging around, but Siddharth post Jaani Dushman seems to have completely vanished
they rather made a gap of good movies in early 90s ….
Well there were a lot of potential superstars in the 90’s, we used to call them Stardust Heroes, coz mostly they were promoted by Stardust as the next big thing, and never really made it.
hey… nobody mentioned narasimha…film was flop i9 think..but paaji was too good in that too…only he could carry such kind of character…and those tatoos…
forced my dad to buy tickets band we saw this movie… man … i feel like calling up my dad and apologising…
I think Narasimha marked the downfall of N.Chandra, he hit a high with Tezaab, but after that it was all the way down, and now reduced to doing sleaze comedies like Style.
Its surprising none of us have written anything on the dancing skills of Sunny Deol
.For more than a decade after his debut in Betaab none of the directors/choreographers made Sunny Paaji to actually slog it out & dance.all that changed with ” Yaara O Yaara ” in Jeet.Around the same time he also had ” Dil Mera Churane Laga” from Angrakshak.with these 2 songs Sunny decided to try his hand at dance too with some hilarious results in movies like Ajay ( chamak challo ), Ziddi ( mera dil le gayi oye kammo kidhar ), Salaakhen ( Punjabi kudi maara jhatke ) etc.Thankfully this phase did not last long !!!
his legs were beating the earth brutally in jeet and mera dil le gaye ooye… in ziddi
… bt ziddi was another good action stuff from paaji…paanch baje ke baad deva ki adalat shuru hoti hain…after giving one ziddi to paaji, guddu dhanoa has taken back a lot from paaji…
Finally he got it right with Sushmita in Zor…
Main Apna Naam Bhula Ye Subah Sham Bhula Mein Bekarar
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byrZ94uMNtY
He continued showing his dancing skills till movie Indian
Paaji was good in jeet too…that police station scene with ashish vidhyarthi…baap ka naam…. mallom nahi… maa ka naam.. maloom nahi…and then that punch…and that BGM…ragon mein josh bhar deta hain…
Jeet was more of a Mugaddar Ka Sikandar redux, Paaji in AB’s role, Karishma in Rakhee’s role and Tabu in Rekha’s role.
Yes Jeet was a new take on Muqaddar Ka Sikandar and Sunny Paaji tried to carry out a Rambo ( a la Stallone ) act in it!!!
Who directed Jeet?
I think it was very well made
It was Raj Kanwar, he also directed Farz with Paaji later, not a very good one, and another was Badal with Bobby Deol.
Raj Kanwar is one of the most successful Hindi film directors in the last 2 decades.His success rate in the 90’s in particular was very high with movies like Deewana,Laadla,Jaan,Jeet,Itihaas,Judaai,Daag-The Fire, Har Dil Jo Pyar Karega, Andaaz etc.He also made a few duds like Kartavya,Farz,Ab Ke Baras,Dhai Akshar Prem Ke.His last directorial effort- Humko Deewana Kar Gayi was an ok movie- the music in particular was very good.
Daag – The fire was hit?
Dhai Akshar Prem Ke, was more like Dhai Ghante Torture Ke.
Daag and Itihaas, were any day preferable to the Dhai Ghante Torture Ke, gosh, the movie just never seemed to end.
Daag was average, Itihaas however was a flop, AFAIK.
haha Itihass had Twinkle Khanna in it right … ?
Daag was above average while Itihaas was average.Daag even had that popular song- lucky kabootar though I liked dil deewana na jaane ka ho gaya better.But overall Daag was a very average movie.Itihaas again was nothing that impressive.
Yes both Itihaas and Jaan had Ajay Devgan and Twinkle Khanna.
I liked daag… i liked it .. it had some typical songs… like to think of it, which can be heard in delhi circles with those beats “dil deewana naa jaane kab kho gaya, toone aise dekha ke kuch ho gaya” ….. itihaas wasnt able to tolerate it, dhai akshar prem ke as RS said, i was watching it in cable…. NEVR EVER GOT OVER!!! the days when movies were made for the heck of it cuz bachchan jr had signed them …
Incidentally Dhai Akshar Prem Ke and the Govinda-Urmila-Nagma movie- Kunwara released around the same time in 2000 and were both based on Keanu Reeves’s a Walk In the Clouds.Kunwara atleast had some genuinely funny moments while Dhai Akshar was certainly tough for the eyes !!!
Daag the fire had come when i was in my engg college. we used to wonder what kind of name is Daag – the fire. My take on it is its The Aag – the fire
I think one underrated performance of Sunny is Lootere…he was very good in that…this movie unfortunately became the talk of town due to Juhi Chawla’s attempt at image change at that time.
Lootere was the only Dharmesh Darshan movie, i could sit through till the end, the rest I could not, including Raja Hindustani.
:D
That Raja Hindustani was real pain man …. I had to watch it so many times because of my sisters …
Have you had courage for Dhadkan, Haam maine bhi pyaar kiya hai hai the biggest Bewafaa?
I was forced to watch Dhadkan, while traveling in an overnight bus from Bangalore to Chennai, felt like jumping right off the bus, and after Haan Maine Bhi Bore Kiya Hai, did not even venture clsoe to Bewafa.
Saw Dhadkan mainly for the songs and since it was doing well at the box office at that time.Sunil Shetty hammed his way to glory in it
I saw Haan Maine Bhi Pyar Kiya Hai at home on a VCD as I did not feel it would be theatre material.Later saw Bewafa in theatre on a weekend as I had nothing better to do then.Even saw Aap Ki Khatir – Akshay Khanna was the redeeming factor in the movie ( a copy of Wedding Date ).Watching Sunil Shetty and Dino Morea in it was funny.Raja Hindustani and Fanaa according to me are 2 of the biggest torture movies that Aamir has done which also somehow went on to do well at the box office.
To date i really don’t understand what was so great about Karishma’s performance in Raja Hindustani,it was plain average. Tabu in Maachis and Manisha in Khamoshi, gave far better performances that year.
@ Ratnakar… come on man … karishma had the longest on screeen kiss ever…. thats enough for our media to term her as the the true “rani hindustani” … i still remember she had started giving interviews like “ab mai meaningful roles hi karoongi” .. unfortunately she had shot for rakshak a lil before RH released and her next was “sundara sundara” … and man she looked hot… she should rather be thankful to that song.. it just got her a new lease of life…
@PS
yaar, she was having a great time in 96-97 with movies releasing one by one and performing fairly at the box office. Krishna, Jeet, Sapoot, raja Hindustani, Ajay, Judwaa, Dil To pagal Hai. She even won a national award for the last one.
You reminded me of those sundara-sundara, days. Man, she definitely looked sultry in that. I mean never before any actress looked like that to me. Not even Urmila in Rangeela.
@ jahanpanah …. man u reminded me of those days when karishma kapoor was in her seductive best… bleached brown hair, thrown all around her, dressed at all ample places to pyshe you out, ample item numbers despite eing the main lead, bimbette heroine who would even being amongst the top ones would make stupid dialogues like “chalo nahate hai” … WTF m sounding like this cheap lust infested freak! ….
and man yes.. Sundara Sundara was a classic…IMHO like you said… rangeela was not the ushering of style in bollywood, nor was karishma in Raja Hindustani … it was sundara sundara n then DTPH…. (of course her national award winning performace also makes me ask for a param veer chakra for spelling INDIA right…)
and one last time with my cheap head… Karisma Kapoor gave a new lease of life to this singer called Sapna Awasthi … to all her tharak in the voice karisma played ample visuals to it… songs like ooyi amma ooyi amma … sarkayi liyo khattya, and then taking it to a new levels of batti na bujhaaa mujhe lagta hai darr and oo ma oo ma oo ma… she played the heroine who doesnt want the hero to go anywhere
…. and all these songs …
Add sexy sexy sexy mujhe log bole as well, which was later changed to baby baby baby mujhe…
BTW, the movie was Khuddar, with another song Tum sa Koi pyaara koi masoom nahi hai, tum CHEEZ kya ho khud tumhe maloom nahi hai.
Actually those days I remember reading articles about how the comparison of lover with CHAND (moon) in earlier songs have been replaced by CHEEZ, implying the marketization and all. And also articles on the half naked woman dancing in the songs. Guess, now everything has become a common part of life.
I think the only factor with that stupid Raja hindustani was Aamir Khan
Woh kamal ka marketting karta hai yaar … ussi waajah se
I guess Ghatak was also released same day as Raja Hindustani
I guess only Sunny Deol beat Aamir Khan in terms of movie collection. Remember Ghayal vs Dil, Ghatak vs Raja Hindustani, Gadar vs Lagaan
The success of Raja Hindustani also goes to its hit music. All the songs were quite popular those days, even people still can be seen listening to them.
additionally post HAHK and DDLJ, finaly there was one Khan who had done a movie which could touch the audience in the interiors… that was a reason good enough for RH to be a hit..
@ jahanpanah, just to rewind in time… none of the songs were actually having the charm that can weave over all india levels… the songs were actually pretty average that runs around the north side… and typically at the taxis, buses, autos, chaiwalas, juicewalas… basically the folks who would need a song, which can keep the day alive, with no music video to support… Altaf raja had just hit the same segment of population… for them relating aamir khan to this was even bigger…,
@PS
Yea, if I’m right, music was by Nadeem-Shravan. What else can we except.
Though, I do like a few of their early 90s creations.
not to sound like a communal ghettoism or to say “this is the life of the city or something”… lekin I loved the Nadeem Shravan, Sharavn’s sons, Anand Raj Anand music yaar.. I dont think their songs could ever be chartbusters around the country butsongs like “hum yaar hai tumhare” or “pal do pal ka yeh safar” or “pardesi pardesi” “mera mann kyu tumhe chahe” “it happens only in india” … are like songs typically played in Delhi circles specialy the radios blaring in the buses… to me they are apart of a great nostalgia…
@PS
Yup. I also like them because of this nostalgia factor.
agree..lootere was kickass action movie with superb performance by Paaji and Naseer bhai…bt sadly it was more in news due to juhi chawla and napooja bedi
Lootere had a kickass BGM from Viju Shah too….& for the first time in Indian cinema probably Paaji shouting Fuck You …. to Anupam Kher outside the court in a Ghayal like sequence where he is surrounded by policemen….
I think it was Anand Milind for Lootere.
Yeah the music was by Anand Milind but the background score was by Viju Shah…Dont know where even Viju Shah has disappeared…Atleast he used to give some standard BGM stuffs in the 90’s…Rajiv Rai & Sunny should also make a combination pronto…..
I think a big problem with Paaji is bad PR… and too much dil se sochna and doing endless films with guys like guddu dhanoa just because he has given him ziddi also becoz guddu is cousin of Paaji…
Sunny generally tends to keep a low profile, same like his Dad, who inspite of giving some great performances down the years( Satyakam, Chupke Chupke, Anupama to name a few), never got any award. Only award he got was a Lifetime Achievement one, something like “Sorry we did not give u any, but we make up for it” Kind. In that respect Sunny was better, he got the Filmfare Award as well as the National Award.
I remember that sharabi emotional Dharam ji… when he got life time achievement award and it was Amitabh Bachhan who gave to him. Dharam ji said that mein her baar naya suit silvata tha ke abki baar mujhe award milega… lekin phir meine suit silvana hi chord diya.. that speech was very sweet…ek dil se or emotional.. he hugged amitabh with full of passion and called both Sunny and bobby on stage…it was very good…this is the problem with these guys..sharab and emotions… bottle chahiye raat ko…bt seems to quite good from dil se…
Akash, it was not AB who gave him that award, it was Dilip Kumar & Saira Banu( incidentally his co star in many movies).
And i remember Yusuf Saab saying that when he meets the God Almighty, he would ask him why he did not make him as handsome as Dharam Paaji. Not sure if that is true, or an urban legend.
But for sure Dharam Paaji, was Indian Cinema’s first He-Man.
you are right…it was Dilip Kumar and Saira Bano bt suit wali baat to sahi hai na sir ji..?
then i think i confused it with when Dharam ji gave one award to Amit ji and before anouncing his name Dharam ji said yeh award us sitare ki jata hai….jo dur aasmab subse jyada chamak raha hai.. mera bhai Amitabh Bachhan…smthing like that… 
Akash.
AB and Dharam Ji case is from IFFA life time achievement award. AB had told that how Dharam ji had supported his inclusion in Sholay. Sunny gave a short and balanced speech but Bobby cried on stage and could say only,” My Dad is best”. Some nice moments on stage.
AB and Dharam ji hugged each other and hall was resounding with clappings and applause.If I recall it correctly Apne was going to be released around same time and it was promoted there.
Let me try if I can get that part on youtube.
Here it is. Enjoy the clip
That said, was great to see Dharam at his Garam Best in 2007 with Apne, and Johnny Gaddar.
Hey! Let me add Life in A Metro also the list along with Johnny Gaddar and Apne.Yes 2007 was indeed a special year for Dharam paaji.
RK- thanks for sharing the clip…
RK sir mazaa aagya dekhke…dharam ji to dharam ji hain…as Jaya said greek god.. too good..do u or anybody have clip of filmfare also….
Though honestly, don’t see any chance of Bobby getting it, not as long as he keeps giving the same old poker faced expression in every movie.
Bobby actually did some decent movies in the beginning. I quite liked him in Gupt and Soldier…But then he went into Bichoo and Badal territory and thus he was a lost cause. I gotta admit,he acted well in Tango Charlie though
I liked Badal more than Gupt … partly because it had Amrish Puri in it who did well … also Ashutosh rana
I liked it overall …
Bichoo was a rehash of the French movie Leon, aah remember it Rani Mukherjee’s thundering thighs, mini skirts.
Bichoo had a decent soundtrack- “jeevan mein jaane jaana,ek baar hota pyar”, ” dil tote tote ho gaya” etc.
Bobby Deol made a decent debut with Barsaat and did well in Gupt and Soldier.He was also decent in Kareeb.After that there’s been nothing impressive from him.
And her audacity to tell a behen….
Bong mishti
till date soldier is bobby’s best performance…though as a movie gupt was better..
I can still watch soldier! it ws actually good masala… “mera usool hai … kaam khatam aadmi khatam …. dhishhhhh a sudden third hand appears… aur mera usuool hai aadmi khatam kaam khatam” …. aashish vidhyathi and pankaj dheer playing positives in the movie was a huge bonus for me then… somehow i was a fan theirs… PFC maynot be the right place but RS .. once your blog site is ready we should have one post about the trash series…. the Guddu Dhanoa movies… the ones with Sunny Deol which evolved out of the RKS movies and the Bobby Deol ones which evolved out of Abbas Mustan movies, and still managed to be a genre of their own … and tried making bobby the next suny..
sunny is one of the best actor though as hero… now lost his ability. but definitely a good actor. he should stress on acting than trying to imitate the younger lot.
Where r comments?? Can’t see any
Remember Hum Kaun Hai a terrible remaking of The Others…came in the news because of AB and Dharamji pairing after many years.
@Sudip: my interest was more in the pairing of dimple kapadia and BigB for that dumb movie HKH
Chalo atleast some people do remember Hum Kaun Hai ( also known as Ora Kara in Bengali ).I saw it for Big B and Dimple mainly but it was nice to see Big B and Dharam unite again briefly for this.
I think Raj Kanwar should be credited at least for one thing…bringing in the trend of tag lines in hindi movie names…to the best of my knowledge “Daag- The Fire”(what was he thinking!!) was the first time the name of a hindi film carried a tag. It’s another matter that to this date it is the most tangential tag ever
Sudip, i think he did that mainly to differentiate it from Yash Chopra’s Daag. Movie was a bore, the plot was a straight rip off from “Regarding Henry”, the crooked lawyer getting paralyzed stuff.
Daag-The Fire
Raj Kanwar, man with the beard and hat surely had a rollicking time with box office successes and A list star cast by his side…Wonder where is he hibernating now…I think Multiplex revolution has really kicked hard in the stomachs of Guddu Dhanao, Raj Kanwar…Really missing those brainless action films…
I just had a wild thought..how about inventing some taglines for films which never had one…like “Dacait – The Daku”…naaa that’s too straight forward…how abt “Dacait – The Himmat of a Ghayal”
you mean – Masoom the innocense , Khalnayak – the unknown side, Parinda – the trapped?
problem with bobby deol is that he is very hit and miss type actor. He can be good or he can be very wooden. His best perfromance was in Dillagie and i find more tolerable than abhishek in JBJ specailly in 2nd half.
Another problem with bobby is he refused very good offers. For example THE BIGGEST BLUNDER was him REFUSING YUVA(AJAY DEVGAN’S role)
i mean who in right mind will refuse role and movie like that.
also bobby wanted to follow his brother’s image but time was changing for bollywood and staright up action movies were vansishsing.
Bobby had so much potential in 90’s specailly he was favourite among youth when GUPT, SOLDIER came
but post 2000 he was carelss and now he is 40 ab middle age main kya apnie image banyega.
still i find him better actor than vivek, john (wooden) abraham and few others.
He refused yuva???? i didnt know that… hopefully he has amnesia as well … stupid stupid, doenst he know that people pay money for close to 22 years to study, and then might still do the job that they could ve done even with the 10th experience… and on the job exp… still .. its done for making sure they have a good resume and a ‘brand’ build up…. a mani ratnam could ve just be one huge highlight in his resume…. WIERD!!!!
but wasn’t it good for the film that Bobby refused Yuva..I just can’t imagine him doing the role Ajay finally did in Yuva…but then u never know what someone like Mani Sir could have achieved…as he did with Abhishekh in the same film.
Wished Vivek Oberoi could have refused YUVA…Though he was decent….Thankfully Mani did not make him part of GURU, though Madhavan’s role was initially supposed to be done by him and he later opted out because of Abhi-Ash….Another joker from this era.
Wow… VO instead of Madhavan could ve been a killer… VO carries that aggression that the role asks for…. man… thats a miss according to me …
No Idea man… now it feels like maybe Bobby might have been a good choice…. he does carry the sunny wala spirit and yet look a lot more contained … similar to what Surya did in AE… what AD’s role demanded… wierd… reminds me of ‘luck by chance’ all over again
Vivek is far better then bobby…its only bcoz of some bad choices of films and sallu-aish episode that he is struggling.. other wise this man has talent and rawness…name one performance of bobby comparable with company and shoot out…give him right kind of raw roles and he will excel…I am hoping he will deliver in his next with RGV…and please atleast dont put woody john and vivek in same bracket…
Only gudho dhanoa i really liked was AFLATOON.
Because of akshay’s VILLIAN turn. I was never expecting akshay to have double role and to actually play full villian. That twist in 2nd half was really good. I think that was first time akahay played villian.
and his villian act was quite good too
Guddu Dhanao made two movies out of LEON…Bichoo which was a complete ripper and some scenes of Aflatoon….I think Vikram Bhatt managed the same with WHAT LIES BENEATH…where the original was made into Raaz and the climax was incorporated into Kasoor… Kasoor itself was a straight lift from JAGGED EDGE… So much for Inspiration.
Mani Ratnam needs to MOVE one from abhishek
i have no clue what he sees in abhishek
I am not very fond of abhishek’s acting skills. Abhishek is another hit or miss type actor in some movies he can be tolarble and others he is just bad. H lacks range and charisma to be a big star.
i like to see mania ratnam direct abhay deol or kay kay. He should give these actors chance too IMHO
also bobby in YUVA must have been good otherwise why would manir ratnam would have approached him
would love to see KK-Mani Ratnam combo…expolosion…
parsanna bobby refused because of some money issues. still bad deceiuson by bobby
and same year he had no problem doing movies like kismat, ATHWS
Akash in shootout vivek was simply OTT and just bad
. Better actor would have suited that role
and shootout was sunjay’s movie from start to finish
as bobby let’s see how about tango charlie , bardasht, dillagie, soldier,
as for vivek other than compnay i can’t think of his other perfromances
i m not bobby fan but i give credit where its due
vivek was asih’s salve back in 2003 and that was his BIGGEST mistake and now he is desperate for salman’s apalogies
vivek is perfect example of dobhi ka kutta na ghar ka na bhar ka
Movie Fan … yaar I toh for sure m a VO fan … not for his crap movies, but he definately had that punch …. every movie before the salman episode .. of his were known only cuz of him.. even wierd songs like ‘kya yeh pyar hai’ and crap ran due to him …. Company Road Dum characters cut across the sections of society … no multiplex single screen and all that… sathiya, back on to the elite list, shootout to me was an out and out Maya Douglas movie… he could ve been the next big star… lekin the key to being a star… u gotto be socially accpetable as well na…. maybe why Dev Anand is getting forgotten, the legacy in society (son couldn’t continue) … Dilip Kumar also would fade unlike RK and PRK… like why AB and SRK are superstars.. socially bhi ache hai… just on actng front… VO carried the aag boss… he was the 2000s version of the machismo … sad that he couldnt carry for too long…
also IMHO aishwarya Bohat hai challlu cheez hai
uske cherain main sabh saaf nazar aata hain
You are not alone to think so.
Good to see something on Sunny Deol..I think sunny z the only actor who made his debut in a romantic film..but nw z being regarded as an action hero..His best have always come from RKS & Rahul Rawail.He was outstanding in Ghatak, Arjun, Dacait & Border.Gadar gave him a big hit..but his handpump scence became a mockery everywhere.
Is Raj Kanwar..the same guy who gave SRK..his first hit but never worked with him again.
Yeah but SRK later made a guest appearance in RK’s Har Dil Jo Pyaar Karega.