Rajiv Rai : Master of the ‘Masala’ genre
PrintWhen i was a kid, a friend of my dad had gifted me an audio cassette of Tridev. Remember those days there used to be audio cassettes for films which had Full songs with dialogues ??? In other words, the cassette used to have the entire film in audio format.
I was only 5 years old when i first heard the songs and dialogues of Tridev. But from the first time onwards, Tridev has had a special place in my heart. And later on thanks to Tridev, I also came to know of the whizkid director , Mr Rajiv rai.
Tridev (1989)
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Adharm se aasmaan…..aasmaan……
(Heavens are cleaved by wrong …..lol 
)
Atyaachaar se kaapi insaaniyat
(Humanity is trembling with atrocities…lol )
Raaj kar rahey Haivaan……
(The reign of Satan prevails 
)
Jinki hogi taakat Apoorv
(Those who have infinite strength)
Jinka hoga nishaana abhed
(Those who target unflinchingly)
Jo karenege unkaa sarvanaash
(Those who will destroy them(The paapis that is) )
Who kehlaayenge
(They will be called…..)
Tridev…..Tridev……Tridev…..“
(Trinity….Trinity….Trinity….Hell yeah… Trinity it is :yahoo: )
The 80′s was the time when the torture club was at it’s peak. Almost every other film had the same elements ( the desh ke dushman, the idealistic cops, the damsels in distress , the clash of good vs evil etc.)
Tridev also had a similar skeletal. Tridev or the trinity of Sunny deol, Jackie shroff and Naseeruddin shah representing the modern day Avatar of Brahma , Vishnu and Mahesh. Wanting to wipe out crime in their own unique way after being disillusioned with the system.
But the execution made all the difference. All thanks to Rajiv rai. He exactly knew how to mix and match all these elements in the right amount so as not to give the viewer a feeling of nausea(Something which most of the movies of the 80′s excelled in.)Although there are some cliched elements in his films.
He always directed his films with a lot of style and panache. Basically he was a hardcore masala film maker , but his execution and direction made his films a cut above the rest.And it is because of the same reason why Rai’s movies are still mostly watchable.
Maybe he also had an inkling that many years later on, the torture series would come into existence .
Rajiv rai also had a knack for creating some great baddies and giving them unique names.And his every film had an assortment of a dozen such villains. Be it Don(Dilip Tahil) and Dunhill, Goga and Ganga( Tej sapru and Dan Dhanoa), the mute Raghav(Rajesh vivek or Gooran from lagaan), The evil mantri (Raza Murad) or the legendary Bhairav Singh/ Bhujang (Amrish Puri) .Each and every character was a unique and mostly memorable creation. The transformation of Bhairav Singh to Bhujang is done in an amazingly quick way.Remember wicked the signature tune of Bhujang ??
His other hukum ka ikka or trump card was dialogue writer KK Singh who came up with the Paap se dharti phati monologue and other gems. Another good thing about Rai’s movies was that it was very fast paced. There would hardly be a dull moment in any of his films.
Tridev went on to become a box office smash and put Rajiv rai right on top of the league. And how can one forget Viju shah ?? Viju shah gave some of his best scores for Rai’s films. Although officially Kalyanji-Anandji were credited as composers for Tridev.
But thanks to Oye oye, Viju shah became popular and formed a special jodi with Rai from Tridev onwards.Also with Naseeruddin shah who thereafter became a regular feature in Rai’s films. Besides Oye oye the film also had some other great songs such as ‘Gali gali main phirta hai ‘, ‘Raat bar jaam se‘ .etc.
All in all Tridev was and still is a truly memorable entertainer.
Yudh (1985)
I happened to see Yudh much later after i saw Tridev. And came to know later on that this was actually the debut film of Rajiv rai.
Again the film had a very typical storyline. Two brothers are separated at birth only to meet years later under different circumstances. But, Rai adds a unique twist to the proceedings thereby elevating it above the other lost and found flicks. Rai’s stylish direction can be sampled in the opening scene of the movie which involves a looting of cash van of a bank.The scene is executed quite stylishly for a film of the 80′s.
Rajiv rai never lost sense of the story and screenplay even while making a hardcore massy entertainer. This was what seperated him from other directors of his ilk.
Yudhh had a great cast of Jackie Shroff, Anil Kapoor, Pran,Nutan and Danny etc. Danny plays the villain Gama Mateen with a lip smacking relish.Notice that Gama Mateen is always accompanied by four suited booted accomplices.So cliched, yet so much fun. Also this was the film which had Anil kapoor’s iconic line Jhakkas!!!!Truly paisa vasool stuff i say
Vishwatma (1991)
Rai followed the super success of Tridev with Vishwatma. The cast was mostly the same with an addition of Chunkey Pandey. In terms of story line it was similar to Tridev. With only difference being the desh ke dushman(Again Amrish puri and gang) creating havoc in India from foreign shores. In other terms, it was like an unofficial sequel to Tridev.
But the superb songs and dozen odd interesting characters still made it enjoyable. Be it Ajgar Juraat ( Amrish Puri), Mahesh Anand (Rajnath), the Nilu brothers or The Blue panther gang or the crazy Tapaswi Gunjal(Gulshan Grover) speaking in chaste hindi. Kiran Kumar also gleefully hams in a cameo as Naagdansh.
But this film failed at the box office. Perhaps the fact that it had a slight hangover of Tridev to an extent , caused its failure. Perhaps the audiences were expecting even more from Rai, in terms of entertainment. Whatever may be the case, one cant deny that it was a wholly entertaining movie with the all cliches intact.
Mohra (1994)
Leaving behind the failure of Vishwatma, Rai returned with a bang with Mohra. This time he opted for a mostly new cast of Akshay Kumar, Raveena Tandon and Suniel Shetty. Oh yeah, but Naseeruddin Shah still stayed put .Paresh Rawal, Sadashiv Amrapurkar also pitched in great supporting acts.
It seemed like a typical story of the clash of good and evil. But in reality it was a well layered and a taut thriller. The kickass twist in the end only elevates it to greater heights. Total VFM. 
Besides , the film had some great numbers such as “Tu Cheez badi hai mast mast”, ‘Tip tip barsa paani’, ‘Na kajre ki dhaar’ amongst others.
It also had a ensemble of some of the greatest bad ass characters witnessed on screen. Such as Tyson “Dirty Mind” (Gulshan Grover), Jibran(Raza Murad), Irfan (Tej Sapru ) and the greatest of them all Jindal. When Jindal unmasks himself, the viewer goes into a complete daze not knowing what hit them.Total Kickass stuff i say . Mohra also proved to be one of the early hits of Akshay Kumar and Suniel Shetty’s careers.
Gupt (1997)
Undoubtedly this was the best film film of Rajiv Rai . It gave suspense thrillers a completely new dimension. It changed the way suspense thrillers were made after Gupt in Bollywood. Honestly,It just doesn’t get better than this .
This is how ideally a murder mystery should be.I mean just look at this. Filled with half a dozen suspicious and shady characters.Prem Chopra, Sharat Saxena, Dilip Tahil , Raza Murad etc. Remember Tej Sapru’s Danda Kar Doonga(whatever that meant) act ?? Each character shadier than the other. The needle of suspicion points equally towards everyone. But the climax is a real shocker when the killer’s identity is revealed.
Of course equal credit must also be given to Shabbir Boxwala, who has co written the script along with Rai for Gupt, Mohra amongst others. The subplot involving all the baddies who are admitted to the same hospital after getting bashed up one by one by Bobby Deol was funny enough. Gupt turned out to be yet another massive hit by Rai. It also gave Bobby Deol‘s career a much needed shot in the arm.
But enormous success also meant enormous troubles for Rajiv rai. An attack on his life by the underworld forced him to flee India and settle at London for quite some time. He returned to India and film making some years later. But his films like Pyar,Ishq aur Mohabbat(PIAM) and Asambhav apart from being mediocre flicks failed at the B.O. And he also earned the (dis)credit for introducing Arjun Rampal in PIAM.
Recently there was news that Rai had approached Akshay Kumar for a film. But the project fell through when Kumar quoted a huge fee . He then took the same offer to the choosy Aamir Khan who has expressed quite an interest in the film.
If this news is true, it will be great to watch this unique actor-director jodi. Coz there are many people out there (including me) who want Rajiv Rai back in action. If not, then we can always watch the umpteen re-runs of his movies on Max and be happy. And can always remember him for his great films.
I really cringe when films like Tashan proclaim themselves to be a throwback to the masala movies of yore. Perhaps they should take a crash couse from Rai to know what it is to make enjoyable hardcore commercial/ masala flicks. Amen to that.
Tags: akshay kumar, amrish puri, anil kapoor, Arjun Rampal, asambhav, bobby deol, Chunkey Pandey, Dan Dhanoa, Danny Denzongpa, Dilip Tahil, Gulshan Grover, gupt, Jackie Shroff, K K Singh, kalyanji anandji, kiran kumar, mohra, Naseerudin Shah, Nutan, Paresh Rawal, Pran, Prem Chopra, pyar ishq aur mohabbat, rajiv rai, Raveena Tandon, Raza Murad, Sadashiv Amrapurkar, Sharat Saxena, suniel shetty, sunny deol, Tej Sapru, tridev, viju shah, vishwatma, Yudh
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Agree completely about Rajiv Rai. His movies were big, in star cast, in characters, dance, music! Dunno what was about his narrative that we liked it, in spite of predictable story lines. His Gupt showed that he was “able” to evolve. Maybe his success was more due to lack of options that we had?
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May be… may be not….
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Good Post….How times have changed, still remember Rajiv Rai after Tridev was one of the hotshot directors to look out for; when Sunny paaji ruled the roost..Unfortunately his last 2 flicks were an embarrassment for him as well as his fans like me….He can still teach the current lot how to edit films and keep the movie at a rapid pace..Looking forward to an announcement from him
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Thanx Ajay….Yeah the editing in his films has always been swift. He can surely teach the GenX a thing or two about editing. Regarding his last two films, everybody goes through a bad phase. Asambhav had loads of swift cuts,split screens but beyond that there wasnt much in the movie. In Asambhav, there were just too many villians and too many unnecessary subplots. The villains werent memorable either nor they were many good characterisations by him.But it’s ok, chalta hai.Everybody has bad phases. yeah it would really be great to see a new film being announced by him.
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Dil le gaya mera Rai
Yaad aa gaya mujhko bhai
Dekhna hai mujhe abhi Mohra
maza ho jaayega Dohra (after reading this post and watching the movie)
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Thanx Jahanpanah.Your poetic tribute to Mr rai is super.
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about Rajiv Rai, I had posted this on one of the older threads, the speciality of his movies were always the BGMs… Alfred Hitchcock had once said that music adds a lot more feel to the movie, and if played a wierd high pitch it can induce a tone which will scare you to shit and make you run away …. Rajiv Rai movies did not have those ones, but for sure BGMs played a huge part in his movies… every movie would have this racy thriller BGM that would continue to keep you at the edge of the seat… the scenes if not supported by those BGMs might have been an average flick, but the continuous racy beat, be it Tridev, Mohra, Gupt, Viswatma or even Asambhav, the track keeps you hooked… amazing BGMs… Viju Shah I guess was born to give great music to Rajiv Rai ….of his movies to me Mohra remains the best… a lot of ppl will disagree and to each one his own, but according to me to bring out an all different character in a role is much more difficult than play a character… as in playing a cop like a toughie is much easier than playing a out n out kameena with no set definiations…. with that yardstick Mohra remains my favorite Naseeruddin Shah role…. that maniacness he carries in his eyes when he takes those specs off and the whole way tat character is built up, according to me is one of the BEST VILLIANS ve seen in hindi cinema, wo any gimmicks of wierd hair style or additional props…. rajiv rai movies… still kickass with all the masala intact..,
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I saw Tridev when i was about 5 or 6 as well while on a holiday with parents in Nepal in “video coaches”. It was such a big hit then that i remember seeing it 3 or 4 times in different buses over a fifteen or twenty day period.
Was awestruck. All the more considering the fact that I was not allowed to watch films at home on tv. So when i look back i believe Tridev was one of the first hindi films i saw.
Mohra was the first film i saw in a film theatre with school friends on the last day of some term end exams. And was blown away as well.
And i never realised how the same guy could make PIAM. The solo intro dance of Arjun Rampal in his floral shirt was just too much to take. Keerthi Reddy was pretty intolerable as well.
But i forgave the man thinking that he had stepped into a wrong genre. And then saw Asambhav. And never looked back at anything related to Rajiv Rai till this post !!!
Man … Asambhav was too bad …
But yes, Tridev is a movie which is very dear to me …
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Even I had the audio casette of Tridev with full movie dialoges. Now that I look back, it feels stupid to listen to the whole movie on an audio casette, but in those days, Tridev, Mohra etc were some of the best entertainers to come out. The movies may seem tacky today, but they were indeed superhits of those times.
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Never mind the audio cassettes sir. Never mind the tackiness but Tridev and other films of Rai are still some of the best entertainers of Bollywood.
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His movies were truely Bollywood Blockbusters. A complete masala flicks. The kind of movies you’ll crave after watching too serious or too light cinema. And who can forget Viju Shah.
Thanks Aditya for reminding us how much we miss Rai’s movies.
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Thanx Pranav for the compliment. Good to know that there are still many people (including you) who still remember this director.
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WE surely miss him dont we???
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man i just love the “desh ke gaddaar” dialogues from Tridev… sample this:
Shekhar Suman character has just been killed off and Anupam Kher character upon hearing this bad news goes something like this: “kya??? ek aur desh bhakht ko in desh ke dushmanon ne apne list se kaat liya??” lol… also the songs were out of this world
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I miss this director…had a great sense of what will work…in fact Tridev is one of my earliest cinematic memeories. Thanks Aditya you have expressed what I have always felt about this director!
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