Story of movie Agneepath 1990 Film :
Agneepath (English: The Path of Fire) is a 1990 Indian crime drama film directed by Mukul Anand. It stars Amitabh Bachchan as the protagonist Vijay Deenanath Chauhan along with Mithun Chakraborty, Madhavi, Neelam Kothari, Rohini Hattangadi and Danny Denzongpa as the antagonist Kancha Cheena. The film was produced by Yash Johar.
| Agneepath | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Mukul S. Anand |
| Produced by | Yash Johar |
| Screenplay by | Santosh Saroj Kader Khan |
| Story by | Santosh Saroj |
| Starring | Amitabh Bachchan Mithun Chakraborty Madhavi Neelam Kothari Danny Denzongpa Rohini Hattangadi Alok Nath |
| Music by |
|
| Cinematography | Pravin Bhatt |
| Edited by | Waman Bhonsle |
| Distributed by | Dharma Productions (India) Warner Bros. (US VHS only) TriStar Pictures (US DVD and Blu-ray) |
Release date |
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Running time | 174 minutes |
| Country | India |
| Language | Hindi |
| Budget | ?285.6 million (US$4.0 million) |
| Box office | ?102.5 million (US$1.4 million) |
The title was taken from a poem of the same name called 'Agneepath' which was penned by Harivansh Rai Bachchan, Amitabh's father, and which is recited at the beginning of the movie and creates a thematic link that continues through the movie, particularly in the climax, both literally and metaphorically.
It is based on Al Pacino's 1983 Scarface.
Agneepath has grown a strong cult film over the years. Amitabh Bachchan received his first National Film Award for Best Actor at the 38th National Film Awards for his performance. Mithun Chakraborty received the Filmfare Best Supporting Actor Award. The film, despite being the tenth highest-grosser of 1990, had collections way below its high budget, and thus, the film recorded as flop at the box-office. The film was remade in 2012 with the same title, by Johar's son Karan Johar, as a tribute to his father.
Screenplay
Much-loved village schoolmaster Deenanath Chauhan (Alok Nath) strongly opposes the plans of Kancha Cheena, an underworld don (Danny Dengzongpa) and his band of gangsters to set up a base for heroin smuggling. After being discredited in a set-up scandal and lynched by the manipulated villagers, his family is evicted and made destitute much to Cheena's advantage. Swearing revenge after his father's murder and the attempted rape of his mother Suhasini Chavan (Rohini Hattangadi) go unpunished, and with a burning desire to clear his father's name, his son Vijay (Amitabh Bachchan) takes on the responsibilities of caring for his mother and sister Siksha (Neelam) that, by a strange twist of fate, cause him to become a gangster in his own right. Working his way up the ladder and attaining notoriety as an underworld kingpin, Vijay suffers an assassination attempt by fellow gangsters after he refuses to co-operate with their drug-smuggling operations. Left to die, he is discovered by Krishnan Iyer M.A. (Mithun Chakraborty) who transports him to hospital and saves his life, and who eventually finds employment as Siksha's bodyguard. During his time in hospital, Vijay is cared for by Nurse Mary Matthew (Madhavi).
Vijay avenges his assassination attempt by killing his killers one by one, but his mother strongly disapproves of his murderous and gangster tendencies and drives him away from home after chastising him for dirtying the good name of his father. Vijay, hurt and upset, seeks solace in Mary's arms and begins a relationship with her. Siksha is then kidnapped and held in a slum by a gangster who wants to avenge the death of his associates killed by Vijay, and an unsuccessful rescue attempt by Krishnan ends up with the two of them brawling. Vijay hears of this and arrives to kill the gangster in a fit of rage. But this close encounter between Krishnan and Siksha causes a growing intimacy between the two of them and they fall in love with each other. Vijay is outraged and strongly protests against the relationship to his mother, but is rebuffed again when his mother disowns him a second time and considers Krishnan her "good son". Stung and deeply hurt by this slight, he again seeks solace in Mary and later marries her and resolves to do things "in the right way" to gain his mother's favour.
After cutting a deal with Kancha Cheena to allow him access into his old village, Vijay sets in motion a number of strategies that undercut Cheena's criminal operations and gain him the legal ownership of the village. Revenge is a dish best served cold as Vijay informs Cheena of his identity as the son of Dinanath Chavan, lands Cheena in jail and arranges for Cheena's associates to testify against him in court. Vijay returns the village to his mother and finds himself back in her favour, but Cheena ensures his release by arranging for the witnesses to be gunned down and Vijay's family to be kidnapped and held hostage. This is the last straw for Vijay who is forced to return to his criminal ways and to walk the "Path of Fire" in order to rescue them. An almighty struggle takes place as Cheena bombs every building and demolishes the whole village before he is killed by Vijay's bare hands. But Vijay does not survive; he dies tragically of a bullet wound in the lap of his mother at the site of his old house. His mother realises that everything Vijay had done until then had been for the ultimate purpose of restoring the good name of Dinanath Chavan, and she weeps over his body piteously along with Krishnan, Siksha and Mary.
- Amitabh Bachchan as Vijay Chauhan
- Mithun Chakraborty as Krishnan Iyer M.A.
- Madhavi as Mary Mathew
- Danny Denzongpa as Kancha Cheena (Powerful Underworld Don)
- Neelam Kothari as Siksha Chauhan
- Goga Kapoor as Dinkar Rao
- Alok Nath as Master Deenanath Chauhan
- Rohini Hattangadi as Suhasini Chauhan
- Sharat Saxena as Terralin (Rival Gang leader)
- Tinnu Anand as Nathu
- Vikram Gokhale as Commissioner M. S. Gaitonde
- Archana Puran Singh as Shanti aka Laila
- Avtar Gill as Usman Bhai (Rival Gang leader)
- Shammi as Tara Bai
- Bob Christo as Gora
- Shakti Kapoor as himself in the song Ali Baba
- Asha Sachdev as Chanda Bai
- Deepak Shirke as Anna Shetty (Rival Gang leader)
- Pradeep Rawat as Vijay's Henchman
- Master Manjunath as Young Vijay
- Anjan Srivastav as Police Constable
- Tabassum
- Monty Sharma
A characteristic feature of the movie was the dark undertones and the grim atmosphere of the film, which was unusual for any of Amitabh Bachchan's films. It was noted that the film was "grim" due to the protagonist, Vijay Chavan's bloodlust and ferocity. The film utilised a lot of dark distortions in the imagery, which were a common theme in some Gangster Films. Mithun Chakraborty's unique role of Krishnan Iyer was inspired by one of his roommates of his struggling days, before he became a popular film star. In his struggling days Chakraborty used to be room sharing with Devio who used to pay 150 Rupees while Chakraborty Used to pay 75 Rupees. Devio had the a bed while Chakraborty used to sleep on the floor, one specific time Chakraborty used his bed whilst he was at work and when Devio came back he scolded Chakraborty. This incident remained with Chakraborty and he put Devio's character on screen. Tinnu Anand, who played the role of the Village Drunkard, shaved his head to obtain the age difference between him and Amitabh Bachchan. The film was shot extensively in Mumbai in several locations such as Andheri, Goregaon, and Colaba. The locations and the photography drew positive feedback from critics.
When released, Agneepath was a failure, both at the box office as well as among the critics. However, Karan Johar recounts in an interview how younger city based audiences thought it was a cool film. "Over the top, inane songs", dialogues "veering towards melodrama" and, more importantly, Amitabh Bachchan's experimentation with his voice did not go well with the masses and the critics alike. Film Trade Analyst Komal Nahta wrote thus about Bachchan's voice, : "But the biggest undoing of the film is Amitabh Bachchan’s voice. He has spoken the dialogue in a different voice (inspired by Marlon Brando in The Godfather) which will not be accepted by the audience. Further the mixing not being clear, his dialogues are incomprehensible at places." He further wrote that the film lacked a gripping drama, well-set script, and that even the murder scenes lacked excitement. Satish Naidu in his review noted that the narrative had a slow pace in the last hour. Another fact that worked against the advantage of the film was its weak story. Rediff's review of Agneepath suggested that perhaps, the grim, violent, aggressive and dark portrayal of the underbelly of Mumbai's underworld had worked against the film.
However, the National Award for the best actor being bestowed on Amitabh Bachchan changed the perspective in which the film was appreciated. Over the years, favourable reviews trickling in made Agneepath a cult classic. Currently, Agneepath has been rated 7.8 by on a scale of 10 in the Internet Movie Database by 1,723 users. In review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 90% of 641 user ratings favour the movie. Sanjay Dutt, the actor who plays Kancha Cheena's role in the remake praised the film saying that it was well ahead of its time when asked about the original film- : "I loved the original film and if I was the whole of audience, I would have made it a big hit. I think may be the film was too ahead of times. Mukul is a brilliant director and his vision was so much ahead of his time." Satish Naidu commented in his blog that Agneepath's direction, camera work and cinematography "had some serious physicality going for the film". He further drove home his opinion, describing the betrayal of a certain "undeveloped terrain below" by the jagged, staccato-like movements of the camera work. Further, Mr.Naidu praised the way in which Mukul Anand portrayed Amitabh Bachchan in the film. An interesting aspect of the film was its cinematography, handled by Pravin Bhatt, which has been described as "marvelous" due to the "beautiful scenes shot in Mauritius. The ship bombing scene was executed well, and that the portrayal of the picturesque scenery of trees and fields in full bloom (in the songs, especially) met with rave reviews. Movie Reviewer Peter Nepstad in his blog, the "Illuminated Lantern" wrote that:
- "Agneepath is deliriously melodramatic. The first thirty minutes, the prologue of the film if you will, in the village of his youth, ranks among the best openings of any Bollywood film I've ever seen. Afterwards, when most Bollywood films crank it down for some syrupy romance or goofy comedy, Agneepath plops its adult protagonist right in the middle of a gang fight. Often a film has a great set piece at the beginning, then deflates by the end, but Agneepath continues amping up the conflict from beginning to end, from riots in a village to riots in a city to mudfights in the slums to swordfights in the middle of a festival."
The movie's review in Rediff.com, mentioned that: "Agneepath, despite its amplified sentimentality, strong language and violence works on account of this very dynamism. "
Though according to trade website Box Office India, the gross collection of the movie was Rs 10,25,00,000, way below the film's budget of Rs 28,56,00,000. But actually the truth is diff . Till 1993 , the biggest budgeted Hindi movie was Roop Ki Rani Choron Ki Raja and the value was 9 crs. Agneepath was made in a budget of 6 crs and it was hit in Bombay territory and was avg else where. Almost 3crs footfalls were recorded for Agneepath during its release. And it was very well received in video circuit then.
All music composed by Laxmikant Pyarelal, Jean Michel Jarre.
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