Agneepath | Movie Review

Review:

It’s a huge risk remaking a film like Agneepath, which (we believe) is one of the toughest Amitabh Bachchan films to remake. Apart from Bachchan’s performance as the iconic Vijay Dinanath Chauhan, the Agneepath of the 90s was a box-office failure. Producer Yash Johar who had put his heart and soul into making the original, was heart broken when the film failed commercially.
Decades later, his son Karan Johar along with his long-time assistant director Karan Malhotra, decide to remake the film and cast Hrithik Roshan as Vijay Dinanath Chauhan. While retaining the core storyline, they replace Mithun Chakraborty’s character with Rishi Kapoor’s negative role and also modify the character of the female lead (played by Priyanka Chopra).

The story is pretty simple – Kancha (Sanjay Dutt) kills Master Dinanath Chauhan, his son Vijay Dinanath Chauhan (Hrithik Roshan) grows up under mafia king Rauf Lala (Rishi Kapoor) and eventually takes over Mumbai. His only intention though is to avenge the horrific killing of his father. Kaali (Priyanka Chopra) his only emotional support, loves him unconditionally.

What’s good in Agneepath
The performances are top notch – Not in one scene does Hrithik try to copy Amitabh Bachchan, instead he brings in his own personality, charm and intensity to the character. His eyes convey the emotional turmoil that he is going through. Sanjay Dutt is outstanding as Kancha, his dialogue delivery, devilish laughter make you shudder in fear. Rishi Kapoor is great in a negative role. Priyanka Chopra has little to do, but leaves a mark in her scenes with Hrithik.

Action, emotions and revenge: The storyline is such that, you can’t help but feel for Hrithik’s character. Which is one of the reasons, the climax (last 30 minutes) works big time.  Also, there are quite a few emotional scenes (brother-sister, mother-son relationship) that could make you cry. The action sequences are brilliantly choreographed and performed, especially by Hrithik. The way he run is epic, his intro scene is similar to Krrish.

For a first time director, director Karan Malhotra does very well. Even with the burden of expectations and the inevitable comparisons with the original, Malhotra manages to keep the audience hooked to the proceedings, without trying to cash-in on those popular dialogues (for e.g the ‘Naam Vijay Chauhan’ dialogue is uttered just once).

Ajay-Atul’s music is fantastic, even the way it’s picturized is good. But it sadly slackens the pace and adds to the runtime. Katrina Kaif’s Chikni Chameli received the biggest cheer after Hrithik Roshan’s intro scene.

What not so good in Agneepath
The pace picks up and drops quite a few times. The film as a whole suffers from being a little too slow for today’s generation. Also the length (2 hours 45 mins) could test your patience. A couple of unnecessary songs, could have been completely edited off or cut shorter. Don’t really understand the point of having 4 songs in a film, which increases the runtime by about 20 odd minutes.
A bit of humor would have helped the film immensely. Agneepath is intense and violent from start to finish.

Overall, Agneepath is a good film that could have been better. Do watch it once, if not for anything else, atleast for the fabulous performances. From the box-office point of view, it has immense potential to be one of the biggest grosser in recent times – has enough appeal towards both the classes and the masses. The film has opened to a historic response all over and the word-of-mouth is good.


Cast
Hrithik Roshan as Vijay Deenanath Chauhan
Priyanka Chopra as Kaali Gawde
Sanjay Dutt as Kancha Cheena
Rishi Kapoor as Rauf Lala
Zarina Wahab as Suhasini Chauhan
Om Puri as Inspector Gaitonde
Rajesh Tandon as Mazhar Lala
Deven Bhojani as Azhar Lala
Chetan Pandit as Master Deenanath Chauhan
Arish Bhiwandiwala as Young Vijay Deenanath Chauhan
Kanika Tiwari as Shiksha Chauhan
Katrina Kaif Special appearance in Item number "Chikni Chameli"

Released on : January 26,2012

Posted in: Agneepath,Agneepath Movie Review,Movie Review