THE CINEMA OF THE EYES

Hi there fellow cinema geeks, I've been researching a lot over the past few weeks therefore the short sabbatical. And let us get straight to business.

Welcome to yet another week of The Cinema of The Eyes...where movies are our staple and scripts our Bible.

The Cinema Reel is fast becoming a trade mark for this space.

"Paap se dharti phati, adharm se aasman.
Inspector Karan Saxena is a honest and diligent police inspector with the Bombay Police Force. He lives a middle-class life with his father, a Judge, and has a sweetheart in Divya Mathur, the daughter of Police Commissioner Mathur, who he hopes to marry soon. Things do not go well for Karan as he uses excessive force and is disciplined for trying to make a false arrest, and ultimately gets transferred to distant Madhopur; his engagement to Divya is annulled by Mathur; and his dad purportedly commits suicide. 
2. The Villains : Dilip Tahil, Jackie Shroff and others come to kill Sunny Deol. They pour petrol everywhere in his house except him. Wait a minute......The idea was to kill Sunny Deol right?
3. While the above scene is happening, Sunny Deol's hands and feet are tied with a rope and the best gaali he came up with was 'Saale Kutte......Haraamzaade'
4. Jay (Naseeruddin Shah)  and Inspector Karan (Sunny Deol) meet for the first time and become friends for life. Ready to die for each other. So much so that Jay is ready to jump in the fire that is supposedly killing Karan.







6. Bhujang is a man of simple of tastes. Even in the midst of danger he does not leave his knack for sharaab and shabaab.
7. Suprisingly, like Vishwatma, The Viillain kidnaps almost every girl in the movie but nobody touches them for some whimsical reason.
8. Every heroin in the film has her own item song except the lovely and wonderful Madhuri Dixit. She had to share her song with two other leading ladies. 
Sangeeta Bijlani : Gali Gali Me Phirta Hai & Raat Bhar Jaam Se.
Sonam : Tirchi Topi Waale.
Madhuri Dixit : Main Teri Mohabbat Me.

Despite all of this both Tridev and Vishwatma continue to entertain and inspire me to a great degree.
As I conclude, I wish to thank and give credit to a lot of people who have been helping me with research since the day I was born
Ms. Neha Arora : For all those evenings of these fun films.
and lastly....
Mr. Abhinav Alexander and Mr. Vijay James : For their unconditional support and access to their DVD collection.

As i mentioned above that I was engaged in research. Well the research is now over and we have results.

In the 1980's and the early 1990's there were a string of films which had the same plot, same villain , same locations and sometimes same cast too......

Irrespective of their box office collections, these films have now attained cult status.

Here are a couple of their posters :

Note : This is not a critique. I love these movies from the bottom of my heart. This is just a way of appreciation.

1. Vishwatma

PLOT : (You may skip this part if you've seen the film )

Vishwatma is the story of a man named Prabhat Singh (Sunny Deol) who is an honest and dedicated police officer. He usually has no time for his family and his father is constantly at loggerheads with him. Prabhat is currently on a mission to apprehend the most dreaded crime lord Ajgar Jurrat (Amrish Puri) who lives in Kenya but operates in India. Things take a turn for the worse when Prabat kills Ajgar's brother in an encounter. 

An angered Ajgar abducts and kills Prabhat's school-going brother. Prabhat's father disowns him from the family. 

Meanwhile, one of Ajgar's men turns against him and threatens to turn him in to the police. Fearing his arrest, Ajgar has the man, Madan Bhardwaj (Mangal Dhillon) killed on the night of his wedding. Thus, Madan's brother Akash Bhardwaj (Chunky Pandey) swears revenge on Ajgar. 

Prabhat, on the other hand,  moves to a remote corner of a distant village in India after his dad disowns him. Prabat's dad also changes his mind and decides to go to persuade Prabat to take on the mission to bring Ajgar back to India.Prabat agrees to take on the mission but insists that Akash also join him. Akash agrees as well. And they fly all the way to Kenya on a mission to bring the dreaded criminal to justice in India. There, Prabat and Akash find Madan's sister-in-law Renuka (Sonam) who's also on the same mission. She helps them get to Ajgar. But this task is not as easy as they may have thought as Ajgar is a respected citizen in Kenya. 

Prabhat and Akash seek the help of another honest cop, Surya Pratap (Naseeruddin Shah) to apprehend Ajgar. However, Surya Pratap thinks Ajgar is an honorable man. Akash falls in love with Ajgar's daughter, Sonia (Jyotsna Singh) and Prabat falls for Kusum (Divya Bharti). Renuka falls in love with Surya, despite knowing he has a daughter. Surya's wife committed suicide while Ajgar's son tried to molest her. When Surya learns that Ajgar's son was the reason behind his wife's death, he sets out to take revenge against Ajgar as well.

Some Trivia and Observations : (Trust me you wanna read this part )

1. Why does a cop always realize his true potential after being suspended from duty?

2. How is it that an honest cop, a rogue and another honest cop just run into each other and swear revenge against a common enemy?

3. A mastermind like Ajgar Jurrat could not recognize Inspector Prabhat in such a bad disguise.

4. Ajgar plans to take over the world by killing just two honest cops. Nice. Meticulous planning.

5. The Master Mind Ajgar Jurrat's son has a knack for talking in Hindi. Understood.

But the fact that he sings Saat Samundar Paar to his father's nemesis is just plain jane trippy.

6. Lastly, Ajgar kidnaps almost all the heroines once at least. How come none of the villains even touch the females?

Verdict : 

Vishwatma may be one of the films with the same plot line and script yet it is unique in it's own fashion.

The music is wonderful and Saat Samundar Paar is and will continue to be one of my top ten favourite

tracks in the world.

Most importantly, Vishwatma has Sunny Deol. Need I say more?

2. Tridev 

  

PLOT : (You may skip this part if you've seen the film )

Atyachar se kaapi insaniyat , raj kar rahe haivan.

Jinki taakat apurna, jinka nishana abhed.

Jo karenge inka sarvnash, vo kehlayenge Tridev"

Karan re-locates to Madhopur, has a violent encounter with a bandit named Jay Singh, but both become friends after they realize that they have something in common - honesty, and to avenge their woes against Bhujang and his gang. When they do reach Bhujang, they find out that he has a new lieutenant - Ravi Mathur - who is none other than Divya's brother. Karan, Ravi and Jay plot and plan to to stip Bhujang's evil forces from taking over the world and succeed therefore the trio is referred to as Tridev (Three Dev's : Three Gods)

Some Trivia and Observations : (Trust me you wanna read this part ) :

1. Can someone please tell me where can I find the background music that plays whenever 

Amrish Puri is on screen?

5. Disguise. Jay and Karan were best of friends yet Jay is unable to recognize his best friend because he just grew a moustache. I thought you guys were best of friends.

These are one of my favourite films of all time. And primarily because these had one of the finest actors this country has produced be it Naseerudin Shah, Amrish Puri, Jackie Shroff  or Madhuri Dixit.

Ms. Shweta James : For dancing to these songs while in school.

Ms. Ekta Alexander : For getting audio cassettes and VHS of the above movies.

Mr. Varun Razdan : For making me familiar with the character of Bhujang and his unique background music.