Agneepath From a Dummy’s Perspective
Bollywood, Movies, Reviews — By Badri Parthasarathy on February 7, 2012 3:17 pm
Enough has been said and discussed about Dharma Productions’ retake on the 1990 classic. So I am not going to contribute anything new from a movie review point of view. However I thought there was still some merit in a reasonably objective perspective on ‘Agneepath 2011′, coming from someone who has seen bits and pieces of the original but not seen and soaked in totality multiple times.
The bad news:
Where is the Agnee?
By totally keeping out the Bachchan paradigm out you clearly downgrade the expectations from an iconic film to an also ran 80s style masala flick in the ‘Bodyguard, Singham, Ready, Wanted’ assembly line. Case in point, no kickass Gaitonde scene, no unique voice modulation, lame Vijay-Kancha confrontation scene and so on.
Why so long?
In my humble opinion, any masala movie beyond 2.15 hrs has some serious explaining to do. In this case the senti scenes in 2nd half and long drawn out Mandwa scenes (including the Bargar ki Saugandh) comfortably tip the movie over how long it should be.
Kaali is short for Kaali Daag?
We have seen this Basanti school of acting so many times and over so long that this one truly grates on your nerves. You sometimes feel if Shilpa Shetty in Rishtey was better(thats a serious low).I was atleast hoping for that hot rain number they show in the trailers, but even that was not there.
Hrithik cant cry…
Duggu has 3 distinct expressions in the movie. ‘The silent anger’, which I think he does well, ‘The angry roar’, which works partly because of his physique and ‘The cry baby’ which I swear to god is pure constipation at play.He tries so hard to cry but the harder he does the more awkward it looks.
The Bargar ka pedh…
Lets not even get started on this. Its fine, if you want to stake a claim for the most clichéd set piece in Indian film history, but you better keep it crisp and not drag on endlessly with current, flashback and imagination shots.
The Good news:
It is still Agneepath man…
Though they might have done a shitty job with the remake, the inherent masalapan of the original script still does not desert them. The only original contributions from the makers being the addition of Rauf Lala and removal of Krishnan Iyer. This overall arrangement works pretty fine for me as I am not a big fan of clichéd tamil caricatures in Bollywood.
The veterans at work
As we all know by now Chintu and Baba save the day in a big way. Especially Chintu who gets his best role in ages(pl dont tell me Lov Aaj Kal) has some super scenes like his intro and exit pieces which are trul clap worthy. Sanju Baba looks menacing throughout but suffers from a good deal of ordinarily written scenes.
Production Values….
Camera is efficient, music barring Chikni(though rehashed) may not be outstanding but is surely melodious. Dongri though not too realistic is still way better than Chandni Chowk in K3G
I never expected a Bachchan out of Hrithik or a Mukul Anand out of a Karan Malhotra, walking into this movie. Keeping that in mind I would give it a 2.25/5. Rename it ‘Bargar ka Saugandh’, cut the length by 15 mts, throw in a Nagmaesque dance and kid yourself that you are in 1985, then I will probably stretch the score upto a 3.
i very much disagree wit the above review. firstly, u cannot count this film in the list of stupid masala films like dabbang and ready. i honestly believe that this waz hrithik’s best performance till date. for the 1st time in his career he hazn’t overacted. it waz very restrained and powerful performance. although priyanka chopra had a small role, she did quite a good job with it. u seriously can’t compare her performance to shilpta shetty in ‘rishtey’. it is an insult to the best actress in the current crop of ladies. noone and i mean noone has had the versatility that she has. her performances in aitraaz, fashion and 7 khoon maaf are outstanding. (do not counter me with vidya balan who is seriously overrated). also the confronatation scenes between vijay and kancha are NOT lame. i found them very powerful. sanjay dutt was absolutely incredible in this movie. so evil is he that i would go so far to say that he is ‘evil personified’ in the film. rishi kapoor, without a doubt, was a surprise package here and gives 1 of his best performances ever. a lot of best actor in a negative role and supporting role are gonna come to these two actors. agneepath has the most mindblowing and impactful background score anyone must have ever heard in recent times. and who can forget the picturisation of ‘deva shree ganesha’. kudos 2 aaple ‘ajay-atul’ for that. agreed that the film was long. thats the ONLY problem. it is the best remake i have seen till date in hindi cinema (mind you i have watched the original too). a worthy one. i would go with — 3 1/2 / 5 for this movie.
It seems you purposefully commented on another post because of the reactions over there…
And if you want to teach me Maths then your comment on the Housefull 2 trailer needs some statistical knowledge…As Sajid Khan whether everyone hates him or not, has scored full marks on that subject….
So keep the box office figures out if you are on a serious debate…
sajid khan films were semi-hits. neither of his films have made more than 60 crs. so u might be giving him full marks. but i don’t. his films are as crappy as they can get. besides, every person known to me has immensely liked agneepath. and that’s quite a number. so its not ‘very few’. its MANY. A LOT.
Understanding the fact that there is something called as inflation which I am sure unfortunately you must not know; needs a serious overhaul for the Math that you have studied…
i agree with omkar. for one, the film is not a remake, and more a tribute, which is why every single point of the modulation missing and the bachchan fire missing gets tossed out of the window, for they never meant to remake and recreate the original. It is a retelling, which is perfect, for now we do not have to judge Hrithik’s Vijay with Amitbah’s version. Hrithik was up against an icon of a character, and he fared quite good, with his retrained controlled performance. it is his best till date and one of the best this year. Priyanka had a small part, but was definitely not irritating, she was good, deliverd what was expected, and Basanti act is anyways d best anyday. the scale, the background score, all of it was mindblowing. Length could have been shorter for a new fresh 2012 story, but this was a story from the 80′s retold, and if only for the sake of nostalgia, the length was apt! judge a film by its own merits, not by comparisions to others and you would see a whole new perspective perhaps
and i did not purposefully comment on this post. that post was strike 1. this post is strike 2. which is y i commented here.