This is a movie which epitomizes the love of a boy for his father. The Vijay has no repentance in what he does his only goal is to avenge his father’s unjust killing by the anti hero Kancha. At the end while Vijay breathes his last he sees his father’s image calling him to follow him perhaps to read out the poem again.
This movie in my view has at last shown the face of pure evil in Hindi Cinema, Sanjay Dutt playing the role of Kancha has actually shown that pure evil actually exists between us and we don’t need to go to Hollywood to see Mr. Tom Riddle Alias Lord Voldemort, Sanju Baba as everyone fondly calls him has made a mark on screen which leaves the audience no choice but to nauseate at his every appearance on the screen, his portrayal is so strong as an the anti hero that the audience starts hating him at the very first sighting on the screen, perhaps one of the best portrayals of a negative character by an actor who is used to play roles where the audience always loved him. Mr. Dutt has indeed proved his versatility by playing the role of the immensely hated Kancha
At the same time we had Rauf Lala (Rishi Kapoor) another character who is pure evil perhaps not as raw as the role portrayed by Sanjay Dutt but still unapologetic, ruthless, cold blooded, void of feelings and yet has his own charisma on the screen, a person whom you would love to hate. The heart throb of millions in the 70’s & 80’s plays his 4th negative role and he is too good. The amount of love the audience showered on him in the movies during the 70’s & 80’s would just be overshadowed by perhaps the amount of hatred and disgust one would feel for him in this movis. I would say a perfectly characterized negative role by Rishi Kapoor.
I enjoyed seeing Kancha being killed in the movie as a matter of fact I could see some people flinch at Kancha’s ruthlessness in the movie and also people almost cheering to see him actually die at the end.
Post the movie I just can’t help humming the following lines written by Harivansh Rai Bachchan and adapted in the movie.
Vriksh ho bhale khade,
ho ghane ho bade,
Ek pat chhav ki
mang mat, mang mat, mang mat
Agneepath Agneepath Agneepath.
Tu na thakega kabhi,
tu na thamega kabhi,
tu na mudega kabhi,
Kar shapath, kar shapath, kar shapath,
Agneepath, Agneepath, Agneepath.
Ye mahaan drishya hai,
chal raha manushya hai,
Ashru swed raqt se
lathpath, lathpath, lathpath,
Agneepath, Agneepath, Agneepath.
The beauty of this movie is that it has been remade by keeping the flavour of the original movie intact and also respecting it enough to not try and make an exacr replica and yet carving its own Niche.
For example the original was a struggle of a Man (Amitabh Bachchan) and the new one is that of a Boy (Hrithik Roshan)…
All in all a complete paisa vasool and an amazing jhatka to the brain.
Love
JD



