Ghayal

Unarguably, one of the best action packed movies of the Indian Cinema. Although, Sunny Deol is the lead character and protagonist but the wily charm exuded by Amrish Puri is enough of an accreditation for him to win the role of a reckless villain.

Puran was a villain suited to the classic decades of 50s and 60s. However, the uncouth, violent and crooked portrayal provided by Amrish Puri is the sign of the X generation, those who love to watch non-stop violence packed with sensational background music and exciting story.

The character sketch of a "Young angry man striving to fight an unjust society" initially boasted and pioneered by Amitab Bachan in the earlier Indian movies, reached its climax as Ajay of Ghayal portrayed by Sunny Deol. This is definitely a very interesting and thrilling action packed movie laden with brazen excitement, right upto the ending.

If not all, many laurels for RajKumar Santoshi who undertook to translate the trends of the times with a good story, meaningful script as well as entertaining songs and action.

Rajkumar Santoshi is one of the finest directors in the Indian movie industry today and Ghayal is one of his signature movies. It's a wonderful revenge drama with some fine screenplay and good action. All the lead actors have performed excellently, Sunny Deol, Amrish Puri and Om Puri. The scene in the police station when Sunny Deol is locked up and the police officers try to make him take the blame for his brother's death is excellent.

Unfortunately, Ghayal is still categorized as a "Sunny Deol scream" movie. People do not see the intensity of Sunny Deol's acting. He repeated the same in Damini and Ghatak, after which the duo separated. However, Rajkumar Santoshi has found another ally in Ajay Devgan, another top notch actor. Hope we get to see more films like these from him.

This movie gave Sunny Deol his first award, until then he was a struggling actor. I watched this movie when I was very young. It impressed me then it still impresses me to this day. Out of all the performances it was Sunny Deol's performance as the angry young man that stood out. Amrish Puri went through the motions, Raj Babbar was good and Meenakshi provided good support.

Sunny Deol career has gone downhill since his Ghayal days. The last impressive film he made was Border over a decade ago. These days he restricts himself to patriotic films which get him nowhere. This movie was directed by Rajkumar Santoshi, who went on to make great films like Damini and the highly underrated China- Gate. Coincidentally Raj Kanwar's name is mentioned as a assistant director, he went on to make Dewaana, Laadla, Judaai, Daag and many more. This was Sunny Deol in his finest hour.

The anger, the desperation, the angst, the joy of being with loved ones, the sadness, the disgust at the system, vigilante revenge and the dialogues (balwant rai ke kutte, sab bikhe huen hain..and i can go on)..well no one could done this role with such hard hitting conviction and reality than Sunny Deol.

How I wish more directors would have given Sunny such roles..wow does he deliver here!

How I wish Rajkumar Santhoshi and Sunny had teamed up more after Damini and Ghatak. Only Santhoshi was able to extract such career defining performance from Sunny.

I first saw Ghayal when in school, and have seen it many times over the years and recently too, and everytime I feel that I haven't seen a better action movie. The music by Bappida complements the story, the back ground score is just superb and Meenakshi Sheshadri is excellent as the hero's love interest. The movie is also aided by having the best ever villain late Amrish Puri and great supporting artists - the late Om Puri, Kulbushan Kharbandha, late Shafi Inamdar, Raj Babbar, moushami chatterjee and Annu Kapoor

All in all, India's best action emotion movie ever, and Sunny, fully deserving of the best actor filmfare award and National award special jury -best actor.

Never to be missed.

Ghayal is arguably Rajkumar Santoshi's best film. The film although classified as an action film. The film is in fact a revenge drama with Sunny Doel as the avenger and Amraish Puri as the villain. The film is well executed and keeps you on the edge of your seat. For a Indian film it is stylishly shot and for an action film it has a very good story which is quite emotional at times such as in the court room scenes. The songs are hummable and fit in well in the context of the film.

The film has you rooting for Sunny Doel in his quest for revenge with the whole system against him. Sunny Doel is excellent in his national award-winning performance. Menakshi is also very good as his supportive girlfriend. While Raj Babbar and Moushami provide adequate support as Sunny's family. Om Puri is good and makes an impact in a small role of a good cop in a corrupt system. While Amraish Puri proves why he is one of the best villains ever to hit the big screen.

This film is well-directed, has a good story and performances and is well-worth watching. It may be noted Santoshi went on to make other good films such as Damani and Ghatak with the same principle star-cast however this remains his best film to date.