Tridev

Rajiv Rai's 'Tridev' is very much the typical multistarrer flick on the 80s. With its over the top action sequences, songs appearing out of nowhere, heroines who are there for eye-candy, repetitive coincidences etcetera. Let's start with the good side. The catchy soundtrack is quite good, my favourite song being 'Gali Gali Mein Firta Hai'. The 'heroines' are quite pretty. While there is Sonam and Madhuri Dixit, they can easily be overlooked when a sizzling Sangeeta Bijlani appears on screen (however, she is an awful dancer). Sunny Deol, Jackie Shroff and Naseeruddin Shah are cast as the action heroes and it is Shah who steals the show with his over the top performance by providing some excellent comic relief. The late Amrish Puri is a delight to watch when he plays the over the top villain. 'Tridev' is quite entertaining in parts. It's not as boring as for example, Feroz Khan's 'Janbaaz'. I fast forwarded most of the dishum dishum action sequences and maybe it's not such a bad movie to play on your DVD player while you're cooking or ironing your clothes. Campy.

Paap se dharti phati Adharm se aasmaan Atyachaar se kaanpi insaaniyat Raj kar rahe haivaan ... Jinki hogi taqat apoorv Jinka hoga nishana abhed Joh karenge inka sarvanaash ... Woh kehlayenge Tridev Tridev Tridev!!

Most of the 80s kids would recite this prologue of this film. School ho ya picnic. It was a huge hit. Haha! So was the film.

Being a Gen X kiddo, I love multi star entertainers of those times. Tridev, for me, was a complete film in that aspect ticking all the right boxes in terms of stellar cast, hit songs, pulsating action, a formidable villain and above all, guaranteed entertainment. Infact, it is a film I have seen more than 100 times...yes, you read that right, 100 times on VHS. No other film comes close to this personal record.

Those days, any new movie used to be released simultaneously in theatres as well as video (and I mean original, not pirated camera prints!!) and I saw Tridev on VHS the very first day of its release. For the next few months, I watched it practically every day sometimes rewinding my favorite songs and scenes. One scene I love in the film is where Jackie Shroff helps jailbreak Rajesh Vivek in a helicopter. Another one is just before the interval where the villains visit Sunny Deol in village and set his home on fire.

The film's music is still memorable (Kalyanji Anandji were credited as music directors though most of the work including BGM was done by Kalyanji's son Viju Shah) and has lend itself to many remixes in recent times.

The Oye Oye song had become a national craze already and it was impossible to get the movie tickets for first few weeks. Expectedly, the film became a resounding hit at the box office. It played at Regal cinema (Colaba) and the Minerva, Mumbai for first couple of weeks before shifting to Roxy cinema where it completed 50 weeks.

More about the film, well, it was Naseeruddin Shah's first commercial outing and he got a meaty role. Sonam had more screen time than Madhuri Dixit while Sunny Deol got the best dialogues and fight sequences. Jackie Dada looked smashing opposite pretty Sangeeta Bijalani. And ofcourse, Amrish Puri was brilliant as Bhujang, the main antagonist to our three heroes.

Karan Saxena who is a very honest and dedicated inspector is being transferred to Madhupur when he sets out to investigate about corruption, murder and idealism in his community. The police suspect is that a criminal called Bhujang/Bhairav Singh (Amrish Puri) is involved in every crime of the country. While in Madhupur, Karan befriends Jai Singh another victim of Bhujang's terror. While Ravi who is Divya's (Madhuri Dixit) brother has doubt for Bhujang in his mind too. He, however, ends up and fall in love with a cabaret dancer Natasha (Sangeeta Bijlani). All three men decided to form a gang called Tridev and destroy Bhujang and his gang.

Sunny , jackey and nasir all works better and acting wise we know these are unbeatable actors specially Sunny and jackey superstars at that moment generation.

I watched this film many times as a kid, and it always kept me on the edge of my seat. This of course is not an example of great filmmaking or storytelling, but it still works as a masala flick, and is actually quite slick for a movie of its sort. The action scenes are typical for the times but are quite fun to watch. There are three heroes in this film, and all three are very good: Jackie Shroff doing the nonchalant guy in search of himself, Sunny Deol playing the angry-young-man, while obviously Naseeruddhin Shah steals the show in a ceaselessly amusing role, played with a great deal of humour by an actor who seems to have no qualms about ridiculing himself. Then there are the three hot ladies - the pretty Sonam, the impossibly stunning Madhuri Dixit, while actually it is the beautiful Sangeeta Bijlani who gets the meatiest part in what is possibly her best role, and does the most of it in addition to having a very nice chemistry with Shroff.

And then there's the music, and what an amazing soundtrack it is. Each song is a gem and holds such great nostalgic value for me. "Tirchi Topiwale" and "Main Teri Mohabbat Main" are great numbers, but it is "Gali Gali" which is one of my all-time favourite songs. A true gem of a song - soulful, melodious, and wonderfully written, composed and arranged with a rare touch of psychedelia. This number was one of the first that shot the phenomenal Alka Yagnik to fame, and her rendition is flawless. Other than that, Tridev works as a nice thriller which doesn't have much depth and is ridden with stereotypical heroes and villains, but it should not be taken too seriously - it should be enjoyed, and there's plenty to enjoy here.