Saudagar

Typical early 90s movie. It might be a bit difficult to enjoy this one in 2024. Manisha does what is expected of her - she looks pretty, dances and cries. Vivek Mushran doesn't add much value; his highlight of the film are his impish expressions in the song ILU. Deepti Naval isn't given much to do. Jackie Shroff is good in his blink and miss role. The usual roster of baddies are also there - Amrish, Dalip and Gulshan Grover. There is a bit of everything - mellow-drama, enmity, love story, friendship, scenery and a couple of good songs. The highlight of this film are no doubt Raaj & Dilip Kumar. Raaj is majestic and Dilip is an enigma. Watching them together onscreen is like watching history in the making, you cant take your eyes off of them. Expectedly, they outperform everyone else. The story between their characters is what drives the film and if you are a fan of either of them (especially Raaj Kumar) than you will enjoy this but if you are looking for something new, I would give this one a skip.

What an amazing movie, Subhash Ghai has done and outstanding job with this film. I really loved, especially the meeting of two huge Bollywood stars, Raaj Kumar and Dilp Kumar, when they both got on screen you could feel the intensity and raw talent coming from both actors. Such an evergreen movie shouldn't be overlooked by Bollywood fans and viewers alike, I recommend you go out and watch this movie now it is really great. I also liked the music, particularly the song "Ilu Ilu", great song and this film helped launch the career of one Bollywood's most talented actresses, Manisha Koirala. Vivek Mushran was good in the movie also but I believe one Amrish Puri did steal the show. All in all a great film, I give it a 10/10, I would've given it a 9 but the song "Ilu Ilu" made me give it a higher score. I really loved this movie. R.I.P to Raaj Kumar, a really talented legend, movies like this are why he should never be forgotten.

. . .two giants of the Hindi film industry Dilip Kumar and Raj Kumar together on a screen. This movie also introduces Manisha who went on to become one of the most talented actresses of 90's. The story is not original but the music, dialogues and photography compensates for it.

Its disappointing to see a Subhash Ghai's film containing almost nothing and wasting actors such as Dilip Kumar, Raj Kumar, Jackie Shroff, Deepti Naval, Manisha Koirala. He really had nothing to talk about in this film. The music was below par. If you compare the music of this film with Kalicharan, Karz, Pardes or Hero it was a disgrace. Only the title song Saudagar is where the music director made his best attempt to create melody. The music may have become popular and sold many albums, but that could have many reasons, including good marketing and inducement. The reason for the dushmani was a simple misunderstanding but it was made so complicated with so many characters. Only the dialogs between Dilip and Raj were good to some extent. The scenes were literally written for the dialogues and situations created so that the dialogue can be said. Subhash must have thought that in each scene have lots of people standing and that would make a good scene or a good movie. Subhash had made some good movies like Kalicharan, Karz, Pardes. After Pardes his movies only looked grand but lacked a story and soul. Dilip Kumar was so good in Mashal, Vidhata because he had a good role. The ending also was senseless, where there is no use of brain power on the part of Dilip Kumar or Raj Kumar. The Villains use brain power and the heroes lack it.

Saudagar review :

They didn't call Subhash Ghai the 'SHOWMAN' for nothing!!

Only he could think of bringing the two titans - Dilip Kumar and Raaj Kumar - together as besties turned foes in a magnum opus loosely adapted from Romeo and Juliet. The focus was more on their feud than the love story of the young couple from the original classic tale.

Saudagar is a complete director's film and Ghai showed his true calibre by not only handling the two veterans who hadn't worked together after Paigham (1959) but also by introducing two fresh faces - Vivek Mushran and Manisha Koirala- out of which one went on to become a big star of the '90s.

Laxmikant Pyarelal always reserved their best for Ghai and the love duet 'ILU ILU' ruled the music charts for nearly one and half year after the film's release. After Tridev's Oye Oye, Ilu Ilu became eve teaser's favourite anthem and the police would actually pick anyone singing it loudly.

The confrontation scenes between Dilip Kumar and Raaj Kumar were epic stuff and the dialogue "Hum tumhe maarenge aur zaroor maarenge. Par woh bandook bhi hamari hogi, goli bhi hamari hogi aur waqt bhi hamara hogaa" joined the ranks of Raaj Kumar's best.

Clocking more than three hours, Saudagar opened to packed houses across India and it was simply impossible to procure tickets in its first week. I got to see the film only on its second tuesday at Matunga's Badal Cinema which was still going full. Most of the crowd were repeat and they were screaming the dialogues and cheering so loudly it was difficult to hear the screen. In 2017, Subhash Ghai re-premiered Saudagar at his own New Excelsior theatre in Mumbai and that was my second theatrical watch of this grand movie. This time, I had Ghai himself with Anupam Kher and Gulshan Grover seated in the row ahead of me. Wow!!

Regards, Sumeet Nadkarni.