Trishul

Review By Kamal K

Trishul - produced by noted producer Gulshan Rai and directed by Yash Chopra - relied primarily on Amitabh Bachchan's simmering intensity and volcanic angst. He played Vijay, a man with a mission to get even with his biological dad R. K. Gupta (Sanjeev Kumar) who had ditched his mother (Waheeda Rehman) to marry a wealthy heiress. Vijay's revenge is not physical but rather an emotional one wherein he wants to destroy his father's business empire. Vijay even conspires to win over Sheetal (Hema Malini) whom his R. K. Gupta's legitimate son and Vijay's step bro Shekhar (Shashi Kapoor) is in love with.

Salim Javed's script wasn't perfect - it had its share of cinematic liberties like a young engineer Vijay with no money or clout becoming a top businessman almost in a jiffy to take on the might of an established business tycoon like R. K. Gupta. But the audience chose to overlook these fallacies only due to Bachchan's charisma and star power to pull off the role of Vijay - an otherwise anti-hero who touches your heart just by his belief and conviction in what he is doing.

Yash Chopra's direction was extraordinary and this is my personal favourite from his illustrious resume - a film he chose to remake again as Vijay (1988) with Anil Kapoor in Bachchan's role but that film turned out to be a box office dud.

Not many know that Gulshan Rai wasn't too happy at the trial show held when the film was around seventy percent complete. Yash Chopra too agreed with his producer that there was something missing in Trishul and he huddled up with Salim Javed to finetune the screenplay further. Amitabh's ambulance wala fight scene was added to the plot which later became the film's highlight. That bit of re-work benefited the film tremendously and it ended up being the second highest grosser of 1978 after Prakash Mehra's Muqaddar Ka Sikandar.

Trishul earned a Filmfare award nomination for Bachchan which he lost to himself for his performance in Chandra Barot's Don (1978). As the saying goes, One should only compete with oneself!

Trishul has a better cast than Kaala Patthar, but IMO the latter is the better film. Yes, Trishul has Sanjeev and when did he ever fail to satisfy? But his character is most undeveloped in my opinion. In the beginning it is clear that he loves Waheeda, is forced by his mother to marry the rich man's daughter, is torn when she announces she is expecting his child - so he is not all bad. But would just that one act of weak caving-in make him more and more extreme in his dealing with people? No fault at Sanjeev's door, he did a very good job with the material given him. Rakhi was just there, Sachin and his lady, not needed other than to stage a coup against the patriarch. Shashi was quite good, as was Hema - their love story was convincing. Amitabh yet again stole the show with his simmering rage and outrage at the abandonment of his mother. The fight scenes were so real, but the story was somewhat predictable. This one, like Kaala Patthar, was also mostly focused on the story and did not rely on too much romance or songs.

One thing I like about these oldies from Yash Chopra is the very matter-of-fact dealing between the sexes. In Kaala Patthar Shashi invites Parveen to stay with him after she is thrown out, tells her he lives by himself, and without any coyness she accepts. In Deewar the relationship between Amitabh and Parveen is most matter-of-fact. In Trishul the same goes for the relationship between Waheeda and Sanjeev. And these were educated people, not from the lower strata - yet they did not have the prudishness one sees on display in modern fare.

This is one of Amitabh Bachchan's Angry Young Man action movies. In this one, he is the illegitimate son of a big industrialist. The industrialist, when he was a young man, got a woman pregnant, but at his mother's insistence he married the boss' daughter and left his girlfriend to raise the illegitimate son in poverty. The son, named Vijay Kumar, makes a solemn vow to get justice for his mother by humbling the father who wouldn't take his responsibility as the father of her child.

Well, as they say its a pretty good movie. Bachchan gives the usual intense performance. Sanjeev Kumar plays the father in the classic style. Waheeda Rehman is the wronged mother. Later in the plot, Shashi Kapoor shows up as Shekhar, RG Gupta's legitimate son by the boss' daughter. And Hema Malini shows up as Sheetal, Shekhar's love interest.

Shashi also played Amitabh's brother in the good son-bad son drama Deewar.

Good things for ME were Hema. She was just a gorgeous screen presence back then and every smile warmed things up. In a way, Hema played herself as the confident, ambitious woman. Probably not too hard a role for her.

And Bachchan's acting. He's always the most riveting present on the screen. Prem Chopra was pretty good as the oily rival. I also liked Rakhee Gulzar as Geeta.

Not too much I didn't like about the movie, but I found some of the songs kind of disruptive to the flow of the story. They weren't badly shot or anything, they just seemed out of place.

There was some cleverness in the script. For a while, as business rivals, Gupta and Vijay play kind of a chess game. The screenplay is by Javed Akhtar and shows some intelligence.

So, I guess I can give it an 8/10.

I have been a fan of Bollywood cinema since a very young age and I am very ashamed to admit that until a couple of weeks ago I had not seen Yash Chopra's masterpiece Trishul. After hearing so many people rave about it I gave it a go and very glad I did. For those who don't know already the story involves Amitabh taking revenge on his father(Sanjeev Kumar) who abandoned him and his mother. His father is a businessman so Amitabh sets up a rival business and sets out to destroy him. I think Trishul is a wonderful tale of how people are motivated by different things, Amitabh's father is motivated by money and power whilst Amitabh is motivated by revenge.

To support Amitabh and Sanjeev Kumar there is a wide array of great actors, for instance Shashi Kapoor,Rakhee and Waheeda Rehman(in a special appearance as Amitabh's mother). The wide array of actors for me were basically props in a movie what is essentially a battle between Sanjeev Kumar and Amitabh. Both Amitabh and Sanjeev Kumar both resort to dirty tricks to discredit the other. Amitabh and Sanjeev Kumar were excellent but I felt they were even better in Sholay together. I only watched this movie a couple of weeks and is quickly becoming one of my top five Yash Chopra's movies along with Lamhe,Dewaar,Silsila and Chandni. Highly recommended to all fans of classic Bollywood.

Trishul is one of Bachchan's best movies. The role of Vijay was tailor made for him. Yash Chopra has created another master piece with this movie. It was a super-hit, running for more than 100 Weeks. The song 'Mohabbat bade kaam ki' is a very good song.