Damini

Powerful acting. Even Sunny Deol in the second half rocks with 'taarik pe taarik' and my favorite 'dhai kilo ka haath' dialogues. His act as a drunk lawyer is brilliant. If more Indians watch this, crime and corruption would go down. Great movie, especially with Sunny. Amrish Puri makes a great villain, although he is humorous at times as the corrupt lawyer named Chadda (what a name)! Anyways, the point is to take the stand for what is right. Speak out people! It is your right, and nobody can ever take that away from you. I would watch this for Sunny Deol, as he is my favorite action star. A movie like this is really thought-provoking and meaningful.

Damini can be summarized as the hallmark of 4 people - Meenakshi Sheshadri, Sunny Deol, Amrish Puri and of course, Rajkumar Santoshi. All of them are at their exhilarating best in this movie. Not many movies have given such ample scope to an actress in India. Meenakshi Sheshadri does a fabulous job in this.

Rajkumar Santoshi has done realistic and hard-hitting movies, this tops them all. If you thought Ghayal was wonderful, this is terrific. He continued the same trend with Ghatak. They Sunny Deol-Rajkumar Santoshi is the Indian version of Martin Scorsese-Robert DeNiro.

Amrish Puri is another deserving mention. No actor can portray a villainous role better than Puri saab. He excels here as the scheming and "partially-deaf" lawyer, Inderjeet Chaddha who has a habit of swaying his hair.

All the supporting cast were wonderful. I have always hated Rishi Kapoor as an actor (mainly because of those white pants, white shoes and dhol songs) apart from Bobby. But this is one movie in which he brings the depth and range of a Kapoor. Kulbhushan Kharbanda has always been a fantastic, but underrated actor. In fact, he has been underutilized even in this movie. Tinnu Anand is an excellent supporting act. Not to forget, the Hari Kaka has also done a good job (the final frozen shot of the movie).

I have kept this section for last deliberately - Sunny Paaji's National Award winning performance. Everyone knows Sunny Paaji's best performances have been in Rajkumar Santoshi's movies, but this performance can be talked only in superlative terms. As the drunk, disinterested yet smart lawyer, he delivers the performance of his life. Even if you are not a Sunny Deol fan, you will certainly become one after watching this. If you started watching Sunny Deol movies with movies like "Indian", "Jaal", etc, you have got a wrong start. Start with Ghayal, Damini and Ghatak.

A must watch movie, if you watch movies very closely for their depth and reality. My rating: 8/10.

Damini gets a 10/10, mainly thanks to Sunny Deol in the 2nd half. He was brilliant as the drunk and clever lawyer. See how he tells of the main baddie, Amrish Puri. The confrontation scenes between them are definitely worth watching repeatedly. Sunny won National Award for this. The dialogues are so witty, and the manner in which Sunny says them is humorous. Even his outburst in court is excellent, especially "Tarikh Pe Tarikh." I also like the phrase, "Judge order order karta hain aur tu pidtha rahega!" that uses against Amrish Puri (corrupt lawyer). Their confrontation scenes are immensely watchable. Sunny overshadows everyone else with an awesome performance, as he is the saving grace because his introduction after intermission takes the movie to a new level. He even bashes the baddies at the very end. If you ever watch this movie, do it for Sunny Deol. Enjoy!

One of Sunny Deol's best roles ever, I am full of praise for this movie. It is a social movie that deals with injustice in society, and how one lady fights it at all costs,being helped by a lawyer and her husband alone. The dialogues are impressive-TAREEKH PAR TAREEKH,DHAI KILO KA HAATH,CHIDIYAGHAR,etc.

Rishi Kapoor does an impressive job.His emotions are expressed well. Meenakshi's good as the protagonist.

The concept is good. Songs are melodious. Some fight sequences are there,which aren't bad.

Sunny's best as a prosecution lawyer,Amrish is tooo good as the villain. Though nearly 3 hours long,the film is enjoyable. Watch it.

In my opinion 'Damini' is Rajkumar Santoshi's best work to date. Meenakshi Sheshadri gives a powerful and flawless performance in what can be described as a role of a lifetime, a part every actress would only dream for. However, the actress decided to call it quits because, rumour had it, she didn't win the best actress award. She only did a handful of films to keep up with her other commitments.

Damini is a simple honest young lady who lives with her poor parents and sister. To save her parents from misery, Damini's elder sister elopes with an alcoholic. A wealthy businessman Shekhar sets his eyes on Damini and falls in love. The two get married but Damini's in-laws keep their distant. A lonely Damini develops a close relationship with the young housemaid Urmi. During the holi festival, the whole household celebrate the colour and music with visitors. Damini's brother-in-law and his three friends gang-rape Urmi. A helpless Damini witnesses the horror and she desperately seeks help from Shekhar. But they're too late and Damini faints from the shock. Shekhar's brother and co dump Urmi's ravaged body in the gutter. When Damini is conscious, she wonders about Urmi and Shekhar assures her that Urmi's fine and receiving medical attention in the hospital but suddenly the police arrive and want to interrogate Damini. Shekhar begs Damini to 'lie' for the sake of the family honour. But Damini never lied in her life...

Definitely an innovative screenplay and Santoshi deserves full marks as a director especially for the way he builds up the tension without going over the top (in most cases). However, the courtroom sequences tend to be a little too dramatic.

There are very few songs but they provide a nice break and are melodious and pleasant.

Rishi Kapoor does well in a role with shades of gray. Same goes for Kulbushan Kharbanda. In a very brief role, Sunny Deol too is good (though he should have tried not to be too loud). Amrish Puri does well but his character is slightly caricatured. Ditto for Paresh Rawal.

But, 'Damini' is a one woman show and it rests entirely on Meenakshi Sheshadri's powerful performance. The actress is amazing and she finally gets a role that does full justice to her immense talent. Known to be one of the finest dancers (and yes, here too she dances with grace and energy), with 'Damini' she's proved to be one of the finest actresses of India. It would have been easy for an actress to mess up the role but Sheshadri portrays Damini's strength and vulnerability through her innocence and sincerity with gusto.

'Damini' is also a socially relevant film about the power of one. How the power of one voice can make a difference, how honesty is always best policy (as the truth shall prevail), to do what's right and always fight against injustice.