Gang review :
Gangu, Abdul, Nihal, Gary.
Gang in short.
Four unemployed youth take to crime and rise up the ladder to become underworld kingpin. What happens when one of them develops a conscience and wants to quit the bad business?
Produced and directed by Mazhar Khan, Gang was in production since 1989 but got delayed inordinately to finally release in the summer of 2000 when the audience had already been treated to underworld sagas like Ram Gopal Varma's Satya (1998) and Mahesh Manjrekar's Vaastav (1999). As a result, the decade old Gang appeared stale and failed miserably at the box office. After K Asif's Love And God (1986), this is perhaps the most delayed movie to get a theatrical release. Albeit, in a completed form. Like K. Asif, Mazhar Khan died during the making of this delayed movie and the finishing touches were given by his assistant Mashkoor Chowdhry.
To be fair to the film, its plot and execution was quite unique for the early '90s when it was intended to be released. Mazhar Khan's technique was slick and his shot takings were commendable indeed. A toy football casually flicked by Jackie transforms in to an actual football at a warehouse where his friends are being held captive. The bloodied climax which has hardly any dialogues remains the film's highlight. Sandeep Chowta's background score is brilliant.
Gang's biggest positive is the great camaraderie shared by the four leads - Jaggu, Nana, Gaurav and Javed. You just root for them even though they are on the wrong side. Such is their impact on us. Imtiaz Khan, filling in for brother Amjad Khan who passed away during its making, pitches in one of the best performance of his career as the dreaded don Girija Singh. Gulshan Grover leaves a solid impression as Dagdu Kanna, the local thug. Even Tinnu Anand impresses in a cameo as the corrupt cop.
Juhi Chawla is cast opposite Jaggu as his girlfriend turned wifey. She has limited scope except for the 'Meri Payal Bole' song which appears within first ten minutes of the film.
Overall, Gang is a film which had tremendous potential and could've been a trendsetter for Bollywood. Wish it had arrived on time!!
Regards,
Sumeet Nadkarni.
