Mrityudaata

Farida Jalal was born in 1950, and when I see a film where Mrs. Jalal plays a mother to a visibly aging Amitabh Bachchan, eight years her senior, I know there's something wrong with this film. This kind of disrespect, not to say contempt for the Indian audiences is quite characteristic of many films of the times. It is especially disappointing coming from Mr. Bachchan, a great actor who happens to be an impressively intelligent man, who I can't believe was not aware of how pathetic everything here looks.

Bachchan gets another opportunity to play a hero, the problem is that being a hero in commercial Hindi films was only preserved for action films, preferably bad action films. And this one is indeed it. We see an aging star fighting with great energy dozens of goons, and it really wavers between funny and a little embarrassing. He reminds one of Leslie Nielsen in The Naked Gun. But this is not a comedy, not an intentional at least, and Bachchan is a great actor, which makes the entire thing the more unwatchable.

But Bachchan is really not bad. He does well in moments where he is required to act. He is just miscast, and it's not the same thing. He does play a man closer to his age, but he also gets to play the younger version of it, and that's where the problem. Cast opposite him is Dimple Kapadia, whose radiant energy early on is wonderful just as her outbursts later on are strangely overdone. What made an actor of her stature do this film is a mystery. I guess Mehul Kumar thought he'd recreate the success of Krantiveer. Obviously, he didn't.

ABCL's maiden production with Big B in the lead. Gave away expectations that the movie will showcase Big B in its glorious form and deliver a product that is nothing short of perfection. Add to that Mehul Kumar fresh out of success of "Tiranga" & "Krantiveer" which breathed a new lease of life for Rajkumar and showcased Nana Patekar in his best. The icing on the cake was the comeback movie of Big B after his sabbatical. You bet, it couldn't get any better.

Sadly even the hardcore Big B fans found it appalling. It seemed the stale 1980's script was served a decade later and fan-base questioned how could the star even approve of it. "Foul" they yelled. Surprisingly the audience cheered when Daler Mehendi's song was injected which gives an inkling how poorly the proceedings were. There was absolutely nothing that seemed positive about "Mrityudaata".

Later Big B accepted with humility that as an artist it was a bad decision to impose a self-exile which led to turning a blind eye to the real world. "Mrityudaata" will be remembered for first amongst the series of flops which sunk his "larger than life-size" image deeper than the reason.

Nonetheless he later returned as a true "phoenix".

Amitabh after INSANIYAT(1994) returned with this film

Lot of expectations were from this film because it was Bachchan's comeback after 3 years

Sadly it became one of his worst films

First and Foremost: Bachchan looks so aged and out of shape that he doesn't look like the hero of the film and the angry young man doesn't suit Arbaaz Ali Khan is terrible and can't act for anything The film has a story which could've worked in 70's not in 1990's

In Short the film is another Bachchan masala which went outdated by late 80's

The story is done to death

Coming to the execution Director Mehul kumar was never a great director, his films like KRANTIVEER and TIRANGAA relied on the actors to save it and their powerful scenes, in 1997 he had 2 disasters, LAHU KE DO RANG which had Naseeruddin and Akshay and this film both were similarly crap, because in this too the director thought Amitabh will save his day

This film is the last film of Amitabh and Pran together after their memorable work in the past like AAA, ZANJEER, MAJBOOR, NASEEB, SHARAABI and their last before this JAADUGAR which also was horrible

This is also one film starring Bachchan and Dimple who were seen last in a crap AJOOBA(1991) and recently in HUM KAUN HAI(2004)

This is one film starring Bachchan and Karisma, another film of theirs ZAMAANAT started perhaps at the same time and never released till date

Wondering why im giving so much trivia instead of a review? Well the film is not worth a mention at all

The film as I said has the same formula done to death it has the same villains Mukesh Rishi, Paresh Rawal

The mandatory romance, songs, fights.etc Suddenly in the middle of the chase of Bachchan being chased by some goons we break to a last minute planned song NA NA NA NA RE which comes all of a sudden perhaps to save the film

The climax has Bachchan dieing another time after killing all the villains Surprisingly he died in his last film before retirement in INSANIYAT and also his comeback and both the films crashed too

Direction is bad Music is bad Amongst actors Bachchan looks too aged and out of shape and just goes through his motions Dimple is alright karisma irritates, Arbaaz Ali Khan is a non actor Amongst rest Mukesh Rishi, Paresh Rawal, Ashish Vidhyarthi are as usual