Ghulam

I first saw this in a theater in the late 90s. Revisited it recently. The film is an unofficial remake of On the Waterfront. While this one aint no masterpiece like the original, it has lots of action n thrilling moments. The most iconic one is the train sequence. The final showdown between the hero n the villain is a solid one too. The performance by the lead actor Aamir Khan is the highlight. Rani Mukherjee looked stunning throughout n very nice in the last scene with her black tshirt. Deepak Tijori's sideburns n his jacket is a big lol. The film does have its flaws.

The boxing match looked clearly rigged n not at all an official championship one. One of the fighter is not landing punches or defending himself but jus stayingin in one place, hands behind the rope n suffering punches by the opponent. The house/bldg doesn't have any safety hedge or any grill around. The jackets worn by the bikers are pathetic. Some of the side characters who played the bikers looked uncles n not at all youngsters.

Siddhu, a tearaway and ned, is a boxing champion. His elder brother is the accountant and henchman for a slumlord. The slumlord is a former boxing champion who rules the local community by terrorising people, extorting money from local shopkeepers n hoteliers n sometimes by match fixing. Siddhu convinces a social worker who reminds him of his dead father, into an ambush, preventing the social worker from persuading the local people to sign a police complain against the slumlord. Siddhu assumed that the slumlord's henchmen were only going to have a talk with the social worker to pressure him into not convincing the local people to file a police complain against the slumlord but is shocked when the social worker is killed.

I have read the reviews given by different people and I am well versed with the version played by The Great Marlon Brando(On the Waterfront) which won him Oscar for best actor,Ella Kazan the best Director and 6 other categories. It took almost 44 years to bring out the remake using the finest actor in Indian History. The fact that remains in my mind is that I had watched the filmfare award ceremony and I was only 13 but still I remember Vikram Bhatt saying that "The Award was only possible due to Aamir Khan's effort.He had taken chance with his life by not duping the Train-race stunt.Even though the train was not running at full speed it had momentum to kill the person hitting it". The commitment from the side actors are as important as the film script.If this was shot nowadays it could have been more effective with several camera angling. Aamir knew that if he had to provide justice at least .1% to the original film he had to do this. These make it almost or equivalent to the "On The Waterfront".

Amir plays the role of a confused, frustrated and sensitive "gunda" who lives with the evil but surprisingly knows the difference between right and wrong. His conscious is alive maybe because of something he saw happening to his dad when he was young. It casted a lasting effect on him and it stayed with him all his life. His brother also realizes the difference between the right and the wrong but readily accepts the wrong because he doesn't mind taking shortcuts in life. Excellent performances by Amir Khan and Rani both. The real hero, however, is Ronnie. He gave the best performance of his life. Every single dialog of his is nothing less than Gabbar's from Sholay. Not only does this movie have some great acting, but some excellent screenplay, dialogs, direction, storyline, and songs! One of my favorite Hindi movies of all time. Rating: ****

Poor * Average ** Good *** Excellent **** Masterpiece *****

So, yes, Ghulam is decent entertainment - an action-packed romantic musical with some story which resembles other stories. But it's fun, really fun actually. The film's entire feel is totally westernised, particularly in view of the overall demeanor of the gang, their clothing and sense of style, which is completely derivative of American culture, as are many other elements in the film. I found it amusing, although I know that such influences in India did exist back then although definitely not to such a large extent. Thankfully today Indian filmmakers show India's own cultural richness and weight (a la Gully Boy) - its colour and stark individuality did not exist in this film, a lot due to the common belief back at that time that Indian audiences want escapist cinema which will show a world far removed from their reality. In this regard, director Vikram Bhatt does his best, and he is greatly aided by the film's action and stunts, which are the most impressive in the film.

But then Ghulam is really an enjoyable watch. Its youthful spirit is really affecting, and it is very well shot for the time. The train race scene is obviously very famous today and it was really quite good, although the other one where the guy climbs up the building to enter the girl's room is not very credible. The romantic portions are still pretty nice, and the music is fun and catchy, obviously culminating in the popular "Aati Kya Khandala" number, which is particularly entertaining. Aamir Khan's dedication to his roles showed already then, and he's very good here. I'm not a particular fan of his acting talent per se, considering him often too clean and lacking in spontaneity, but his serious approach to his craft (when it's not too much) works well for him, and this film is a good example. Rani Mukherjee plays more or less a bimbo of sorts - she is very pretty but her voice is dubbed and it's annoying. Ghulam is nothing great but it is consistently entertaining, anyway.

Fantastic movie -- amir khan is super and fantastic >i advise with watchin this movie