Shakti

Shakti review :

While Salim Javed's Deewaar (1975) had two warring brothers on opposite sides of the law, their Shakti saw the same situation arise between a baap - beta duo. Noted for being the only film to feature acting legends Dilip Kumar and Amitabh Bachchan together, Shakti is one of the most powerful and intense films made in Bollywood.

Continuing to stir a debate on who was better - Dilip Saahab or Amitabh - Shakti remains favourite film of both the legends fans. In my opinion, Dilip Kumar had an edge over Amitabh at script level itself as his role of upright honest cop Ashwini Kumar was far better written than Amitabh's Vijay who is a flawed brooding anti hero with minimum dialogues.

Even then, Amitabh was excellent in the film and his rant in drunken stupor to Smita Patil demonstrates the actors class. Every scene where Bachchan and Dilip Kumar come together is electrifying experience for the audience. The police station scene where Dilip Saahab reprimands his reel son Amitabh to Rakhee's death scene where Amitabh consoles a weeping Dilip Kumar is extraordinary.

Full marks to director Ramesh Sippy for not only doing total justice to the Salim Javed script but also for extracting outstanding performances from the entire cast - Rakhee and Smita Patil included. If not for Sholay (1975), Shakti would've been the best film of his illustrious career.

RD Burman's music is melodious and the awesome background score (BGM) was later referenced in most of 80s and 90s films. MS Shinde's editing is another strong point of the film.

Shockingly, Shakti underperformed at the box office when released in late 1982 though it has gathered a cult following today. Earlier in the same year, Jeetendra's masala potboiler Farz Aur Kanoon, which had a similar plot, became a super hit while the hard hitting realistic Shakti tanked. But then, who remembers Farz Aur Kanoon today??!!!!

Regards, Sumeet Nadkarni.

The film "Shakti" is one of my favorite movies. It's a deep psychological story, touching a problem of choice before a human: love to your child or duty before the society, which you chose to defend. I know that this story is close to many people's hearts, as such a choice in life often stands up before us. Wonderful, accurate play of the actors Amitabh Bachchan and Dilip Kumar. One sympathizes to their heroes and asks a question to himself: how would I act if I were in such situation? And one understands that he could act in both ways: like the hero of Amitabh Bachchan and like the hero of Dilip Kumar. Love, honor, pure conscience, these are important values without which you cannot feel yourself happy. And if any of these values is under a threat, then a question appears: what to sacrifice with? It's sad that such a choice stands up before people... Amazing music of gifted Rahul Dev Burman strengthens all the feelings which you experience during watching this drama. I love to watch this film again and again, and every time I do it, this movie touches my heart like at the first time when I saw it 20 years ago... To my opinion, "Shakti" is one of the best pictures of the world's cinematography.

Though Shakti (power) is the story of a father and a son who get distanced because of a misunderstanding that took place in the childhood of the son and that distance gets bridged only when the life of the son comes to an end, let me make it pretty clear that this movie is made on the lines of the most memorable movie of Amitabh Bachchan's career which labelled him as the Angry Young Man forever, i.e., Deewaar (1975). The writers of Deewaar, Salim-Jaaved revisited that classic movie seven years later by using the similar storyline which was originally for a mother and two sons, this time for a father, a mother and a son. In Deewaar, the mother was torn between one righteous son and one criminal son of hers whereas in Shakti, the mother gets torn between the law-protecting husband and the law-breaking son.

Supercop Ashwini Kumar (Dilip Kumar) is dead honest and highly dutiful who considers his duty above everything including his family. And when the question comes whether to do his duty or to save the life of his little son who has been kidnapped by the baddies, he prefers performing his duty as a committed cop over performing his duty as a loving father. Besides, one member of the kidnapping gang, saves the life of the little boy who could be killed by the baddies. Both these incidents leave a very negative imprint on the tender heart of the kid (Master Ravi) who starts sympathizing with the criminal and fostering a grudge against his father in his heart. Years later, when the son, Vijay (Amitabh Bachchan) is a grown-up man, the unresolved issues of childhood still trouble him. He feels that his father does not love him. He himself becomes a criminal and gets added to the wanted criminals list of his father. The most hit by this father-son conflict which is more subtle, less loud is the mother (Raakhee). Falling in love with Roma (Smita Patil) and then marrying her also does not bring any positive change in Vijay's life and finally he reaches what is the destiny of a criminal in the hands of his father only, realizing before his death how much his father loves him.

The biggest strength of Shakti is neither the screenplay nor the characters but the power-packed performances of the lead actors performing the father-son duo. Dilip Kumar and Amitabh Bachchan have delivered towering performances and so this movie has called a Clash of the Titans by many spectators as well as critics. They have risen above the script and made the movie a memorable one. Action star Amitabh Bachchan has delivered another highly emotional performance in a role which contains the shadows of Deewaar. Dilip Kumar, in this second innings of his career, is again highly impressive. And the one who surpasses these two is Raakhee who has been quite surprisingly cast as AB's mother (she has played as his heroine in several movies). In perhaps the first mature role of her career, she has performed superbly. One of the pillars of parallel cinema movement, (Late) Smita Patil joined the commercial cinema and her pair with Amitabh Bachchan appears quite cute on the screen. The song - Arre Jaane Kaise Kab Kahaan Ikraar Ho Gaya is an example of the lovable romance and amazing on-screen chemistry of Amitabh and Smita.

The movie starts with Anil Kapoor who plays the grandson of Dilip Kumar (and the son of Amitabh Bachchan who is no more) and his grandfather tells him the whole saga, explaining how difficult it is to do your duty as an honest and committed policeman. The whole film runs in flashback and there is no boredom at any place. While watching, you remain engrossed though the script is formula-based only which can be easily seen, understood and felt. Ramesh Sipply who happens to be the director of the epic movie, Sholay has ably directed this movie according to the demand of the script and the stature of the cast.

R.D. Burman's music is good. Maangi Thi Ek Dua Jo Kabool Ho Gayi (Mahendra Kapoor), Aye Aasmaan Bata (Mahendra Kapoor), Hamne Sanam Ko Khat Likha (Lata) are good both lyric wise and composition wise. I have already mentioned my favourite song of this album - Arre Jaane Kaise Kab Kahaan Ikraar Ho Gaya (Kishore-Lata). Anand Bakshi has written admirable lyrics for the tunes of Pancham Da.

The great lesson that is rendered by this movie is the same that I repeat every now and then. Be communicative and never allow any communication gap or any distorted understanding of certain facts to play havoc with delicate relationships. Father-son relationship is a very special one and the father has to be expressive of his love towards the son so that the son never misunderstands him and no outsider gets a chance to bring about any rift between them. He should not expect the kid to understand the subtle language and make him vividly see and feel his fatherly love. The ending dialog of Dilip and Amitabh underscores it perfectly when Dilip says to Amitabh, 'Main Bhi Tumse Bahut Pyar Karta Hoon Bete (Me too loves you very much, son) and then Amitabh asks, 'To Aapne Kaha Kyon Nahin Daddy ?' (Then why did you not express it, father ?).

I rest my case.

Amitabh Bachchan plays Vijay Kumar, son of a righteous police officer, who comes to resent the law because he feels his dad's job causes him to neglect his family. When he takes a job working with a known smuggler he finally has a place in life where he's wanted - and as he rises to the top the smuggler begins to treat him more and more like a son. But Vijay's new career creates a rift with his dad that inevitably leads to conflict... but of course it's poor mum that suffers the most.

Sound familiar? Yes, it's basically a retread of DEEWAR with different family members. My bad luck to watch both this and DEEWAR back to back! (well, a week apart). Even though I could watch Amitabh Bachchan all day (lucky given the length of Bollywood movies ), I did get kind of bored watching basically the same things happen again. The details are different, but the broad strokes paint pretty much the same picture.

Ramesh Sippy (producer behind SHAAN and SHOLAY, both directed by his brother G.P.) adds a little bit less melodrama into the mix though, and a little bit more action (which is quite exciting... in a bad 70's kind of way). Amitabh gets to smoulder intensely a lot more, and again exudes the levels of cool and charisma that make him India's number one superstar.

There's quite a lot to like in SHAKTI, and it's perhaps unfair that I judge it after so recently seeing DEEWAR. In reality there was 7 years between the movies, so audiences were probably ready for a retread. Perhaps the one week gap just wasn't enough for me, which is why I ended up kind of bored

SHAKTI is probably more fun than DEEWAR, but still nowhere near the inspired lunacy of DON or SHAAN, or the meticulously crafted suspense of SHOLAY. 7/10.

Shakti is a very interesting film, although it's hardly original. The film is in a way a variation of Deewar, which in itself is a version of Ganga Jamuna. The only difference is that Deewar shows a clash between brothers and Shakti between a father and son. But that being said, the relationship is actually very, very well portrayed. Due credit should go to Ramesh Sippy who is one of the great directors of mainstream Hindi cinema. He directs the film really well and except for the action sequences, which are not very well done, and some of the scenes towards the end, the film is a huge surprise in its depth, subtlety and realistic dialogue. The interactions between the characters are often quite real and the narrative reminds one of some European films, as its power comes from its serenity. Even the background score is often beautiful and soothing and not the usual whiny type.

The actors are very good - Kumar is typically understated in the part and so is Bachchan who gives another fantastic performance, letting the viewers sense his inner pain all through. The two actors work really well opposite one another, while Raakhee and Smita Patil absolutely shine each in her role. Raakhee takes up the risk of playing wife to Kumar and mother to Bachchan, usually her regular romantic costar. While in other films such casting decisions are pathetic and seem to belittle the value of the actresses and their sell-by-date, here it seems like Raakhee's conscious choice to challenge herself. She is excellent. In a smaller part, Patil, a stupendous actress, does a lot with so little. Bachchan's scenes with Raakhee and Patil are of the film's best. Shakti is an unoriginal story which turns into an original, captivating film, which is not extraordinary but worth a watch.