Batwara

Batwara review :

An ambitious venture by producer Salim Akhtar fresh from the success of multistarrer Loha (1987); Batwara had a lot of things going for it : Stellar cast, lavish locales and JP Dutta's classy direction. And yet, it failed to enthuse the audience interest upon release primarily for two reasons ;

One, it came just a week after Rajiv Rai's Tridev (1989) and couldnt withstand the oye oye craze (musically, Batwara was a downer)

And secondly, a section of audience found Batwara quite similar to JP Dutta earlier film Ghulami (1985).

Dharmendra and Vinod Khanna played two besties - Chowdhury Sumer Singh and Thakur Vikram Singh - who end up becoming sworn enemies after Vikram's brother (Vijayendra Ghatge) is lynched to death by the villagers. This leads to retributive violence which destroys their lives forever.

The lovely Dimple Kapadia was the fiery Jinda - Sumer's love interest - who falls prey to the lustful advances of corrupt inspector Amrish Puri. Surprisingly, Bharat Kapoor and Avtar Gill got meaty role as dacoits with agenda of their own.

Amongst the films positive, JP Dutta's panoramic shots of the desert were brilliant. OP Dutta's dialogue were authentic and the climactic sequence was a standout.

Batwara is one of the most underrated films of JP Dutta who later shifted his focus on war films directing Border (1997) and LOC Kargil (2003). Producer Salim, losing heavily with this box office failure, relegated himself to Jackie Shroff and Mithunda actioners like Izzat (1991), Phool Aur Angaar (1993) and Aadmi (1994) which became modest hits.

Regards, Sumeet Nadkarni

This movie was full of agenda to shows one community in bad light. If we look at the producers and distributers, it will be evident on what the movie is trying to portray.