Os Três Heróis

Paap se dharti phati Adharm se aasmaan Atyachaar se kaanpi insaaniyat Raj kar rahe haivaan ... Jinki hogi taqat apoorv Jinka hoga nishana abhed Joh karenge inka sarvanaash ... Woh kehlayenge Tridev Tridev Tridev!!

Most of the 80s kids would recite this prologue of this film. School ho ya picnic. It was a huge hit. Haha! So was the film.

Being a Gen X kiddo, I love multi star entertainers of those times. Tridev, for me, was a complete film in that aspect ticking all the right boxes in terms of stellar cast, hit songs, pulsating action, a formidable villain and above all, guaranteed entertainment. Infact, it is a film I have seen more than 100 times...yes, you read that right, 100 times on VHS. No other film comes close to this personal record.

Those days, any new movie used to be released simultaneously in theatres as well as video (and I mean original, not pirated camera prints!!) and I saw Tridev on VHS the very first day of its release. For the next few months, I watched it practically every day sometimes rewinding my favorite songs and scenes. One scene I love in the film is where Jackie Shroff helps jailbreak Rajesh Vivek in a helicopter. Another one is just before the interval where the villains visit Sunny Deol in village and set his home on fire.

The film's music is still memorable (Kalyanji Anandji were credited as music directors though most of the work including BGM was done by Kalyanji's son Viju Shah) and has lend itself to many remixes in recent times.

The Oye Oye song had become a national craze already and it was impossible to get the movie tickets for first few weeks. Expectedly, the film became a resounding hit at the box office. It played at Regal cinema (Colaba) and the Minerva, Mumbai for first couple of weeks before shifting to Roxy cinema where it completed 50 weeks.

More about the film, well, it was Naseeruddin Shah's first commercial outing and he got a meaty role. Sonam had more screen time than Madhuri Dixit while Sunny Deol got the best dialogues and fight sequences. Jackie Dada looked smashing opposite pretty Sangeeta Bijalani. And ofcourse, Amrish Puri was brilliant as Bhujang, the main antagonist to our three heroes.

Sunny , jackey and nasir all works better and acting wise we know these are unbeatable actors specially Sunny and jackey superstars at that moment generation.

Rajiv Rai's 'Tridev' is very much the typical multistarrer flick on the 80s. With its over the top action sequences, songs appearing out of nowhere, heroines who are there for eye-candy, repetitive coincidences etcetera. Let's start with the good side. The catchy soundtrack is quite good, my favourite song being 'Gali Gali Mein Firta Hai'. The 'heroines' are quite pretty. While there is Sonam and Madhuri Dixit, they can easily be overlooked when a sizzling Sangeeta Bijlani appears on screen (however, she is an awful dancer). Sunny Deol, Jackie Shroff and Naseeruddin Shah are cast as the action heroes and it is Shah who steals the show with his over the top performance by providing some excellent comic relief. The late Amrish Puri is a delight to watch when he plays the over the top villain. 'Tridev' is quite entertaining in parts. It's not as boring as for example, Feroz Khan's 'Janbaaz'. I fast forwarded most of the dishum dishum action sequences and maybe it's not such a bad movie to play on your DVD player while you're cooking or ironing your clothes. Campy.

Karan Saxena who is a very honest and dedicated inspector is being transferred to Madhupur when he sets out to investigate about corruption, murder and idealism in his community. The police suspect is that a criminal called Bhujang/Bhairav Singh (Amrish Puri) is involved in every crime of the country. While in Madhupur, Karan befriends Jai Singh another victim of Bhujang's terror. While Ravi who is Divya's (Madhuri Dixit) brother has doubt for Bhujang in his mind too. He, however, ends up and fall in love with a cabaret dancer Natasha (Sangeeta Bijlani). All three men decided to form a gang called Tridev and destroy Bhujang and his gang.

I have extremely fond memories of this classic. Out of Naseer Udin Shah, Sunny Deol and Jackie Shroff it was Sunny Deol that stood out as the angry cop Karan Saxena. Amrish Puri was superb as Bhujang in one of my favourite roles of his. There was also so many other characters, including Anupum Kher as the devoted Pollice commissioner. The music is so good it deserves a special mention. My personal Favourite is Oye Oye.

The director Rajiv Rai went on to make other great movie including the superb follow up Vishwatamma, Mohra and the suspense thriller Gupt. Unfortunately he has hit a rough patch with this recent releases Pyar Ishq and Mohabbat and Asambhav flopping. Rajiv Rai has a reputation for repeating his cast, Sunny Deol came in Tridev and its follow up whilst Naseer Uddin Shah starred in Tridev, Vishwatamma and Mohra.Character actors like Tej Sapru have appeared in almost all of his movies. Tremendous fun.