Parinda

Vidhu Vinod Chopra's Parinda is one of the first Hindi films dealing with life in the Mumbai underworld and one of the most realistic of its kind. Stylishly presented, the film is excellently directed and is aided by fantastic cinematography, great editing, beautiful music and natural acting. As opposed to most of the Hindi movies of that time, the story of Parinda is devoid of clichés, and the screenplay as well as the dialogues are well written. There are neither the typical courageous action heroes nor the exaggerated fantasy action sequences one gets to see so much in Hindi films, though at some points you do feel its loyalty to the general Hindi film style (that's called commercial pressure). Chopra portrays the relationship between the two brothers authentically, as he does with practically every other relationship in the film.

The narrative is very focused and taut, letting the director create the required mood for a gripping drama of its sort. The film's emotional impact is thus strong, though it does get a bit too slow and dark at places. The acting is for the most part excellent. This is one of Jackie Shroff's finest performances, powerful and heartfelt, strong and restrained. Nana Patekar plays the psychologically disturbed fire-phobic Anna with intensity and conviction, portraying every negative shade of his character in his well-known inimitable style. Madhuri Dixit is lovely in a role that is not very substantial. However, Anil Kapoor is just okay and his often childish and overly naive on-screen persona gets on your nerves from time to time. His character's transformation was also too quick to be believable. This is of course not entirely his fault.

Which brings me to the next point. Parinda, though compelling and innovative for its time, is not without its flaws. While RD Burman's music is stupendous as always and managed to relieve the film's raw tension, as it was done with the soulful and memorable "Tum Se Mil Ke", the other melodious songs seemed inappropriate in such a dark thriller and often distracted from the seriousness of the situation. The marriage song, for one, was completely redundant. Additionally, some of the scenes towards the end were quite implausible and went a bit over-the-top, though I really liked the film's final scene, which was overwhelming. Overall, Parinda is an enjoyable and impressive gangster movie known today as a favourite cult movie among lovers of Indian cinema. It's easy to see why. It was different and entertaining, but its intentions were stronger than its actual quality.

Late 70s and 80s were a time when alternate or parallel cinema entered the Hindi film industry. Shyam Benegal, Saeed Akhtar Mirza, Govind Nihalani, Mahesh Bhatt gave soul to some heart-wrenching narrative and created a cinema which was a long-call from the rosy, sanitized feature bollywood movies. Instead what we saw was dirt within the society, issues like Labour rights, Dowry deaths, Prostitution, Communal violence were dealt with openly and our favorite protagonists had to wrestle not against the stereotypical Bollywood Evil Banker or Industrialist but against the 'system' itself.

In this time period came along Vidhu Vinod Chopra with two feature movies, 'Sazaye Maut' (1981) and 'Khamosh'(1986). Made without a star-cast to speak of, the movies did not find many takers and despite being a brilliant start to his career they remained largely forgotten, till the internet era introduced them to a larger audience. The experience of making these movies perhaps led to some of the decisions which were reflected in Parinda. This movie which can be called as Realism's Gateway to Bollywood is a weird mix, feeling like a brilliant art-movie at times and a decent Bollywood feature at others. There are sequences of Anil Kapoor-Madhuri Dixit which are filled with rosy, romantic scenarios, while there are scenes between the two brothers or the ones featuring the impeccable Nana Patekar as Anna, which are filled with grim realism usually not present in the other features of the era. Take the plot for example, Prakash's death at the start to Brothers' fate towards the end are not your usual run-of-the mill scenarios in a Bollywood feature of the time. Besides having seen Jackie-Anil in Ram-Lakhan, Karma etc. I was expecting a movie where the heroes eventually trump all odds and win the day in the end.

It all was too unexpected for me until it dawned that this movie could be called the first place where Vidhu Vinod Chopra started using his own formula of movie-making which show-cased so well in Munnabhai MBBS, 3 Idiots etc.

We can only guess as to whether the failure of his brilliant Khamosh was the reason behind this approach, but this allowed him to tell his audience otherwise complicated stories in a crisp manner, where songs and some lighthearted sequences keep the story moving on forward, while he tells a tale dealing with issues in the Indian education system (Munnabhai 1, 3 Idiots) or the need for Gandhi's values in today's society. (Munnabhai 2) Here he does the same in a gangster saga of two brothers, where an otherwise decent tale is given both the formulaic Bollywood approach to keep the mainstream audience engrossed, while the gritty sequences dealing with Gang-violence, Anna's troubles and the rift between brothers provide a deeper understanding to the movie.

Madhuri Dixit and Anil Kapoor were brilliant as usual while Jackie Shroff also provides a good support. But it is Nana Patekar's madness which lifts the movie to another level. His genius is scenes during a 'Shraad' scene, where he loses it after seeing fire being lighted. There are also other undercurrents visible within the movie, such as fate of turncoats, Musa's eventual victory over Anna due to his habit of making friends out of enemies. The music in the movie was done well with songs of the movie going on to become some of the popular songs of 90s.

Parinda has always been my favorite because it was one of the first movies to break the stereotypical formula-based film making trend in India that relied heavily on larger-than-life heroes (and villains) and impossible fight sequences that defied both gravity and logic. Parinda was a breath of fresh air amid all this chaos. It showed the Mumbai(Bombay) underworld as it had never been shown before. The movie begins with a superb background score reminiscent of The Terminator theme. As one listens to the sombre yet striking music with visuals/shots of Mumbai high rises under a grey evening sky, one realizes it's going to be a dark and no-nonsense film. And who can forget Kishen's (Jackie Shroff's) entry as he walks up that huge tank to meet rival gang-leader Moosa? I always wished the scene was a little longer. If Tom Alter did full justice to the role of Moosa, the role of Anna seemed to have been written for (and only for)the immensely talented Nana Patekar. The cinematography of the film leaves all other films of its time way behind (with the exception of 'Raakh', another dark and gritty film released around the same time). Jackie Shroff's acting is simply fabulous, whereas Anil Kapoor is, well, loud as usual! I wish he had shaved off his mustache to fit the role of the younger brother better. Suresh Oberoi as the goon gives a superlative performance - one of the best in his career. In short, Parinda marks the beginning of realistic mainstream cinema in India. Indian art-house cinema had always been realistic, but mainstream commercial cinema used to be just escapist fares until Parinda happened.

Before Ram Gopal Verma conquered the gangster genre with Satya and Company,before Mahesh Manjrekhar's Vaastav there was the ultimate gangster movie,Vidhu Vinod Chopra's Parinda. Unfortunately whilst Parinda was a hit Satya and Vaastav were even bigger hits and Parinda got almost forgotten. Vidhu Vinod Chopra had made one or two offbeat movie before this but he really hit it big time with Parinda. It was released in 1989 to moderate success. What really works for this movie is it's restrained style, most Bollywood gangster movies I have seen are light on content and high on action. Parinda doesn't have many overly long drawn out action sequences but what it offers is a great story and subtlety. Parinda tells the story of four friends,Anil Kapoor, his elder brother Jackie Shroff, Anupum Kher and his sister Madhuri. Jackie Shroff sends Anil Kapoor abroad to study. Years later Jackie Shroff has started working for gangster(a phenomenal performance by Nana Patekar). Anupum Kher becomes a policeman and is intent on bringing Nana Patekar to justice. Anil Kapoor returns and witnesses Anupum Kher's murder by Nana Patekar's men. Anil Kapoor tries to go to the police but Jackie Shroff tries to encourage him not to. When Anil Kapoor does eventually go to the police his loved ones are threatened. Anil Kapoor decides to start working Nana Patekar so that he can avenge the death of his friend Anupum Kher. One by one Anil Kapoor kills them off but soon Nana Patekar realises what he is actually upto and decides to get even. The scene is set for a magnificent showdown. Another incredible quality is RD Burman's music which is simply outstanding with some wonderful tunes like Tumse Milke. Coincidentally RD Burman's last score before his demise was on Vidhu Vinod Chopra's next venture, 1942 A love story. Parinda is the best gangster movie to come out of Bollywood and deserves more appreciation from lovers of Indian cinema. Highly recommended by me.

This movie was the turning point in the fanciful world of Bollywood which had so far kept the remotest possible distance from reality in order to provide a fantasy escape to people amidst poverty and underdevelopment. Bollywood, in this respect had always feared compromising with colors, glycerin, scenic places, superman feats, dances and pomp and pageantry lest the movies would become insipid and turn off the masses.

Parinda dared to break the trend and brought the reel closer to real when Vidhu Vinod Chopra used the cinematography of the hitherto called 'art cinema' in the commercial mass cinema. But Parinda was not all about cinematography, it was a realistic take on the Bombay underworld and life of people in general. So far we had only seen mostly Ajit and Amjad Khan brand of opulent villains incredibly placed in their hi-tech, luxury castles. Parinda showed exactly how a real life gangster lives.

The movie is damn powerful and made such a wonderful blend of romance and violence that it is hard to categorize it into either genre. The characterization is so immaculate that the audience could connect and empathize even with the peripheral characters playing cameos. In a nutshell, the movie has a soul and is powerful enough to linger in the memory for long time.

It was a collective effort where the sensitive direction of V V Chpora was complimented by brilliant and soulful acting performances by master actors (all!) Anil Kapoor, Jackie Shroff, Madhuri Dikshit and Nana Patekar. What a dream cast that was! As mentioned before, the movie changed the age old and decadent trends in Bollywood and inspired the new generation filmmakers to stop insulting public intelligence. It set a benchmark for making realistic movies and blending them with drama. Ram Gopal Verma, for one,took the leaf from Parinda when he made Shiva in 1991 and later churned out a plethora of similar movies.