Gangster review :
The legendary Dev Anand is my all time great hero with Hum Dono (1961), Guide (1965), Jewel Thief (1967) and Johny Mera Naam (1970) being my personal favourites. However, the last few movies made by the him, specially from 1990 onwards, were pure trash. This one ranks amongst his worst. The film starts with a cringy rape scene where veteran actor Ajit rapes an unknown extra dressed as a tribal girl. The girls private parts were fully visible yet the censors passed the shot with A certificate. It created tremendous controversy on release but still Gangster, clashing with Yashraj's Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge and Madhuri Dixit's Yaraana on Diwali 1995, failed miserably at the box office. The rape scene was later toned down in its video version along with the other gangrape scene of heroine Aneeta Ayoob.
Anyway, Dev Sahaab starred in and as Gangster which he becomes after being falsely implicated in the rape case and serving a jail sentence. In the meanwhile, Ajit has grown in to an international gold dealer Chandulal Seth who has two rape happy sons (genetic flow, i guess!!) who cast their eye on one of their employee Aneeta Ayoob. The lady later joins Dev Saahab's gang to avenge Ajit and sons.
Gangster had an ensemble cast - Ajit, Mamta Kulkarni, Mink Singh, Aneeta, Deepshikha, Arjun, Navneet Nishan, Joginder, Sudhir - but the maverick Dev Saahab towers over all in each and every scene. Newcomers Manu Gargi (Dev Anand find) and Mamta were just there for the songs. One of the numbers - Maine pyaar kisise kiya - picturised on Mink Singh is still memorable. So are the foreign locales of Belgium.
I had seen Gangster on VHS at the time of its release. Like most Dev Saahab's films of '90s, it had a good plot but suffered from an amateurish screenplay and inept direction. The film turned out to be a box office failure but couldn't break the indomitable spirit of Dev Saahab who had already moved on to his next film titled Main Solah Baras Ki (1998). Salute to him, always!!
Regards,
Sumeet Nadkarni.
