User reviews

Unarguably, one of the best action packed movies of the Indian Cinema. Although, Sunny Deol is the lead character and protagonist but the wily charm exuded by Amrish Puri is enough of an accreditation for him to win the role of a reckless villain.

Puran was a villain suited to the classic decades of 50s and 60s. However, the uncouth, violent and crooked portrayal provided by Amrish Puri is the sign of the X generation, those who love to watch non-stop violence packed with sensational background music and exciting story.

The character sketch of a "Young angry man striving to fight an unjust society" initially boasted and pioneered by Amitab Bachan in the earlier Indian movies, reached its climax as Ajay of Ghayal portrayed by Sunny Deol. This is definitely a very interesting and thrilling action packed movie laden with brazen excitement, right upto the ending.

If not all, many laurels for RajKumar Santoshi who undertook to translate the trends of the times with a good story, meaningful script as well as entertaining songs and action.

If you start counting the ultimate action movies of bollywood. Ghayal would surely figure in the top three Maybe upped by Sholay and Phool Aur Kaante A young boxer's loving brother goes missing and weeks later he finds him dead. The culprit seems to be his employer. Of course the boxer then tries to take help of the law and the police but himself gets implicate in the murder After hours of police torture he is jailed for life.

He then escapes jail and swears the kill the villain in 24 hrs. thus begins an action thriller so fantastically made that Hindi cinema has never really been able to rival this rajkumar santoshi classic

Pitted against the wits of the boxer is a CID officer (om puri great as usual) who as smart and dedicated to the cause of saving the villain Vigilante action had never been so intense and smart. Recommended to good movie buffs. 8/10

This movie gave Sunny Deol his first award, until then he was a struggling actor. I watched this movie when I was very young. It impressed me then it still impresses me to this day. Out of all the performances it was Sunny Deol's performance as the angry young man that stood out. Amrish Puri went through the motions, Raj Babbar was good and Meenakshi provided good support.

Sunny Deol career has gone downhill since his Ghayal days. The last impressive film he made was Border over a decade ago. These days he restricts himself to patriotic films which get him nowhere. This movie was directed by Rajkumar Santoshi, who went on to make great films like Damini and the highly underrated China- Gate. Coincidentally Raj Kanwar's name is mentioned as a assistant director, he went on to make Dewaana, Laadla, Judaai, Daag and many more. This was Sunny Deol in his finest hour.

This movie was probably last original bollywood action film. The Actors are tremendous, One of Sunny Deol's best performance if not the best. This movie marked the end of an Action Era in Bollywood, which was ruled by actors such as Amitabh, Sunny, Sanjay and Anil and many others before love stories of late 90's caught the attention such as Hum Aapke Hain Kaun and DDLJ and many more. Sunny Deol is brilliant in this film and so is Amrish Puri who sadly passed away last year, and will missed by billions of Indians. The confrontation of Sunny and Amrish Puri is amazing...acting at its best. Sunny won National Award for this film. If you want to know bollywood inside and out I highly recommend this movie, not the movies that are being shown today, most of the today's movies are either have the same story or a remake of a Hollywood movie. This movie is a must watch movie!!!

Ghayal is definitely one of the best Hindi action films ever (very hard-hitting and totally mind-blowing). Sunny Deol has done many average/good/great action films since then, which is why he is truly the best action hero in Bollywood after his dad, Dharmendra, but Ghayal is Sunny's best action film to date. The action scenes are realistic and raw (should be like this always) and mind-blowing. The plot maybe simple, but the lethal combination of Raj Kumar Santoshi's brilliant direction, Sunny Deol's amazing performance (action and acting), and loads of top-class action made Ghayal a major blockbuster. I really wish that Santoshi and Sunny work together in some more movies soon, so Sunny can soon rise up to the top, as Santoshi knows how to make a proper action movie with a sensible ending that the audiences would accept. You can also watch Sunny's other hit action movies like Ghatak, Ziddi, Gadar (all-time blockbuster), and many others as they are also great, but Ghayal is the ultimate action movie (a true classic). I would love to see what its sequel, Ghayal 2, would look like when it comes next year or so (in '08/'09). It would really be awesome if they would pack in much more heavy nonstop action (again realistic and raw) than this first one. If you are NOT a Sunny fan, you will become a Sunny fan after you see Ghayal with an open mind (there was low competition and NOT as much biased media at that time as compared to today). This one gets a 20/10! Enjoy this awesome action movie and feel the REAL POWER!!

If you have not seen this movie and are ready to take my words, see it. One of the good Hindi action movies. I just wish that Amrish Puri was given more footage in the movie and a stronger role of-course. Strong performance by Sunny Deol. May be not as good as his performance in Arjun or Damini, but he can not give his best in all of his movies, can he? His performance is definitely impressive and hence the movie is worth watching. Sunny Deol is so perfect for such hair-raising roles. My own blood starts boiling when I see his action movies.......smile.......

Good movie to watch for especially the sunny deol actions the movie is a great hit movie of sunny deol with rajkumar santoshi.

Rajkumar Santoshi is one of the finest directors in the Indian movie industry today and Ghayal is one of his signature movies. It's a wonderful revenge drama with some fine screenplay and good action. All the lead actors have performed excellently, Sunny Deol, Amrish Puri and Om Puri. The scene in the police station when Sunny Deol is locked up and the police officers try to make him take the blame for his brother's death is excellent.

Unfortunately, Ghayal is still categorized as a "Sunny Deol scream" movie. People do not see the intensity of Sunny Deol's acting. He repeated the same in Damini and Ghatak, after which the duo separated. However, Rajkumar Santoshi has found another ally in Ajay Devgan, another top notch actor. Hope we get to see more films like these from him.

The anger, the desperation, the angst, the joy of being with loved ones, the sadness, the disgust at the system, vigilante revenge and the dialogues (balwant rai ke kutte, sab bikhe huen hain..and i can go on)..well no one could done this role with such hard hitting conviction and reality than Sunny Deol.

How I wish more directors would have given Sunny such roles..wow does he deliver here!

How I wish Rajkumar Santhoshi and Sunny had teamed up more after Damini and Ghatak. Only Santhoshi was able to extract such career defining performance from Sunny.

I first saw Ghayal when in school, and have seen it many times over the years and recently too, and everytime I feel that I haven't seen a better action movie. The music by Bappida complements the story, the back ground score is just superb and Meenakshi Sheshadri is excellent as the hero's love interest. The movie is also aided by having the best ever villain late Amrish Puri and great supporting artists - the late Om Puri, Kulbushan Kharbandha, late Shafi Inamdar, Raj Babbar, moushami chatterjee and Annu Kapoor

All in all, India's best action emotion movie ever, and Sunny, fully deserving of the best actor filmfare award and National award special jury -best actor.

Never to be missed.

Ghayal is one of the few good action films of the 90's but it is beyond good. Ghayal is one of the best action films ever. Raj Kumar Santoshi has made a hard hitting film. What is especially notable is Sunny Deol's Filmfare and National Award winning performance.

This movie shows one of the best performances Sunny Deol has ever given.He plays a young boxer who is caught in a web of betrayal , deceit, drugs and street fighting.He is accused of killing his brother and then vows revenge on the people responsible for his brother's death. The film has many notable starts such as Om puri,Amrish Puri,Meenakshi sheshadri & Raj babber. The action sequences are one of the best seen in any Indian film in the 90's.

Ghayal is arguably Rajkumar Santoshi's best film. The film although classified as an action film. The film is in fact a revenge drama with Sunny Doel as the avenger and Amraish Puri as the villain. The film is well executed and keeps you on the edge of your seat. For a Indian film it is stylishly shot and for an action film it has a very good story which is quite emotional at times such as in the court room scenes. The songs are hummable and fit in well in the context of the film.

The film has you rooting for Sunny Doel in his quest for revenge with the whole system against him. Sunny Doel is excellent in his national award-winning performance. Menakshi is also very good as his supportive girlfriend. While Raj Babbar and Moushami provide adequate support as Sunny's family. Om Puri is good and makes an impact in a small role of a good cop in a corrupt system. While Amraish Puri proves why he is one of the best villains ever to hit the big screen.

This film is well-directed, has a good story and performances and is well-worth watching. It may be noted Santoshi went on to make other good films such as Damani and Ghatak with the same principle star-cast however this remains his best film to date.

Sunny jee is the best ! Any doubt buddies ?

Now please try to understand the emotions . Don't be a fool . You can do anything if u have emotion or feelings because strength comes from the emotion of human . Understand ? !!!!!

Sunny deol create mildstone with this type of movies acting expression and dialogue delivery outstanding movie story and mainly dialogue Sunny deol made superhit it is.

One of the best Action Movies in all time Bollywood. The Acting of Sunny Deol,Meenakshi Seshadri, Om Puri, Amrish Puri, Raj Babbar & a Crucial Role of Anu Kapoor was Fabulous and Unmatchable.

Ghayal review :

I was in my eighth class when 'Ghayal' (1990) released. I vividly remember seeing it on VCR at my relatives place and getting blown away by the intense drama and its high octane action.

Inspite of having a routine storyline of a professional boxer seeking vengeance for his brother's murder, the realistic treatment by debutant director Rajkumar Santoshi made 'Ghayal' an altogether different experience for the viewers who were otherwise used to the mindless dhishoom dhishoom actioners of those time. Ghayal was far more real, raw and impactful.

Sunny Deol rocked as Ajay Mehra, the wounded who takes on the corrupt system singlehandedly. Amrish Puri was a class apart as Balwant Rai, the sophisticated villain who loves to play piano in his spare time. Even peripheral characters like Inspector Sharma (Deep Dhillon, menancing) and Barrister Shukla (Shafi Inamdar shocking us with his unexpected hostility in the court room) are still memorable. Sudesh Berry showed potential in a supporting role which was sadly never realised.

The film is best remembered for its slick action scenes and the standout ones are the fish market shootout, the chase down the Mumbai streets and the chilling climax. Ghayal set the trend for many such actioners to follow in that decade, some featuring Sunny Deol himself. But none came close to this classic.

Music by Bappi Lahiri included "Sochna kya.." and "Don't say no" - two popular and hummable tracks of that time (inspite of the blatant plagiarism).The pulsating background score was another highlight of the movie which later became a stock music piece for most action films of that decade and has now been remixed for its sequel going by the trailers.

Quite deservedly, Ghayal won seven Filmfare awards including Best Film and Best Actor and the National film award for Sunny Deol. It marked the beginning of a successful collaboration of Sunny Deol- Rajkumar Santoshi who gave us the equally great 'Damini' (1993) and 'Ghatak'(1996) as a follow up.

Regards, Sumeet Nadkarni.

I still remember the day when i watched promos of Ghayal which got my adrenalin pumping. And then the movie "Whoa..Super".... Well this is one of those movie which if you even listen on Audio Player will give you a chilling experience. Dialogue delivery and acting by Sunny in this movie is really unparalleled and so is the direction by Rajkumar Santoshi. I would say the first half of this movie is the best ever in Hindi Action Cinema and second half is also one of the best but bit predictable.This movie made me the fan of Sunny and made me watch each one of his movie after that. Off-course he could not repeat his performance but performed well in Damini and Jeet. So a must must watch.

Emotional story of Ajay and his thrilling 24 hour revenge spree against Balwant Rai. A truly iconic action movie of all time. Only Sunny can bring a knife to a gun fight and have the villain run for his dear life. Great performances all round.

Raw action! Raj Kumar Santoshi's directorial debut! Mind blowing performances!

I can give 12/10 for Ghayal, which is a big blockbuster and Sunny Deol's first breakthrough. This is one of the best action flicks I have ever seen (fast-paced and mind-blowing)! Sunny has truly been the Action King ever since then. The story, loaded with thrilling action, make this beyond outstanding! Sunny takes the show all the way to the end Rambo style. The Puris act great (as always). Sunny Deol has done a lot of action flicks, but if you rate his top 5, Ghayal is up there, that is for sure!! If you want to watch his action flicks, start from Ghayal onwards. Although it has been almost 25 years, I still do NOT get tired of watching this legendary action flick.

BIG NEWS: The sequel, Ghayal Once Again, is on the way, and Sunny is directing it himself with more action than the first.

Ghayal 1990 is one of the best Bollywood Action Movie. It stars powerful hero Sunny Deol and the ablest actress Minakshi Sheshadri. The movie has very good story and powerful acting. It is a all time watchable movie of India.

They say action movies are massy but this one has mass & class both..Sunny deol is in top form,Amrish puri is amazing ,Om puri is class with able support from Meenakshi Sheshadri,Raj Babbar,Moushami & Khurbushan kharabanda..Not to forget mind blowing Background Music of Bappi Lahiri & fine direction of Rajkumar santoshi.No doubt it went on to become 2nd Highest grosser of the year & swept 7 Filmfare awards. If you want to know bollywood inside and out I highly recommend this movie, not the movies that are being shown today, most of the today's movies are either have the same story or a remake of a Hollywood movie.If you are NOT a Sunny fan, you will become a Sunny fan after you see Ghayal with an open mind (there was low competition and NOT as much biased media at that time as compared to today) This movie is a must watch movie!!!

This movie has everything which will keep you hooked for 3 hours ....Just Go for it