Sultanat

Sultanat review :

Before the super hit Khuda Gawah (1992), Mukul S Anand had directed a magnum opus called Sultanat starring baap beta Dharamendra and Sunny Deol which was produced by Dharam's friend Arjun Hingorani. The film introduced Shashi Kapoor's son Karan and Juhi Chawla who had small role. Sridevi was paired with Sunny and she looked extremely pretty in it.

Dharam and Sunny were pitted against each other while Amrish Puri played the main villain as Razouli. Technically brilliant like all Mukul Anand films, the desert setting was the films highlight and the sword fights were effectively handled.

The film was mounted on a massive scale and couldn't recover its huge budget through box office returns entailing losses to distributors and exhibitors.

The title song is still memorable and was picturised on producer Arjun Hingorani dressed as a fakir.

I had watched the film at the time of its release on VHS and liked it that time. I revisited it again on YouTube during the corona lockdown. Brought back the nostalgia!!

Regards, Sumeet Nadkarni.

All Mukul Anand fans who have loved the spectacular "Khudagawah"will see the glimmers of his directorial talent as a showman in"Sultanate"which handles deftly this story of fidelity and fraternity .This story of the mistaken identity of long lost and found brothers situated in the mythical islamic background of the desert will please and entertain all Mukul SAnand fans.

The late Mukul Anand and Philip Dayton had directed what can be described as a typical 80s Masala-type-epic-trash. The good thing about such movies is for the (unintentional) comic relief they provide. I couldn't restrain myself from watching this because who could refuse a movie that stars Sridevi and Juhi Chawla? But even otherwise, this film is entertaining because it's one of those 'bad that it's funny'- type movies.

The male characters are the typical macho-type Arab-Indians who don't mind shedding blood as long as there's a heroic excuse but another positive aspect is that both Sridevi and Juhi's characters are very strong (albeit they're not so smart) and while the men pretty much treat the women like their inferiors, Princess Yasmin and Zarina know how to hold their ground. The story is the usual revenge/ patriotic/ separated -at-birth- and-reunite-after-20+ years/happy-ending-with-dad's-death etc. It's got all the ingredients of a campy 80s flick, like: forcing the heroine to dance (yes, we get to see some great dances by Sridevi), hero kidnaps arrogant princess and humiliates her in order to win her love, dishum-dishum, many villains, songs appearing out of nowhere and what not.

Here are some examples of the unintentionally funny scenes: Sameer and Zarina jump from a plane with a parachute. They're to land on a desert but, as fate would have it, they fall right into a 50cm diameter pit of quicksand and they are already sucked in immediately. Poor princess Yasmine is kidnapped by goons and 'inadvertently' slapped around as the goons fight amongst themselves over who gets the babe. Then there's a love story, that's only two dialogues - translated through dictionary, between Dharmendra and an overweight white chick. This poor white chick, who is an atrocious actress, is playing a character who doesn't understand Hindi and every time her beloved Khalid recites a clichéd dialogue, she has to browse through the dictionary in order to understand his blabbering and to express her stupidity.

As expected, the camera-work is dull. The action sequences, background score, sound effects and lighting are abysmal. Where the acting is concerned, Amrish Puri and Shakti Kapoor play the over the top villains quite well. Sunny Deol and Dharmendra are quite bad but also amusing. Karan Kapoor is terrible but equally amusing. Sridevi and Juhi Chawla manage to shine in spite of poorly written characters. Sridevi carries off the 'princess flair' quite well and Chawla is confident in her debut role.

Film was OK , but whenever Sridevi comes on screen , Film's level is lifted. Acting , direction, story , all was just OK but whenever Sridevi comes on screen , one can see life back onto the film. Sridevi has always make her presence felt even with small roles like this movie and Jaanbaaz.