Hum

Late Filmmaker Mukul S. Anand was A Visionary. Just take a look at his handling over any film he's made. Be it 'Agneepath', 'Main Balwaan' & 'Hum', he has his own vision, which in every manner, is stylish. 'Hum' is one of his best works.

'Hum' is well-written, well-acted & marvelously directed by the late genius. Anand has his stamp all-over the film & emerges a big winner. I loved the film, more so, for the execution Anand has given to this story. Sure, The Screenplay is entertaining, but Anand's work in here stands out! A Special Mention for the fantastic Music by Laxmikant-Pyarelal.

Performance-Wise: Amitabh Bachchan is in his element. Rajinikanth is pretty decent. Govinda is terrific, as always. Kimi Katkar is proficient. Deepa Sahi is fair. Shilpa Shirodkar is passable. Danny is simply spell-binding, while Anupam Kher shows a menacing side of his. Kader Khan is dependable.

On the whole, 'Hum' demands a viewing, thanks to the high-class execution given by Anand.

The first thing I said to myself while watching David Cronenberg's History of Violence was "Damn, this is Tiger's story told in reverse!" Mukul Anand's Hum is a landmark film in many ways. Apart from being one of Bachchan's truly last leading men roles, it (a) gave us the item number of the decade in "Jumma Chumma" (still gets a Bollywood party going anywhere in the world), (b) brought Big B and Rajni together for the last time, (c) gave us last of the legendary Bachchan drunkard scenes, (d) brought Haryanvi into mainstream B'wood through Anupam Kher's Girdhar and (e) gave us the last truly memorable Bollywood villain in Danny's Bhaktawar (that over the top villainy is long dead). Hum is one of those guilty pleasures of childhood (VHS tapes) that actually hasn't aged so bad. The reason is that at the core of it, it's a pretty cool movie about how our past can come back to haunt us. And how families can either be destroyed or come together to fight it out. Hum is an apt case study in good Bollywood masala entertainer genre: how to turn a completely fantastic nonserious storyline into an entertaining 3-hour long movie with an all-star cast, song and dance affair with the right amount of genuine comedy (Kader Khan, Anu Kapoor) and iconic one liners and scenes. It even had the done to death double role twist thrown into the mix and not a piece looks out of place because it's made with such frantic pace and style that you don't have time to ponder. But for me, the scene that really propels the movie beyond the usual run of the mill affair is where Bachchan gets his Tiger mojo back while inquiring about his missing sister-in-law at a bus stand. A rowdy bus driver misbehaves with him, which obviously pissed Bachchan off. But this is not normal anger. This is someone-is-going-get-hurt-real-bad level anger. He takes his glasses off and shrugs his partly grey hair in slow-motion and pulls the driver out of the bus and onto the street before tearing his uniform to shreds- all this while the Tiger leitmotif soundtrack is brought back from slumber to insane goosebumpy effects! Only Bachchan could have pulled this scene off and this is the last time he did something like this onscreen. That was 1991. History of violence ended that year.

This was a childhood favourite of mine. This was the second in the trilogy of the late Mukul Anand- Amitabh Bachan collaborations, the first being Agneepath and the third being Khuda Gawah. In my opinion this was the best in the trilogy. Amitabh was extraordinary whilst Govinda and Rajnikanth provided good support as his younger brothers.

The songs were chart-busters and I still listen to them. The lyrics were penned by Anand Bakshi and the music directors were Laxmikant- Pyarelal My favourites were either Jhomma Chumma or Ek Doosre se. Anupum Kher was OK but Danny was great as Bhaktawar. The action was superb, especially in the end scene where Anupum Kher and Amitabh are fighting in the helicopter.

One of the last best movies as the hero for Amitabh Bachchan.

I remember when this film had come out in India all the hype that was going around in the UK and when the film finally reached the UK for days the local cinema's were all sold out, and when you could finally find a time that was suitable tickets were being sold at £25, what a bloody rip off, credit to the cinema owners though, they knew where and when to make their money.

Finally got to see it, when the local video shop had it, and by complete and utter fluke my parents and I happened to turn up to see what film we could rent out, and there sat 'HUM' literally just arrived. So as I sat down finally with my drinks and snacks for the cinema atmosphere, i went into the film with an open mind trying to forget about all the reviews I heard prior to watching this film.

I can honestly say that I enjoyed the film from start to finish. The film had me tensed up, on the edge of your seat sort of drama with light relief between scenes, is what you require from a film. The film writers had finally (to me anyway) made a story line which captivated it audiences perfectly. Each character had it's own story, but the director made sure this was not detailed too much as this would have prolonged a film unnecessarily, the character of Bakhtawar is fantastically portrayed by Danny Denzongpa who is a total class act anyway. The songs were fantastic, and the club battle between Vijay / Kumar against Captain Attack with the batman theme playing in the background is a great great scene. Rajnikant when he's miming with the cigarette in his mouth is mesmerising! Utter Class.

Overall a film definitely worth watching for all the family, mainly for it's originality. Possibly my favourite 'bollywood' film of all time.