Oct 28

Only Gun, No Fun!

Film: Hathyar
Producer: Venus
Director: Mahesh V Manjrekar
Cast: Sanjay Dutt, Shilpa Shetty, Sharad Kapoor, Sachin Khedekar and Namrata Shirodkar
Rating: 4/10

The latest offering from famed filmmaker Mahesh V Manjrekar’s camp is ‘reality cinema’ that faces verity in an attempt to depict the true picture of the underworld. Yet one is compelled to praise the director for taking a bold step of venturing into a possibly unexplored territory in Indian cinema and that is making a sequel. Hathyar is a sequel to Manjrekar’s previous masterpiece Vaastav, which dwelt upon the life of a commoner turning a dreaded gangster.

The film begins where Vaastav ends. Notorious don Raghunath Namdeo Shivalkar’s only offspring Rohit (Sanjay Dutt) is a student who desires to fulfil his father’s dream of becoming a successful, yet good human being. Like any other child, he takes studies seriously but his father’s background and mother’s profession of a prostitute hinder his progress as an individual.

People just wouldn’t let live his life peacefully. His mother, Sonu (Namrata Shirodkar) tries to admit him in a convent school, but when the principal realizes that Rohit is Raghunath’s son, he refuses to admit him. Therefore, Sonu admits the little Rohit in a municipal school where fellow students shun him in view of his ‘underworld connections’. In this hour of anguish, Munna (Sachin Khedekar) lends a helping hand to him and thus develops a life-long camaraderie. Meanwhile, Rohit grows into strapping young man and reaches college. He shows promise as a budding boxer and in one of his boxing matches, he encounters Inspector Rane’s son Amar (Inder Kumar). Raghu had bumped off Rane. Thirsty for Rohit’s blood, Amar succeeds in putting him behind bars on false charges of drug trafficking inside the college. However, a good cop (Deepak Tijori) who helps Raghu flee following his committal of an unintended murder in Vaastav helps set Rohit free. Once out of jail, he understands that his mother has not quit her profession as a prostitute. Rohit can’t stand the truth that the world ridicules him only due to his mother’s acts. In uncontrolled fury, he kills Amar when he mocks him about his mother’s activities and thus begins Rohit’s life as a gangster. Along with Pakya (Sharad Kapoor) and childhood chum Munna, he forms his own gang. Bullets are fired at random and blood flows uninhibitedly.

Rohit’s girlfriend Gauri (Shilpa Shetty) enters the frame and before you can blink your eyes, she is married off to someone else. However, Gauri’s husband is not a good hubby. He beats Gauri black and blue every time he returns home inebriated. Unable to bear the suffering of his love, Rohit gets her divorced and marries her. Meanwhile, there are also some sidetracks in the film; like Rohit growing suspicious of an alleged affair between wife Gauri and aide Munna, not realizing that they share a brother-sister bond and Pakya backstabbing Rohit and joining the rival gang. In the climax, like all gangster flicks, Rohit gets what he deserves, leaving his grandma Shanta (Reema Lagoo) alone with wife and daughter.

Performance-wise, yet again Sanjay Dutt with his amazing personality fits in his gangster outfit to the T. His amazing portrayal of a menacing don is worth a mention. Sachin Khedekar and Sharad Kapoor exhibit decent dramatic skill. Deepak Tijori chips in with a reasonably good performance. Among the ladies, Shilpa Shetty excels while Reema and Namrata fail to make an impact.

On the whole, Manjrekar’s cinematic attempt to spread the message of ‘crime doesn’t pay’ is laudable but it fails to create the indelible impact that he did with Vaastav.

By Shaikh Ayaz

 More Movie reviews..  

 
AG/MS