Movie Review: Agneepath (The Path of Fire): 1990

Alok Nath, a supra-idealistic and soppy teacher (in a bread-and-butter role) in the village behaves stupidly (as good men at the start of Hindi movies are bound to do) and ends up getting murdered (in this case, lynched by a mob). The visual of his young kid (who grows up to be Amitabh Bachchan) dragging his father’s corpse on a two-wheeler cart is very apt for this movie. That’s what AB does in so many of his movies including this one, drags the corpses of the script, dialogues, songs, situations all by himself. This film being no exception. That’s the tragedy of a world-class actor who has to make-do with 90% of his films being sheer garbage otherwise.

The story of this movie is of little consequence. This is a hark back to the days of the cruel zamindars coupled with the modern smuggler in what is probably an effort to revive Big B’ sagging career with all the formulas of yore. So you have the son who upon facing an immense tragedy in his life, turns his back on morality to achieve ‘success’ at all costs, the steadfast mother who is the moral lighthouse, the hurt inflicted by society writ large on all the scenes played by AB, tragedies of the epic proportions that Greek gods/humans go through, and the other characters trying to look busy throughout the film.

This movie actually comes highly rated and recommended by the Big B’s son himself, by Abhishek Bachchan. It was a big hit as I recollect but not without its share of controversies. The main one being, that AB had experimented with a change in voice in this movie, not very much appreciated by his fans initially. It is nevertheless a landmark film for AB and that’s enough to put it on your watch-list.

With over-the-top inane songs like ‘I am Krishnan Iyer M.A.’, Kader Khan’s dialogues that tend to veer towards melodrama (just like his acting), about the only thing that saves ‘Agneepath’ from being ‘Agony-path’ is Big B himself. He looms large and conquers.

Some other positives being the inspired casting of the ‘Malgudi Days’ kid as young AB, the ample charm of Mithun Chakraborty (the poor man’s Amitabh) as AB’s right-hand man, the authentic location shoot for the Ganpati song: Morya Re Bappa Morya Re etc.

Credits
Story/Screenplay: Santosh K. Saroj
Dialogue: Kader Khan
Editors: Waman Bhonsle, Gurudutt Shirali
Cinematography: Pravin Bhatt
Lyrics: Anand Bakshi
Music: Laxmikant Pyarelal
Producer: Yash Johar (Karan Johar’s pop)
Directed: Mukul S.Anand

Starring:
Amitabh Bachchan and Madhavi
Mithun Chakraborty and Neelam
Danny Denzongpa
Alok Nath
Rohini Hattangadi
Tinnu Anand
Vikram Gokhale
Archana Puran Singh
Master Manjunath

Playback: S.P.Balasubramaniam, Runa Laila, Mohd.Aziz, Alka Yagnik, Sudesh Bhosale, Kavita Krishnamurthy


Morya Re (Part 1)

Morya Re (Part 2)