The humongous box office success of recent action movies adapted from South (Wanted, Ready, Bodygaurd) seems to have got into the head of glossy socio-romance movie maker Karan Johar’s head, which tempted him to try his hands once again upon genre least tried by him – Action/Thriller.
Before getting into detail analysis and comparison with old Agneepath, and weigh the pros and cons of the movie, I can easily say; The new version of Agneepath has patched up whatever loopholes the old one had and is a clear winner and might probably be the first success of 2012.

Rating:

While chatting with Karan regarding the movie nearly a year ago, He had clearly mentioned Agneepath is one movie which he does not want to tamper with his own ideas and fancy. It is also the most important movie, which his father had produced and whose box office failure had great impact upon their family lives. Like ‘Don’ for Farhan, KJo could never understand why the movie failed to garner greens despite getting national award for its actor Amitabh Bachchan. Maybe that’s the reason he wanted someone else on the director’s seat to intensify the raw and gritty look of the movie based upon theme of vindication. After ‘Kaal’, this is his second outing as a producer attempting something which is not his cup of Koffee.

As a cinegoer and critic, I must say, this is a true homepage a son had paid to his father. Why remake south Indian film, when you can re-make the old Hindi classics with some good sensibilities.

Synopsis

In a small Indian village Mandwa, Vijay Dinanath Chauhan [Hrithik Roshan] is taught by his principled father [Chetan Pandit] about the path of fire — Agneepath. His life is completely shattered when the evil drug dealer Kancha [Sanjay Dutt] hangs his father to death. Vijay leaves for Mumbai with his pregnant mother [Zarina Wahab] and has only one mission in life — to come back to Mandwa and bring back the glory of his father’s name.

In Mumbai, the 12-yr-old Vijay is taken under the wings of the city gang lord Rauf Lala [Rishi Kapoor]. From then on it is a journey of revenge where he makes and breaks many relationships, only to get closer to his aim. Vijay finds support only in his best friend Kaali [Priyanka Chopra], who stands by him at every moment in his life. Fifteen years later, his hatred for Kancha takes him back to Mandwa where life comes full circle.

On the flipside the movie does have fragments of romance subplot during the first half, which somewhat derails the theme and intensity of the movie for a moment, but the editor is clever enough to curtail that subplot within a reel or two. Interestingly, character of Mithun Chakravorty has been chopped off in the new version and new character Rauff Lala, a devil in disguise is introduced. Though the music of the movie isn’t chartbuster like Karan’s other movies, but while watching the movie you never feel bore with songs and dances.

Angeepath will be one movie where every major character in the movie is the star himself of the movie.
Audience will see a never seen before avatar of Rishi Kapoor as Rauf Lala and wonder why he was running behind the trees with teenage girls when he had so much more potential to play baddie.

The new version ‘Kancha’ as Sanjay Dutt, originally played by Danny, has been adapted to show menace just with his presence on the screen. His action and dialogue sequences might give him chance to stand along with the likes of Dr. Dang (Anupam – Karma) and Mogambo (Amrish – Mr. India). His one to one face off with Hrithik in penultimate reels gives audience to see the feast, which audience missed in Misson Kashmir. Both of them are given equal leverage and both of them have tried to outdo each other in terms of performance. Another important actor in the movie is Arish Bhiwandiwala, a boy plays the 12-yr-old Vijay.
Though Priyanka Chopra has been given role much more than glam doll, her role seems just an extension of Kaminey, where she gives same expressions.

After watching performances in Agneepath, I wonder why don’t we get nominations in Oscars?

Answer seems pretty simple, we lack a good story and makers who want to attempt big and different. Makers and even at times audience are happy seeing their favorite actors doing monkey jobs on the screen. So called fans of these big stars tend to turn blind and watch whatever crap their favorite star does on the screen, irrespective of the quality of work. Even the makers have forgotten that cinema is an amalgam of an art and entertainment, but these days its just Entertainment, Entertainment and Entertainment which sells be it in form of Sex, buffoon sci-fi action or blasphemous comedy.

But, Agneepath tend to differ.