Before I don the self proclaimed movie reviewer's cloak, let me ramble in my who-am-i-to-review-and-shit guilt and say that if nothing, Agneepath has accomplished 2 very essential things as a Bollywood movie. First, it has shown everyone exactly how to do a remake, i.e. keep the strong aspects of the original intact but always add a few fresh notes so that it does not sound like the same old song. Thank you Karan Malhotra for not doing a bad job. Second thing is the way Agneepath despite being an overly dramatic typical Bollywood flick never comes off as that. Agneepath is a cult movie. Like it or not, it falls into the category of all the recent box office record breakers, in which the writers expected the audience to either keep their brains at home or not believe in the laws of Newtonian Physics. While creators of Agneepath do not ask for a theater full of cows, they do hope that the Indian people will be awed enough by the other cinematic qualities that they won't mind overlooking a few glitches in the plot. And do we get awed enough? Well, if you like some Masala in your movie, then yes.
So Agneepath is the much known revenge saga of our angry young man Vijay who watches his father get murdered by the same gaon walas, who he had spent a lifetime caring for. Ha! Predictable, inane and outmoded but for me, a perfect remake. There will definitely be two types of people in the theater. One, who would be waiting, fingers crossed for Hritik Roshan to deepen his voice and say "Vijay Dinanaath Chauhan" through entire course of the movie and the other, well, who won't be doing that. I was the former. And how does it feel when he actually says it? To be frank, it felt forced. Yet I loved the fact that he did it in his own way and did not even try for that matter to copy the original, which we all know is as imitable as the 'boy with a pipe' by Picasso.
Agneepath, from start to end, is intense. Intense action, intense characters, intense tension between the characters, intense drama and an intense item number. The director was gambling on the high dose of typical Bollywood drama coupled with fantastic acting performances and delightful song sequences with brilliant choreography.
As much as I want to talk about Hritik first, I cannot do that because the first position must go to our very own legend, Rishi Kapoor. I mean, wow. Like, wow. His performance alone should fetch Agneepath a few rating stars. And the best part is that it was a new character, absent in the original script. So kudos to the director or whoever thought of it. Rishi Kapoor did an incredible job as Rauf Lala, the kingpin of Mumbai's prostitute and drug market and the crime godfather of apna hero Vijay. It really was pleasurable to watch him perform. Hritik Roshan as always, looked prepared and because of his sharp facial features, flawless in his own version of Vijay. The only problem is that the guy is too good looking for the role. There, I said it. But don't call me gay already, because later I am going to be extolling the makeup artists as well. Sunjay Dutt, as expected, fit perfectly in the pants (or dhoti) of this nightmare on mandwa street. Priyanka Chopra, apart from desperately seeking screen space, was perfect in whatever little she was supposed to do, which basically was the role of heroines in the 80s/90s, i.e. add some glam-n-glitz and entertain, whenever the audience gets bored of watching the same angry faces all over the big screen.
So bhaiyon aur behno, if chikni chameli's pointlessness irritates you then may be try wanking off over the technicalities like Vijay's young sister shiksha actually looking her age; how the upper lip hair wasn't removed to let her be a school kid she was and not a pre-teen sex siren and how the sets and locations were really worked hard upon. Movie Nazis will always argue that these things are expected with a big budget film but if we never leave a chance to slam them then why not laud when they deserve it.
And to those who only ask one question, "Katrina hot hai ki nai?", I suggest you go in the second half. Agneepath is as tight as Bollywood can get. Watch it to revisit apna pehle wala Bollywood.
