Cine Talk

Gabbar Singh’s mayhem over the Sholay. works so wonderfully within its high-voltage ‘masala maargenre because of the actors who instinctively grasp the street-level gut-wrenching grammar of Malhotra’s Barring Priyanka Chopra who seems in a land of looming credibility, every character shines through the crime-drama maze. The action sequences by Abbas Ali Mogul convey rawness. Every blow that Hrithik Roshan so manfully receives on his chin makes you flinch. You wait for him to give back as good

This is not a film for the fainthearted. Its basic structure and the leitmotif of the ‘tree of death’ (where Vijay Chauhan’s father was hanged and where his wrongdoer will finally meet his nemesis) draw audiences into a vortex of viciousness and sadism.

This is a dark brooding world; this is a world where the laws of retribution and redemption are rewritten according to who rules the Agneepath where the poet gets hanged and the pervert

Karan Malhotra revels in the language of commercial Hindi cinema. The characters in Vijay’s chawl are all good-hearted. Every character in Kancha’s kingdom is a creep or a coward. The battle lines are tightly drawn. The pace is breakneck.

The mob scenes of violence and religion often merge on the streets of Mumbai and in the lawless backwaters of the imaginary Mandwa. The narrative features a Gokul breaking sequence at the start and a Ganesh visarjan sequence towards the end, both shot spectacularly on Mumbai streets. The background music is a suitable banshee of memories and pain.

Since Hrithik Roshan has chosen the language of understatement to portray the wronged wounded social outcast Vijay Dinanath Chauhan, it is up to the eloquence-level of the soundtrack to supplement the hero’s stunning

Every component of the film falls into place, with a resounding thump. is brilliant in its brutality. It’s a riveting and hectic homage to the spirit of the cinema when revenge reigned supreme. And content was Agneepath takes us back to the era when there was no computer or cellphones. And communication with the audience was immediate and electrifying. Relive that tingling sensation of watching the hero get his groove back.

Subhash K. Jha