Angaar (1992)

Truly Dreadful Film

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

ANGAAR is one of the best gangster films made in bollywood, In 1992 when bollywood was busy dancing to films like DEEWANA, BOL RADHA BOL.etc K Shashilal Nair had the guts to defy stereotype. The film is a dark gangster film set in Mumbai where we have Kader Khan playing Jehangir Khan a gangster but who has a heart of gold(reportedly based on Haji Mastaan)he has 2 sons Nana Patekar who is a businessman and Mazhar Khan who takes care of the gang. We have jobless Jaikishan who likes playing in bands but never gets a job due to his approach to the society. The film is superbly handled, there is less scope on romance, more on drama and dark scenes. There are some filmy scenes especially the end but those have to be forgiven.The filmmaker also adds emotional angles to the villains, we have Nana who is a ruthless businessman who breaks down bhastis to build buildings but he has a mentally challenged son, also he has a had a lonely school and college life due to his father's name. One flaw perhaps is the way Jackie suddenly recovers after being a vegetable and some moreDirection is great Music is goodJackie Shroff is understated and does a good job, Nana Patekar is flawless in his role as always he performs brilliantly, Kader Khan is brilliant as the DON which he played later in SAPOOT too, he is simply brilliant, he also speaks in a much more gruffy voice perhaps to emulate the gangsters in real life. Dimple Kapadia is superb in her role, Mazhar Khan is amazing, Achyut Potdar is good, Sulabha Deshpande too does well, Kiran Kumar does well in a cameo, Neena Gupta is good, Ajit Vachnani, Om Puri is terrfic in his role and others are good

Large empty spaces...fore-grounded sound effects...minimal background score...unusual song picturizations...brutal violence and dystopian atmosphere are just a few of the elements which makes this familiar underworld tale by K Shashilal Nayar, a minor masterpiece.Jehangir Khan (loosely based on Haji Mastan played aptly by Kadar Khan) and his sons; the gangster Farid Khan (Mazhar Khan) and the white collar builder Majid Khan (with an Hafeez Contractor agenda of 'Bombay should be clean!' played by Nana Patekar with a nervous calm) dominates the matters of the city. Jehangir Khan, the mafia ruler of the city since the last 40 years now proclaims himself as the messiah of poor and just like the Mughal king Jehangir promises justice in an open personal court. Whereas, Farid's men create havoc in poor slums by eve teasing and other illicit activities.One such slum is 'Asha Colony' whose unofficial leader is Jaikishan alias Jaggu (Jackie Shroff) who is a graduate and a job seeker and an occasional street musician. World's of Jehangir and Jaggu collide when Majid gets determined to wipe off Asha Colony to make multistoried buildings there.The cinema of Angaar is gritty and atmospheric...the death scene of Jaggu's father and Jaggu's torture in the state mental asylum are pretty hardcore. Most of all, the climax where multistoried buildings are blown off is both spectacular and a form of unique vengeance to the old 'Basti' problem.Nayar's real cinematic achievement comes with his ability of unique treatment of spaces, both visual and aural. Visually, most of the times the spaces were either kept very empty or overpopulated with people which presents the city of Bombay as a city of extreme opposites. Aurally, in the key scenes one crucial sound is kept in the foreground instead of always resorting to the mundane background score which provide the scenes with necessary tension and urgency like in the scene where Jaggu first meets Majid at a construction site. Except the dialogue only one sound can be heard which is that of Jaggu's motorcycle.Performances in the film are truly A-class, especially those of Jackie Shroff, Kadar Khan and Nana Patekar. Even minor characters like those played by Nina Gupta, Achyut Potdar and Kiran Kumar leave their mark.

Released at a time when Mumbai (then Bombay) was making the transition into the cosmopolitan city it is now, this movie captured the angst of the educated but unemployed youth striving to survive in the big bad city. The movie also made bold statements against the nexus between the city developers, the mafia and the corrupt politicos. What makes Angaar different from most other bash-the-mafia movies is the strong characterization. Almost every significant character has dimensions.There is no pure hearted "hero" or mean-as-a-mule "villian" and the casting is perfect. Each actor fits the role perfectly. The story revolves around the House of Khans. The patriarch, Jehangir Khan (Kader Khan) is toughest Underworld don in the city and is now enjoying his retirement by solving issues of the poor folks in his "Durbar" (court).His younger son, Farid (Mazhar Khan) handles the daily affairs of the underworld empire. However, there is a lot of tension between Jehangir and his elder son, Majid (Nana Patekar, superb as always), who is an architect and runs a construction agency. Even as Jehangir tries to reform himself by helping the poor, the ruthless and stubborn Majid wants to raze down as many slums as possible and build skyscrapers.Meanwhile, we are introduced to Jaikishen aka Jaggu, who is a hot headed unemployed graduate and the leader of the brats in his small "Chawl" - Asha colony. One day, Majid happens to see Asha colony and immediately realizes that it is prime land. Majid politely asks Jaggu to clear the colony and promises to compensate for the relocation. However, Jaggu declines and then Majid decides to use his father's muscle power to grab the land. Matters complicate as Farid gets in a fight with Jaggu and dies of wounds. Jaggu is arrested and is declared mentally deranged because of his insane anger. Majid bribes the warden of the asylum and asks to torture Jaggu to such an extent that Jaggu becomes totally inert to respond. Meanwhile, Jaggu's friends - Hussain(Om Puri) and Mili (Dimple Kapadia) continue to expose Majid's and Jahangir's misdeeds through their newspaper. Jahangir repents and helps Jaggu escape from the asylum. Jaggu's friends help him recuperate. This causes panic in the Khan clan as now Jaggu can testify against them. Majid's machinations finally succeed and he razes Asha Colony to the ground. Jaggu and his friends avenge their colony by bringing down Majid's high rises and the movie culminates in an over-the-top, fantastic climax where the State assembly is blown away as a part of Jaggu's "cleaning up the system" plan. This movie has excellent performances by the entire top cast, notably, Nana Patekar, Jackie Shroff and Kader Khan. However, it is the finer touches which make this movie so different - Jaggu's nagging dad (Achyut Potdar, brilliant), Jehangir Khan's faithful bodyguard Anwar (Kiran Kumar, executes the role with great restraint, he doesn't even speak throughout the movie!!!), the honest-but-helpless Police Commissioner, the tense family dramas in the Khan household, Majid's retarded son and his self-pitying wife (Neena Gupta), Jaggu helping Mili to cross a busy traffic intersection - there are many more things to remember in the film. The film also has some good art direction with huge sets and some decent miniature work, which for a 1992 Hindi movie, was path-breaking. Today, after 12 years, the movie doesn't look slick - but the performances are top-notch, so is the script. Some may find the climax too fantastic, but hey, that's Bollywood for you!

underrated movie. Suffered from production delays. Notable for Kadar Khan's performance, and for Mazhar Khan's last turn on screen. Jackie did a workman like job. Dimple's character, weird for weirdness's sake. Nana channelled Nana. Loved Kadar khan and the seedy mumbhai ambience.