Mahesh Manjrekar became the big time director, that he is, after his gangster drama about an ordinary boy becoming a big time don hit the jackpot at the box office. The film flung Sanjay Dutt in the big rung of performers and touted Manjrekar as the next big thing. A few misfired flops down the track Manjrekar attempts to make a sequel to his all time classic and despite a few worthy performances and gripping scene Hathyar fails to live up to the original in every sense.

The film follows up on the life of Raghunath Namdeo Shivalkar and shows what happens to the family of a gangster after he is dead. It shows Raghu´s son mistreated in his younger days,  his father being treated ill by society and his wife returning to prostitution to run the house and to make sure her son has a proper life.

In his younger days Rohit was a restless and energetic teenager. Despite everyone turning their head away form him he managed to make a lifelong friend in Munna (Sachin Khedekar). In his teenage years he accidentally commits a murder and like his father becomes a big time don. At this time he enters the underworld crime scene through big time political games, unlike his father who started out small. Rohit slowly starts getting used in a game of chess by big time politician (Gulshan Grover). Rohit along with his band of brothers (Sachin and Sharad Kapoor) become three of Mumbai’s number one leading Hit men. Despite constant flak from his grandma and his father's best friend (Deepak Tijori) Rohit doesn't want to reform. 

And since mobsters must fall in love too, love enters his life in the form of Shilpa, (Shilpa Shetty). After getting married and having a daughter, a misunderstanding has Shilpa leaving his house and going to stay with Munna, whom she considers a brother. Eventually the news reaches Rohit and in a fit of rage Rohit kills Munna, his one and only true friend. 

This one action marks the downfall of Rohit, also known as Boxer Bhai. His drinking gets out of hand, his hands become more gun crazy and he loses the meaning of life. Like the original, Hathyar also makes the statement: a man who lives by the gun dies by the gun.

As a writer Mahesh Manjrekar hasn't succeeded at all.  There aren't enough emotional sequences at all in the movie and more scenes should have been added with Sanjay Dutt with Reema, Sachin and especially Namrata. Rather, their characters as well as the film have been simply taken over by guns and violence. 

Direction wise Manjrekar succeeds to an extent. Hathyar, like Vaastav depicts scenes from the underworld like everyday life and doesn’t glamorize violence, but even still, certain scenes from the movie seem like an amalgamation of previous gangster movies since this genre has been attempted too many times of late. Even touches of Manjrekar’s own Kurukshetra are evident here. 

The film is dosed with too many episodes resulting in a mishap feeling that the film does not fit all together. This comes to Manjrekar’s discredit as he uses too many flashbacks as a storytelling device, which gets a bit annoying after a while, especially when you have flashback in flashback. This is only helped due to the fact the film has been paced quite well with fast drama and no time for jokes. In the first fifteen minutes there are four funerals.

Seeing as though this is a sequel, comparisons to Vaastav are inevitable. Whereas Vaastav relied more on emotional and heavy drama, Hathyar relies more on gun, violence, gore, swearing and shock value. This is a hindrance in some sense as Hathyar is a very gritty and gory film in terms of violence and definitely the most violent movie of the year to date. Unlike the climax of Vaastav, which left the audience shaking, Hathyar climax is not half as shocking nor does it leave an impact.

On the upside Manjrekar, as always, has managed to extract powerful and gripping performances from his cast.

Sanjay Dutt is back in a role tailor made for him. He is without a doubt the perfect prototype  gangster and he has proven that time after time. While I feared that Rohit, the character here would simply be an imitation of Raghu from Vaastav, you can breathe a sigh of relief that he is not. Dutt manages to make the character of Rohit different to Raghu. Where Raghu was scared and confused at first and later on engulfed by his own power right until the end where he was scared again. Rohit starts out as angry, first at society and then at him self and later as the movie progresses he loses his hope for life and becomes vulnerable. Whether it is his dialogue delivery, expressions, body language or emotional sequences Dutt is flawless. Even still, it must be noted that Dutt´s performance as Rohit doesn't top Raghubhai. The flashes in which Raghubhai appears in the movie lets one realize what an overwhelming and mind blowing performance it was. Sanjay is a definite contender for Best Actor this year.

Shilpa Shetty leaves her mark in a natural performance. Despite her short role she holds her own and acts well. Her scenes with Sanju are a well done and she looks like a dream.

Sachin Khedekar is superb in his role as Sharad and ditto for Gulshan Grover, Deepak Tijori, and Shakti Kapoor. Reema Lagoo again stands out as Shantabai. Shivaji Satam evokes sympathy in his short role. Namrata Shirodkar is simply excellent in her short role. She plays the motherly role very well and her expressions and emotions are superb. Sharad Kapoor fails to impress in his role while rest of the cast do their job accordingly.

Anand Raaj Anand´s music fails to impress. The romantic numbers are mind numbing and they hinder the story telling pace. The only number I enjoyed was ´boxer bhai´ which was enjoyable.

On a positive note, technically the film is grand! Vijay Arora’s cinematography perfectly captures the mood and atmosphere of Hathyar and gives the film a slick look. Mahendra Verma´s action is also top notch. Although there is a overdose of blood and gore the action is always enjoyable, specially the shootouts which seem life-like.

Hathyar is not everyone’s cup of tea. For those who didn't watch Vaastav, Hathyar will be that much more difficult to comprehend. In a way Manjrekar has handicapped his own movie. On its own, Hathyar  is not a classic by any means and Mahesh Manjrekar needs to try a bit harder, but it is still worth a watch for fans of the genre due to great performances, a fast paced narrative, and heart pounding action.