Producer & Director: Veeru Devgan
*ing: Amitabh Bachchan, Ajay Devgan, Manisha Koirala, Sushmita Sen, Farida Jalal, Prem Chopra & Shakti Kapoor
Music: Sukhvindara Singh

Released on: July 23, 1999

Reviewed by: Sunder Kumar
sunder@indolink.com

out of 

How else to call a badly mad movie but call it a bad movie (and not recommend it to others in a review).  Hindustan Ki Kasam, is one such bad movie, and surely not a movie I would recommend to anyone. Anyone, except maybe an absolute Amitabh fan. The few little sequences where Amitabh dominates the screen could be reason enough for only an Amitabh fan to relish the movie, turn a blind eye to rest of the movie, and turn deaf to all the noise of music, dialogues, and background except when Amitabh speaks in his rich baritone voice.

Saying so much about Amitabh for this movie also says a lot about the movie where he plays only an anchor role, not more than half-an-hour in sum. But from the first scene to the last, from the opening lines to the closing lines, the director relies solely on Amitabh to rescue an absolutely mediocre movie. Every few minutes, when the narrative goes out of steam, in steps Amitabh with some patriotic lines and a few punches or more. And try as hard as he might, despite a ridiculous moustache to show his youth and a lot of cotton wool to make him look old (would someone come up with better costumes for him), he is the only glowing light in the movie. The rest aren't necessarily turned off due to their fault, but the director does not power them to glow. And not everyone is Amitabh to glow all by himself even in a most weakly characterized role.

So much about Amitabh, the movie could have done so easily without him.   The movie is about Ajay Devgan or two of them. One is a writer who makes millions on army potboilers. It so happens that his writings are too close to reality for the army men to stay silent for long. So, we have a whole bunch of army men (Prem Chopra, Shakti Kapoor for India, and Shahbaaz Khan for Pakistan). And if the caricatures in Mann were found poor in taste, it is very hard to fathom such farcical caricatures of military forces of any nation. The movie goes to caricature (perhaps unintentionally) the political heads too and shows in quite poor taste. Back to the story, or whatever is, we are told of a twin of Ajay Devgan lost in the 71 war who now is a top killer in the Pakistan Army. Army, navy, or air force - we are never told - though most of the stunts tend to be in the air. That's where we are left too, in the air, with no ground below. The story, narrative, and sequences would at best quality for an average 1970s masala potboiler.

The Devgan twins have love interests, causing long and irritating songs (not so much the music but their place in the movie), and a weeping mother. Cliches galore, as any masala movie - the stunts and sequences convince you at each moment to look at the exit door. Actions of the army twin is dreamt by the writer Devgan, and there lies the secret the Indian army (or rather Prem Chopra was looking for). Villains are thrown in with a history (Gulshan Grover and company), and songs in their dens happen.  The psychoanalyst (Kader Khan) pops in to help you out, and weaponry of all sorts are found all over the place. Picking cliches and flaws apart from any good scene in this movie is like going to a girls college and hoping to find more girls than guys. You are sure to find just that.

Directionless, the movies fights its way to an end, telling you that it was made by a fight-master and not a director. And realizing that its reaching no end, its again left to Amitabh to come up with closing line of what's good for the unity of two countries. But, maybe its just too much to take, and too late to find the audience in the halls. The message of India-Pakistan unity may be most noble but the portrayal is downright farcical, and that's exactly where the movie falls on its face.