Producer & Director: Rajiv Babbar
*ing: Mithun Chakrabharti, Jackie Shroff, Ramya, Gulshan
Grover, Shakti Kapoor, sp. app. Altaf Raja
Music: Anand Milind
Released on : December 12, 1997
Reviewed by: Tanmeet Kumar
tanmeet@indolink.com
out
of 
Rajiv Babbar's SHAPATH is a regular action movie that is actually not that
bad, for a Mithun movie. Mithun Chakrabharti, action star of the 80's, has taken the 90's
by surprise. All of his movies bomb but producers and directors are still signing him for
films. Last year, he had as many as eight releases and this year promises to be no
different. SHAPATH is a shade better than Mithun's other recent movies (SHER-e-HINDUSTAN -
with Madhoo, JEEVAN YUDH - with Mamta, TEESRA KAUN - with Somi Ali, KRANTIKARI - with
Mamta again, etc.) but is still an average movie.
The movie starts out with three corrupt politicians arguing with an honest one over whether weapons and drugs will be smuggled in to Bombay. The honest politician rejects the idea and the bad men plot to kill him. Mithun plays an army commando who is assigned to protect the honest political figure on the night of a public speech. There, the politician is assassinated because Mithun fails to shoot the killer before he shoots the speaker. Mithun fails to shoot the killer because his girlfriend gets in the way of his shot and he cannot kill his lover. So Mithun gets demoted, the killer goes uncaught, and Mithun finds out that he was betrayed by his girlfriend. She was paid by the killer to fall in love with him and disrupt the shot. Mithun, feeling lost and dejected, drowns himself in drink and joins the villain's side. Two police officers, Jackie Shroff and Ramya, are assigned to the case of the dead politician. Ramya and Jackie are also lovers and are waiting to get married. Jackie also has a younger brother who is in love with Meena. Meena and Jackie's brother are blissfully happy in their romance until the younger brother spots Mithun and his comrades murdering someone. Mithun kills him before he can tell anyone and Meena sees her lover killed. She goes crazy with grief and, after identifying the killer to Jackie and Ramya, kills herself. Jackie and Ramya then vow to kill Mithun, no matter what. Plot twists galore follow.
The plot of this film is really overused. Mithun is the Steven Segal of Bollywood. All of his films have the same plot. He does well in the action scenes, though. Jackie is really doing some low caliber films (Hafta Vasuli, Badmash, 2001) now. He has killed his career. He acts well in a role that doesn't call for much acting. Ramya looks fantastic and does OK with acting in a nothing role. Though she is in a lot of the movie, she doesn't contribute much and just stands there looking sexy. She is a gorgeous girl who just oozes sex. Her natural assets flatten everyone else on screen. She also starred with Mithun in the recently released Loha (also with Manisha Koirala and Govinda). Anyways, I can't wait to see her in Amitabh Bachchan's Bade Miyan Chote Miyan, David Dhawan's Banarsi Babu with Govinda, and Wajood, costarring Madhuri Dixit, Nana Patekar, and Mukul Dev. Alfat Raja makes a guest appearance to sing his hit "Ishq aur pyar ka". Rambha looks okay and acts even worse. She will need to pep up her acting skills if she wants to earn a place among respected actors and actresses in Bollywood. Music by Anand Milind is good. My three favorite songs from the movie are the Altaf Raja qawaali, "Chum Le Mere Balon Ko" and "Hai bada anaari rabba". Ramya really mystifies in her song sequence for "Chum Le". The downfall of the movie is the overused plot. Direction is just okay. All in all, the film is just okay. Shapath was an average hit in India, Mithun's first after two years of flops.
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