Tridev: A real entertainer

At near the end of the 80's came a movie that was every inch a masala movie. Tridev. It was a super-hit, with all the elements of a masala movie thrown in. There was revenge, romance, guns, explosions, a villain, a hero back from the dead, another hero who is a villager who falls for a rich and cultured girl, there is a villain who looks like a proper villain, and then there was the catchy songs. I remember that 'Oye Oye' was the most heard song when outside your house, being played in vehicles, in music stores, by shopkeepers, and for some time became the patron phrase of eve-teasers.
The movie was directed by Rajiv Rai and released in 1989, and it sort of also was the major movie in which Naseerudin Shah acts as a normal actor in a commercial movie, away from the art movies that he was so famous. There was some screaming from the art movie types about this betrayal, but I think that his response was to the effect that he also needs to be a success, and he does not see anything wrong in doing commercial movies.



The movie also led to a relationship between the director and one of his heroines. Rajiv Rai (34 years old) and Sonam (17 years old) fell in love, and eventually got married soon after.
The movie had music by Kalayanji Anandji, lyrics by Anand Bakshi, and starred the following: Sunny Deol, Jackie Shroff, Naseeruddin Shah, Madhuri Dixit, Sonam, Sangeeta Bijlani, Anupam Kher, Amrish Puri and Raza Murad. With such a large star cast, you would expect that there would be a number of stories around the various cast members, and the movie could get complex, but in my opinion, the director did a wonderful job in terms of getting the movie together into a fluid and flowing entertainer.
After all this, the story of the movie almost seems like an after-thought, but the movie does have a story. Bhujang is the pivot around which the movie runs, he is the villain who impacts the lives of all the main characters. When Naseeruddin Shah was young, his father was killed by Bhujang in a village, and the police was unable to help. Ever since then, he is somewhat disdainful of the police force and its men. Sunny Deol is a hard policeman, very critical of criminals, and as a result of excessive use of force in one such encounter with criminals, he is sent off to police lines. When in Bombay, he was a strong force against the illegal activities of Bhujang and his sons. He is supported by the police commissioner Anupam Kher, and is also in love with the commissioner's daughter, Madhuri Dixit.
At one time, Bhujang kidnaps Madhuri to get one of his men free, and Anupam Kher refuses to do anything, and it is then Jackie Shroff (Anupam's son) defies his dad and breaks into the jail and frees the person. Since he is now hunted by the police, Jackie joins the gang and soon falls for Sangeeta Bijlani, who is with the gang to avenge a past harm that Bhujang did. The characters start meeting in terms of Sonam (daughter of Raza Murad)coming to the village for a shoot and meets Naseeruddin and they start liking each other. Sunny is posted in the same village, and soon he has a violent run-in with Naseeruddin, but they like each and becomes friends. The rest of the movie is about how these characters join hands, and fight Bhujang and his men and eventually defeat them.

Songs from the movie:

Oye Oye (Tirchi Topiwale)



Gali Gali Mein



Main teri mohabbat mein



Gazar Ne Kiya Hain Ishara