Hero - The story of a criminal turned hero (1983)

Hero released in the year 1983, turned its male protagonist (Jackie Shroff) into an overnight star. Jackie had already made his debut (a rather unsuccessful one) in the film Swami Dada under the guidance of Dev Anand. But it needed maverick director Subhash Ghai’s Midas touch to catapult Shroff to the big league of fame and popularity.

In Hero, Ghai takes the time-tested track of star-struck lovers and makes a simple yet heart-warming story of a criminal turning over a new leaf under the influence of love. The movie’s main strength is its outstanding music courtesy Laxmikant-Pyarelal and Ghai’s sensitive handling of the love story. Of course the entire cast also does a commendable job. In the film Jaikishen, or Jackie Dada, as he is called in the film, is a criminal with a heart of gold. He has old scores to settle with the area’s Thakur and his son, a police officer. Pasha (the ever reliable Amrish Puri), a notorious criminal, has been imprisoned by the IG Police, Shrikanth Mathur (Shammi Kapoor). The evil Pasha swears to avenge himself and sends his favourite henchman, Jackie Dada to do this for him. The plan is to abduct Mathur's beloved daughter Radha (Meenakshi Sheshadri) and then bargain for Pasha’s release with the cops.



Jackie takes on the identity of a cop and under the pretext of saving Radha from the local goons abducts her. As fate would have it, the inevitable happens and the two opposites fall in love. Soon Radha comes to learn about Jackie’s true identity but instead of giving up on him, she chooses to repose her faith in this relationship. Determined to make an honest man out of Jackie, she convinces him to surrender o the cops. Jackie by this time is also convinced of his errant ways and is determined to do the right thing. He surrenders to the cops who imprison him for two years. Radha, finds a confidante in her brother Damodar (Sanjeev Kumar) and tells him all about her love for Jackie. In his bid to help Radha, Damodar asks his friend Johnny to pretend to be in love with Radha, thinking this would deter their father from getting her married off before Jaikishen is out of prison. Meanwhile, Jackie completes his term and starts working in a garage, in his bid to lead a life of honesty. But Shrikanth is not convinced of his honest intentions. In another twist, Damodar discovers that Johnny is a drug dealer. Around the same time, Pasha gets out of jail and kidnaps Radha to punish both Shrikanth and Jaikishen. Whether Jackie is able to save his true love and whether Shrikant finally accepts Jackie constitutes the climax of the film.

Songs and lyrics from the movie Hero:

1. Tu mera jaanu hai tu mera dilbar hai (link)

2. Pyar Karne Wale (link)

3. O Baby sing a song (link)

4. Nindiya se jagi bahar (link)

5. Lambi Judai (link)

Drona - disappointing

I was reading an article in a magazine last week, and it was talking about the forthcoming release of Drona. The article raved about this being a highly acclaimed technical movie, with an incredible amount of hard work and technical effects thrown in, and I was eagerly anticipating the movie. I managed to cajole the spouse and parents to see the movie along with me, and even though reviews were out by that time and did not promise much, I still went along. Bad decision, I should have believed the reviews.
Drona is a movie about a secret as old as existence, from the Hindu mythology where the Gods and Demons (asuras) churned the seas a long long time back, and one of the secrets that emerged was the elixir of ever-lasting life (amrit) which would make the owner live forever. In order to keep it away from the demons (you would not give anything so powerful to the demons), it was decided that there would be a set of warriors who would forever protect the secret of this 'amrit', and they and their descendants would be called 'Dronas'. In addition, there would another set of warriors to protect them. And here is this 'Cindrella' in the shape of a man, who has been terrorized since childhood by a horrid foster mother, who would suddenly discover that he is the 'Drona', and then go through mysteries aided by a beautiful protector. He would fight the evil monster who killed his father, and save the secret.



What a fantasy. Imagine the story with its deep magic, mystery, and special effects that would make this movie on the class of a Peter Pan, or a Harry Potter, but the movie failed miserably to do anything in this regard. The movie did not have much of magic, it had a fairly comic villain who would repeat a phrase so many times that you got sick of it, you had not too much good music, not much of action except for a car chase, a scene on a train, and a couple others, but there was something missing. Somehow the picture was not gripping enough, and even though I was forcing myself to not be overall critical right away, there was just not enough excitement.
For all this, I don't lay too much blame at the heads of either Abhishek Bachchan, or Priyanka Chopra (for her, it was a big role, pity it did not work out), or the criminal display of Kay Kay Menon as a shallow (not much cunning or mystery in him) magician who was also a demon (he just did not look or act like a demon, more like a normal villain who knew some magic). Most of the mistake I would lay at the door of the Director, Goldie Behl. There was not enough guidance about how to make this movie, sparkle, where even a movie like Krrsh, with its limited story, was still gripping enough with some good action. Jaya Bachchan was totally wasted.