THOSE WERE THE DAYS
Somewhere in the promotional blitz, Agneepath (1990) has taken on the status of a cult classic. Whatever emotional reasons Karan Johar may have had to remake this Mukul Anand film, produced by his father Yash Johar, it wasn’t at all great, or even an original film. Mukul Anand, one of the early birds in the breed of style-over-substance directors, had taken a very routine Bollywood revenge drama and given it some Hollywood-ian touches.
THE ANGRY YOUNG MAN LIVES ON
This reviewer must be among the few to have missed Amitabh Bachchan's National Award-winning performance in Mukul Anand's Agneepath two decades ago. They called it iconic, but it was difficult to watch a childhood idol looking haggard, kohl-eyed desperate, camouflaging his naturally imposing voice with a rasp to portray Vijay Dinanath Chauhan, the school master's son who becomes a dreaded don and avenges his father's death. Karan Malhotra's homage to it then, is a new film altogether with no comparison to make. Yet, it bears the stamp of archetype more than any other in recent cinema as it picks up salient aspects of the 'angry young man' persona and mythical tropes to fashion a familiar tale in a glossy package.
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