Agneepath

 

Agneepath ( Path of Fire) is a 2012 Indian Hindi-language action drama film produced by Hiroo Yash Johar and Karan Johar under the banner of Dharma Productions. It is a reboot of the 1990 film of the same name and was directed by Johar's former assistant Karan Malhotra. The screenplay was written by Malhotra along with Ila Dutta Bedi and the dialogues were written by Piyush Mishra. Johar pays tribute to his father, Yash Johar, the producer of the original, through the film. The music of the film was composed by Ajay-Atul, with lyrics written by Amitabh Bhattacharya. Though publicised as a remake, the film borrows only the basic plot of the original, while making the characters and incidents completely different. The film's title was taken from a poem of the same name by Harivansh Rai Bachchan, which forms a thematic link through the film, both literally and metaphorically.

Hrithik Roshan plays the lead role of the protagonist Vijay Deenanath Chauhan and Sanjay Dutt plays the role of the antagonist Kancha Cheena, originally played by Amitabh Bachchan and Danny Denzongpa respectively, with Rishi Kapoor portraying the newly introduced character of Rauf Lala. The supporting cast include Om Puri as Commissioner Gaitonde, Priyanka Chopra as Kaali Gawde and Zarina Wahab as Suhasini Chauhan, with Katrina Kaif featuring in an item number. The film follows the struggle of a common man, Vijay Chauhan, as he seeks revenge from Kancha, for wrongly framing and murdering his father in the island village of Mandwa. In the process he befriends an underworld drug lord Rauf Lala and falls in love with a loquacious girl, Kaali Gawde.

Principal photography of Agneepath took place in Diu and Mumbai, with several accidents taking place on the sets. After several issues such as plagiarism charges and release-date postponement, Agneepath released on 26 January 2012 in 2650 screens worldwide, coinciding with the Republic Day celebrations. Made on a budget of ₹58 crore (US$8.1 million), the film broke the highest opening day collections record in India and became a major critical and commercial success with a worldwide gross of over ₹195 crore (US$27 million). It has since emerged as one of the highest-grossing films of all time in Bollywood. The following year Agneepath received five nominations at the annual Filmfare Awards ceremony, and won five IIFA Awards and four Zee Cine Awards.

 

Sanjaya Datt

Hrithik Roshan

Hrithik & Priyanka

Plot

In the island village of Mandwa, the school teacher Dinanath Chauhan (Chetan Pandit) is highly respected by the villagers. The chief of the village, extremely jealous of Dinanath's popularity in the eyes of citizens, summons his evil son Kancha (Sanjay Dutt) to destroy Dinanath's image in citizen's eyes. Kancha also has plans to start a drug cartel from Mandwa, knowing that the soil of Mandwa is rich for the cultivation of cocaine. When Kancha requests the people to lend their lands to him under the pretext of expanding the salt industry of Mandwa, Dinanath dissuades the villagers from doing so. Knowing this, Kancha decides to get rid of the school teacher. He ambushes and murders a young girl inside the school, framing Chauhan for the murder. With the support of the villagers, Kancha then kills Chauhan by hanging him to death from a tree which is witnessed by young Vijay Chauhan (Arish Bhiwandiwala), the son of the teacher. Vijay Chauhan along with his pregnant mother Suhasini Chauhan (Zarina Wahab) leaves the village. Destitute, they find shelter in the city of Dongri, Mumbai but Vijay harbours intentions to go back to Mandwa and kill Kancha. While in Mumbai, Vijay's mother delivers a baby girl named Shiksha. Vijay is attracted to Rauf Lala (Rishi Kapoor), a local girl-trafficker and importantly an enemy of Kancha and wants to get into his company. He earns his favour by refusing to stand as a witness in court to a crime committed by Lala and joins his gang. Meanwhile, his mother along with his baby sister leave Vijay's side as he kills a corrupt cop at a young age and resorts to violence.

A grown-up Vijay (Hrithik Roshan) now works for Rauf Lala and finds himself as his trusted wing-man. Once inspector and now commissioner, Gaitonde (Om Puri) acts as a silent guardian for Vijay and tries to eliminate crime in Mumbai. During the time when Rauf's influence over the drug business in Mumbai is falling, Kancha decides to grow his influence as a drug lord in the city and sends his aid, Shantaram (Ravi Jhankal) over to Mumbai for the process. Shantaram succeeds in bribing the Home Secretary of State of Maharashtra, Mr. Borkar (Sachin Khedekar) in order to get the access to the interiors of Mumbai for smuggling cocaine. Vijay catches the Home Secretary of Maharashtra, Mr. Borkar red-handed while trying to smuggle cocaine from Mandwa into Mumbai through his headquarters in Goa. Borkar and Shantaram are forced to hand over the pure cocaine to Lala, thus making them Lala's suppliers rather than rivals. Lala rewards Vijay with the territory of Dongri for his achievement. He further gains the trust of Lala by taking a bullet shot which was aimed for Lala's son, Mazhar (Rajesh Tandon); but is later revealed as a conspiracy involving Vijay and Shantaram to eliminate Mazhar.

After murdering both Mazhar and Shantaram, Vijay brings Mazhar's corpse to Lala, who falls sick and is admitted into a hospital. In the meantime, Vijay takes over Lala's empire and stops all the crimes committed by Lala's gang. He is then contacted by Kancha and offers to go to Mandwa for a business agreement. While in Mandwa, Vijay's companions are killed and Vijay gets severely beaten by Kancha's men. In a wounded state, he tries to strike a deal with Kancha to hand over the drug business in Mumbai over to Kancha and in return taking Mandwa. Though Kancha initially suspects this deal, he later agrees on the condition that Gaitonde must be killed.

Meanwhile, back in Mumbai, Lala regains health and finds out the truth behind Mazhar's death. He gets hold of Shiksha (Kanika Tiwari) and tries to sell her off. Vijay is notified of this by Kancha and he flees back to Mumbai and kills Lala in a bloody skirmish. Soon after, Kancha sends a man to assassinate Gaitonde. This man identifies Vijay to be the son of the teacher killed by Kancha and reports this to Kancha. However, while he tries to assassinate Gaitonde, he is killed by Vijay. Vijay meanwhile marries his love interest Kaali Gawde (Priyanka Chopra), who is killed right after during a shooting spree by Kancha's men.

Vijay leaves for Mandwa to avenge the death of his father and his wife. He destroys the island of Mandwa through explosions and after an intense battle, Kancha almost kills Vijay with knife, but with all his might, Vijay kills Kancha by hanging him from the same tree in which his father was hanged. However, due to his severe injuries, Vijay is last seen in his mother's and sister's hands passing away whilst seeing a vision of his father and his younger self calling him forward.

 

Cast

·         Hrithik Roshan as Vijay Deenanath Chauhan, a man seeking to avenge the murder of his father and his wife

o    Arish Bhiwandiwala as the younger Vijay Chauhan

·         Priyanka Chopra as Kaali Chauhan/Kaali Gawde, a talkative village girl who loves Vijay and marries him - she provides moral support to him in a quest of revenge and to his sister Shiksha, but is murdered by Kancha

·         Sanjay Dutt as Kancha Cheena, an unscrupulous man, often mocked for his hairless appearance; he runs Mandwa as a concentration camp and exploits the villagers in order to deal in cheap cocaine

·         Rishi Kapoor as Rauf Lala, an underworld Don, who runs a meat business and simultaneously deals in drugs and prostitution

·         Om Puri as Police Commissioner Gaitonde, a brutally honest cop who develops a close bond with Vijay

·         Zarina Wahab as Suhasini Deenanath Chauhan, Vijay's mother. She tries hard to dissuade Vijay against choosing a path of violence

·         Chetan Pandit as Master Deenanath Chauhan, Vijay's father, A morally upright man who is wrongly framed for the rape and murder of a young girl and is subsequently killed by Kancha

·         Sachin Khedekar as Home Minister Borkar, an aide of Kancha.

·         Rajesh Tandon as Mazhar Lala, Rauf Lala's elder son, who is suspicious of Vijay's loyalties

·         Deven Bhojani as Azhar Lala, a mentally challenged younger son of Rauf Lala and Mazhar's younger brother

·         Rajesh Vivek as Mr. Bakshi, a police inspector who doubles as Kancha's informer

·         Banwarilal Taneja as Kancha's father, the village chief

·         Ravi Jhankal as Shantaram, Kancha's aid who conspires with Vijay

·         Kanika Tiwari as Shiksha Deenanath Chauhan, Vijay's sister who lives with Sushasini and is unaware of Vijay's existence until he saves her

·         Pankaj Tripathi as Surya

·         Brijendra Kala as Muneem

·         Madhurjeet Sarghi as Lachhi, Kaali's mother

·         Vraddhi Sharma as journalist

·         Inaamulhaq as a villager

·         Ali Asgar in a special appearance as Qawwal in Mazhar's wedding

·         Rajendra Chawla in a special appearance as Qawwal in Mazhar's wedding

·         Katrina Kaif in a special appaearance in the item number "Chikni Chameli"