Karan Arjun

 

Karan Arjun is a 1995 Indian Hindi-language action thriller film directed and produced by Rakesh Roshan, starring Salman Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, Mamta Kulkarni, Kajol, Rakhee Gulzar, and Johnny Lever in lead roles, with Amrish Puri portraying the antagonist and Arjun, Jack Gaud, Ranjeet in supporting roles and Aasif Sheikh as main antagonist . It tells the story of the titular two brothers who seek revenge from their greedy uncle for murdering their father, but are killed by him and are reincarnated to complete the revenge.

Karan Arjun was theatrically released in India on 13 January 1995. The film received positive reviews from critics and grossed ₹640 million ($20 million), emerging as a "blockbuster" and the second highest-grossing Bollywood film of 1995, behind Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, which also featured Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol and Amrish Puri.

 

Plot

In a village in Rajasthan, Durga Singh (Rakhee Gulzar) is a poor woman raising her two beloved sons Karan (Salman Khan) and Arjun (Shah Rukh Khan). When Munshiji (Ashok Saraf) of Thakur Sangram Singh, comes to talk to Durga, Durga reveals that their father was the Thakur's son, who had married her against his father's wishes. Durjan Singh (Amrish Puri), a relative of Thakur, killed Durga's husband to prevent him or his family from inheriting the Thakur's estate.

Durjan kills Thakur and when he learns of his plans to sign over the estate to Karan and Arjun, he brutally murders both with the help of his brothers-in-law, Nahar (Arjun) and Shamsher (Jack Gaud). Durga prays to Goddess Kali to bring her sons back. Miraculously, her prayers are heard and her sons are still alive, but are separated and grown into different families with no knowledge of their past lives – Durga is unaware of this miracle.

20 years pass. Arjun is grown up as Vijay. He falls in love with the wealthy Sonia (Kajol), but doesn't know that Sonia will be married with Durjan Singh's son, Suraj (Aashif Sheikh). Meanwhile, Karan is grown up as Ajay. He is chased upon by tomboy Bindiya (Mamta Kulkarni) who loves him. He soon works for Saxena (Ranjeet), Sonia's father and Durjan's partner in his illegal arms trading business. Knowing that Sonia loves Vijay, Suraj attempts to kill him but ends up burning the farm of Vijay's Uncle. At Sonia and Suraj's engagement party, Vijay arrives and attacks Suraj. Ajay is sent to kill Vijay and the two start to fight, which is suddenly interrupted after a bolt of lightning strikes in between them. Saxena tries to shoot Vijay, but Ajay stops him whilst shouting for Arjun to run. This is something that Ajay had said to Vijay in their previous life when he was being attacked. Ajay is sent to prison while Vijay escapes. Sonia is forcibly taken to Durjan's house to marry Suraj.

Shahruk Khan & Kajol

Shahrukh & Salman

Mamtha Kulkani & Kajol

Vijay and his friend Linghaiyya (Johnny Lever) travel to save Sonia. Everybody in the village who sees him is stunned and calls him Arjun. He finally remembers his past life and reunites with Durga, where he gets to know about his brother Karan, who is now Ajay. Vijay saves Ajay and explains the whole situation that they were brothers named Karan and Arjun. Meanwhile, Bindiya joins them. Durjan hears about Karan and Arjun's return but refuses to believe it, so his brothers-in-law attempted to bring them before him but instead they were killed by Karan and Arjun in a similar way as they killed the two brothers.

At the village temple of Goddess Kali, rituals are held for Sonia and Suraj's wedding. Karan/Ajay and Arjun/Vijay frighten Durjan by convincing him that they are back. Soon, Saxena and Durjan have a falling out, in which Saxena tells Sonia to run away with Arjun, but it's revealed to be a trap. Karan succeeds in creating chaos, letting Arjun and Sonia escape from the trap. Vijay managed to kill Suraj in a closed-range shot, upon which Durjan kills Saxena in a fit of rage.

After all his henchmen were killed, Durjan attempted to kill Karan and Arjun but instead they overpowered him. He runs to Durga and begs her for forgiveness. However, she declines it and orders her sons to fulfill their revenge by killing him. Later, Arjun marries Sonia and Karan marries Bindiya with the whole family reunited.

 

Cast

·         Salman Khan as Karan Singh/Ajay

·         Shah Rukh Khan as Arjun Singh/Vijay

·         Rakhee Gulzar as Durga Singh, Karan and Arjun's mother

·         Mamta Kulkarni as Bindiya Singh, Ajay's love-interest

·         Kajol as Sonia Saxena Singh, Vijay's love-interest

·         Amrish Puri as Thakur Durjan Singh

·         Ranjeet as Soojam Saxena, Sonia's father

·         Johnny Lever as Linghaiyya

·         Aasif Sheikh as Suraj Singh, Durjan's son

·         Ashok Saraf as Bhaktish Munshi

·         Jack Gaud as Shamsher Singh

·         Arjun as Nahar Singh

·         Gavin Packard as the fighter with red pants

·         Ila Arun as Rajasthani Dancer (segment Gup Chup)

·         Kishore Bhanushali as Ranjesh

·         Suresh Chatwal as Girdhari Singh

·         Salim Khan Ding-Dong as Fight Organiser

·         John Gabriel as Peter

·         Dinesh Hingoo as Peston

·         Raj Kishore as Jugal

·         Anil Nagrath as Fight Organiser

·         Ghanshyam Rohera as Ashuveer Bakshi

·         Babbanlal Yadav as Manjesh

 

Production

 

Casting

Rakesh Roshan originally wanted to make the film with Shah Rukh Khan and Ajay Devgn as the titular characters. However, both wanted to play different roles to the ones offered to them; Khan wanted to play Karan, while Devgn wanted to play Arjun. Roshan did not agree, and, as a result, both backed out of the film. Roshan's next choices for the leads were Aamir Khan and Salman Khan. While Salman agreed to do the film, Aamir could not do it. Shah Rukh then told Roshan that he wanted to do the film.^[4] Thus, the casting of the film brought together Salman Khan and Shah Rukh Khan for the first time onscreen, two prominent actors of that time.

Hrithik Roshan assisted his father during this film, having assisted him in his previous movies .

 

Filming

The whole film was shot in Rajasthan. More specifically, the village which is portrayed in the film is one of the villages of Alwar District of Rajasthan, named Bhangarh. The Durga temple where Karan Arjun pray in the song is located at Pushkar near Ajmer. Sariska Palace was used as Thakur Durjan Singh's house.