Every one had their inhibitions to watch Hrithik playing the immortal Vijay Dinanth Chauhan. There was plenty of scope to make a mess out a classic and ruin our memories. But all said and done, the promos created enough interest to take that gamble and go watch the movie. I am happy that I decided to watch it on the big screen and did not miss one of the finer remakes made in hindi cinema.
The story is the same as the previous installment but with a totally fresh outlook, newer characters and doing away with some of the old characters. The revenge saga begins when Master Chauhan, a respectable man, is killed by Kancha to fulfill his needs of starting a drug racket in Mandwa. Vijay Chauhan leaves for Mumbai and gains training under Rauf Lala(Rishi Kapoor), a gang leader in Mumbai. Vijay takes on Kancha only when he has learnt everything that is needed to uproot Kancha from Mandwa.
There are shades of an RGV type underworld scenario mid way through the movie when Vijay decides to dethrone Rauf Lala by stabbing him in the back. Agneepath runs at a decent pace where at no time it seems like the movie is being dragged. That being said, the climax is a little bit of a let down. After building up the movie so brilliantly for the first 2 hours, the movie fails to reach the crescendo that it should have reached. It appears really forced. But the goods outnumber the bads in a really big way and that is the reason why Agneepath worked for me. The dialogs in the movie are one of the better ones that I have heard in a very long time. While Sanjay Dutt gets a meatier chunk of the best dialogs, Hrithik's character has a handful but as much power packed.
Apart from Hrithik, everyone gets minimal but decent screen space. Priyanka is brilliant as always in whatever little she gets to play. Rishi Kapoor in his second ever bad guy role is convincing. Om Puri as the good cop is likeable. The two people who blow you away in this movie are unarguably the two lead characters of this movie. Sanjay DUtt reached new heights in playing a bad guy in the movie. He looks as menacing as Lord Voldomort and plays mean with a capital M. Hrithik outshines his performance in Guzaarish and emotes very well through his eyes. This has to be one of his finest performances ever.
The music by Ajay Atul is easy on the ears. The songs in the movie flow with the narrative and are not just for the sake of bathroom or popcorn breaks. The background score is more impressive than the actual songs though. One scene where it stood out for me was when young Vijay shoots a cop. It just gave me goosebumps.
This has to be one of the finer remakes made in hindi cinema. At no point does it live in the shadow of its super cult status predecessor. All the credit for this being so goes to Karan Malhotra. A brilliant screenplay and awesome direction to bring this vision to life. A grade dialogs by Piyush Mishra only help the cause. Karan Malhotra take a bow, for it was your vision and application that made this possible.
Overall, Agneepath is a fine watch. You should avoid it though if you are not in favor of dark themes.
Rating : 7.8 / 10.0
Reasons to watch:
1) Awesome adaptation of the old classic
2) Hrithik and Sanjay's acting
Reasons to skip:
1) Can get very dark
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