Great writing. Superb direction. Masterful performances. The scene becomes much more compelling than the script. Let me give you a prime example. Sheetal(#RakheeGulzar) is lying dead at the house. Ashwini Kumar (#DilipKumar) the dynamic DCP is sitting in a crumpled heap and is completely broken. Vijay (#AmitabhBachchan) enters the scene wearing a balck shirt in contrast to the white everywhere and heads over to his father. Sheetal was the glue that held them together and is now no more. At that moment, Vijay becomes the father and he holds Ashwini’s hand and consoles him. No words are exchanged; the moist eyes of the two brilliant actors says it all. This is as good as it gets.
ASHOK’s FIVE mourns the passing of thespian actor #DilipKumar and reviews the #RameshSippy 1979 film #Shakti. Dilip ‘Mohammed Yunus Khan’ Kumar won the Best Actor for his role of a righteous police officer who puts his commitment to duty over everything else. #Shakti did not fare too well at the box office when it was released but it rates as one of my all time favourite movies. The ‘clash of the titans’ as it was called was not just a fantastic face-off between #Dilip Saab and #AmitabhBachchan, but an enthralling saga of the troubled father-son relationship. This is the only film where both the legendary actors have worked together! You can watch #Shakti on #ZEE5
The story begins with #Ashwini Kumar (#DilipKumar) narrating his story to his grandson, played by #AnilKapoor. The story is played out in flashback. Right in the beginning, you notice the thespian’s acting prowess as his face breaks into a gentle smile as he recounts the earlier days but his eyes are a little moist. Years later, #ShahRukhKhan went on to call out this aspect of the eyes. In fact, look closely and you notice how much #ShahRukh has modeled himself on #Kumar.
#Ashwini is an upright cop and while he loves his family intensely, is prepared to sacrifice everything in the interest of his duty. Some criminals led by #AmrishPuri ‘JK’ kidnap his son Vijay but Ashwini does not yield to their demands. Vijay overhears his father threatening the criminals that they can go ahead and kill his son but he wont acquiesce. This incident scars the young boy for life. He grows up with a dislike for the system and wants to live life on his own terms. The clash between him and his father forms the crux of the story. The story resonated with audiences because it was still the angry young man rebelling against the system but in this case against his own father thus bringing a moral dilemma to the issue.
#Shakti stands out for some really innocuous looking scenes but done really brilliantly. That local train scene where #SatishShah ( in his first and only once appearance as a villain) molests Roma (#SmitaPatil) and gets beaten up by Vijay (#Amitabh). After that incident, Vijay walks Roma down to her house and in a bid to prolong the company, she says “Main coffee accha bana leti hoon”. But Vijay says some other time and leaves. Later when Vijay has found a job and they are again in front of her house, Roma says “ Main coffee bahut hi accha banati hoon”.
Or the airport scene where Vijay is running and Ashwini whips out his revolver and says “Ruk Jao Vijay; nahi toh goli maar doonga”. And the scene where a dying Vijay is all wrapped up in the arms of his father and confronts him for not having communicated his love earlier.
The powerful dialogues are all with #DilipKumar and is perfectly offset with the broody silence of #AmitabhBachchan. It is the perfect tension that becomes the fertile ground for a host of fantastic scenes all through the film. #Salim-Javed’s screenplay (winner of the FilmFare award for that year) hits the ball out of the park and how. When Ashwini Kumar advises Vijay at the police station about getting involved with the wrong kind of people, Vijay turns around at the door and says “Main iss baar waapas aane ke liye nahi jaa raha hoon”. For a movie that is a continuously simmering cauldron of tension, it is surprising that it didn't do well at the box office. One theory says that after the successes of #Deewar(1975), #Trishul(1978) and #KaalaPathar (1979), fans of #Amitabh did not want to see him getting over-shadowed by #DilipKumar. Other reasons could be the total lack of the humour quotient in the film. Fans had begun loving the funny bone in #Bachchan on display in films like #AmarAkbarAnthony. I also reckon that in spite of the superior production values, the film was surely good twenty minutes too long!
#Rakhee puts in one of her finest performances as the anguished mother, torn between her husband and her son. Having seen her play #Amitabh’s love interest in recent films like #Bemisaal and #BarsaatkiekRaat, audiences were not too accepting of this sudden shift. #SmitaPatil is superb in a short role. She plays a sensible single woman and goes on to stay with Ashwini as her widowed bahu. In the earlier scenes, she is a study in dusky, simmering sensuality. In one of the earlier scenes, she explains her staying alone with a memorable dialogue “Jab akeli hoti hoon toh sirf akele hoon. Apne aap se kya darna?”. Vijay’s response is cryptic and an indicator of things to come “ Main toh sirf apne aap se darta hoon”.The film also features some other now big names including #AshokKumar, #GogaKapoor, #KulbhushanKharbanda and #DalipTahil. The combination of #RDBurman, #KishoreKumar, #AnandBakshi and #LataMangeshkar throw up some gems including one of my favourites #JaaneKaiseKabKahan. Another hit song was #MahendraKapoor singing #MaangithiEkDua.
I think #Shakti was written with careful thought and some very nuanced scenes that build up both the narrative and the character arcs. When you look back at the film, the actual action sequences are a bare minimum, but what #RameshSippy does beautifully is build up the dramatic tension. The scenes where Vijay is accused of murder but Ashwini refuses to be empathetic are testimony to this. Or the scene in the police station when Ashwini has summoned JK to question him. On the other hand, there are some scenes that are clearly designed to show up the characters and what they stand for. When Vijay is born, Ashwini visits the hospital and is more concerned about how Sheetal is doing, Seeing his new-born son is almost an after-thought!
And then there is some delicate imagery at play. When Ashwini visits Vijay at the jail, there is a scene where the cop reminds the suspect that he is there as a policeman and not a father. Vijay looks out of the window and grinds his teeth and the shadow of the grill falls squarely on his face - a clear metaphor of a man trapped in a prison of his making!
#Shakti won four FilmFare awards that year - Best Actor for #DilipKumar, Best Screenplay, Best Sound Design and Best Film. #RameshSippy’s work was overshadowed by his magnum opus Sholay but to my mind, this was a much more diligent piece of work. #AmitabhBachchan was superb; but this remains one of my favourite #DilipKumar movies. He was part of the triumvirate of Hindi cinema along with #RajKapoor and #DevAnand and was one of India’s earliest method actors. The story goes that for his death scene in Gunga Jumna, he actually ran around in the studio till he was tired out. Also referred to as the Tragedy King for his portrayal of the role of tragic heroes, he won the Padma Bhushan, DadaSaheb Phalke and the Padma Vibhushan awards. He also won the Nishan-e-Imtiaz award , the highest civilian award in Pakistan. Rest in peace #DilipKumar. An era has truly come to an end!
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