Rajkumar Santoshi’s urge to try different things seems to continue. After trying his hand in a comedy like Andaz apna apna, then moving onto a social drama like Damini, then dallying a bit with history in The Legend of Bhagat Singh, here he makes an outright actioner in Chinagate.
The Plot
The movie is about ten soldiers who had been court marshalled from the army for running away from their post in the battle of Chinagate. The ten soldiers then have to face a life of insult and pity as they are branded cowards even by their near and dear ones.
One day the leader of these 10 people, Om Puri recieves a helps call from a distant relative of his Mamta Kulkarni who asks him to protect her village from the dacoit Jageera (Mukesh Tiwari). Om Puri then calls his band of 10 soldiers and tells them that this is the chance they have to show the world that they are not cowards and the fact that they turned their back in the battlefield only owing to confusion. The only problem is that age has caught up with each of these gentlemen and they are not in shape to take on Jageera or any other dacoit.
So check out whether this motley crew can relieve the villagers from the evil of Jageera in this actioner, Chinagate.
Critical Review
In keeping with Raj Kumar Santoshi’s experimental mood, the movie does not have any superstar, but a set of brilliant character actors. So we have veterans like Om Puri, Naseeruddin Shah, Amrish Puri and Danny in pivotal roles whereas some of the past like Jagdeep make their appearance in this movie.
The best thing about Chinagate is that each of these motley crew have been given their own identity and social background from which they emerge to form the team. So we see the various elements that act for and against a team. For e.g. we have Colonel Puri played by Amrish Puri who has a personal grudge against Muslims and hence does not see eye to eye with Naseeruddin Shah and creates communal tension in the team. Again Puri’s positional pride creates a flutter amongst the lower ranked members of the team.
Om Puri gives a sterling performance as the leader of the pack. He looks commanding and oozes the charisma required to lead such talented people. Danny steals the show in his own quite and fit manner. Naseer and Amrish Puri lighten up the screen with their heated arguments. Amongst the others, Kulbhushan Kharbanda gives a decent performance as a sophisticated business man amidst this motley crew.
Comedy by Tinu Anand and Jagdip was a bit stale. And the supposedly lead pair of Mamta and Samir Soni are non-existent in the movie.
A special mention is required for Mukesh Tiwari who makes his debut in Hindi films with the role of Jageera the dacoit. It is the strongest potrayal of a dacoit on screen since Amjad Khan sizzled the screen with Gabbar Singh in Sholay. In one of the interviews, I heard that Mukesh Tiwari went without a bath for many days to give that dacoit like look. Although I don’t know its validity, he does look stale and ragged and his criminal and cunning eyes light up the screen. The dialog, ’’Hamse bhidne ke liye himmat to le aaoge thakur, Kameenapan kahan se laoge’’ meaning ’’You may gather the courage to fight me, but where will you get the cunningness and wickedness from, epitomizes his role in the movie.
The direction by Raj Kumar Santoshi is fast and the movie goes from one tense moment to another. Of course, the songs seem to be speed breakers in the movie and don’t add much value to the movie.
Of course, one of the songs of the movie Chamma Chamma went onto become a big hit. The movie sung in the rustic voice of Sapna Awasthi is filmed on Urmila Matondkar. Urmila makes a special appearance only for this song and it became hit for a brilliant boob shaking effort from Urmila. In fact, one of my friends termed the performance as the ultimate in Mammary Management. The rest of the songs in the movie were a drag on the viewers and are better not discussed.
Summary
Amongst the actioners, Chinagate comes as a fresh breath as it does not delve on the muscles of any machoman, but on strong performances from veterans. The movie is about heart, will and determination. Raj Kumar Santoshi has done a great job in doing that.
The movie did decent business though it was not a big hit and the reason for this was mainly not upto the mark music score and the lack of superstars in the movie.
Overall, I would give this movie a 3 star rating owing to the strong performances by the cast.