Dilip Kumar is often referred to as Tragedy-King.However,
he has displayed histronics in every type of role.In Mashaal
as ANGRY OLD MAN he lights up the screen and makes the
excellent movie a classic.
The story involves Vinod Kumar(Dilip Kumar) who is a
fearless journalist trying to clean the city of Bombay from
crime.He resides in a chawl with his wife(Waheeda Rahman).
There is a gang of goons who live by the street and proclaim
it proudly in the song ’’FOOTPATHON KE HUM...’’(A sentiment
echoed 10 years later in ’’Yaaron Sun Lo Zara...’’ from
RANGEELA).The gang is headed by Raja(Anil Kapoor) who is a
wayard guy and the rest of the gang comprises of Gulshan
Grover and Madan Jain.Enter the bad men the Puri brothers
with Vardhan(Amrish Puri) the chief and Tolaram(Madan Puri,
Amrish’s real life elder brother)as his assistant.What
follows is a fight of good v/s evil but the story takes
many interesting twists and aided by some great script and
remarkable performances make it a worth watching movie.
Yash Chopra is known mainly for his Switzerland based
love stories but he did made some hard-hitting cinema like
the trilogy of DEEWAR, KAALA PATTHAR and TRISHUL with Amitabh,
Shashi Kapoor and SALIM-JAVED.In Mashaal Yash shows his
class in handling such a intense movie.The direction is
absolutely amazing.The backbone of the movie is a superb
story, gripping screenplay and excellent dailogues by Javed
Akhtar, who by now had split with Salim.The movie shows his
ability to create ANGRY OLD MAN alongwith his trademark
ANGRY YOUNG MAN.The dailogues whenever Dilip Kumar and Anil
kapoor come face to face are brilliant.Mashaal remains one
of the best movies written by Javed Akhtar after he broke away
from Salim.Another high point of the movie is its excellent
music.Hridyanath Mangeshkar has never been a big music composer
but in Mashaal he gives a superb sound track.All the songs
’’Footpathon ke hum...’’, ’’Holi aayee..’’ and ’’Mujhe tum yaad..’’
are very pleasant on the ears.The tunes are aided by some
fabulous lyrics by Javed Akhtar who proves his ability as a
lyricist also.However, the icing on the cake is the song
’’Leeye sapne nigaahon mein...’’ which opens infront of
Bangalore’s Vidhan Sabha.The song is excellently sung by
Kishore Kumar and aided by some fantastic lyrics and
melodious music make it one of the best songs ever picturised
on Anil Kapoor.The echoes of the feeling conveyed in the
song can be heard in ’’Chaand Taare..’’ from Yes Boss which
incidentally was penned by Javed again.
The film breaks many new grounds like working of press,
the threat to fearless journalists from underworld, the life in slums, the lives of
a gang of goons who are not that brute, changing of sides
after the interval between the 2 male protagnists(there
is even a mention of football match).The sets showing the
slums are very real.The topic of a gang of goons wandering
aimlessly came later in movies like Arjun(again written by
Javed Akhtar) and Ankush.The slum life again came on the
screen in underworld sagas like Angaar and Vaastav.It was
much later that films on press like New Delhi, Surkhiyaan
and Main Azaad Hoon came into light.Although the concept
of male protagnists first appeared in Roti, Kapda aur Makaan,
it was with Mashaal that it got famous and an entire movie
called Lakshman Rekha was beased on the concept.The film
does not have many light sequnces and people expecting
over the top comedy will be disappointed.The character of
Dimple Kapadia in Krantiveer where she portrays a journalist
who wants to reform the society and stays in slums has
strong shades of Dilip Kumar’s role in the first half of this
movie.Infact a few years ago a film called Laawaris(the one
with Jackie and Akhsaye Khanna) was made which was a poor copy
of Mashaal.
Anil Kapoor as Raja delivers one of his best
performances till date.In a role which initially was
supposed to be written for Amitabh bachchan(evident from
the language he uses)and first offered to Kamal Hasan, Anil
shines throghout the movie.His honesty in his performance
is so much present that u miss such honesty in his later
films.Although, Anil later admitted of developing cold feet
on the thought of acting opposite Dilip Kumar, he stands
on his own very well in everyframe.It is said that a Feroze
Khan and Subhash Ghai signed Anil for Jaanbaaz and Meri
Jung respectively just after watching the movie’s premiere.
Infact Anil Kapoor somehow got trapped in a tapori image
for a long-long time after Mashaal.His characters in
Andar Bahar, Tezaab, Ram Lakhan to the recentnt dud-Rishtey
all have shades of Raja of Mashaal.Anil Kapoor again worked
with Dilip Kumar in the blockbuster KARMA.His other refined
performance in a Javed Akhtar scripts are Meri Jung and the
recent Armaan.Anil kapoor won his first Filmfare Award for
Best Actor In A Supporting Role for Mashaal.
Somehow I miss the Yash Chopra, Anil Kapoor and intensity
of Javed Akhtar, the way they were in Mashaal.
Waheeda Rahman as Dilip Kumar’s wife gives a superb
performance.It was after 16 years that she acted opposite
the thespian the last being Aadmi(1968).Rati Aghinotri as
Anil’s love interest also gives a decent performance.Amrish
Puri as the bad guy delievers another good performance.
Incidentally, Amrish acted opposite Dilip Kumar in almost all
his later movies where he played the Angry Old Man and puri
the baddie.Vidhaata, Duniya, Shakti and Saudagar are other
movies where both of them clash.The performances by Madan
Puri, Gulshan Grover and Madan Jain are well enacted.Yash
Chopra uses some great stage actors -Saaed Jaffery, Nilu Phule,
Alok Nath and Mohan Agashe in this movie and extract some
fine performances from them.
Although when released in 1984 the film flopped but it was
slowly and steadily that it became famous and acclaimed.Now
thanks to several re-runs it enjoys a classic status.
Last but not the least, Dilip Kumar delivers a knockout
performance.From a fearless journalist to a man running a
crime syndicate the legend shows amazing verstality in his
performance.His eye expression, dailogue delivery and usage
of hands makes this performance of his one of his best
ever.Whenever we see any actor mimicking Dilip Kumar, most
of the times they enact the sequence from this movie
where he tries to stop car on the street hoping that someone might
help his dying wife.That speaks volumes of the impact he
made in that scene.A similar scene apperaed in Ghayal and
later in the dud-Yaadein.Yash Chopra is said to have shot
the entire scene in 4 nights on Bombay streets and according to him the thespian
maintained the same emotional graph throghout all 4 days.
ABSOLUTELY AMAZING DEDICATION!!