Synopsis
Kishen
(Jackie Shroff) the henchman of a psychotic don, Anna (Nana
Patekar) tries to keep his younger brother Karan (Anil Kapoor)
away from the world of crime by sending him abroad. Karan
is best friends with a cop Prakash (Anupam Kher) and in love
with his sister Paro (Madhuri Dixit). Karan comes back to
Bombay and fixes up to meet Prakash. Anna's gang kills Prakash
in front of Karan. Karan is shocked to know of his brother's
involvement with Anna's gang and against Kishen's wishes joins
the gang to get revenge for Prakash's killing and starts giving
tip offs to the rival gang playing one gang off against the
other. Kishen gets Karan married to Paro and convinces him
to get away from it all but Karan and Paro are brutally killed
on their wedding night. Kishen finally takes revenge for Karan's
death by turning against Anna and setting him ablaze.
The film
Advertised as 'The most Powerful Film Ever
Made,' Parinda is perhaps one of
the finest gangster films made in India.
Though at first glance, the plot appears
to be banal and even hackneyed, the film
has an energetic pace, abundant emotional
charge and bravura cinematography. Right
from the almost lyrical opening introducing
the viewer to Bombay, Parinda proves that
a slickly well made film can be equally
gut wrenching as it also tries to understand
the human side of the underworld.
The
ambiance of the underworld of Bombay and
the gang war sequences both behind and in
front of the warfront have rarely been captured
better. Shooting on location gives the film
its unique Bambaiya flavour and style. The
film is a brave effort by director Vinod
Chopra to bring a logical sensibility to
mainstream Hindi Cinema and to prove that
better films can be made within the commercial
network and what's more the film more than
succeeds in getting this point across.
The
highlight of the film is its technical slickness
- the soundtrack, cinematography and the
editing. The film is brilliantly shot with
dynamic low angle tracking shots, tight
close ups and excellent use of the tele-lens.
The razor sharp editing keeps the unflagging
pace of the film without letting up. The
sequence where Anil Kapoor kills one of
the gang henchmen in the midst of various
heavy machinery is a brilliantly cut sequence.
In terms of actual shooting, it is just
one long shot of Anil killing the man and
some close ups of the machinery in motion
but when it is put together with the machinery
shots interspersed with the killing it gives
the entire scene a totally new dimension.
(This is one of editor Renu
Saluja's favourite sequences in the
film and an example she quotes about, often)
Further,
the two central performances help lift the
film several notches among the commonplace. Nana Patekar's performance
as Anna is the highlight of the film striking
exactly the right balance between madness
and terror. In the scene after Jackie asks
him to leave Anil alone and sensing Anil
to be Jackie's weakness, when he calmly
tells his lieutenant (Suresh Oberoi) that
if brotherly love comes in the way of Jackie's
work, kill both of them, Nana literally
makes one's hair stand on end. There is
a definite method to his madness. In fact
Nana has been unable to really grow out
of this manic mould and there is a bit of
Anna in all his subsequent performances.
And unexpectedly Jackie Shroff gives a performance
of great depth and feeling. He is absolutely
brilliant in the scene where he is drunk
and lets bare his feelings and more than
holds his own with both Nana and Anil Kapoor,
both regarded as far superior actors. Anil
Kapoor actually is a disappointment in the
film. Loud and filmi you feel he has just
come from the municipal school right round
the corner rather than being America returned.
Admittedly he does have his moments as in
the scene where he does his first killing.
Madhuri Dixit is more than adequate as Paro.
Her introduction in the film in the morgue
though is a total letdown after the build
up we have of her through Karan.
R.D. Burman
scores on the background score of the film
but while the songs are melodious they are
all not entirely original. For instance
Tumse Milke Aisa Laga Tumse Milke
is nothing but When I Need You rehashed.
The song picturizations too are not too
noteworthy and are among the weakest visual
aspects of the film.
Through
a great critical success, Parinda
was only a moderate success at the box office
perhaps because for its mainstream audience
its commercial items like the songs could
have been handled much better - and perhaps
because for them the film is too dry. Indian
audiences have been fed too long on episodic
films with comedy, romance, action, and
emotion in turns to really appreciate storytelling
of the sort in Parinda. It is a film
that once it catches you by the collar,
it refuses to let go thus providing no relief
for the audience amidst the heaviness. But
then that precisely is its strength thus
making for such a hard-hitting film.
Parinda
went on to win several awards among them
being The National Awards for Supporting
Actor (Patekar) and Editing (Renu Saluja)
while Jackie won the Best Actor Award from
Filmfare and Vinod Chopra, the Best Director.
Today there are again efforts in mainstream
Hindi Cinema to make realistic films about
the underworld - Satya (1998) and
Vaastav (1999) to name two good efforts,
but cinematically Parinda remains
the most powerful of them all.
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