brilliant actors, brilliant editing

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

ANGAAR is one of the best gangster films made in bollywood, In 1992 when bollywood was busy dancing to films like DEEWANA, BOL RADHA BOL.etc K Shashilal Nair had the guts to defy stereotype. The film is a dark gangster film set in Mumbai where we have Kader Khan playing Jehangir Khan a gangster but who has a heart of gold(reportedly based on Haji Mastaan)he has 2 sons Nana Patekar who is a businessman and Mazhar Khan who takes care of the gang. We have jobless Jaikishan who likes playing in bands but never gets a job due to his approach to the society. The film is superbly handled, there is less scope on romance, more on drama and dark scenes. There are some filmy scenes especially the end but those have to be forgiven.The filmmaker also adds emotional angles to the villains, we have Nana who is a ruthless businessman who breaks down bhastis to build buildings but he has a mentally challenged son, also he has a had a lonely school and college life due to his father's name. One flaw perhaps is the way Jackie suddenly recovers after being a vegetable and some moreDirection is great Music is goodJackie Shroff is understated and does a good job, Nana Patekar is flawless in his role as always he performs brilliantly, Kader Khan is brilliant as the DON which he played later in SAPOOT too, he is simply brilliant, he also speaks in a much more gruffy voice perhaps to emulate the gangsters in real life. Dimple Kapadia is superb in her role, Mazhar Khan is amazing, Achyut Potdar is good, Sulabha Deshpande too does well, Kiran Kumar does well in a cameo, Neena Gupta is good, Ajit Vachnani, Om Puri is terrfic in his role and others are good

It's surprising that this movie did not win that accolades it deserves. When I saw it few days back I was amazed by the story , dialogues, direction and the performances. All were amazing.The plot of the movie is the socio-economic class difference which exists even today in Mumbai. There are rich mansions and next to it are hutments of laborers. There are people earning 10 digit incomes and there are people who daily struggle to earn 10 bucks in an hour. This is how the story begins with Underworld Don, Jahangir's Khan palatial life with his two sons viz. Majid and Farid. Majid is married and has a mentally retarded son. On the other end we have a unemployed Jaggu living a middle class life with his parents, younger sister and is a leader of the young crowd in Asha colony. As the saying goes that wealth does not necessarily bring happiness, Jahangir has always a dispute with Majid. Jahangir is known to help poor people but for Majid what matters is wealth and power. Jaggu and his family have a very happy going life. Jaggu happens to meet a very shy girl named Mili and it doesn't take much time for them to fall in love.The action begins when Majid eyes Asha colony and requests Jaggu to take some money and ask people living there to evacuate it. Jaggu refuses even when Jahangir calls to his palace to talk about it. This makes Jahangir furious and he orders Farid to beat Jaggu heavily. In the ongoing clash between Farid and Jaggu, Farid loses his life. Revengeful Majid proves in the court that Jaggu is insane and orders his doctors in mental asylum to torture Jaggu to an extent that he becomes a vegetable. A press reporter Parvez and Mili try to help Jaggu through their publications. Majid orders his men to kill Parvez but things turn upside down when his men kill Jaggu's father instead. Jahangir now repents his fury which leads to all this and requests his loyal Anwar to protect Jaggu in the asylum. Anwar fights till his death and rescues Jaggu. Mili and Parvez take Jaggu home and try to bring him to normal through his old memories. Jaggu recovers and takes revenge against Majid and his men till the end with Jahangir supporting him.What the movie lacks is in the execution of last 20 minutes. Jaggu's rebellion against the law and order system is highly overdone. How come they get so much amount of RDX to blast each and every building of Majid? Why would Majid wait till Jaggu recovers, in order to bring down Asha colony? Where were Jaggu and his friends when Asha colony was brought down? Due to all this the movie turns out to be an action flick rather than bring a classic.If this part is left aside the rest of the movie is good. Direction was good. Script was well made and very good performances by Kadar Khan, Nana Patekar and Jackie Shroff. Most of their movies Nana would dominate Jackie, but in this movie Jackie performs in par with Nana. All the supporting case were adequate in their performance. For Hindi movie viewers, I would recommend them to watch at least once.

Large empty spaces...fore-grounded sound effects...minimal background score...unusual song picturizations...brutal violence and dystopian atmosphere are just a few of the elements which makes this familiar underworld tale by K Shashilal Nayar, a minor masterpiece.Jehangir Khan (loosely based on Haji Mastan played aptly by Kadar Khan) and his sons; the gangster Farid Khan (Mazhar Khan) and the white collar builder Majid Khan (with an Hafeez Contractor agenda of 'Bombay should be clean!' played by Nana Patekar with a nervous calm) dominates the matters of the city. Jehangir Khan, the mafia ruler of the city since the last 40 years now proclaims himself as the messiah of poor and just like the Mughal king Jehangir promises justice in an open personal court. Whereas, Farid's men create havoc in poor slums by eve teasing and other illicit activities.One such slum is 'Asha Colony' whose unofficial leader is Jaikishan alias Jaggu (Jackie Shroff) who is a graduate and a job seeker and an occasional street musician. World's of Jehangir and Jaggu collide when Majid gets determined to wipe off Asha Colony to make multistoried buildings there.The cinema of Angaar is gritty and atmospheric...the death scene of Jaggu's father and Jaggu's torture in the state mental asylum are pretty hardcore. Most of all, the climax where multistoried buildings are blown off is both spectacular and a form of unique vengeance to the old 'Basti' problem.Nayar's real cinematic achievement comes with his ability of unique treatment of spaces, both visual and aural. Visually, most of the times the spaces were either kept very empty or overpopulated with people which presents the city of Bombay as a city of extreme opposites. Aurally, in the key scenes one crucial sound is kept in the foreground instead of always resorting to the mundane background score which provide the scenes with necessary tension and urgency like in the scene where Jaggu first meets Majid at a construction site. Except the dialogue only one sound can be heard which is that of Jaggu's motorcycle.Performances in the film are truly A-class, especially those of Jackie Shroff, Kadar Khan and Nana Patekar. Even minor characters like those played by Nina Gupta, Achyut Potdar and Kiran Kumar leave their mark.

This movie portrays the problems of Mumbai lower class due to the nexus of criminal gangs and the fight against them by an angry young man Jackie Shroff. Though movie is typical for a one man fight against corruption similar to the Amitabh Bachhan movies and strongly resembles Arjun by Sunny Deol; still movie receives credit for strong performances by Kader Khan, Nana Patekar and the silent yet powerful acting of Jackie Shroff. The real-estate builders want to wipe off the slums in Mumbai and make five star hotels for fast profit. Jackie Shroff is struggling for a job and also pressurized by his family problems. While Nana Patekar's gang is trying to isolate the slum, they get a head-on with Jackie and face repulsion. Nana's brother Mazhar Khan goes to beat Jackie but gets killed by him during a fight. Nana kills Jackie's father which ignited a fury to extinguish his evil empire. Though Kader Khan is actually the Don and father of Nana, he only uses his powers to give justice to the poor and not oppress them. He detests Nana's activities but is unable to stop him. He tries to persuade Jackie to forget the whole episode, but Jackie rejects and goes on his spree to destroy Nana. He places bombs in the illegal building constructions by Nana and eventually kills him. Dimple is ornamental as she was in Arjun, but looks graceful. Jackie was stunning and the movie also has a few good songs. Worth a watch.....