Frankly speaking, watching new Agneepath at first time doesn’t make any special impact on my mind. The reason is simple, the Bachchanalia Saga of the original one still revolves around. But watching the new version again is a completely different scenario. Everything seems fresh and hyper toned, that makes a high impact. The movie surely consists of various hiccups, but in the end delivers the whole story in a brilliant way.
Karan Malhotra had a high responsibility on his shoulders for handling the remake of a movie that is a legend in itself. Making remakes are not an easier task, especially when you are making remake of an Amitabh Bachchan movie. The characters portrayed by Mr. Bachchan all through his life are incomparable, and it engraves the audiences in an amazing way. Vijay Dinanath Chauhan is a character that is in the memory of every person who is a fan of Amitabh Bachchan. Revisiting this character comprised a lot of risk but director saved it in a beautiful way.
To save the comparison between old and new Vijay, Karan Malhotra changed the whole outlook of the character. The old one is stylish, more vibrant and graceful. The new one played by Hrithik Roshan is a simple low profile guy who doesn’t have a smile on his face, but just anguish on his heart and one aim in mind, to take revenge from Kancha for the death of his father. In the way of his revenge he manipulates people, sacrifices his love, took the hate of his mother, makes distance with his sister and lives a depressed life. The anger clearly depicts on the face of Hrithik who ensured that all through the movie, the feeling of revenge doesn’t remove at one single moment, which is the core of the movie.
In older one, Danny Denzongpa played the villainous Kancha Chinna in an elegant way, more of a Mafia outfit. In current version, Sanjay Dutt gave the character a much tougher look, a larger than life Villain, and made this role in his list of path defining performances like Khalnayak, Vaastav and Munnabhai. His witty dialogues complement with his bullish look and improve the overall look of the movie.
In the form of Rauf Lala played by Rishi Kapoor, a new character added in this version. This character is a totally negative one, but a more real life character, completely opposite to Kancha. I must say this is one of the best performances of Rishi Sahab. In a negative role, he delivers every single scene so perfectly that many times you get confused that he might be not the same bubbly face lover boy we have witnessed in movies like Bobby and Karz. There will be no surprise if will be offered a long list of villainous roles in future.
It seemed that the role of Priyanka Chopra is completely wasted here. She just got the task to fill up the emotional scenes of the movie, nothing more than that. In a movie like this, when there are three strong characters already present, there is little scope for character of Priyanka Chopra. Rest of the cast doesn’t get much attention.
I strongly felt that it is one of the best revenge stories told in recent times, but some tight screenplay and editing might helped the movie a lot. The background score is created in perfect synchronization with the theme of revenge but it gets too loud till the movie reaches its climax. Watching a full length revenge movie after a long time is a beautiful treat, no matter how much loose areas it contain. It’s a movie that works with a fast pace and highly moves with strong performances from the actors. I congratulate Karan Malhotra and Karan Johar for taking such a big task and deliver it with a deliberate attempt.
