Gadar - Ek Prem Katha

A review by Ajay Pamneja.

Gadar - the word means RIOT.

Gadar - Ek Prem Katha is Amisha Patel's second film after the successful and super-hit film, Kaho Naa...Pyaar Hai. She stars opposite Sunny Deol for the first time.

A love story set around the India-Pakistan partition days creating a lot of waves in the population from the Indian sub-continent.

This film is being unfairly pitted against and compared with another period movie currently being shown. Yes you guessed it - Lagaan. The two are on very different scales of sentiments, technical execution and finesse.  Gadar is an outright Bollywood Masala film with all its 'Rambo' scenes, unrealistic situations, clichés and cheap comedy, whereas Lagaan is way above at a much higher level and so well executed and a very refined film.

 Where Gadar does score (not above Lagaan but in its own league with other masala films!) is the sentiment it generates among the audience, especially Punjabi and even more specifically amongst the Indian Punjabi audiences. The film is an attempt to unite the two communites from the former-India with the message 'Humanity is a bigger religion than any other and if you follow that, then there will be less violence in the world around us'. This is delivered through the very tried and tested bollywood formula of two lovers separated because of their religions and the narrow-mindedness and selfish goals of the families. The added ingredient of a very-attached and 'torn' child adds some browning points to this film. The film is an honest attempt to unite the communities who still hold strong feelings against each other, especially the ones living together and away from their homelands.

The extra appeal to the film are its leading characters - Sunny Deol, Amisha Patel and Amrish Puri. Amrish Puri is excellent, as always, as Amita's Dad and a successful businessman in India and the Mayor of Lahore in the divided India. Amisha delivers a very emotional and effective performance as the muslim girl saved by a Punjabi Jatt during the partition riots whom she marries later, has a child and then returns to her father in Pakistan. Sunny is the 'crowd puller', being the true Jatt from Punjab, who can fight an army with automatic weapons single-handedly. Some of the fight scenes with the villagers using the 'lathis' were so reminiscent of Dharmendra days. Sunny's performance is good by his standards, but the scenes where he is made to 'overdo' spoil it for him. Some of the scenes are extended beyond their 'effectiive/optimal' length, especially, the 'Sholay style train fight sequence' towards the end. The violence scenes shown in the first five minutes of the film are so reminiscent of the recent 1947 -Earth and Hey Ram!, where they were slightly more effective.

Film is directed by Anil Sharma and the music is by Uttam Singh, which is faultless. It may not appeal to the masses and certainly not until you have seen the film and the images have been etched onto the minds. The very traditional folk punjabi feel to the songs is evident throughout the film. The period of the film has been kept in mind with the music and composition of the songs. The two songs that will stay in your minds for a long time after the film are 'Udh Jaa Kaale Kaawan Tere' and the very lively 'Main Nikla Gaddi leke'. Sunny looks good during the songs with his traditional 'tumbi' in his hand in many scenes throughout the film. The 'Hum Juda Ho Gaye' is the song which forgets the style and is a very current day Bollywood format song.

I should think that this film will do well because of its theme and some formula shots, but is still no competition to the very dear, Lagaan.