Pukar (1983)

There are loads of Amitabh Bachchan blockbusters released throughout the 70s and 80s when he was top of the industry. Pukar’s a watchable flick but if you have all of Amitji’s movies at your behest don’t pick this one.

FIRST HALF

Storyline

Purandare (Shreeram Lagoo), Narvekar (P. Jairaj) and Dinanath (Sudhir Dalvi) are part of a separatist group that aims to rid Goa’s territories of the Portuguese. In a shootout with the Portuguese police, Purandare and Dinanath are injured. Dinanath asks Purandare to shoot him because he doesn’t want to die by the hands of the Portuguese. Purandare kills him at Dinanath’s behest. This is witnessed by Dinanath’s son Ramdas who gets the wrong idea that Purandare killed him.

Ramdas runs away to Mr Dayanand (Om Shivpuri) who shelters him. Portuguese police arrive again and seemingly kill Dayanand and his wife for Ramdas’ whereabouts. In the next scene, Purandare arrives to Dayanand’s house in search for Ramdas. Ramdas takes one look at Purandare and runs away. I was a bit confused because the Portuguese police seemingly killed him by stomping their foot on his throat and in the next scene, he just has minor bruises. Even the background score made it look like he died. Anyway, I’m not that bothered about that yet.

Ramdas changes his name to Ronnie to avoid association with Indian revolutionaries. He is teased by a few kids about his name and the following fight fast forwards 2 decades. Ramdas/Ronnie grows up to be a lanky, career criminal (predictably Amitabh Bachchan) who has a babe girlfriend Julie (Zeenat Aman). Ronnie helps out another criminal Hasmok (Sujit Kumar) evade capture from Police Inspector Monteiro (Prem Chopra). The name Hasmok came from IMDB because I don’t remember Ronnie or anyone addressing him as Hasmok.  

Ronnie teams up with Hasmok to help smuggle gold. Ronnie steals gold from Monteiro in a hilarious scene. Later Hasmok betrays Ronnie to Monteiro’s gang leading to a car chase, a rape attempt on Julie by Hasmok and Ronnie killing Hasmok. Ronnie establishes himself as the boss of the smuggling syndicate and comes with a mustache, shades, a castle and helicopter.

Ronnie comes across Purandare once again - Purandare’s gang wants ammunition to help their revolution against the Portuguese. Ronnie betrays them to the police twice and in the second encounter, Purandare loses his life.

Also introduced in the first half yet kept aside is Shekhar (Randhir Kapoor), Dayanand’s son. Shekhar also has a girlfriend Usha (Tina Munim) and is prepared to go to London for further studies. Shekhar also has a cool relationship with Purandare and often questions why Purandare is a revolutionary, to which Purandare answers with a patriotic speech. It’s not a clichéd speech because it mentions patriotism being an adrenaline rush, nothing too holy or jingoistic. After witnessing Purandare’s death, Shekhar takes on the baton and becomes a revolutionary.

Tracks and Songs

The romance tracks have been rushed. Tina Munim is introduced in the same breath as Randhir Kapoor and they haven’t got a duet together. Even in the song "Jaane Jigar", it’s just Tina swooning in Randhir’s arms. No explanation is given as to how they know each other. Amitabh and Zeenat have two songs "Samundar Mein Naha Ke" and "Tu Maika Mat Jaiyo". "Samundar Mein Naha Ke" has Zeenat Aman predictably singing on a beach considering her sex symbol status. The latter is forced yet its notable because it’s sung by the Big B. The "Jaane Jigar" song is the best song of the first half because of the BGM and the chemistry between Kishore Kumar and R.D. Burman.

The action track is above average. Amitji’s warehouse fight and the car chase are excellently handled. The camera shots in the car chase are cool. 

Thankfully there are no annoying comedy subplots.

Acting

Amitabh Bachchan is boring in the scenes where he’s in discussion with Zeenat Aman or Sujit Kumar because his expressions look tired and the dialogues lack interest. Also his wardrobe isn’t that good. For the songs, he wears better clothes. On the other hand, his action is good as always and his character garners more interest when he becomes the boss because he exudes more confidence and his moustache looks cool. His song wardrobe is better than his film wardrobe and his dance steps in "Jaane Jigar" are good. The flashback to Shreeram Lagoo shooting his dad is good because it works as a driving force to his hate for the revolutionaries.

Zeenat Aman’s hair is just about ok. She looks decent in the songs and hasn’t got much scope to perform. Had I been the director, I would have told Zeenat to slap and kick Sujit Kumar when he attempts to rape her because it gives her character more gusto.

Randhir Kapoor isn’t give much importance but towards the end of the first half, you can tell his character will be pivotal to the second half. He’s good in the two or three scenes he gets and he’s decent in the "Jaane Jigar" song.

Tina Munim’s appearance is pretty short and I hope the 2nd half makes better use of her. She looks pretty and her wardrobe in the "Jaane Jigar" song is exotic.

Shreeram Lagoo is decent. I liked his getup in the rest of the movie. His character attracts interest and his death scene is slightly unexpected because I assumed he’d live long enough to tell Amitabh the truth.

Sujit Kumar and Om Shivpuri are just about ok. They’re not out of the world but the role’s been shaped like that.

Prem Chopra was great. His expressions when Amitabh robs him are hilarious. He plays a policeman who conducts deals with smugglers and kills revolutionaries. I assumed he’s a positive character because he was a policeman but the script defied my expectations.

Overall opinion

For now the film is watchable. Action is good, a few jokes are cracked here and there. In the second half I'll observe Ronnie, Shekhar, Usha and Monteiro more closely.

SECOND HALF

Storyline

Shekhar quickly gets involved into the action. He steals Ronnie’s gold, frees a rebel (Viju Khote) from hospital, assassinates the Portuguese police chief and is sentenced to be hanged, all while making Ronnie his number one enemy. The fact that everyone likes Shekhar than Ronnie makes Ronnie even angrier. He goes to kill Shekhar’s parents for whatever random reason and finds out they are the same people who sheltered him when the police was after him in childhood. This makes him understand why Purandare killed his father in childhood and he swears to save Shekhar from the death sentence. In a climactic battle, Ronnie and Shekhar succeed in killing the Portuguese.

Tracks and Songs

There is no comedic track and the pace is faster than the first half and much more serious. The action track is well handled. There’s a Shekhar vs police chase in the hospital, fist fight between Ronnie and Shekhar and the climax which features an aerial dogfight, shootout, swordfight as well as Ronnie and Shekhar avoiding bullets.

The romantic track isn’t heavily explored except for the song where Julie distracts Ronnie from going upstairs. Usha doesn’t enjoy any more presence than the first half, thus deleting any romanticism we could have expected from her and Shekhar. "Tu Mere Liye" is bearable because it gives a chance for Julie to prove useful. "Bachke Rehna Re Baba" is the best song of the 2nd half. The lyrics show how well placed the song is and we get to enjoy Kishore Ji-R.D. Burman Ji singing together with the added bonus of Asha Bhosle Ji. "Maarein Ge Ya Mar Jaayenge" is the last song and is there just to help Ronnie save Shekhar.

Acting

Randhir Kapoor enjoys much more screen time in the 2nd half and does a superb job. If it weren’t for him, the film would have dragged. His presence drives the story rather than his acting. However his scenes with Zeenat, his parents are an example of his talent.

Zeenat Aman gets three more songs and stands out in the scene where she confronts Ronnie for being an asshole and getting Shekhar arrested. Her character switches allegiance so she proves more of an asset to Shekhar’s revolution. On top of that, she provides glamour. She looks pretty and in a few scenes, she brings back her long hair that I like her for. 

Tina Munim is overall wasted. The scene where she arrives at Shekhar’s house to fulfil her duty of being a good daughter-in-law is just forced and unnecessary because it doesn’t give her the chance to do anything worthwhile. The only chance she gets to serve her purpose of being glamour is the song "Bachke Rehna Re Baba".

Prem Chopra doesn’t get that much screen time as I thought. All he does is chase Shekhar and deliver a few lines at Shekhar’s hanging. Nothing much. To some extent he isn’t the villain, it’s Amitabh!

Om Shivpuri gets a chance to shine in the scene where he praises Ronnie for getting his son captured. It’s a good scene because he’s not all melodramatic like the typical films.

Sharat Saxsena is likeable. He gets a few more lines of dialog, making him a cut above the usual filmi henchman.

And last but not least, Amitabh Bachchan! He is the villain for most of the film because he gets revolutionaries killed and arrested and all he cares about his name and wealth. Until his wakeup call, his character practically cares about nothing. He is at his usual ease with the action and dancing. The scene where he goes into his village’s house to search for Shekhar was an example of how his larger than life presence. The way he figured out Purandare’s real motive of shooting his dad lacked imagination because Purandare’s death doesn’t mean anything to him later on in the movie. His repentance seemed hollow and rushed probably because the filmmakers had to bring him on the good side otherwise the film’s collections may have suffered if he was the villain. His character switching sides almost harms Randhir Kapoor’s role because it just shows that Amitabh was enough to finish off the Portuguese and all the revolutionaries dying means nothing. I was a bit confused towards the end if he died or not because he was shot by 3 bullets yet he seemed alive.    

Overall opinion

I’d say about 5.5/10. What I liked about the film was Amitabh Bachchan’s and Randhir Kapoor’s effort at rising above the uneven script that makes the film boring in parts of the first half. What I didn’t like about the film was the underutilization of the heroines and some of the supporting characters. 

If remade in today’s times, the action scenes would be far more polished because the action scenes in this film were above average - for its time. Only because the 80s is best remembered for its South Indian-styled action. If remade in today’s times, the film would have been a love triangle with Ronnie, Julie and Shekhar and Ronnie’s change from bad to good would have been a more gradual transition.

All in all, a watchable time pass flick. Though don’t go with high expectations because you’re likely to be disappointed.