Himmatwala Hindi Movie Review

More than describing the protagonist as courageous, it is the audience that requires a certain amount of courage (read indiscretion) to get to the theatres to watch, sit through and endure the film. Well, what do you expect from a remake of a loud garish formula film of the 1980s when revisited with the calibre of Sajid Khan? A repeat of it all, obviously. At least the filmmaker cannot be blamed beyond a point. He has a: I told you written all over. In retrospect, it also reflects how somewhere how we are stuck with our paradigms of entertainment. What you choose to revisit, reflects not just your taste but your perspective. Himatwalla, the original was an unpretentious embarrassment. Now we return to salute it!! If it were not Sajid, we could have seen it as a parody of the genre. Here it is perceived as entertainment. In addition to Taaaki re takre and Tathaiya thathiya, we have as an improvement: bum pe laath!! Well journeyed! Historic return! Rich tribute!!
To the uninitiated Himatwallah deals with this strong muscle flexing protagonist Ravi (Jeetendra/Ajay Devgan) who takes on the local feudal lords and uses violence as the antidote to the crudities of their life style. Ravi returns to his village after over two decades or even more if you have your calculator in place and work on his age qua the time he left the village after Dad (Anil Dhavan) was wrongly accused of theft of temple jewellery and chose to hang himself. The villains are the local landlord and his brother in law (Amjad Khan and Kader Khan, now Mahesh Manjrekar and Paresh Rawal). He notices that Mama Savithri (Waheeda Rehman now replaced by colleague from Rajmundry and the new Mom on the block at Bollywood Zarina Wahab) is living in penury after being ostracised. Of course for company she has sitting duck daughter Padma (Swaroop Sampath/Leena Jumani). Our star trek includes the feudal lord’s haughty daughter Rekha (Sreedevi/Tamanaha) and the son of the thakur’s brother in law the nameless (Shakti Kapoor/ Adhyayan Suman). Film goers know that the siblings on the Savithri side will soon be struck by cupid and for victims they have members from the opposite camp.
With Padma being used as a pawn in the fully blown dispute between the families tables are turned with Rekha and Ravi in love and feigning to be on the family way. With the feudal lords walking the extra mile to ensure that the family izzat is in place, the exploiters are the winners.
The script goes, the stunts would make Rajni blush. The cast has obviously been schooled with the earlier version. They have nothing to live up to. Great actors like Amjad and Waheeda were caricatures in the original, now you have lesser mortals walking the journey with ease. Tamanaa is not magic and the film is surely not likely to enhance her repute or chances at the BO. Ajay Devgan growls sulks and walks from habit.
Vulgarity touches an all-time low with a cot sharing scene involving Mahesh and Paresh. This is how we entertain ourselves with a script that goes berserk and rejoices with violence. This is bound to reflect on the streets of our country. We lament at the lack of safety to women in India, we talk about corruption and gender exploitation, or goons and violence galore on our streets. This film is a salute to it all. Watch this at the cost being embarrassed for choosing it or enjoying it!!

L. Ravichander.