Ghatak: Lethal

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Ghatak
Directed byRajkumar Santoshi
Starring
CinematographyIshwar R. Bidri
Edited byV. N. Mayekar
Music bySongs:
R. D. Burman
Anu Malik (1 song)
Score:
Vanraj Bhatia
Production
company
Santoshi Productions
Distributed byB4U Entertainment
Release date
  • 15 November 1996 (1996-11-15)
Running time
158 min
CountryIndia
LanguageHindi
Box officeest. 32 crore[1]

Ghatak: Lethal is an Indian 1996 Hindi-language action thriller film directed by Rajkumar Santoshi, starring Sunny Deol, Meenakshi Seshadri, Amrish Puri, and Danny Denzongpa. It earned 32 crore worldwide to become the 2nd highest-grossing Bollywood film of the year, and won three awards including Best Supporting Actor for Puri at the 42nd Filmfare Awards, where it was also nominated for three other awards: Best Director for Santoshi, Best Actor for Deol, and Best Villain for Denzongpa. Ghatak is Seshadri's last film to date. The film was later remade in Telugu as Aapthudu (2004) starring Rajasekhar and Anjala Zaveri and in Bangladesh as Banglar Soinik (2001) starring Amin Khan and Eka.

Plot

Kashi Nath is a kind-hearted wrestler and the dutiful adopted son of Shambhu Nath, living in Banaras. Shambhu Nath, who was a freedom fighter awarded with the Tambra Patra, is an honourable and respectable man in town. Kashi, along with Shambhu, comes to Mumbai for medical treatment for Shambhu and stays with his brother, Shiv Nath. Kashi meets Gauri in the colony and starts liking her. He learns that the colony is being terrorized by the tyrannical gangster, Katya, along with his six brothers. Before Kashi's arrival, a resident named Sachdev tried to initiate a revolt against Katya, but got ruthlessly killed by him, thereby making Malti, Sachdev's wife, go mad. Katya and his brothers become enemies with Kashi when he beats up their goons in the process of roughing up Malti.

Shambhu is later diagnosed with terminal throat cancer and only has a few days to live. When Kashi refuses to join Katya's gang, Katya becomes furious and humiliates Shambhu before the entire colony, by making him bark like a dog. After a series of dramatic events, Shiv is run over to death by Jeena, one of Katya's brothers. In retaliation, Kashi then kills Antya, another one of Katya's brothers, and gets arrested. Meanwhile, Shambhu passes away. When Kashi tries to disperse his father's ashes at the Ghat with the police, the police van gets attacked by Katya's brothers and goons. Kashi kills all of them, including Katya's three brothers, and reaches Katya's home. There he kills Jeena, thereby causing only two brothers to survive, including Katya; however, Kashi is captured in the process.

As Katya had Shambhu bark like a dog, he tries to make Kashi behave like an ox in front of the colony, to re-establish his supremacy. Gauri however stands up, arousing the audience to attack as well. Kashi frees himself from the shackles and beats Katya to death. Katya's entire gang is attacked by the residents. Katya's sixth and the last remaining brother, Bhiku, is killed by the mob. For retribution, Kashi makes Katya bark like a dog just like Shambhu. He then kills him in front of the residents, but loses control over himself as he keeps beating Katya's corpse. His nephew then brings him Shambhu's ashes from crematory rites which brings him back to senses. The ending is a bittersweet one, where Kashi loses every one he loved, but the colony has its freedom at last.

Cast

Actor Character Role Notes
Sunny Deol Kashi Nath Wrestler from Benaras
Meenakshi Seshadri Gauri
Danny Denzongpa Katya Main Antagonist
K. K. Raina Shivnath Elder Brother and Sister in Law of Kashinaath Shop Owner
Sheela Sharma Sheela
Om Puri Sachdev Shop Owners Special Appearance
Viju Khote
Anjan Srivastav
Suresh Bhagwat Gopal
Deep Dhillon Antya Brothers of Katya
Mukesh Rishi Jeena
Tinu Verma Bhiku
Harish Patel Brother- In- Law of Katya
Amrish Puri Shambu Nath Kashi's Father
Ponnambalam Akram Khan Pakhtuni Ring Fighter Special Appearance
Makrand Deshpande Goon of Katya
Ila Arun Malti Wife of Sachdev
Navni Parihar Elder Sister and Brother- In- law of Gauri
Shiva Rindani Chandru
Tinnu Anand Police Inspector Husband and Wife
Rohini Hattangadi Savitri
Ahmed Khan Doctor Hospital Staff
Ghanashyam Nayak Receptionist
Santosh Gupta Ward Boy
Madhav Moghe Taxi Driver
Amitabh Bachchan Himself Friendly Appearance
Mamta Kulkarni Special Appearances and Dancers in the Song "Koi Aaye Toh le Jaye"
Ganesh Acharya

Production

Kamal Haasan was originally signed to play the lead role and an advertisement was commissioned to appear in Screen magazine noting "Welcome back to the Hindi screen", pointing at the actor's return to Hindi films after 1985's Dekha Pyaar Tumhara. However, due to no producer willing to back the actor in the film, Rajkumar Santoshi changed the star cast.[2]

Soundtrack

Ghatak: Lethal
Soundtrack album by
Released20 October 1996
GenreFeature film soundtrack
LabelVenus Records & Tapes

The music for the movie was mainly composed by R. D. Burman. The song "Koi Jaye To Le Aaye" was the only song composed by Anu Malik, and it became popular.

# Song Singer(s) Length Music Director Lyricist
1 "Koi Jaye To Le Aaye" Alka Yagnik, Shankar Mahadevan 04:09 Anu Malik Rahat Indori
2 "Nigahon Ne Chheda" Suresh Wadkar, Sadhana Sargam 06:24 R.D. Burman Majrooh Sultanpuri
3 "Badan Mein Chandni" Kavita Krishnamurthy 05:55 R.D. Burman Majrooh Sultanpuri
4 "Aaki Naaki" Asha Bhosle 08:57 R.D. Burman Majrooh Sultanpuri
5 "Ek Dil Ki Diwani" Suresh Wadkar, Sadhana Sargam 07:29 R.D. Burman Majrooh Sultanpuri
6 "Theme of Ghatak" (Instrumental) shadmehr aghili 02:28

Box office

The film was made at a budget of Rs. 62.5 million, did collections of Rs. 320 million and was declared a Blockbuster.[3]

Awards

42nd Filmfare Awards:

Won

Nominated

References

  1. ^ "Ghatak Collections". Archived from the original on 31 January 2009. Retrieved 5 June 2008.
  2. ^ "Kamal Haasan: Lesser known facts". The Times of India. 7 November 2014. Retrieved 16 October 2017.
  3. ^ "Box Office 1996". Retrieved 5 June 2012.

External links