Ghulam (1998)

Really Surprised!

Pretty Good

A Masterpiece!

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Ghulam is truly a masterpiece with an excellent theme by Vikram Bhatt.Definitely it is his best directorial venture.The plot of the movie taken from ON THE WATER FRONT fits very well to the culture of Subcontinent,beautifully reflects the hardships & attitude of the society in big cities and also shows the right way to fight against injustice & cruelty.The sole of the film is Aamir Khan's stunning performance.The way he has portrayed the character of Sidhu a confused,tipori is awesome.This performance has for sure declared Aamir Khan as the best actor in history of Indian cinema.Rani Mukherji looked very fresh and beautiful, the only flaw of the film is her dubbed voice which was needless.SharatSexana in the role of Ronak Singh is excellent.Music is very good.All the songs are good with "ab naam mohabbat ke ilzam " & "aati kya khandala" stand out.Overall it is an excellent film.I have seen this film 18 times till date and i recommend it to every movie lover.

I have read the reviews given by different people and I am well versed with the version played by The Great Marlon Brando(On the Waterfront) which won him Oscar for best actor,Ella Kazan the best Director and 6 other categories. It took almost 44 years to bring out the remake using the finest actor in Indian History. The fact that remains in my mind is that I had watched the filmfare award ceremony and I was only 13 but still I remember Vikram Bhatt saying that "The Award was only possible due to Aamir Khan's effort.He had taken chance with his life by not duping the Train-race stunt.Even though the train was not running at full speed it had momentum to kill the person hitting it". The commitment from the side actors are as important as the film script.If this was shot nowadays it could have been more effective with several camera angling. Aamir knew that if he had to provide justice at least .1% to the original film he had to do this. These make it almost or equivalent to the "On The Waterfront".

I went through the list of Vikram Bhatt movies, and realized I had seen quite a few of them. And there isn't a single original storyline in any of them. Vikram Bhatt isn't happy in just getting inspired by Hollywood movies, he copies them totally. Sometimes, he does a bad job (Awara Paagal Deewana: The Whole Nine Yards, Deewane Hue Paagal: There's Something About Mary) but sometimes it isn't so bad (Raaz: What Lies Beneath and Ghulam: On the Waterfront).The difference with Ghulam is its treatment. This treatment is very rustic and non-glamorous. What you get is a nice, realistic view of the situation, with Siddhu being a very real character. Aamir Khan, Rani Mukherjee, Rajit Kapoor, Sharat Saxena and Mita Vasisht all turn in pretty good performances. I remember when I first watched the movie and was impressed by Rani. Come to think of it, I have been a fan of Rani since then itself, so I'm pretty glad things are working out for her now.Even being a copy, it is a rather good movie with a believable storyline and strong performances. Worth a peek.

Amir plays the role of a confused, frustrated and sensitive "gunda" who lives with the evil but surprisingly knows the difference between right and wrong. His conscious is alive maybe because of something he saw happening to his dad when he was young. It casted a lasting effect on him and it stayed with him all his life. His brother also realizes the difference between the right and the wrong but readily accepts the wrong because he doesn't mind taking shortcuts in life. Excellent performances by Amir Khan and Rani both. The real hero, however, is Ronnie. He gave the best performance of his life. Every single dialog of his is nothing less than Gabbar's from Sholay. Not only does this movie have some great acting, but some excellent screenplay, dialogs, direction, storyline, and songs! One of my favorite Hindi movies of all time. Rating: ****Poor * Average ** Good *** Excellent **** Masterpiece *****