Tezaab (1988)

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Tezaab- The best rip-off ever made in Bollywood Tezaab completely blew me away when I saw it in theater back in 1988. This movie presents a very unique Hindi movie experience mainly due to its breakneck pacing, tight editing, Anil Kapoor's raw performance as an ex-patriot and the phenomenon called Madhuri Dixit that got unleashed on the unsuspecting and innocent (pun intended) Indian male audience. N. Chandra did a great job in brewing this violent love story with choicest set-pieces lifted straight from Hollywood and Hong Kong movies such as Streets of Fire (main story), The Untouchables (bank robbery scene) and Jackie Chan's, Police Story (the destruction of the villain's lair using multiple cars as weapons of choice). Interestingly, in hindsight, it is hard to imagine Tezaab without any of them. Typical Bollywood elements are also in abundance here such as boy meets girl, the sleazy father beats girl, girl fights boy, boy ridicules girl, villain eyeballs girl, boy threatens social order, and corrupt police whup boy's ass. In other words, the storyline is as old and only as engrossing as a dormant volcano, which, by the way, could explode in any year or century. As one reviewer mentioned - it's the execution that separates Tezaab from the junk routinely made by Bollywood. Rest of the usual shenanigans are covered under measured doses of misunderstood love triangles, the inevitable hero's sidekick (a very good Chunkey 'the Monkey' Pandey here) and his minions, lilting music, songs, dances, and the ubiquitous ugly comedian (Johnny Lever). It's all there- so what's not to like?Well, there is one thing that sometimes only troubles the Coen Brothers and that is originality. Not a single scene in this movie is original by any standard but it worked in those days and it still works in Bollywood because the majority of its audience are neither connoisseur of international cinema nor avid readers of psychology. Why psychology you ask? Well, in the movie Anil Kapoor's character attempts suicide in order to prove his love to the leading lady Madhuri Dixit. Now her character studies psychology and if the screenwriter had done some research on psychology he would have known that any female student of psychology would be extremely cautious around a person who professes his love by threatening suicide by jumping off a multi-storied building. But Indian filmmakers routinely apply to their creation- oops! Did I say creation? I mean inspired creation- the logic of Looney Tunes and that's why no matter how loony the hero maybe, the heroine always tunes into his call.Notwithstanding the flaws, Tezaab also scores mainly due to its smart editing, as mentioned earlier. Movie jumps back and forth in timelines at various crucial moments in the movie and this, in my opinion, is the most original aspect of this movie and is very effectively used to convince the viewers of Kapoor's character's transformation from a patriot to a criminal and also to establish grounds for his volatile love affair with his girlfriend. And all the characters, notably Annu Kapoor as a chaiwallah with lofty aspirations and Suresh Oberoi as an incorruptible cop who acts as Anil Kapoor's conscience, who come in and out of these flashbacks truly propel the story and the director spends enough time with these characters so as to justify their brand of violence. Despite some obvious drawbacks, Tezaab still remains one of the most memorable action flicks from the 80's that even women liked. Watch it and you just might smell the acid that the director so skillfully (with some borrowed elements) distilled for us to enjoy.

1980's was the decade when Hindi cinema had touched an abysmal low. The severe menace of piracy had robbed the sheen out of the films of those times. Due to a shrinkage in market, producers indulged in cost-cutting techniques resulting in substandard productions. Poor picture quality, inferior production-values and cheap disco-numbers took away the glamour quotient of the films. Facing a budgetary constraint, film-makers started focusing more on kitchen-sink dramas to woo the lower middle-class audiences. Even when there was some action, they were way below the 70's standards.But from time-to-time, there were the big-ticket ventures like 'Karma' (1986), 'Mr.India' (1987), 'Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak' (1988), 'Ram Lakkhan' (1989), 'Maine Pyar Kiya'(1989), 'Tridev' (1989), etc which offered some much needed respite from the constant nightmare of mediocrity. One of those films was N.N.Chandra's 'Tezaab'(1988).When I saw the film 2 years back, I wasn't much impressed as I felt the script was quite wayward and overall not good enough. But after being exposed to some more regular 80's fare, I happened to watch this film recently again. And this time I was just blown away!I have realised that I wasn't being fare to this film by judging it solely on the basis of it's script; as compared to the regular 80's fare, this film offered so much more! First of all, this was a big- budget film. From the picture quality, sets and locales to its hard- hitting action, the film was shot on a huge scale. The film has a sort of grandeur which is bound to be a breath of fresh air for cine-goers of those times.But for me, the 3 assets of the film are its dialogues, editing and background music. The dialogues are extremely hard-hitting and create a severe impact. The editing is extremely fast-paced and makes a solid impact from the opening scene itself. In fact it could even compete with any film of the mid-2000 period. On this front, the film was clearly way ahead of its time! And Laxmikant-Pyarelal seem to have given their all in creating a high-voltage background score that turbo-charges the film non-stop for the entire duration. That's not to say, they fared any worse when it came to the songs. 'Kehdo Ki Tum'and 'So Gayi Yeh Zameen' deliver the goods with 'Ek Do Teen' remaining a timeless classic till now!Performance is another strong point for the film. Almost the entire cast comprising of Anil Kapoor, Madhuri Dixit, Anupam Kher, Kiran Kumar, Annu Kapoor, etc deliver some power-packed performances. But it's Suresh Oberoi who stands out as the righteous and sympathetic cop, who ensures justice is finally delivered at the end. Even Chunky Pandey delivers a surprisingly heart-felt performance which is probably his best act till date. This was one of Johny Lever's earlier films and he is as usual wonderful; especially in the Telugu-mouthing Arabian act! Mandakini appears in a small cameo in what is probably the only poorly etched out character.Many might consider the 'Ek Do Teen' number to be the highlight of the film; but for me the highlight was the demolition sequence of Lotiya Pathan's empire. With explosions, car-crashes, collapsing towers this was one of the most expensive action-sequences back then and clearly takes one's breath away! Even on the 1st occasion when I didn't like the film, I was still blown away by this particular sequence. In fact the sequence is so good, that I expected this to be the grand-climax for the film. But I was quite surprised to see that the film still went on for another half-an-hour. Still after watching a sequence like this, one expected the climactic battle to be even more stunning. But the final confrontation, filmed aboard a ship, simply drags on and falls way below expectations. This leaves a sour taste to an otherwise gripping drama.The title (meaning 'acid') and the tag-line ('A Violent Love-Story') suit the film to the tee. The script might be a bit wayward; but the performances, dialogues, music, production quality, action and above all the editing make it a riveting experience for the viewers. This high-voltage concoction generates a heavy reaction on the viewer's psyche. Although it's nowhere near Anil Kapoor's best works, it's still one of the better films of the 1980's. Overall it's a spicy potboiler that is delicious for the regular Bollywood fans; but could give 'acidity' to those who aren't accustomed to stuffs like these!

this is the film which i saw when i was just 10 year on VHS i mesmerize from the performance of the cast everyone perform exceptionally well.while it is MUNNAor BABBAN or LOTIYA PATHAN OR MADHURI.music scored by LP that was rocking i remember even today that EK DO TEEN was all over i also like the another song of this movie was NITIN MUKESH "SO GAYA HAI RASTA" which is good u can easily listen this song on any FM channel at night after 12 o clock.the director N CHANDRA is its best in this movie he was in peak of his imagination and direction which he started from ANKUSH and PRATIGHAAT i really wonder why he is unable to create same magic till now. even he started making style and XCUSE ME type of films. the biggest fact of this film which i like most is that, it is the remake of English film the streets of fire it take best adaption from the film u may surprised to know that streets of fire was so so in Hollywood but tejaab rock all the India and it gives edges to ANIL KAPOOR to other film star of country support to MADHURI and lot of name and fame to N CHANDRA not to forget LOTIYA PATHAN.

N. Chandra's Tezaab was given more than it's due. True the song "Ek Do Teen" is a foot-tabbing number & Madhuri Dixit shot to fame with this movie, yet what nobody seem to have noticed that it is a bad remake of Hollywood's action/ musical "Streets of Fire" (1984).Much publicity was given to the movie, which helped to make it a big success.Another flick used to make the movie a definite success, was adding a song number after the film's release.Nothing special about this movie if you're well acquainted with good movies & cinema.