axheavy

Ajay Devgan debutted in PHOOL AUR KAANTE(1991) and a new action hero was born, he caught people awe struck when he did the stunt standing on 2 bikes which is still remembered The film worked and 2 biggies LAMHE and AKAYLA which released on the same day flopped
Then Ajay got another hit JIGAR(1992) but then a series of flops in 1993 and then some hits with SUHAAG and DILWALE in 1994
HAQEEQAT was a hit too which released in 1995
Ajay had specialised in the wronged guy who takes to violence which he kept doing till ISHQ(1997)
The movie too has him play a hit-man who changes his life somewhat clichéd actually the film is a typical bollywood film yet it's well handled
The film starts off well though the going-ons are predictable yet it is well handled we have romance in Switzerland, lot of comedy, emotions and drama yet it s well handled
There are some good scenes like Amrish Puri coming to know the truth of Ajay after he accidentally praised him for his humanity a minute back Ajay saving children and Tabu knowing the truth
The film does have some bizarre scenes like Ajay saving Tabu from the cage and some more
Direction by Kuku Kohli is good Music is good, DIL NE DIL SE stands out
Ajay Devgan lends his part the right amount of emotions and vulnerability and conveys through his eyes though he has done such roles many times Tabu too looks nice and does a good job Amrish Puri has done such roles many times but yet he is lovable Himani Shivpuri is okay Johny Lever is funny Rami Reddy, Mohan Joshi are the villains Satyen Kapoo is as usual, Ishrat Ali is okay Aruna Irani is likable

2 out of 3 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

The film opens with a brutish fat man, protected by two machine gun carrying bodyguards, who is ceremoniously feeding pigeons in a back alley. The sinister government official arrives and makes the payment for a big hit on a rival politician. Next we see Ajay, with blue eyes and a Malik (Company) style mustache, preparing for his work by disguising a gun in a military hat and perfecting a red light beam to target his prey. Ajay is the hit man Shiva.
The hit goes wrong and the target survives, so Ajay has to leave town pronto and hide out in Bombay (Mumbai). While traveling on the train, Ajay finds himself in a sleeping car with A.C.P. Shivcharan, played by Amrish Puri, his wife and son. Action man Ajay saves Puri and his family from a small gang of thugs who were after Puri, the assistant commissioner of the Bombay police. The fate of strangers on a train makes Ajay/Shiva, a professional killer, a trusted friend of the very police he is running from.
Once in Bombay, Ajay meets up with Johnny Lever, the comic relief or the only real bummer in Haqeeqat. I live in fear that one day I wake up and find Johnny Lever the funniest man in the world.
Lever helps Ajay get a room in one of those old rambling colony apartment complexes and there he meets Tabu, a lovely young girl recently widowed. They make beautiful music together - Ajay plays the harmonica and Tabu the sitar. Tabu is teaching music in the courtyard when the local nasty bad-boy thug moves in and decides to molest her publicly to the tune of rap music. Naturally Ajay turns into Shiva the trained killing machine and proceeds to knock the ugly gang silly with his high-kicking, fist-smashing, Veeru-Devgan-style choreographed action.
I have done a lot of thinking about Veeru Devgan's style of action. At first I didn't like Veeru's violence and frankly I had trouble watching these long drawn out bloody scenes. There is nothing cold or heartless about Veeru's action. The good guy is standing up for the innocent and the helpless. You are meant to feel the blows and taste the blood. The technical side of Veeru's violence is secondary to what he sees as righteousness, his world view. It is not slick, high tech, computer generated fantasy. You feel it in your heart, in your gut.
It seems that Ajay/Shiva was orphaned and found by the fat guy feeding the pigeons and trained from childhood to be an assassin. His owner calls him a 'throw away'! So he is a captive, abused and used by evil men who sell his services to the highest bidder. As the film progresses we gain sympathy for Ajay's character - who now desperately wants the love of a mother (Mrs. David) and a good woman, Tabu. But Ajay's past always follows him and it seems as if every time he tries to redeem himself, he falls into another deeper trap. His controllers wont let him go.
After rescuing Tabu from her would be rapist in the colony courtyard, Ajay is taken to the local police station and beaten by a corrupt politician. Amrish Puri comes to Ajay's rescue and Ajay is released. But the feeling of hopelessness follows him as he wanders through the streets drinking his sorrows away. Ajay is a wonderful drunk! Here he plays broken-hearted boozed-up dude at its best and this performance foreshadows his later last night with Aish in Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam (1999) as the straight-arrow Vanraj.
There are some excellent close-up shots of Tabu and Ajay that reveal just how warm and loving these two actors are. Ajay is so handsome in Haqeeqat and Tabu is looking very lovely, a little plump and very young. And yes, there is the hey-hey-hey and the la- la-la and suddenly our lovers are in Switzerland – Tabu all decked out like an Indian princess and Ajay in Madras plaid or really awful print sweaters. Still it's BW and you gotta have love dancing' in the snow capped Swiss Alps!
The plot is complicated by the fact that Tabu's husband was accidentally killed by 'guess who' the night of the big hit. Can she forgive the man she loves for killing the man she loved? And there are plenty of real rats bad guys, mainly crooked politicians, all weasels who want to continue to use Ajay's skills as a killer. The boy is put to the test over and over as Veeru's action scenes lead from one gruesome but fascinating cliffhanger episode to another. The end gets a little absurd bordering on a sort of James Bond fantasy with Tabu trapped in a spherical metal cage. Well, you get the idea. And yes, Ajay saves everyone!
All in all this is a highly enjoyable, worth-watching film with some very nice scenes from Ajay, Tabu, Aruna Irani, Mohan Joshi (Gangaajal, 2003 as Sadhu Yadav), and Amrish Puri. If I have any complaint with Haqeeqat it is with the background music, which is synthetic, loud, and irritating to my ear. But some of the song and dance numbers are very nice – one real hip-thrusting number with an item gal who looks like Helen to me. And we get to see a little of Tabu's fine dance talent. There is one rock & roll number in the snow that borders on funky – but if kitsch offends you, then forget BW from the 1990s. Just relax and have fun with a style of film that once came more out of India than the west. There's nothing quite like it and probably never will be again.

1 out of 1 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink