Dayavan review :
After making stylised entertainers like Qurbani (1980) and Janbaaz (1986), Feroz Khan decided to adapt Mani Ratnam's critically acclaimed Tamil film Nayakan (1987) for the Hindi audience. He collaborated with his bestie and Qurbani co-star Vinod Khanna who played the titular role.
Dayavan narrates the life of a South Indian lad Shakti Velu who as a kid, flees to aamchi Mumbai after killing an evil cop who murders his innocent dad for money. With a natural hatred for police, Shakti grows up to get embroiled with yet another police brutality and that event turns him in to Dayavan - a benevolent Don with a heart of gold.
Vinod Khanna was outstanding as Dayavan and it is one of the best performances of his career. Feroz Khan chose the supporting role of his accomplice Shekhar Waghmare and his forced Marathi accent is still mimicked by many. "Ae Shakti, Kay gammat zhali re!!". Aditya Panscholi appeared in second half and played the ruthless honest cop who hates Dayavan and is incidentally, the husband of Dayavan's separated daughter Amala.
The film became controversial for a love making scene between Vinod Khanna and his reel wifey Madhuri Dixit during the lovely song "Aaj phir tumpe pyaar aaya hai". The close to two minutes of passionate kiss raised many eyebrows and some film magazines wrote about then newbie Madhuri being coerced to give the shot and that she regretted it later.
But then, Dayavan was much more than that kiss and it is easily one of the best films from the late 80s, performance wise as well as from technical point of view.
Released with 70MM print at Minerva cinema, Mumbai, the film took an excellent start but finally settled in to the average grosser category at the box office. As a kid, I saw the film on VHS and loved it. One scene has a 'mandh-buddhi' child saying "Namaste; Mera Baba Marr gaya" in a unique manner which became a big rage with school kids of that era and we used to tease each other with it. Ever lasting memories those!!
Regards,
Sumeet Nadkarni.
