Insaf Ka Tarazu review :
The most successful as well as controversial rape revenge drama made in Bollywood; B. R. Chopra's Insaf Ka Tarazu introduced Raj Babbar in a sensational negative role of a rich young man who brutally rapes a model Zeenat Aman and then gets a clean chit from the court. As if that is not enough, he goes on to rape Zeenat's teenage sister (Padmini Kolhapure).
The film starts with superstar Dharmendra (in a cameo) playing an army jawan who kills a rapist. He confesses the killing but pleads guilty as he compares the person to the enemy across the border. Both are a threat to the nation, he argues. The court scenes involving Raj Babbar vs. Zeenat Aman case are the movie's highlight and I loved the way Simi Garewal grills Babbar even as the cunning slimy Shriram Lagoo gets him freed by proving the rape to be consensual sex.
Above all, Insaf Ka Tarazu belonged to the style icon Zeenat Aman and this is her best performance after Raj Kapoor's Satyam Shivam Sundaram (1978). Raj Babbar took a calculated risk playing a villain as a newcomer but the gamble paid off as he quickly graduated to lead roles after its success and also became a BR Chopra protegè appearing in most of their later movies. Padmini Kolhapure was completely convincing as Zeenat's younger sister who falls victim to Babbar's lust. Infact, that pre-climactic scene where he asks her to strip naked in front of him, oogles at her body and then goes on to violate her makes for a highly disturbing watch. The ageless Simi Garewal was elegant as ever.
The other positive factors of the film are its hard hitting dialogues (Shabd Kumar) and the crisp editing. Chopra's direction was intense and the audience had never seen such a realistic rape sequence in mainstream Bollywood. It lead to a lot of controversy with some critics panning the film as deliberately titillating. But obviously, they weren't viewing it from the right perspective.
Insaf Ka Tarazu became a huge hit and came up for multiple re-runs throughout the '80s and '90s. I wasn't allowed to watch it as a kid and saw it much later in a re-release at Citylight Cinema, Matunga.
The film gave a big boost to Zeenat's career and she gave another huge hit in Feroz Khan's Qurbani the same year and established herself as a top star. Deservedly!!
Regards,
Sumeet Nadkarni.
