This Vijay Dinanath Chauhan is not interested in comparisons. All he wants is a fair chance to payback the killer Kancha (Sanjay Dutt), who remorselessly murdered his father Dinanath Chauhan, when Vijay was a kid. Gaon Mandwa, this is where Vijay was born and since the time he could remember, his father used to recite poems for him. Poems that would talk about path of fire.
To say that "Agneepath" is simply a technologically superior version of the original Vijay played by Amitabh Bachhan would be being unfair to the interesting spirals plugged into the story by Ila Dutta Bedi and Karan Malhotra. The most absorbing spiral is the drug dealer and pimp Rauf Lala (Rishi Kapoor), a character assayed so earnestly that in a few scenes Lala fills all the space offered by the movie. The cinematography by Kiran Deohans and Ravi K Chandra blends beautifully with the story as well as the costumes and explanation of the characters; but tries too hard to add an epic feeling to the climax, which spoils the sympathy for the rendition by overstuffing it with filmy shibboleths.
The passionate craving for penalizing Kancha separated a 12-year-old Vijay (Hrithik Roshan) from his mother Suhasini (Zarina Wahab) and his newly born sister and found a medium in Lala. Roshan's adaptation of the cult character has a calmness in his deep-rooted anger, a silence in his hatred and a fire in his eyes - all of which combine to a mighty performance. Thankfully, the burdensome task Arish Bhiwandiwala has left for Roshan with his sharp illustration of the character of the young Vijay Chauhan, has been done justice to. Hrithik's description could have been unexampled had the dialogues by Piyush Mishra been weighty enough and the editing by Akiv Ali wiser.
The screenplay and the editing, following the traditions of Bollywood, has reduced Kaali Gawde (Priyanka Chopra) to a beautiful piece of furniture, the only difference being that this one dances. Pity. While the director Karan Malhotra tries hard to make a thunderous appeal to the audience with the electrifying decibels between Vijay and Kancha, an unaware Lala steals the thunder from the two for the larger part of the movie. Sanjay Dutt as Kancha is a solid institution of wickedness in a way that hating Kancha would make someone feel better about himself/herself as a human being. Lala, with his unashamed spontaneity, is few notches higher though in my opinion.
A film crowded with powerful performers leaves little inspiration for Indian directors to focus too much on the story. With responsible editing and lesser concentration on dressing, "Agneepath" could easily have been 45 minutes shorter and more compelling. The movie reveals a certain degree of naivety in the direction. There is an immaturity in the way the clichés lifted from the 1980's and the brother-sister angle have been treated.
Vijay Chauhan's disinterest in Chikni Chameli is understandable; what is worrying is that a movie from Dharma Productions behaves so poorly in the music department. Ajay-Atul must have good reasons behind the heavy-duty background music and the pointless songs of "Agneepath". Chikni Chameli is long forgiven.
Mind you, don't practice comparing while watching "Agneepath", even if you are an ardent fan of either of the Vijays. Life would be simpler.
