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| Directed by | Mukul S. Anand |
| Produced by | Yash Johar |
| Screenplay by | Santosh Saroj Kader Khan |
| Story by | Santosh Saroj |
| Starring | Amitabh Bachchan Mithun Chakraborty Madhavi Neelam Kothari |
| Music by | |
| Cinematography | Praveen Bhatt |
| Editing by | Waman Bhonsle |
| Distributed by | Dharma Productions |
| Release date(s) | February 16, 1990 |
| Running time | 174 minutes |
| Country | India |
| Language | Hindi |
Agneepath (Hindi: अग्निपथ) is a 1990 Bollywood film directed by Mukul Anand. It stars Amitabh Bachchan, Mithun Chakraborty, Madhavi, and Rohini Hattangadi, with Danny Dengzongpa as the villain. It was produced by Yash Johar. The title was taken from a poem[1] penned by Harivansh Rai Bachchan, Amitabh's father, and which is recited at the beginning of the movie and creates a thematic link that continues through the movie, particularly in the climax, both literally and metaphorically. It was considered to be a loose adaptation of the 1983 Hollywood film Scarface starring Al Pacino, however others believe it is based on the life Mumbai underworld gangster Manya Surve. (See 'Production' (below))
Bachchan and Chakraborty received the National Award for Best Actor and Filmfare Best Supporting Actor Award respectively for their performances, and Hattangadi earned a Filmfare Best Supporting Actress Award. The film failed commercially at the box-office, but Bachchan's performance was praised and is now considered to be a cult classic. Johar's son, Karan, is claiming it is the reason for remaking the film in 2011 under the same name. Agneepath is considered as a classic, even though it flopped at the box office.[2]
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The film opens with a Maharashtrian schoolmaster Deenanath Chavan (Alok Nath) and his 10-year-old son Vijay (Master Manjunath) watching the sunset over their Maharashtrian village of Mandwa. Vijay innocently asks why their village becomes dark (there is no electricity) at night when the city (Mumbai) remains lit. On their morning walk, Deenanath teaches his son the poem "Agneepath." Deenanath is a reformer. He runs a small school, leads a (rather weak) campaign to obtain electricity and infrastructure, and generally uplifts the village. Unbeknownst to him, the village of Mandwa has been insidiously taken over by powerful crime baron Kancha Cheena (Danny Denzongpa). Kancha uses the village as a landing point for his contraband. The village must remain an unnoticed hamlet on the coast, so Kancha opposes any move for improvement and specifically intends to remove or eliminate Deenanath.
Kancha buys off a local merchant, Dinkar Rao (Goga Kapoor). Rao stages a scandal where the upright Deenanath is lured to the town brothel, drugged, and found to be in bed with a prostitute. The angry villagers lynch Deenanath before his wife Suhasini (Rohini Hattangadi) and his young children, Vijay and Siksha. Suhasini and the children are forced to flee Mandwa. Young Vijay swears to avenge his father's death.
They arrive, penniless and destitute, in Bombay. Vijay becomes a bootblack; he is polishing a rich man's shoes when he witnesses an attempt to assassinate Kancha Cheena. The assassins are hired by the rival dons Terelin (Sharat Saxena), Usman bhai (Avtar Gill) and Anna Shetty (Deepak Shirke). Some time after, when Suhasini applies for a job at a nearby gas station (owned by Kancha), some of Kancha's goons try to molest her. Vijay files a police complaint but quickly realizes that the cops are in league with the thugs, so he decides to blow up the gas station. Vijay is hauled before senior inspector Gaitonde (Vikram Gokhale). Gaitonde is a good cop and tries to get Vijay off the streets. But Vijay asks why the cops did not act: Their failure forced him to take matters into his own hands. Gaitonde is unable to answer.
Some 25 years later, Vijay Deenanath Chauhan has grown (played by Amitabh Bachchan) to become a don in his own right. He sits before Gaitonde (now a police commissioner). When asked his name, Vijay replies: "Vijay Deenanath Chavan, poora naam, baap ka naam Deenanath Chavan, gaon Mandwa". This becomes Vijay's tagline, repeated throughout the movie.
Gaitonde, still sympathetic towards Vijay, urges him to give up crime. Vijay asks why. He has risen from utter poverty, fought through a hard and bitter world, and become a wealthy don; the system (including several corrupt cops) has failed him entirely; and why must Gaitonde, who is unable to eliminate corruption in his own house, speak to Vijay of law, order and a just society? He points out that, for all of Gaitonde's efforts, the cops have no real evidence to prosecute him. Gaitonde resignedly warns Vijay of danger and death at every turn. Vijay retorts that he knows who his enemies are, whereas Gaitonde must forever be subject to an irrecoverably failed system. This interchange forms an important theme in the film where a such a society will produce Vijays.
Vijay arrives next at a gathering of the dons Terelin, Usman bhai and Shetty and tells them that he knows of their plan to assassinate him. He tells them that he won't run away and will take their bullets head on. If he dies they get everything; if he survives, it's him all the way. As he expected, they attempt to assassinate him; they are stunned when he bares himself and invites them to shoot him at point-blank range; they shoot him nonetheless and leave him to die. Vijay is rescued by a comical, educated simpleton coconut seller, Krishnan Iyer, MA (Mithun Chakraborty). The dons try to kill Vijay in the hospital, but he is again saved by Krishnan, and nursed back to health by nurse Mary Matthew (Madhavi). Vijay appoints Krishnan as a bodyguard for Siksha (Neelam).
Vijay faces another battle on the personal front. His mother Suhasini strongly disapproves of his life of crime and wishes him to follow Deenanath's footsteps. Vijay grows apart from his mother and seeks a shoulder with Mary; their association blossoms and they marry. Mary gives birth to a baby boy. Around this time, Siksha develops an affection for Krishnan; Vijay is initially okay with this but discovers that Siksha wishes to lead a normal life and must inevitably distance herself from Vijay. As a result of the alienation from his mother, and drifting apart with Siksha, Vijay's family life with Mary suffers. He gradually becomes uncomfortable with his status as a crime don.
Kancha arranges a meeting with Vijay at Kancha's beachfront home. Vijay demands a piece of the action at Mandwa. Unaware of Vijay's identity, Kancha agrees with a warning to never try to cross Kancha. Vijay arrives in Mandwa (where Dinkar Rao is now the de facto mayor). Vijay stages a reverse controversy. He applies police pressure until Rao signs over the town deeds; Vijay immediately reveals this two-faced deal to the villagers who promptly lynch Rao. Vijay stands over a dying Rao and reveals his identity. Kancha arrives on the scene. It is revealed that Kancha's assistant Laila is the daughter of the prostitute used to frame Deenanath Chauhan and that Laila has always aspired revenge on Kancha. The cops show up (as planned by Vijay). Laila produces critical evidence (collected over her years with Kancha) whereupon the cops arrest Kancha as Vijay utters his tagline. Having thus accomplished his purpose, Vijay decides to retire from crime, returns to his mother and asks her to move back with him to a peaceful life in Mandwa.
In the meantime, Kancha pulls some strings and escapes from prison. Laila is gunned to death before she can give evidence. All of Vijay's trusted men are attacked and end up in the hospital. Taking advantage, Kancha moves to Mandwa, forcibly takes over the town, abducts Suhasini and Siksha, and has Krishnan shot by a drive-by shooter. Vijay reaches the town and is challenged by Kancha to save his family. Vijay runs through the flames to attack Kancha and is joined by Krishnan. After a long and violent battle, Kancha is killed and Vijay is mortally wounded. Vijay returns to his mother and recites, with his dying breath, the poem "Agneepath." Suhasini is mortified to understand why Vijay initially chose crime and why things came to such a pass to achieve redemption. The film ends with Vijay, now forgiven and redeemed, gently passing away in his mother's lap.
The film is said to have been inspired and based on the life of Mumbai underworld gangster and urban dacoit, Manya Surve.[3] It is believed that Bachchan watched his mannerisms and even attempted to mimic his voice as opposed to his famous baritone which the audiences loved. His change in voice might be one of the reasons the film didn't do too well as well as that this genre of an action-revenge film was different from the Masala (film genre) of the time period.
Remake of Agneepath is being Directed by Karan Johar's former assistant Karan Malhotra. It will reportedly be radically different from the original film. But the tagline-"Vijay Deenanath Chauhan, poora naam, baap ka naam Deenanath Chauhan, gaon Mandwa." remains the same. Hrithik Roshan will play the role that Amitabh Bachchan originally played. Priyanka Chopra will be the leading actress. The character played by Mithun Chakraborty has been totally done away with in the remake. The main villain will be played by Sanjay Dutt. It also involves Rishi Kapoor as "Rauf Lala" who plays another negative role in the remake. The remake is to be released in January 26, 2012. Karan Johar has signed Marathi composing brothers Ajay and Atul Gogavale to create compositions for his new-age remake of Agneepath. Ajay and Atul shot to fame with their Marathi compositions in Natarang and Hindi film Singham. “We wanted a sound that resonated what the composing maestros Laxmikant-Pyarelal had done in my father’s production of Agneepath.” said Johar.
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