| Maachis | |
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DVD cover for Maachis |
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| Directed by | Gulzar |
| Produced by | R.V. Pandit |
| Written by | Gulzar |
| Starring | Tabu Om Puri Chandrachur Singh Jimmy Shergill |
| Music by | Vishal Bhardwaj |
| Cinematography | Manmohan Singh (director) |
| Editing by | M. Ravi & Sadanand Shetty |
| Distributed by | Eros Entertainment |
| Release date(s) | 25 October 1996 |
| Running time | 168 minutes |
| Country | India |
| Language | Hindi |
| Budget | 9.26 crore |
Maachis (English: Matches) is a 1996 Indian Hindi film directed by Gulzar and produced by R. V. Pandit. The title of the film is used as a metaphor that conveys that the youth of any nation are matchsticks that could get ignited due to the deficiencies in the political and policing systems. The film portrays the circumstances surrounding the rise of the Sikh insurgency in Punjab in the 1980s and traces the transformation of a youth from a boy next door to a dreaded terrorist bent on wreaking vengeance.
Maachis tasted critical and commercial success. Gulzar's direction and the music of Vishal Bhardwaj were strong points. To this day, many numbers from the film, particularly "Chappa Chappa Charkha Chale" and "Chhod Aaye Hum Vo Galiyaan" can be heard playing on FM radio or TV channels. Bhardwaj went on to become a movie director and has directed movies such as Maqbool as well as the highly lauded Omkara. "Chhod Aaye Hum" was the first Hindi film song sung by the now famous Indian singer KK.
Maachis is a film about what atrocities can drive an ordinary human to do. It looks back at the Punjab problem and tries to figure out some of the root causes. It also warns that, in the future, there could be many more Punjabs burning and suffering for years.
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Following the assassination of Indira Gandhi, the Prime Minister of India, at the hands of her Sikh bodyguards, a wave of violence broke out against innocent Sikhs and their families. Pressure was brought on the police to bring the assassins and their allies to justice. The police, with their limited resources and lack of witnesses, brutally bring in innocent Sikh men and women and interrogate them with third-degree methods. This creates a wave of sympathy for the extremists, and more people start joining them to revolt against an oppressive regime.[1]
This story is of one such family, consisting of Veerandra (Tabu), her brother Jaswant Singh (Raj Zutshi), and their mother. One day Inspector Vohra (Kanwaljeet) comes to their house with a police escort to find the whereabouts of Jasjit (Jimmy Shergill). Jassi playfully introduces the police to his pet dog Jimmy and is taken away for questioning. He returns several days later, bleeding and badly wounded. Veerandra's boyfriend Kripal Singh or Pali (Chandrachur Singh) vows to avenge Jassi's beating and joins Commander (Kulbhushan Kharbanda) and Sanatan (Om Puri), both hardcore extremists.[2]
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