Shakti is one of the best films of Amitabh Bachchan. Unfortunately it was not a hit and didn't run well. Anyway, in Bollywood history good cinema's hardly run well at BO. Thats the standard of intellect audiences we have who would rather prefer seeing mindless movies like Chennai Express. Those days also audiences were same. They haven't matured. But thanks to some of few good film industry people who defy odds and are there to make good movies for the little percentage of intellectual audience. Shakti had all great performers and very good drama, emotions and storyline.
Re: Shakti is definitely a classic
by Raj on Aug 23, 2013 11:18 PM
Due to Laawaris it didn't get enough hall and later on Namak Hall relaese hampered it run. overall hit in Mumbai avg elsewhere.
By late 70's, AB was mostly repeating himself. His films, characters and dialogs lost the surprise elements like Don's Khaike Paan dance, or in Deewar's Dockyard fight or Antony Gonsalves' happy-go-lucky flair. Shakti was an example of one such film. Hardly anyone could have played Ashwini Kumar or Vijay better - but stills fall short - probably because the script writers strayed from the storyline to center the narrative around Dilip Kumar and Amitabh Bachchan. A malaise that would come to haunt AB thru the 80's until he simply stopped delivering in the BO and had to go onto enforced hiberation for a long time thru the 90s'.
Re: Boring movie
by Kamal B on Aug 23, 2013 03:31 PM
it is easy to criticize 1982 movie in 2013 since time has changed. generation has changed. Vijay singing Khaike paan was different. Anthony GOnsalves was different. One can not expect Vijaykumar doing 'khaike paan' in this kind of movie..
Re: Re: Boring movie
by G R on Aug 24, 2013 07:55 AM
But, that is the point. Times changed - AB's film's scripts & his characters hardly did.. Compare the 80's Angry Young Inspector Anant Welankar's (Ardh Satya) character to 70's Inspector Vijay (Zanjeer).
Re: Boring movie
by Partha Mukherjee on Aug 24, 2013 01:14 PM
Agree with your views, GR. In the 80s and 90s, Bachchan's films offered nothing new - except in a few stray cases. Still we went on seeing them because of his charisma and lack of other options. I feel that only after the turn of the millineum he did some meaningful roles in Black, Sarkar etc.
Hi Sukanya I dont watch because, still i cannot bear to see Amitabh Bachchan dying in old films :)
I was school going when i watched SHAKTI and hence i knew these are all make believe .... but no help .. still the lump in my throat ....
I am a firm believer that the new generation does not have a sense of what is real/authentic/substantial ... because they have grown up in remix ages ..... so no wonder looking at all these comments about SHAKTI.
someone talked about entertaining value not being there .... that is right ... there was no munni/sheila item numbers ....
I am a bengali and hence even if i annoy others, I take the stand that I am a better movie critic than others :) So, i was surprised to see few bong's also saying they did not like SHAKTI...
Re: I don't watch SHAKTI
by Kamal B on Aug 23, 2013 01:37 PM
I fully agree with your comments. I watched Shakti when I was 12 and then again I watched it twice. Both Dilip Kumar and Amitabh were good. Ramesh Sippy's direction was even better thn Chopra's Deewar. Nice songs and Background score by R D Burman.
Re: Re: I don't watch SHAKTI
by Kamal B on Aug 23, 2013 01:50 PM
Deewar and Shakti have similar story lines but yet they are so different. Shakti is fairly consistent with the storyline. Deewar has some avoidable songs. The romance between Ravi and his girl friend distracts you from the story.
This movie was a super flop.A highly boring movie with no entertaining value at all.Amitabh fans were very disappointed to see him wasted in the movie.Amitabh got a secondary role with no punch lines.He lookd tired and jaded.It was said that Amitabh's role was cut to avoid him overshadowing Dilip Kumar. The end result was that Shakti turned out a lousy movie and flopped at box office.Dilip Kumar looked stiff like a cardboard and ensured the failure of movie.Highly avoidable movie.Salim Javed and Ramesh Sippy failed to deliver.
Re: Re: A super flop Movie
by Kamal B on Aug 23, 2013 01:52 PM
Dilip Kumar period was not over u m0r0n. In 1981 he gave superhit Kranti and in 1982 he gave Vidhaata which was another hit.
Re: A super flop Movie
by Sumit Ganguly on Aug 23, 2013 10:44 AM
While you are entitled to your views this forum is certainly not about hit or flop.It is being considered as classic irrespective of its commercial aspects. Although it may not have performed well at the Box office I regard it as one of the finest film ever made where you had legends like Dilip Kumar, Amitabh Bachchan, Ashok Kumar together with a reputed sensitive Director presenting a great story with class.
Re: A super flop Movie
by anand potdar on Aug 23, 2013 10:48 AM
Not a smart piece of comment at all. Its okay you have fallen out of favour with the movie.But "Shakti" is a gem of a cinema which displayed excellent performances from the entire cast. Yes , it looked like a semi zerox of Deewar and other Salim Javed prodigies but as far as the acting part is concerned the new bees of the industry should have an imperative watch.
Re: Re: Re: A super flop Movie
by Sumit Ganguly on Aug 23, 2013 11:14 AM
Farz and (?) Aur Kanoon not today not ever (less than one in a crore chance) will ever be reviewed by Sukanya Verma or any critic for that matter ,as Classic and I hope you understand the difference between a Hit and a classic. It may have similar theme but the difference lies in the class of writers, actors and director. You are most welcome to start a similar forum of so called HIT but horribly bad movies, with details of daily, weekly ,monthly collections.
Re: Re: Re: Re: A super flop Movie
by Kamal B on Aug 23, 2013 01:27 PM
may be Aneesh was addicted to crapps like Farz and Kanoon and Chennai Express kind of movies. ignore this m0r0n.
Nice piece, but you missed one great performer in this article. The very first star of Indian cinema ... Ashok Kumar as commissioner of police and Ashwani Kumar's boss. No other movie can claim to have such huge star cast. Four leading men, who ruled Bollywood for decades at some stage in their life. I rate this as best Ramesh Sippy film. Sholay is classic but this one is a masterpiece!
Re: Re: Good piece
by Kamal B on Aug 23, 2013 02:25 PM
hahaha... negative comments published by rediff to increased HITs.. now we got it.. m0dertat0r mudderfckerr... carry on u bstarrd
Re: Re: Good piece
by Pat Thakur on Aug 23, 2013 02:28 PM
You should have watched Jeetendra movies (made in south) with Bappi Lahiri music if u wanted entertaining value. Shakti was not ur cup of tea.
