Gupt
Director: Rajiv Rai
Music: Viju Shah, Lyrics: Anand Bakshi
Year: 1997
Running Time: 165 minutes
Like a lonely mockingbird, the film begins
with the mournful call of “Gupt, Gupt, Gupt” – but in fact it should have
warned us with “dumb, dumb, dumb”. While watching this one, it almost feels
as if your feet are trapped in their sheets and there is no way to free
them. It purports to be a murder mystery, but the only mystery is how could
such an idiotic script be written. It has more clichés than a passel
of Perry Mason shows with none of the fun. With 165 minutes of running
time there should be time to insert a few scenes that would make this film
a little more palatable – but the director seems to prefer endless scenes
of suspects being beaten up.
Bobby Deol runs into two new girls on the same
day at school. One is an old friend from his childhood, Kajol, and they
immediately get a hankering for one another. Then there is also Manisha
Koirala who sets her heart on Bobby as well and gets daddy to help out
by going to Bobby’s stepfather – who is the Governor of the province –
and asking for a marriage match. A short time later at a large function
the father announces the engagement – much to Bobby’s surprise. One might
have thought the stepfather might have mentioned this small matter to Bobby
in the meantime but he must have been too busy – but then the dramatic
scene that follows could not have occurred. Bobby blows up and threatens
the Governor and later that night the stepfather gets murdered.
There are loads of suspects, but Bobby is the
main one – especially as he of course walks in right after the murder and
puts his hands on the murder weapon – don’t people watch enough TV to know
not to do this. At his trial, his defense lawyer actually pleads to the
court that Bobby is guilty and should be punished – and no one seems to
find this a little irregular. I wonder if he still sent a bill. So up the
river Bobby goes where he beats up a few tough prisoners and the warden
before he escapes through the sewers. He hooks up with Kajol and starts
looking for the real killer. Subtlety is not his modus operandi as he basically
beats them up or drops them out of windows until he finally believes in
their innocence. Uproariously, they all end up in the hospital in beds
next to each other – yuck, yuck, yuck. The numbers of suspects dwindle
but Bobby still finds time to do a few dance numbers, as he remains one
step ahead of the law. Deol is unfortunately not very graceful in either
his dance routines or his action scenes and his curly unmanageable hair
has a distinctly annoying 70’s retro flavor to it.
Kajol is as good as she can be especially considering
the awful short skirts they put her in and Manisha looks a good deal more
plumper than she would a year later in the far superior film, Dil Se. There
are six songs but only the second one has much going for it. The others
are tepid though the last two have an interesting look to the sets and
cinematography.
My rating for this film: 4.0
Song
1
Song
2
Song
3