Director: Mukul S. Anand; Writer: Ravi Kapoor, Mohan Kaul; Producer: Romesh Sharma; Cinematographer: W.B. Rao; Editor: Kuldip K. Mehan; Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Kimi Katkar, Rajnikant, Anupam Kher, Danny Denzongpa, Kader Khan, Govinda, Deepa Sahi, Shilpa Shirodkar, Romesh Sharma, Annu Kapoor
Summary: Beginning with silhouetted scenes (cf. Sam
Fuller’s Underworld USA, 1960) in the Bombay
dockyards recalling Deewar (1975) and
ending with the star’s bloodshot eyes
advancing towards the quivering villain,
Mukul Anand’s hit provides a lexicon of
Bachchanalia. Tiger (Bachchan), a petty
collector of protection money, changes sides
when his friend Gonsalves (Sharma) leads the
exploited dockers against Mr Big, Bakhtawar
(Denzongpa). The perfidious Inspector
Giridhar (Kher) and his sidekick (Kapoor)
manipulate the bloody confrontations so that
Bakhtawar is jailed for Gonsalves’ murder, his
family is exterminated and Tiger, together
with his two brothers (Rajnikant and Govinda)
and their families, is banished from the city.
Years later, after idyllic family scenes and a
complicated plot involving high-level scams in
the Indian Army, the Bachchan clan has to go
into action against a bunch of terrorists in
pseudo-hippy costumes and equipped with an
assortment of armaments. The high point of
the film, refurbishing an ageing Bachchan
image, is the big musical number Jumma
chumma (taken from Mori Kante’s Akwaba
Beach album) with Kimi Katkar performing in
a bar filled with sweaty, beer-swilling and
foot-stomping dockers whose collective
ejaculation takes the form of spraying the star
with whatever liquid is available. The scene is
repeated, as the gang-rape connotations are
replaced by those of movie-star mania, when
Katkar becomes a star and both she and
Bachchan are mobbed by crazed fans. The
film received an unprecedented saturation
release in over 400 cinemas.
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