Not so hard hitting. Review on Apharan

Movie: Apaharan

Leading Cast: Ajay Devgan, Bipasha Basu, Nana Patekar

Director: Praksh Jha

Plot:

Apaharan is a tale about the kidnappings in Bihar. It talks about Ajay Shastri(Ajay Devgan) who gets lured into the world of crime. Ajay is just another common man who is making his living by selling ayurvedic medicines. He has a dream of making it into the police force. However despite his numerous attempts he fails to get into the training (thanks to the corrupted officers). He even tries to make his way into the police training academy by shelling out a few bucks, but the idealisms followed by his father again make this attempt fail. Now, Ajay is in trouble, as he has to return the money back that he took from some lender. To return the money, Ajay along with his bunch of friends decide to kidnap a businessman for some gang. However the businessman being a loyalist of another gang that does major kidnappings in Bihar this attempt too fails. Ajay is put behind bars which makes him more disgusted towards the current system. He also loses his girlfriend (Bipasha Basu) in this process.

On the other hand we have an influential polotician Tabrez Alam (Nana Patekar)who runs an undercover kidnapping racket with the help of his henchman Gaya (Yashpal Sharma). The businessman who was kidnapped by Ajay belonged to this gang. Hence Gaya stops the kidnapping and puts Ajay behind the bars where he humilates him. This circumstances make Ajay to take law in his own hands and he himself goes on a kidnapping spree by killing Gaya and joining Tabrez. After this the film continues at a slow pace in 'Company' style showing all the nuances created by Ajay and his gang. But the ending is not at all dramatic and could have been better.

Performances:

Nana Patekar as we all know is a very talented actor. Here too he delivers his performance with utmost perfection. He creates an impact with is witty 'Bihari' style dialogues and delivers sharp performances as a shrewd politician. Here is an actor who can do any role given to him without leaving any gap for mistakes.

Ajay Devgan although does not speak much throughout the movie is really a delight to watch. His style of walking, looking and fighting is what sets him apart from other actors. Although this is not one of his best performances he delivers quite well.

Bipasha Basu is too limited to comment about.

The rest of the cast delivers an OK performance, especially Yashpal Sharma as Gaya and Mukesh Tiwari as the Inspector.

Altough there are no songs in the movie, the movie drags a bit at some places. The background score is good. The movie could have been much shorter than the current run time. However the scenes between Ajay and Nana are what keep you glued to the seat. The scenes sure are a treat to watch out for.

Prakash Jha, in the recent past has come up with really hard hitting films with realistic tales. He has already proved his talent as a director. Here too he has come up with a hard hitting subject. It is the pace at which the movie moves that is disappointing. Also the story line is somewhat what we have seen in 'Company' and 'Satya'.

Definitely worth watching it once but if you expect it to be like ''Gangajal'' you might be disappointed.