Ajay Devgan shines yet again. Review on Deewangee

''Expect The Unexpected''-thus read the poster of this 2002 hit.2002 will go down in history as an exception year in the film carrier of Ajay Devgan.Leaving a disastrous ''Hum Kisi Se Kum nahin'' - Ajay

redefined all parameters of conventional Hindi cinema.The year 2001 was a low year for the deadly Devgan as his dual role potboiler-Yeh Raaste Hai Pyaar Ke bombed and although his cameo in Lajja got him rave reviews yet the movie flopped at the ticket window.

However in 2002 starting with Company Devgan went on a all time high.His carrier graph is still on a high almost 2 years later.While Company and The Legend Of Bhagat Singh both him immense critical acclaim yet while Company was an average grosser Bhagat Singh had flopped.So Devgan needed a hit in the year to prove that he still had star power besides being an ace actor.Deewangee provided him with that and he was universally accepted as one of the finest actors.

Tarang Bhardawaj(Ajay Devgan) is caught red-handed with the body of a music company tycoon Ashwin Mehta(Vijendra Ghatge).Although his clothes are blood stained yet he pleads innocence.His body language suggests that he has been framed in the murder. His childhood friend Sargam (Urmila Matondkar) believes him as she knows that Tarang cant even kill an animal. She asks her fiancee Raj Goyal (Akshaye Khanna) to fight the case.

The young lawyer takes up the challenge and fights for Tarang.With the aid of a psychatarist(Seema Biswas) he comes to know that Tarang is a victim of multiple personality disorder.He succeeds in proving Tarang innocent.

However he does not know what is about to follow.

This in a nut-shell is the story of Deewangee.The script written by director and writer Anees Bazmee has its first half borrowed from the Hollywood thriller ''Primal Fear''.The second half has shades of Darr but it is the N.Chandra directed-Wajood which is clearly visible in the second half of Deewangee.

The item program towards the climax,the plot to trap the obsessed lover by a dance from the heroine is straight from Wajood. The difference being that Wajood was a bit too dark and a flop and Deewangee was thrilling and a Hit. To be fair to Bazmee the script is rather good and the movie is well paced. Although the second half has a slow pace and it even drags at time yet the movie overall is kept interesting. Bazmee who had earlier directed Ajay Devgan in the flop Hulchul and the hit Pyaar To Hona Hi Tha was not really a big name before Deewangee.However his direction of the movie is good within commercial parameters.

When released in mid 2002 Deewangee got rave reviews from all sections of the press.The critics finally gave Devgan the due he deserved.However somehow I managed to watch Lucknow with my grandparents and some family friends in end of 2002 in almost an empty balcony in Lucknow (it was after 10 weeks of its release). Although we loved the first half, I was terribly disappointed by the second half.Most of us thought that the end could have been trimmed by 20 minutes to make it a better movie. Deewangee is a rare movie which really grew on me. Although I have not seen the movie for second time but I do always watch some portions specially of the second half whenever it is shown on satellite television. Now I can safely say taht I really like the movie.The cinematography is decent.The music is ok.2 songs ''Pyaar se Pyaare.. '' and the climax song''Yeh Dhol to hai..'' are hummable.

Deewangee was released just few weeks after Abbas Mustan thriller Humraaz was declared a hit.In that movie Akshaye Khanna had played a mean character effortlessly. In that sense his role in Deewangee was very challenging.Moreover it is generally seen that when there are 2 heroes and one has a strong negative role the positive guy usually gets the brickbats.Examples are Sunny Deol in Darr,Jackie Shroff in AgniSaakshi and to an extent even Bobby Deol in Humraaz.But I must say that

Akshaye Khanna bravely breaks this recent tradition and proves that if the role is well defined even the postiver character can act well and match the negative role.His performance is really good and it shows his maturity as an actor. Full points for the writer and director for having given him a

well written role. His changed look with a different crop of hair than that of Humraaz makes him look damn smart as well.He excels in the court scenes as well as the scenes with Ajay Devgan.

This was a hit Urmila desperately needed for a long time.This was her third film with Ajay and surprisingly both the earlier movies Kanoon and Bedardi were duds.She looks ok and gives a decent performance in a role which has strong shades of Juhi Chawla's role of Darr and madhuri Dikshit's

role in Wajood.

Needless to say the show belongs to Ajay Devgan. From an anti-hero in Company, Ajay transforms himself to a complex negative role. His character is an obsessive lover,a psycho killer,a plotter,a vulnerable man, a simple musician all rolled in one.His performance has the polish which even his earlier great performance in Zakhm lacked.The way he transforms from a stammering guilty man to a devil is amazing. During the awards function Ajay Devgan had 2 nominations for the Best Actor-Company

and The Legend Of Bhagat Singh and one best villain-Deewangee. He created a record of sorts when he won the critics award Filmfare for the best actor. The award was shared by Ajay Devgan for Company and Ajay Devgan for Bhagat Singh!!!!He further created a stir when he won the best villain

award as well for Deewangee. Years ago when Shahrukh had become popular both as a psycho killer-Baazigar and Darr and a lover boy-DDLJ an Dil To Pagal hai, when the promos of Duplicate were being aired, I thought that Shahrukh would sweep both the best villain as well as the best actor for it.

However nothing of that sort happened although he won the best actor for Kuch Kuch Hota Hai-1998. Earlier when SRK had won become the first actor to win 2 awards Best Actor popular-Baazigar and Best Actor critics-Kabhi Haan Kabhi Na, I had wished that someone would repeat it by winning 2 awards the same night. 1 year before Hrithik did that this year for winning both popular and critics for Koi Mil Gaya,Ajay did that by winning 2 awards-though it must be mentioned that like Aamir Khan he also does not believe in them and so was not present at the awards function. His villany in Deewangee had just

one competition and that was from Akshaye Khanna in Humraaz.Now in 2004 he has gone from a being a negative character who is partly justified in Deewangee to a complete black villain with no reason of being bad(I hope one understands the difference in the 2) in Khakee(read my review for Khakee). When Shahrukh had gone on a high doing negative roles he had arrogantly remarked ''Everyone can do negative roles,but the point is that can anyone do it as well as me''. I guess Ajay has proved him wrong. For those of you who do not know Ajay Devgan was offered the negative role of Darr after Aamir Khan was removed from it.

However Ajay did not accept it and the offer fell on Shahrukh's lap.Now with Deewangee Devgan kind of had a sweet revenge by playing a negative role and getting acclaim as well as box office success for it.

The movie also is the first popular Hindi movie to have dealt with Multiple Presonality Disorder. Conventional mentally disturbed heroes have been part of Bollywood since ages and even Ajay did one in the huge hit Dilwale (it was a much bigger hit than Deewangee).