Introduction
Movies on reincarnation have been quite successful in India in the past. Rakesh Roshan seems to have made reincarnation of some sort his USP. Karan Arjun is no different.

The

Plot
Arjun (Shahrukh) and Karan (Salman) are two youngsters who live happily with their mother Durga (Rakhee). Their uncle Thakur Durjan Singh (Amrish Puri) kills their father and is baying for their blood to sieze hold of their ancestral property. One day he succeeds to kill of Karan and Arjun and siezes the property. Durga is distraught but feels that her sons will come back in some way or other.

The two sons are reborn as Ajay (Salman) and Vijay ( Shahrukh. Ajay becomes a freelance fighter to earn money whereas Vijay is adopted by a stable owner and grows up amongst the horses. Vijay falls in love with Sonia (Kajol) and Bindiya (Mamta Kulkarni) is madly in love with Ajay.

Then the twists start coming, Ajay is employed as Sonia’s bodyguard. In the course of his duty he lands up a fight with Vijay and somewhere in the middle of the fight, Ajay suddenly feels compassion for Vijay and let’s him run away.

Vijay is also surprised but is unsure of this as well as the nightmares he usually gets in the night. Things start clearing up when Durjan Singh re-enters the scene. He happens to be a friend of Saxena (Ranjeet) father of Sonia. He wants Sonia to marry his own son and Saxena is only too eager. They leave for Durjan Singh’s village.

As soon as Vijay hears of this he follows and suddenly starts recognizing the place and also notices that people look at him in a strange manner as if they already know him.

What happens next? Is this reincarnation? Will Karan and Arjun be avenged? Check this Rakesh Roshan offering for the details.

Critic’s Viewpoint
Released in 1995 Karan Arjun came at a time when the careers of Shahrukh and Salman were both on the uptrend. Shahrukh was reaching out to stake a claim for the numero uno throne vacated by the great Amitabh Bachchan whereas Salman was getting rave acclaims in his new macho look and feel after shedding the lover boy tag.

Rakesh Roshan is one of India’s top notch producers. He seems to relish the reincarnation theory with the main characters coming back from dead in his other movies as well like Khoon bhari maang and Koyla.

Although the story is pretty far fetched one, the slick direction and fast pace keeps the audiences on the edge of their seats. Also the revealation of the past has been disclosed in a very intuitive manner to give the script the melodrama and the entertainment value.

Acting wise Shahrukh and Salman have come up with brilliant performances. Shahrukh in a role that has shades of playfulness, pain and tragedy has given another good performance. Salman’s role as a very silent guy believing in more action than words has come out very strongly in this movie. Also the bulging muscles of salman were open to the public for the first time and he did knock over a lot of female fans with his macho looks.

Kajol is an amazing actresses. Her screen presence in the movie is enormous and she dominates the scenes that she is in with her usual peppiness. She is adorable in this movie. Unfortunately, Mamta Kulkarni has a minor role and does not get to do much. Rakhee as the mother of Karan Arjun is at her teary best.

Johnny Lever and Ashok Saraf provide for some lighter moments in the movie with decent comedy.

Music of Karan Arjun
Rajesh Roshan has been a mystery of a music director. When he composes music for his brother Rakesh Roshan the tunes seem to be fantastic, but as soon as he moves over to any other director, he seems to flounder. Karan Arjun represents another fine album conjured by Rajesh for Rakesh.

The album begins with the fresh and lively Suraj kab door gagan se which is an affectionate song. The song has been sung by Kumar Sanu, Udit Narayan and Alka Yagnik and has been beautifully filmed on Salman and Shahrukh. The mustard field setting for the song looks brilliant.

Then we move on the titillating love song Jaati hun main sung by Alka Yagnik and Kumar Sanu and filmed on Kajol and Shahrukh. The duo show that they have chemistry not only while acting but even while dancing.

Bhangda Pa le and Gupchup Gupchup represented the mandatory Punjabi song and Rajasthani song which was in vogue at that time.

The music of Jai Maa Kaali is very haunting and full of drums to suit the situation. The rest of the album is passable. All in all it was quite a decent album.

Awards
Although Karan Arjun was a major hit, it came up in the golden year of hindi cinema which was going great guns with massive hits like DDLJ and Rangeela. So all that Karan Arjun managed was a couple of technical awards.

Best Action Director - Bhiku Verma
Best Editing - Sanjay Verma

Summary
Karan Arjun turned out to become a major hit establishing Rakesh Roshan as a top producer-director as also pushing the duo of Salman and Shahrukh up in the rat race for the super star status.

I would give this movie a 4 starrer as a complete entertainer more than anything.

Plot Revealed In The Review:	Somewhat revealed
Best to watch with:	Family
Movie Genre:	No Comment
Best part in the movie:	No Comment