Vinod Khanna amazes in Feroz Khan's epic. Review on Dayavan

Vinod Khanna was once considered as a top star in Hindi cinema.Infact he was the

media's blue-eyed man against the superstar Bachchan in late 70's.However a shocking decision

by Khanna to leave the filmdom and join Osho's ashram left the dream unfulfilled.However after

a 5-6 years gap when Khanna made a comeback with 2 back to back hits Insaaf and Satyamev

Jayate,both released in 1987 he did prove his point.Following these 2 movies came this movie

with his friend Feroz Khan.Needless to say that despite not being a hit Davayan has Vinod Khanaa

in his best ever performance and is brilliantly directed by Feroz Khan.

Shakti Velu is a young boy who lives with his father.However his father is

brutally murdered and he escapes and takes refuge in a benevolent fisherman Rahim Chacha's

home(Alok Nath).Shakti grows up to become a young man(Vinod Khanna) who is strong and

fearless.His friend Raja(Feroz Khan) is a man who is always fascinated by the rich people and

their lifestyle.While Shakti is a shy, introvert guy,Raja is an extrovert who plans to make fast

money.A cruel police officer(Amrish Puri) is a nuisance to the poor fishermen and their families.

He molests the women,torture the men and even forcefully breaks their huts.He also takes Shakti

into prison and beats him black and blue.Shakti somehow controls his anger.However he is devastated

when he captures Rahim Chacha and kills him in the prison.Shakti goes mad and murders him.The

people of the locality support him and he becomes Dayavan-or the man with a kind heart.

Shakti falls in love with a young prostitude(Madhuri Dixit) and later marries him.He experiences

love for the first time in his life and loves his wife very much.Life goes on and they are blessed

with a son and a daughter.During this time Shakti becomes the uncrowned king of the Bombay

underworld.In this way he makes many enemies.they join hands and try to kill him but end up

killing his wife.Raja eliminates them in rage making Shakti the most powerful man in Bombay.

Years pass on and Shakti and Raja grow old while Shakti's children turn young.Shakti's son

tries to step in his dad's shoes by doing a crime but ends up getting killed by the police.Now

Shakti is left alone with his daughter Charu(Amala) and Raja.Charu comes to know the reality

of her father's deeds and leaves his home.She in turn marries a police officer(Aditya Panscholi),

whose main objective is to put Shakti behind bars.He succeeds in doing so but due to lack of

evidence and witness Shakti is released only to be killed by the mentally retarded son of the

police officer(Tinu Anand).

After making crime thrillers like Apradh(read my review titled Feroz Khan shines as a

star and filmmaker),Dharmatama-which was based on The Godfather and the biggest of them

all Qurbaani,Feroz hit aa rough patch as Jaanbaaz despite having an excellent music track

failed to match the success of his earlier movies.In order to recreate the magic Feroz made

the most intense movie of his carrier-Dayavan.The movie was a remake of Tamil classic

Nayakan directed by Mani Rathnam and had Kamal Hassan in the lead.Without going over

the top I must say that Feroz Khan made a superb remake of a classic movie.It is very difficult

to make a good remake of a good movie and Khan deserves full credit for handling a subject

which was so different from his style of cinema.

However the highlight of the movie is Vinod Khanna.With due respect to Kamal Hassan I must

say that Vinpd lived the role of Shakti to perfection and gave one of the best performances

of a man caught in the web of crime.His diction,accent and typical Tamilian behaviour

and look deserves a pat on the back of both Vinod himself and Feroz Khan.An amazingly

made and acted remake.