manishrvce says:
Dilip Kumar is often referred to as Tragedy-King.However, he has displayed histronics in every type of role.In Mashaal as ANGRY OLD MAN he lights up the screen and makes the excellent movie a classic. The story involves Vinod Kumar(Dilip Kumar) who is a fearless journalist trying to clean the city of Bombay from crime.He resides in a chawl with his wife(Waheeda Rahman). There is a gang of goons who live by the street and proclaim it proudly in the song ''FOOTPATHON KE HUM...''(A sentiment echoed 10 years later in ''Yaaron Sun Lo Zara...'' from RANGEELA).The gang is headed by Raja(Anil Kapoor) who is a wayard guy and the rest of the gang comprises of Gulshan Grover and Madan Jain.Enter the bad men the Puri brothers with Vardhan(Amrish Puri) the chief and Tolaram(Madan Puri, Amrish's real life elder brother)as his assistant.What follows is a fight of good v/s evil but the story takes many interesting twists and aided by some great script and remarkable performances make it a worth watching movie. Yash Chopra is known mainly for his Switzerland based love stories but he did made some hard-hitting cinema like the trilogy of DEEWAR,KAALA PATTHAR and TRISHUL with Amitabh, Shashi Kapoor and SALIM-JAVED.In Mashaal Yash shows his class in handling such a intense movie.The direction is absolutely amazing.The backbone of the movie is a superb story,gripping screenplay and excellent dailogues by Javed Akhtar,who by now had split with Salim.The movie shows his ability to create ANGRY OLD MAN alongwith his trademark ANGRY YOUNG MAN.The dailogues whenever Dilip Kumar and Anil kapoor come face to face are brilliant.Mashaal remains one of the best movies written by Javed Akhtar after he broke away from Salim.Another high point of the movie is its excellent music.Hridyanath Mangeshkar has never been a big music composer but in Mashaal he gives a superb sound track.All the songs ''Footpathon ke hum...'',''Holi aayee..'' and ''Mujhe tum yaad..'' are very pleasant on the ears.The tunes are aided by some fabulous lyrics by Javed Akhtar who proves his ability as a lyricist also.However,the icing on the cake is the song ''Leeye sapne nigaahon mein...'' which opens infront of Bangalore's Vidhan Sabha.The song is excellently sung by Kishore Kumar and aided by some fantastic lyrics and melodious music make it one of the best songs ever picturised on Anil Kapoor.The echoes of the feeling conveyed in the song can be heard in ''Chaand Taare..'' from Yes Boss which incidentally was penned by Javed again. The film breaks many new grounds like working of press, the threat to fearless journalists from underworld,the life in slums,the lives of a gang of goons who are not that brute,changing of sides after the interval between the 2 male protagnists(there is even a mention of football match).The sets showing the slums are very real.The topic of a gang of goons wandering aimlessly came later in movies like Arjun(again written by Javed Akhtar) and Ankush.The slum life again came on the screen in underworld sagas like Angaar and Vaastav.It was much later that films on press like New Delhi,Surkhiyaan and Main Azaad Hoon came into light.Although the concept of male protagnists first appeared in Roti,Kapda aur Makaan, it was with Mashaal that it got famous and an entire movie called Lakshman Rekha was beased on the concept.The film does not have many light sequnces and people expecting over the top comedy will be disappointed.The character of Dimple Kapadia in Krantiveer where she portrays a journalist who wants to reform the society and stays in slums has strong shades of Dilip Kumar's role in the first half of this movie.Infact a few years ago a film called Laawaris(the one with Jackie and Akhsaye Khanna) was made which was a poor copy of Mashaal. Anil Kapoor as Raja delivers one of his best performances till date.In a role which initially was supposed to be written for Amitabh bachchan(evident from the language he uses)and first offered to Kamal Hasan,Anil shines throghout the movie.His honesty in his performance is so much present that u miss such honesty in his later films.Although,Anil later admitted of developing cold feet on the thought of acting opposite Dilip Kumar,he stands on his own very well in everyframe.It is said that a Feroze Khan and Subhash Ghai signed Anil for Jaanbaaz and Meri Jung respectively just after watching the movie's premiere. Infact Anil Kapoor somehow got trapped in a tapori image for a long-long time after Mashaal.His characters in Andar Bahar,Tezaab,Ram Lakhan to the recentnt dud-Rishtey all have shades of Raja of Mashaal.Anil Kapoor again worked with Dilip Kumar in the blockbuster KARMA.His other refined performance in a Javed Akhtar scripts are Meri Jung and the recent Armaan.Anil kapoor won his first Filmfare Award for Best Actor In A Supporting Role for Mashaal. Somehow I miss the Yash Chopra,Anil Kapoor and intensity of Javed Akhtar, the way they were in Mashaal. Waheeda Rahman as Dilip Kumar's wife gives a superb performance.It was after 16 years that she acted opposite the thespian the last being Aadmi(1968).Rati Aghinotri as Anil's love interest also gives a decent performance.Amrish Puri as the bad guy delievers another good performance. Incidentally,Amrish acted opposite Dilip Kumar in almost all his later movies where he played the Angry Old Man and puri the baddie.Vidhaata,Duniya,Shakti and Saudagar are other movies where both of them clash.The performances by Madan Puri,Gulshan Grover and Madan Jain are well enacted.Yash Chopra uses some great stage actors -Saaed Jaffery,Nilu Phule, Alok Nath and Mohan Agashe in this movie and extract some fine performances from them. Although when released in 1984 the film flopped but it was slowly and steadily that it became famous and acclaimed.Now thanks to several re-runs it enjoys a classic status. Last but not the least,Dilip Kumar delivers a knockout performance.From a fearless journalist to a man running a crime syndicate the legend shows amazing verstality in his performance.His eye expression,dailogue delivery and usage of hands makes this performance of his one of his best ever.Whenever we see any actor mimicking Dilip Kumar,most of the times they enact the sequence from this movie where he tries to stop car on the street hoping that someone might help his dying wife.That speaks volumes of the impact he made in that scene.A similar scene apperaed in Ghayal and later in the dud-Yaadein.Yash Chopra is said to have shot the entire scene in 4 nights on Bombay streets and according to him the thespian maintained the same emotional graph throghout all 4 days. ABSOLUTELY AMAZING DEDICATION!!