Some voices said that this was the last best thing we received from the first (Amitabh Bachchan), before the short retirement of the 1990s, and the chain of flops after, then the return with the white hair and the father role. Actually back then, in 1986, for most of us in Egypt, (Bachchan) wasn't the best of the Indian cinema, No, he was the Indian cinema, and to tell you the truth, most of his movies at the moment, for what they were, they were masterpieces.
Here, I just can't hold my admiration for this script; it was exceptional. It achieves all what the formula needs, sanely too. There were some action, clever melodrama, hot characters, and smart conflict between law and vigilantism. In fact, it doesn't complete without political satire. Yes, it's another revenge story to join the huge amount of Indian movies that deal with that, but it ranks respectfully on the top of the pyramid.
It's so touching and compact, however with some weak points: it was kind of vague did (Anupam Kher) involve in the crime of rape or not?, how (Bachchan) learned to be that genius planner as a criminal?, where is the train which was big part of the second assassination?, or how (Kher) speaks out the father's entire hidden history to his disguised son all at once so easily!, and the most serious of them all: (Bachchan), as the son, knew the awful truth near the end and, in despite of that, he continues guarding the one who rapped his mother and jailed wrongfully his father?? That was totally provocative and not convincing. Actually, that weakened the finale effect violently.
Moreover, the intro of (Vijay/Bachchan) where he smashes the doors by his feet, and hits the whole gang all by himself to witness them all fly by his fist saying: "I Hate Criminals!", it wasn't the intro of inspector Vijay, it was more like the intro of (Amitabh Bachchan)! Also (Anupam Kher)'s comic moments were unnecessary.
On the other hand, observe some intense scenes just like the first meeting between the father and his son in English (great stuff), some truly sensitive moment like the one in which the son removes sands over his mom's grave and wipes out her tears in the same time; what a wonderful moment of "cinema" that was. And the perfect flashbacks to regain the past and feel its domination.
(K. Bhagyaraja) was more brilliant as its writer more than its director. Certainly as the director he managed to make it nicely and sedately with prudent editing and big cadres to embody the mightiness of the events and the agony of the lead, but he lacked stronger force to push it higher as it missed some refulgence. For instance, he totally mastered the last meeting between the father and the son at the cemetery, before the climatic facing at the end, but maybe he didn't master the whole movie as distinguished as this. In brief, I felt that nearly everything was less skillful than the writing.
(Bachchan) pulled it off strongly through the 2 roles that he played. Though the movie provided him with 2 good characters, but he suffered from a bit of manipulation in the script that decreased some of the creditability. It's not the best of (Bachchan), but it's definitely one of the best scripts for a movie that he was in, and one of his best performances as a real actor. It remains as one movie with special sad personality amongst his entire legacy.
It wouldn't be fair to not mention its most memorable line, where (Bachchan) as the father came out of jail to discover that his friend, who let his son with to bring up as a criminal, brought him up as a police officer, he said in anguish: "I gave you a lamp to light up my life, and you burned me to light up yours!".
Even if you thought that you've seen it all before, and despite its own weakness, it is impressive work. Sometimes we're too shy to admit that melodrama works, but it does, and (Aakhree Raasta) is nearly a good example for that.
Here, I just can't hold my admiration for this script; it was exceptional. It achieves all what the formula needs, sanely too. There were some action, clever melodrama, hot characters, and smart conflict between law and vigilantism. In fact, it doesn't complete without political satire. Yes, it's another revenge story to join the huge amount of Indian movies that deal with that, but it ranks respectfully on the top of the pyramid.
It's so touching and compact, however with some weak points: it was kind of vague did (Anupam Kher) involve in the crime of rape or not?, how (Bachchan) learned to be that genius planner as a criminal?, where is the train which was big part of the second assassination?, or how (Kher) speaks out the father's entire hidden history to his disguised son all at once so easily!, and the most serious of them all: (Bachchan), as the son, knew the awful truth near the end and, in despite of that, he continues guarding the one who rapped his mother and jailed wrongfully his father?? That was totally provocative and not convincing. Actually, that weakened the finale effect violently.
Moreover, the intro of (Vijay/Bachchan) where he smashes the doors by his feet, and hits the whole gang all by himself to witness them all fly by his fist saying: "I Hate Criminals!", it wasn't the intro of inspector Vijay, it was more like the intro of (Amitabh Bachchan)! Also (Anupam Kher)'s comic moments were unnecessary.
On the other hand, observe some intense scenes just like the first meeting between the father and his son in English (great stuff), some truly sensitive moment like the one in which the son removes sands over his mom's grave and wipes out her tears in the same time; what a wonderful moment of "cinema" that was. And the perfect flashbacks to regain the past and feel its domination.
(K. Bhagyaraja) was more brilliant as its writer more than its director. Certainly as the director he managed to make it nicely and sedately with prudent editing and big cadres to embody the mightiness of the events and the agony of the lead, but he lacked stronger force to push it higher as it missed some refulgence. For instance, he totally mastered the last meeting between the father and the son at the cemetery, before the climatic facing at the end, but maybe he didn't master the whole movie as distinguished as this. In brief, I felt that nearly everything was less skillful than the writing.
(Bachchan) pulled it off strongly through the 2 roles that he played. Though the movie provided him with 2 good characters, but he suffered from a bit of manipulation in the script that decreased some of the creditability. It's not the best of (Bachchan), but it's definitely one of the best scripts for a movie that he was in, and one of his best performances as a real actor. It remains as one movie with special sad personality amongst his entire legacy.
It wouldn't be fair to not mention its most memorable line, where (Bachchan) as the father came out of jail to discover that his friend, who let his son with to bring up as a criminal, brought him up as a police officer, he said in anguish: "I gave you a lamp to light up my life, and you burned me to light up yours!".
Even if you thought that you've seen it all before, and despite its own weakness, it is impressive work. Sometimes we're too shy to admit that melodrama works, but it does, and (Aakhree Raasta) is nearly a good example for that.