I watched Sadak (1991) recently,
followed by Sadak 2 (2020). Sadak, directed by Mahesh Bhatt, was a super hit at
its time and is still remembered for its story and performances. Sanjay Dutt
played a legendary role of a taxi driver who goes on to save his girl, her role
played by Pooja Bhatt. Sadashiv Amrapurkar played an epic role of a dreaded
villain called ‘Maharani’ who was a eunuch and ran a brothel. After Pooja gets
sold to the brothel by her uncle to repay a loan, Ravi (Sanjay Dutt) falls in
love with her and tries to save her by taking her away on the run. But most
importantly, in the end, the couple unite after Ravi kills all the bad guys,
and hence the story becomes ‘happy ending’. Although I found the movie
involving too much violence and some not so logical moments, the happy ending
comforted me, and it felt like ‘worth spending the time’.
Sadak 2 is a sequel to the original
movie and it tells the story of Ravi (Sanjay Dutt) after he loses Pooja in a
road accident. Ravi is mentally disturbed and hallucinates where he talks to
Pooja and also sees her (even after she is dead). The story involves a theme of
“anti-superstition” or “anti-Godmen culture”. The main story is a complex one
which keeps the viewers involved for quite some time. Alia Bhatt plays the role
of the only daughter of a rich businessman, and she is trying to eradicate the
prevalence of “fake Gurus” who exploit people in the name of God. The reason for
her motivation being that her mother was killed by the aunt under the influence
of a Godman. In the end, the story turns upside down and hence it becomes a
thriller and full points to the movie for that. I am not revealing whole story
because it is a new movie and people should watch it.
I see a few incoherencies in the
movie and have my observations:
1. I think the movie should not have
been made as a “sequel” of original movie ‘Sadak’, but it should have been made
into a standalone movie and then it would have made much better sense. There is
no continuance of the original story line.
2. It was not necessary to show
Sanjay Dutt suffering from a mental illness. It was possible for him to hear
his own thoughts, instead of “seeing” or “hearing” Pooja even after she was
dead. Although the movie’s major theme is “anti-superstition” but Sanjay Dutt
keeps seeing Pooja Bhatt and it looks more like her ghost than a hallucination,
and hence is self-contradicting.
3. As per the prevailing trend of
Indian movie industry, Hinduism is singled out for showing most of the evil
things that happen in the name of God or religion. Although Sadak 2 avoids
showing saffron color and chooses black color as a theme which tries to tone
down its anti-Hinduism nature. But for a change, movie industry should also
make movies showing “fake Fakirs” or “fake Sufis” or “fake pastors”; instead of
making it “fake Gurus” which singles out Hinduism as a target.
4. Aditya Roy Kapur is an extremely
talented actor; and shows a wonderful “switch” from a hero to a villain in
Sadak2. But in the later part of the movie, his role is curtailed abruptly,
which is noticeable and hence not nice. For example, during the press
conference scene, when Alia says that evidence is in the form of Aditya Roy
Kapur, he is not shown speaking even a single word. It looks unnatural. In the
earlier part he played a much more prominent role.
5. Sanjay Dutt has played a very
realistic role of Ravi who is disillusioned after his wife’s death and finds no
purpose left for a living. He has experienced life, has achieved things but
when he loses the person connecting him to the world (his wife), and since he
has no kids, he finds no purpose in life and tries to commit suicide. That moment
in a way is prophetic. As a society we have to think of ways in which we should
avoid that situation.
Sanjay Dutt has played the best role
in the movie. Alia Bhatt is at her best too, even though her character was not
too strongly scripted. The villain “Guruji Gyan Prakash”’s role played by
Markand Deshpande is not so powerful, even though Markand Deshpande is a genius
actor, just because the character is taken straight out of evil Godmen shown in
second grade TV serials. I think Sadak 2 could have been a much better film if
it was made as a separate film instead of fitting it into a “sequel”. While the first part Sadak was a 'happy ending' story, the second part Sadak 2 has ruined everything: it shows that Pooja did not bear any child, dies in a road accident, Ravi suffers mental problems and in the end dies. This sad twist to everything is a grave injustice to the fans of original movie Sadak.
Overall, Sadak 2 is still a good film
which should be watched. And one should not get affected by political campaign
against the movie by certain social media influencers.
- Rahul Tiwary
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