The Back-Benchers' Blog

A few quick words about this concept. Eminent material scientist, photographer, blogger Charudatta Galande and yours truly would be writing this fortnightly series on the superhits and super-duper-hits of Bollywood in late 80s and early 90s. Hence the name, “Old wine in a new glass”. The first of the series is the 1989 multi-starrer Tridev.

Staring at the face of changing global order after the much awaited fall of USSR, Mandal commission and soon-to-be inevitable globalization, Bollywood, much like the rest of India, was singing in unison, “I want to break free”. Everything seemed either gloomy and boring or simply disastrous. In politics there was V.P.Singh. On TV you could only watch Doordarshan. In cricket there were Sanjay Manjrekar and Ravi Shastri. With an exception of Shehenshah, erstwhile superstar Amitabh had produced flops like Toofan, Batwara, Main Azaad Hoon , Azaad, Gangaa Jamunaa Saraswathi, Aakhree Raasta handing him the risk of fading into oblivion. Bollywood needed a break, a break from Amitabh, a break from Dharmendra’s Kutte, Kamine, main tera khoon pee jaunga and a break from Chandi ki cycle sone ki seat. The world around was changing. Post-modernism was the mainstream stuff now but bollywood was still tied by the old strings. It needed a reboot and people needed entertainment.

In 1989, Tridev was released.

Tridev was a rage. It was a truly come-one-come-all movie. Iss story mein action hai, emotion hai, drama hai, tragedy hai.

And with all that Tridev is a perfect milestone for bollywood. It is that milestone where bollywood carried it’s past with it and also took a jump forward. The part where it carries the past of bollywood is it’s plot. Tridev builds on a theme that’s predominantly popular in Indian cinema since pre-vedic times – revenge. And the part where it takes a jump forward is the multi-starrer aspect coupled with it’s whacky music which came as a welcome relief from the stuff that happened in 80s.

There are innumerable aspects in which Tridev is awesomemost. It’s simple, straightforward and brutal. There are no subtleties, nuances and all that jazz that hounded the contemporary western cinema during those times. Tridev occurs in three states of the world -

1) Emotion- Someone’s dying, someone’s crying.
2) Songs – This is the only time when our heroes can romance. Barring this, no heroes spare any time for love. Cause is more important.
3) If any scene doesn’t fall in the above two states then by default you’re in this case. ACTION. Someone’s beating someone up.

In Tridev, there are three kinds of guys – the good guys, the bad guys and the bad guys who turn into good guys.

The cinematic genius of Rajiv Rai, THE director, lies in the fact that the transition from one state to another is almost never abrupt. Before the start of every song some character would say the first line of the song as part of his dialogue and then the song would kick in. For example, take the lead-up to the song Main teri mohabbat mein.

Jackie Shroff – Mere khayal se mujhe yahan se foot lena chahiye, jab sabhi log mujhe nafrat ki nazar se dekh rahe hai, warna main pagal ho jaunga.Jackie leaves.
Sunny Deol – Tumhe kaise lagta hai?
Madhuri – Kiss bare mein?
Sunny – Pagal woh nahi main ho jaunga. Mujhe to aisa lagta hai, tumhe kaisa lagta hai? (winks)

Next – Sunny and Madhuri at an undisclosed location, hugging each other singing – Main Teri Mohabbat mein pagal ho jaunga, mujhe aisa lagta hai tumhe kaisa lagta hai?

Tridev starts off with the plot right from the first scene. No messing around. In the very first scene Amrish Puri (Bhujang), the scoundrel of bollywood, would declare his jung against the people of India. In a typical Shivraj Patil (the ex-home(?) minister of the UPA) style he says, “Hum iss desh mein aisi atank macha denge ki yahan ke logon ko har din apne zindagi ka aakhri din lage”. Barring this one incident, Bhujang would be referred to as a traitor, a deshdrohi but not once does anyone care to explain what exactly was he doing against the nation.

Rest of the stuff happens exactly as you would expect leaving no scope for surprises. Sunny Deol takes the bad guys on. He beats guys, is falsely implicated in a case by Bhujang with the help of a certain Ramesh for wrongly arresting Mr.Don with smuggling charges. Mr.Don is acquitted as court finds Mr.Don innocent. Ramesh (the bad guy who turns into a good guy) repents for his deeds and apologises. Therefore, he is killed. Then Sunny Deol’s dad is killed. Then his would be father-in-law, Anupam Kher-a police commissioner, breaks his engagement with his daughter Madhuri Dixit and sends him to some non-descript village. There he meets Naseeruddin Shah. Naseeruddin is the Robin Hood of the village and Sunny bhai misunderstands him to be a goon. They fight. Sunny arrests him. Then Naseer tells him his dard bhari kahani of his patriot father and the price he paid for his honesty when he got killed by Daku Bhairav Singh = Bhujang. Then they become friends. This happens in their first meeting.

That night, there’s an assassination attempt on Sunny Deol. Expectedly, Sunny escapes.

Tridev leaves many questions open for interpretations and that’s where lies the power of artistic cinema. Otherwise, how could you explain the fact that nobody bothers to find the dead body of Sunny Deol and he is assumed to have died in the fire staged by Bhujang and his cohort? To tell that he would resurface from ashes needs no expert. But what’s amazing is he does so in disguise so as to keep the news of his miraculous escape a secret. And here’s the disguise -

Shall we congratulate the makeup-man for this outstanding disguise? Needless to say, Naseeruddin Shah fails to recognize him even after talking to him twice in his new form, in spite of the fact that they both have the same voice. And it’s that Naseeruddin Shah who leaves his village for he can not bear the pains of witnessing his friend’s (Sunny Deol) death at the hands of those evil men. A friend whom he had met exactly once before he died.

There’s a parallel story too. Madhuri Dixit (Sunny’s fiancé) is kidnapped by Bhujang and to free her they demand release of a certain gang-member. The honest and dedicated commissioner Anupam Kher refuses to release her. Big Brother Jackie gets pissed. And you don’t mess with him when he is pissed. He takes a helicopter and flies to jail. Takes Bhujang’s man in the helicopter and delivers him to Bhujang. Pissed off by the ineffectiveness of law he joins Bhujang’s gang. But he is still the guy of type 1 – good guy. He joins Bhujang only to kill them from inside. There he meets Sangeeta Bijlani, Ramesh’s sister (remember Don, coincidentally that guy was also called Ramesh), who’s joined Bhujang to seek revenge. Love happens. How? Because Jackie saves her ijjat when she is being manhandled by one of the gangmembers. That she could expect any other treatment from those civilised and cultured men after performing a harmless cabaret for them with lyrics like “Raat bhar jaam se jaam takrayega” is a bit surprising to say the least but then, that’s Tridev.

In case you’ve missed/forgotten Gali gali mein phirta hun then you’re missing out on something. This is not just a video of a song, it’s a concept, a complete must watch. Pay special attention to the police inspector. What’s more amazing about the inspector is that he is always in a police uniform. Even while enjoying the company of a dozen buxom ladies in Bhujang’s den he does not let go of his “vardi”.

Shekhar Suman, the man who broke the shackles of bollywood by his splendid “performance” with Rekha in Utsav was a part of this epic just fits the whole scheme. The chusa hua aam look that the soon-to-be-comedian carries in the film bewilders anyone especially if one associates him with Movers and Shakers and Dekh Bhai Dekh. He plays a cameo of an honest journalist unearthing the dirty nexus between politicians and mafia. Needless to say, he’s taken care of very soon.

Finally, Naseer (who had left his village as a protest against the death of his friend Sunny Deol) lands up in Bombay. He can’t remain single. So he falls in love with an actress whom he had met in his village and shot “Oye Oye”. Her father (Raza Murad) is a corrupt politician, a part of Bhujang’s gang. He becomes a good guy in the last scene. Meanwhile, paths cross. Tridevs meet each other. Naseer discovers that Bhairav Singh of yesterday is the Bhujang of today. Badle ki aag ignites. A lot of fighting takes place. And at last, all is well.

But the true winner in Tridev is or are the villains. Those big bad ba***ds you rarely get to see these days. Now, you’ve those sophisticated villains who have some good side to them. Gone are the days of those evil men whom you would have desperately wanted to beat up as a kid should you ever meet them in flesh. So was the case for me with Amrish Puri. And that’s why when I saw him (in the very first scene) I knew that I was in for something special and you bet, I wasn’t disappointed.

What are today’s villains in comparison with our beloved Mogambo? Look at him and you get a feeling of a treacherous scoundrel who deserves the severest of all punishments. Look at that inspector Suraj Singh enjoying Bijlani’s item number with such divine expressions.

For all these things, the beautiful simplistic things of the past, Tridev is nothing short of an epic. A movie that faced tensions from one side yelling “I want to break free” and the other holding it back with the revenge clad plots of the 70s and 80s, the multi-starrer brings in a completely new flavour with new music, new heroes and a whole new concept of a multi-star action films packed in the good-old revenge formula. For all those of you who grew up in the 80s and 90s, Tridev’s a must watch again. At least for the sake of the best bad guy of bollywood – Amrish Puri, if not for anyone else.