If you're accustomed to the age, then you'll get the idea pretty easy. (Amitabh Bachchan) is an angry young man, lost from his mom, has a revenge to fulfill, loves a girl and sings for her, beats - at least - 5 men bigger than him, winning at the end on all the levels. I love that. The thing is how much entertainment it has every time. Accordingly, the amount of fun in (Nastik) is not that great. However, it has some after all.
The cinematography is good. Everyone along with everything looks special and elegant. The set of the village's villa is so strangely dazzling (looking borrowed from another movie). The mom's simple cottage is a sight that vanished utterly from today's commercial movies of Bollywood. It's only the James Bond-esquire lair, with henchmen wearing uniform, that bothered me! The action is well done. (Pramod Chakravorty)'s directing proved some energy and capability. The dialogue got many talented and memorable lines: "And that's how we steal the imported goods / What an imported idea!", "I don't drink, I just get drunk by watching my friend drinks!", and "Money can buy the bed, but not the sleep".
All the cast were their known characters back then; (Amitabh Bachchan); the tough suffering hero, (Hema Malini); the street hustler naughty girl, (Pran); the chivalrous friend (as in Zanjeer, 10 years earlier, with the same introducing fight), and (Amjad Khan); the evil guy you love to hate. On one hand, there is certain strength in every one of them to add absolute credibility to their roles, despite how bad the movie lacks it. And on the other, what a nostalgic feel that we have out of watching them together. Speaking about nostalgia, the songs have such a glamorous touch that I seriously miss. With (Kishore Kumar)'s unique voice, I recall older time in my life, charming time. Look at the sweetness of "Main Hoon Tere Saamne Tu Hai Mere" or "Why Are You So Sad", from one angle; it may be the best of this movie!
While it's outwardly mild, inwardly it is extremely usual and near to flimsy. The story got all the icons of the masala, which had been done close to perfect in (Amar Akbar Anthony - 1977), but with less twists, efforts and persuasion.
The whole story is a small replica of that world; a lost and found theme, a revenge with carrying out the justice lawlessly, a powerful evilness, the importance of being a believer, etc. But many points were so hastily made. And the rest overflowed ruinously with coincidences; at one sequence, the protagonist is beaten while seeing his long-lost mother and sister by accident, then he gets help by his antagonist's sister; who appears suddenly - in the same time and place - by accident, then his own sister goes to the doctor at night to be seen, by accident, by the same antagonist who gets turned on to chase her while meeting, by accident, her brother's friend who his sister was raped by the same antagonist??!! At that point, I came to believe that the world doesn't have humans unless the movie's characters! So we move in our seats, say: "Naaa!", criticize with half a smile: "Com'on, so far!", to nearly forgive it later. Somewhere among the shown colors, stars, music, we hide these objections, trying to enjoy ourselves as long as the movie pays off. Unfortunately (Nastik) doesn't pay off much.
The script expressed the meaning of faith through someone who lost it. Yet the conciliation at the end was the most naive; he prayed to his god, hence his sister was cured, so what if she wasn't cured?! But you won't find sophisticated vision about god and belief, or sophisticated anything, in a Bollywood's lala land, because it's the land of escapism and simplicity, and thank God that it has a meaning anyway; one about the importance of having faith.
It lacked the comedy. Neither the friendship between (Bachchan) and (Pran), nor the competition with (Malini) was used to produce laughs. They relied on (Deven Verma) as idiot man, and his Hitler-like father-in-law to fill up that area, but the results were unfunny. (Nalini Jaywant) didn't convince me as the mother, and not for reasons related to being wont to (Nirupa Roy), the age's familiar mom of (Amitabh Bachchan). Despite the cute presence, she delivered pale performance.
Particularly, I loved the scene of (Bachchan) and (Khan) at the yard while practicing shooting. It's the famous *threat* scene in every melodrama. We had it in numerous Egyptian movies during the 1940s and the 1950s. It's where the protagonist meets the antagonist face-to-face, each one menaces the other yet in a covered way, they pelt one another with very condensed, intimidating and sometimes very wise lines, while having tons of confidence. This is forever cool.
(Nastik) is between average and maybe weak. Even for someone who watches it to evoke the lovely past, resorting to safer place in time, nothing denies lacking excellence. But it's the mood of life to have the big B acting in usual movies. Naturally it's a market where the star always needs to be in the sky for all the time, even if stood in not too shiny corners.
It has nice shadows from nicer originals. Plus watch how (Bachchan) pushes (Khan) from 2 floors high, to land - both - unharmed in the name of having a good time. For me, as a huge fan of Bollywood classics, I like this. The problem though is that (Nastik) doesn't have a lot to make us like all of it.
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