Baazigar

1993 185’ col/scope Hindi d Abbas-Mastan pc Venus Records/United? Seven s Robin Bhatt, Akash Khurana, Javed Siddiqui lyr Nawab Arzoo, Gauhar Kanpuri, Rani Malik, Zameer Kazmi, Zafar Gorakhpuri, Dev Kohli c Thomas A. Xavier m Annu Malik, Shyam Surender lp Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol, Siddharth, Shilpa Shetty, Dalip Tahil, Johnny Lever, Raakhee, Anant Mahadevan

Ajay Sharma (Khan) becomes a ‘baazigar’, a gambler, in order to win over Priya (Kajol) and eventually to bring about the ruin of Priya’s father, Madan Chopra (Tahil). Previously, Chopra had similarly ruined Ajay’s father Vishwanath Sharma (Mahadevan) by appropriating Sharma’s industries and forcing Ajay’s family onto the streets. Ajay’s revenge consists of seducing Priya’s sister Seema (Shetty) and pushing her from a tall building. He then changes his identity and kills two more people while ingratiating himself into the Chopra household. In a violent ending Ajay dies in his mother’s (Raakhee) arms after he has killed Madan Chopra. The commercial hit inaugurates Shah Rukh Khan’s much-discussed playing of unusually vicious type of leading men (cf. Darr, 1993). Here, the depiction of his cold-blooded murder of Seema became especially controversial. Among the first of the several Khan-Kajol romances culminating in the smash hit Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995), the main bulk of the film features the fresh and spontaneous performances of these still-new stars in song hits such as Bazigar o bazigar and Yeh kali kali aankhen.

Film