Sultanat

1986 153’ col/scope Hindi d/s Mukul S. Anand pc Kapleshwar Films, Arjun Hingorani dial Kadar Khan lyr Anjaan, Hasan Kamal c Pravin Bhatt m Kalyanji- Anandji lp Dharmendra, Sunny Deol, Amrish Puri, Sridevi, Shakti Kapoor, Tom Alter, Karan Kapoor, Dalip Tahil, Juhi Chawla, Padma Khanna

Spectacular Arabian Nights revenge fantasy set in a vaguely identifiable Middle East and deploying the exoticism associated with Spielberg’s adventure films. The shah’s General Khalid (Dharmendra) thwarts the coup for the throne attempted by Razaulli (Puri). Razaulli kidnaps Khalid and his pregnant wife on their way to the hospital. Khalid’s wife dies in childbirth and Razaulli proclaims Khalid’s son as his own, swapping the infant for his stillborn daughter. Khalid remarries and has another son, Samir (Karan Kapoor), whom he sends abroad vowing never to set eyes on him until Khalid has avenged the death of his first wife. Razaulli’s secretly adopted son Sultan (Deol) grows up and falls in love with the shah’s daughter, Princess Yasmin (Sridevi). In a complicated denouement, Khalid kills Razaulli and recalls Samir; Shakkir, an ambitious vassal, kills the shah and intercepts the returning Samir and emprisons him. Khalid is taken prisoner by Sultan and they engage in a bloody duel till Razaulli’s wife tells them that Khalid is Sultan’s real father. Khalid, Sultan and Samir then kill Shakkir. Only then can Khalid die in peace surrounded by his sons. Anand does not shrink from spectacular anachronisms which have become his trademark (cf. his Khuda Gawah, 1992), as he mixes contemporary scenes into this commercially unsuccessful period movie tale.

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