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Afterthoughts
This movie had a lot of powerful moments in it. Kajol of course came across very convincing in her dual role. Sonia and Naina are believably different people, and not just in the "one's a tomboy, one's not" sort of way. Also, the transformation that Naina goes through to become the confident and aggressive person she needs to be in order to deal with her threat is compelling and also believable. She doesn't turn into some super tough "Sarah Connor" type in a matter of a few training sessions. The subtle differences if one looks closely are well done. When she is confronting Gokul at her house she looks determined, but also frightened. The main difference being that before, she lacked any form of control over her fears. In the final showdown she still looks scared, but not to the point of becoming a whimpering victim. Instead she uses the adrenaline to give her strength. Perhaps I'm reading too much into this, but that's the way I saw it.
Sanjay Dutt was more likeable in this role than he was in Khal Nayak. He's a hardass, but you can tell he does what he's doing in order to toughen Naina up. As for his role being "dynamic" as the credits proclaim, I'm not sure that's how I'd describe it. I've seen three of his movies so far, and in comparison to his role in those films this one is indeed pretty different. Perhaps that's what they were referring to. Still, he does a good job.
Ashutosh Rana. Man, what can I say about this guy? I have made comparisons to Nana Patekar in Agni Sakshi, but really they are different types of psychos. Where Nana possessed an understated quiet kind of madness, Ashutosh is very blatant and overt in his mental illness. While he does exhibit some level of planning and calculation in his "selection process," when he's faced with his prey his calm demeanor breaks down and the excitement takes over. This guy is really good at making creepy faces. Overall he was a "good" villain in that he does make you hate his guts, and hope like mad that he doesn't do anything worse than what he's done already.
Aside from some minor technical details, this was a well-done movie that I enjoyed. It certainly holds your attention and draws an emotional response out of the viewer. Poor Kajol went through a lot during this movie, and delivered a great performance.
Negatives:
This movie is pretty violent. Perhaps what I've been watching were all "PG" style movies up to this point, but this one has a lot of things in it that I'm not used to seeing in Bollywood movies.
There are a lot of scenes where women are getting brutalized. We get good looks at the abuse of at least three women (well two, if you don't count Sonia and Naina as separate), and that just didn't sit well with me. It did sell Gokul as being a major threat though.
Positives:
Good music! Not all standouts, but there were some fun ones. "Tuna Tuna" in particular was enjoyable.
Nice special effects work. The scenes featuring both Sonia and Naina were well done. In a lot of these movies the digital effects are easy to spot, but here they're handled well and had only minor problems.
The characters were believable and convincing. All of the players did a good job.
Kajol really stood out in this one for me. I've seen her in a lot of movies now, and this one stands out from the rest as it required quite a range for her to cover. She does a great job.
For this film I'll use "Hair Injury Aamir" as my unit of measurement. I saw this guy in one of the hospital scenes, and his bandage cracked me up.
Dushman (1998)
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