Gunda (film)

Infobox_Film
name=Gunda


caption = The movie poster for "Gunda".
imdb_id=0497915
writer=Bashir Babbar
starring=Mithun Chakraborty
Mukesh Rishi
Ishrat Ali
Shakti Kapoor
director=Kanti Shah
music=Anand Raj Anand |
distributor=Maruti Films
released= September 04,1998
runtime=129 min.
language=Hindi
Rating=A (Adult)
movie_series=
awards=
producer=Anil Shah
budget= Undisclosed

Gunda is a 1998 movie directed by the Kanti Shah, starring Mithun Chakraborty, Mukesh Rishi and Shakti Kapoor. It was produced by Anil Shah, written by Bashir Babbar, and the musical score was provided by Anand Raj Anand. Since its release, it has attained a cult follwing among pan-indian audience. [ [http://www.smso.net/Cult_film International cult cinema] ]

ynopsis

Gunda tells the story of an honest man who becomes the target of a dangerous gang lord, after inadvertently interfering in a mission. This leads to a cycle of retributive violence, as the young man seeks vengeance.

A gang war erupts between two rival gang leaders, Bulla (Mukesh Rishi) and Lambu Aatta (Ishrat Ali). Bulla's sister is killed by Lambu Aatta, but he is ultimately able to kill Lambu Aatta and win the war. Now the undisputed leader of the underworld, Bulla is hired by a corrupt politician Bachubhai Bhigona (Deepak Shirke) to murder his rival. Bulla sends his right hand man Kala Shetty (Rami Reddy) to do the job. Shetty successfully commits the murder, but as soon as he is able to outrun the police he is caught and turned over to the authorities by Shankar (Mithun Chakraborty). Here we are introduced to the protagonist who works as a coolie in a shipyard airport complex, he lives in relative comfort with his policeman father, his sister, Geeta, and a pet monkey called Tinku. Shankar also has a girlfriend named Ganga, who wants to get married to him as soon as possible but Shankar has bigger things to worry about.

Shankar further enrages Bulla by entering a fighting competition organized by Bulla at the shipyard. Shankar does not enter to win money or fame for himself, but only to win the money so that some other labourer can marry off his daughter. He manages to defeat Bulla's prize fighter by simply twisting his hand for a few seconds.

The animosity is raised a few notches when Shankar's father is beaten up by Bulla's goons when his father tries to stop the goons from collecting money from shopkeepers. Shankar reaches the scene and beats Bulla's men into pulp. Weapons are no use against Shankar, who fells the 250 pound goons who can jump 10 feet into the air with a single punch. However, he is forced to expend a bit more energy against the leader of the goons.

As revenge, one of Bulla's henchmen, Natte (shortie), abducts Shankar's sister, and molests her. However, she is saved by Gulshan, and she falls in love with Gulshan. This turns out to be a scheme by Bulla, as Gulshan marries Geeta and then hands her over to Chuttiya for his pleasure. Bulla gives Chuttiya 'Vitamin Sex', obtained from London, for him to overcome his impotency. However, Geeta dies while being molested by Chuttiya, and he disposes of the body in a jungle. Shankar's monkey, Tinku sees this and leads Shankar to Bulla's bungalow. Shankar chases Chuttiya to Bulla's doorstep, where he is confronted by Bulla and his henchmen Ibu Hatela (Harish Patel), Pote (Mohan Joshi) and Inspector Kale. Shankar swears revenge on them and goes his way.

When he learns of his daughter's death, Shankar's father goes mad with grief and threatens Inspector Kale who he blames for being a henchman for Bulla the gangster. After a brief struggle the inspector chokes the old man to death. Shankar meets Bulla and his henchmen and promises them that he will kill all of them in 10 days. On his way back, Shankar finds an abandoned baby girl child, and adopts her.

Shankar then goes on a rampage and starts killing all of Bullas accomplices one by one, starting with Gulshan. Next Shankar finds Ibu Hatela attempting to rape a girl, and kills him too. However, when he tries to assassinate the politician Bachubhai Bhigona, a sniper from another car kills Bhigona. Shankar is caught and charged for the murder, and is sentenced to life term in prison, all on the same day. Shankar escapes prison the same night, and goes after Inspector Kale. Kale and a contingent of about twenty white cars, whose drivers are Kung-fu trained weapon wielding goons, attack Shankar preemptively. To no ones surprise, Shankar defeats them and kills Kale. After this, Shankar goes after Chikna, who is employed by Bulla to lure village girls to the city and then force them into prostitution. In this iconic fight, cots are shown hanging from the roof at several heights, and Shankar piledrives goons into them one by one, while prostitues swing on the cots and stare in awe and amazement. Before killing Chikna, Shankar learns that the baby girl he adopted was in fact Bulla's illegitimate child, born from Haseena.

While Shankar hunts for Pote, Chuttiya and Bulla on the other hand kill his girlfriend Ganga. After killing Pote, Shankar kills Chuttiya, who had already prepared his deathbed in advance, leaving only Bulla.

In the climactic scene, Bulla and Shankar have a showdown in the shipyard airport complex. Bulla his backed up by several auto-rickshaws who run helter skelter and attack Shankar. Shankar is well prepared for this, and he takes out a grenade launcher and takes down the auto-rickshaws.

The action quickly switches to a coal mine, where Bulla tries to use the adopted baby which he thinks is Shankar's daughter to gain leverage in the fight. Soon Bulla realizes that the baby is his own, he still uses the baby as a shield, Shankar rescues the girl with the help of his monkey, Tinku and then kills Bulla.

Cast

* Mithun Chakraborty as Shankar
* Mukesh Rishi as Bulla
* Ishrat Ali as Lambu Atta
* Shakti Kapoor as Chuttiya
* Rami Reddy as Kala Shetty
* Harish Patel as Ibu Hatela
* Mohan Joshi as Pote
* Deepak Shirke as Politician Bachubhai Bhigona

Crew

* Producer: Anil Shah
* Director: Kanti Shah
* Screenplay: Bashir Babbar
* Music: Anand Raj Anand

Reception

Reviews

Ravi Balakrishnan of the Economic Times states "The Mithun Chakarborthy-starrer has gained a surprising amount of cult popularity over the last year and a half or so, with several adulatory reviews and even fan-sites cropping up. But when we first saw Gunda, back in 2005, a full seven years after its unheralded release in 1998, it was the first any of us had heard of the film or its prolific director, Kanti Shah." [ [http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/ET_Features/Special_Pages/Business_of_Bollywood/An_A_of_the_B-grade/articleshow/msid-2309167,curpg-1.cms An A of the B-grade] ] Mayank Shekhar of the Mumbai Mirror says that "Gladwell hasn’t seen Gunda (probably, neither have you). He must. He’d be glad. In my living memory, I have yet to notice a more startling revelation of the mysterious ‘tipping point’ anywhere of my social circle. Over the past few months, about four unrelated sources from three parts of the world have asked me if I’d seen Kanti Shah’s Gunda." [ [http://www.mumbaimirror.com/net/mmpaper.aspx?Page=article&sectid=42&contentid=2007101220071012024757843fb795204| Bulla, khullam khulla!] ] With over 1,200 votes cast as of April, 2008, Gunda has a rating of 8.3 on the website IMDB.

Controversy

On its release in 1998, the film had to be withdrawn from theaters due to complaints received by the Central Board of Film Certification from college girls who were appalled by the excessive violence, sex and obscenity in the film. The film had earlier been rejected by the Central Board for Film Certification due to use of filthy language and obscenity, it was later passed with an A certificate after the film makers made changes to the film. It was alleged that the version running in theaters prior to the withdrawal was the unedited print. [cite news|url=http://www.indianexpress.com/res/web/pIe/ie/daily/19980925/26851144.html|title=Mithun's Gunda goes off screens after protests |publisher=Indian Express|date=1998-09-24|accessdate=2008-04-18]

External links

* [http://www.mumbaimirror.com/net/mmpaper.aspx?Page=article&sectid=42&contentid=2007101220071012024757843fb795204 Bulla, khullam khulla!"]
* [http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/ET_Features/Special_Pages/Business_of_Bollywood/An_A_of_the_B-grade/articleshow/msid-2309167,curpg-1.cms An A of the B-grade"]
*

References