Sadak (1991)

One thing i've noticed about Mahesh Bhatt's earlier films is how tightly scripted they usually are, most times his films eliminate unnecessary dross or comic side plots and just keep their basic plot. This is one such film with great performances, good songs and a hilarious Hijra you don't want to mess with

Ravi (Sanjay Dutt) is a hard working taxi driver who's deeply traumatised by his sister Roopa's death. He hopes to catch the person responsible for her death

He meets Pooja (Pooja Bhatt) and he falls for her at first sight, their love is threatened when Pooja's uncle sells her off to a pimp called Mahurani

Mahurani is one Hijra or the closest description i could find for a Hijra this side of the world would be a Transgender but you can read more on Hijra's here) you don't want to mess with, he/she has his own personal hairstylist and manicurist and he makes "Top whores" out of innocent young girls

'Fierce Maharani'


Poor Pooja had been pawned to him as her uncle couldn't pay back what he owed Maharani

When Ravi learns of it he tries to buy Pooja out but Maharani is suspicious of his intentions and he holds his friend Gotya (Deepak Tijori) as guarantee

After he returns her to the brothel, he starts making plans to get her out again, this time Maharani gets suspicious and demands he does whatever he wants to do with her in the brothel. Ravi forces his way out of Maharani's brothel with Pooja

Ravi gets Inspector Irani (Pankak Dheer) involved letting him know about his and Pooja's escape from Maharani's brothel, unknown to them is the fact that inspector Irani works closely with Maharani

Will they be able to escape Maharani's evil tactics? What evil tricks will Maharani does he have up his/her sleeve?


Overall Sadak was an entertaining watch as i've noted the film is well paced and tightly scripted with no room for silly comic side plots, the only funnies (sic) came in the form of the villain Maharani's antics


the super fierce Maharani
Sadashiv Amrapurkar as Maharani steals the show, his hijra act was so camp, over the top and ridiculous. From the way he twirls his hair and flirts ridiculously while carrying or about to carry out treacherous acts, Maharani has to be one of the funniest villains of all time in bollywood. he won the filmfare best villain award for his performance and rightfully so, he deserved it. See him in action here at around the 2:15 mark


Great passionate performance from Sanjay Dutt and in fact one does really get the impression that had he not gone to jail or not had any legal troubles he would have been one of the top actors of the 90's


Pooja Bhatt is the perfect damsel in distress and she plays it to a T, the look on her face when she's taken to Maharani's brothel is priceless, she genuinely looks scared of him


And oh yes we have heard countlessly about Bob christo & Tom Alter but i had never heard of another token white villain by the name of Gavin Packard until when i saw him in this, like Bob Christo he was mostly the villains henchman in '90s bollywood films, his imdb page lists him in over 50 movies. I have no idea where he is from and there's hardly any information on him so if anyone knows much about him please leave me a comment

Gavin packard as the token gori villain 'ggrrrrr'


Great songs from Nadeem -Shravan, these guys totally owned '90's hindi film music most of my favourite '90's tunes are from them. The soundtrack to this is a winner as well with ballads such as 'Zamaane ke dekhen hai' the breezy 'hum tere bin' the earworm worthy 'Dhin dhin tak' the sensual Tumhe apna banane and then my favourite the happy clappy and well choreographed 'rehne ko' which just makes you want to get up and do the dance moves



Total Score: 7/10 ( fast paced love story action drama (yes in that order)