Thikana (1987)

Ahh poor 80's bollywood, its always getting all the knacks for being the worst decade, personally and i've heard this feeling echoed elsewhere as well, its the 90's i would describe as the worst decade and not the 80's. This is one of my favourite Anil Kapoor films, this film proves if there's anyone who can match Amitabh Bachchan in the angry young man stakes or should i say give him a run for his money its Anil Kapoor

Kamla who is politician Rane MP's (Avtar Gill) keep appoints Avinash (Madan Jain) a young photographer to plant a video camera in her bedroom in order to capture her affair with Mr Rane M.P who refuses her to date anyone else, she hopes the tape would help her blackmail him so he would get off her back



When Rane comes over for his usual lovemaking sessions with Kamla he finds out about her lover Bhaskar, he murders her out of jealousy, unknown to him is the fact that the video tape has captured his wicked deeds



Avinash gets the tape and intends to make an expose but the newspaper is owned by Rane MP, Avinash manages to escape with the tape & Rane MP's men give chase, he manages to ring his sister Shaila (Amrita Singh) alerting her about the sticky situation he's in



The next day when he dosen't turn up for a court trial, Shaila is worried and is on the lookout for a lawyer, alcoholic and slacker lawyer Ravi Goel (Anil Kapoor) is recommended to her, but he's too much of a lazy sod to be up for the challenge



His sister Shashi (Smita Patil) is the breadwinner of the family and dotes on him way too much,
when their mother (Rohini Hattangadi) finds a gynaecologist's card in her wallet, she becomes suspicious of her and soon learns that Shashi had an abortion



Ravi finds out from her fiancee Ranbir Singh (Suresh Oberoi) that Shashi had aborted her babies just so she can have enough money to feed and cater for her family, Ravi become's overwhelmed with guilt, he smartens up and decides to clean up his act, he accepts his first proper case from Shaila regarding her brother Avinash's safety from Rane MP, his petition for Avinash's protection is rejected on the basis of Rane MP being a respectable officer


Ravi is eager to get to the bottom of the case, he starts getting threats and attacks from Rane MP's men urging him to back off the case, Ravi is so relentless that he almost gets framed for a murder committed by someone else


Anwar (Anupam kher) a police officer who's racked by enormous guilt arranges to meet up with Ravi, he reveals details about Avinash's death and how Ranbir whom Avinash had come to for help had killed Ranbir for threatening to expose Rane MP



Ravi is now caught between handing over his sister's future husband to punishment and getting Shaila justice ? What will he decide on? Will Rane MP be brought to justice? Will he tell Shashi that her would be husband is a murderer? Will Avinash's tape which contains the proof be found?


I don't really understand what Film Noir means but i've heard many refer to this film as film noir, asides from it being a very interesting drama slash cum thriller what impressed me most were the characters, they all had an edge to them and seemed very real. We have a heroine who asks for it and has one night stands, a sister who has premarital sex and even aborts her baby several times, a greedy mother who betrays the trust of her kids, and a mother daughter conflict


that even culminates into a fight ( the first mother/daughter fight i've ever seen in hindi cinema) all this happens without someone dropping dead or meeting some ill fate as is usually the case in some bollywood films

Great direction from Mahesh Bhatt, i'm always impressed by his movies ( all the one i've seen so far at least) the movie moves at a steady pace and allows no room for silliness, the film closes in at just about 2hrs 15mins


Passionate performance from Anil Kapoor, this ranks as one of my all time favourite Anil Kapoor films, the rest of the cast are great too

the film was dedicated to Smita Patil and as usual what a performance, there's something so intense about her, this film made me realise how much i love her and how i need to see more of her work



Excellent music by Kalyanji Ananadji makes this movie even closer to my heart there's the reflective ballad 'aasman ho chhat meri' the flamenco style 'bachaana dil bachaana' and my two favourite numbers are the smoochy 'Ajnabi koi kabhie'



and the beautiful 'Thoda sanam Thodi Khushi'




Paisa Vasool rating: 8/10

Thikana is available in 12 parts on Youtube with English Subtitles