Gupt: The Hidden Truth (1997)

While 60's bollywood is arguably the best decade for suspense thrillers, the other decades seemed to come up short on them, Gupt: The Hidden Truth which was released in 1997 is one of the very few decent suspense thrillers the '90's gave

Sahil (Bobby Deol) & Isha ( Kajol) are childhood friends who meet each other after a long time apart in college

Sheetal (Manisha Koirala) another girl in their college also meets Sahil and takes a liking to him, she tells her father Mr Chaudhury (Dalip Tahil) who then tells Sahil's step father Mr Sinha (Raj Babbar) Mr Sinha accepts and the marriage between the two are planned

Gorgeous Sheetal

On Sahil's birthday Mr Sinha makes the announcement that Sahil will be married to Sheetal, Sahil is displeased with this decision saying Isha is his true love, he accuses his step father of not wanting him to marry Isha because she is his secretary Mr Diwan's (Paresh Rawal) daughter

Isha with her father Mr Diwan

During the arguement between the two Sahil picks up a knife threatening to kill his stepfather

A few days later his step father is mysteriously stabbed to death, Sahil happens to arrive at the crime scene just after the stab (i think we all know where this is leading) he sees a chain which has been left by the killer, he is caught at the scene and accused of killing his step father

Sahil is accused by witnesses of killing his father by witnesses present at his birtday party arguement with his father. He is sentenced to 14 years in Jail, before he leaves he gives Sheetal the necklace he found at the crime scene, hoping it will someday lead him to the murderer


While in Jail he learns of an escape route through the drains, after escaping he starts plotting and pieceing together clues that might lead him to his father's murderer, he goes after the witnesses who accused him of killing his father, also after him is a determined police officer Udham Singh (Om Puri)

Isha on the other hand soon starts getting jealous of Sheetal and her ever increasing closeness to Sahil, thus commences a love triangle slash suspense thriller, Will Sahil ever find out the murderers of his step father? Will he be able to prove himself innocent? Will Sheetal's love for Sahil prevail over Isha's love?

My thoughts on Gupt is Superb Action Thriller with a dash of romance, and great songs.It kept me at the edge of my seat and i enjoyed the suspense.

Manisha was subtle and sweet in her role as Sheetal, i love how she displays some Animalistic type of attractions towards Sahil

grrrrrrrrrrrrrr...........

This is my first proper Bobby Deol movie where i got to see him play a lead role, i loved his enthusiastic performance as the angry young man out to find his step father's murderers


Kajol gives a great performance as well, i recommend you watch this if you're a big Kajol fan, she was so sweet but yet very possessive when it came to her man


The music by Viju Shah is excellent, they all had a very poppy vibe about them my favourites are the breezy 'mere khwabon mein tu' & 'duniya haseeno ka mela' the dancey 'mushkil bada yeh pyaar hai' and the amazing title track 'Gupt Gupt' (see below) filmed with James bond type dancing silhouettes




Total score: 7/10 (Superb Action Thriller)

Bombay (1995)

Bombay is a 1995 tamil film dubbed later dubbed in Hindi, as such i can claim its perhaps my first Tamil film. The film garnered lots of critical acclaim and won several awards including the Filmfare Best Critics film award


Shekhar (Arvind Swamy) returns home from Bombay to his hometown, upon his arrival he comes across Shaila Bano ( Manisha Koirala), Shekhar falls in love instantly


Shaila Bano is reluctant but she eventually falls for him, (now as we all know in Bollywood there has to be an obstacle in the path of the lovers, in this case Shaila Bano is Muslim and Shekhar is Hindu). Trouble arises when Shekhar goes to ask for Shaila Bano's hand for marriage, her parents threaten him and his parents make their discontent known as well


Shekhar returns to Bombay without Shaila Bano, but he keeps in touch with her through letters delivered to her secretly by her friend, eventually she escapes from her village and she joins Shekhar in Bombay, they eventually give birth to twins Kabir Natrayan and Kamal Basheer each bearing elements of their parents religions in their names


During the riots following a religious clash between Hindu's and Muslims the kids get sepearted from their parents and are taken into hostage by gang leaders who douse the kids in petrol and threaten to burn them alive

Will they be saved in time? Will Shekhar and Shaila Bano's parents ever get reconciled with their children? How will Shekhar and Shailo Bano's marriage be able able to cope in the midst of all the religious clashes? Watch Bombay for these answers

I really enjoyed Bombay and i have it down as one of my favourites, i love the chemisrty between Manisha and Arvind, and i really like the way their romance was balanced with the political commentary of the film. Religious intolerance is something i've heard of so many times and see on the news, but in Bombay particularly the scene captured in the last screen cap above really brought home to me the harshness and reality of religious differences.

The cinematography is excellent and the riot scenes are outstanding, i found myself clenching my sofa seats, it felt as if i was right there in the midst of the chaos. At the heart of Bombay's message is peace and unity regardless of our religious background, while its a great message the cynic/pessimist side of me thinks this is an impossible feat as we live in a fallen world. However applause to Mani Ratnam for his effort and for adding his dimension on the issue of religious divide

The music of Bombay is one of my favourite soundtracks EVER and is my best A.R. Rahman work so FAR, (the background score from the movie has even been featured in the hollywood film 'Lord of war' and has been used in a number of foreign adverts and has been sampled by german band Lowenherz). The music ranges from the wonderful ballad Tu Hi Re, to the very poppy and dancey 'Humma' see below



to the heart melting Kehna hi kya, this song really makes me all warm and excited on my insides, the music of Bombay is utterly fabulous

Manisha and the dancers in Kehna hi kya




Total Score: 8/10