The new Agneepath is a remake, it sticks to the old plot but the characterizations are what make it a new film that can stand in its own right. Add in a cast with 3 superstars, all of whom are actually very good actors and you have a blockbuster. In addition the cinematography takes your breath away and the dialogues are written with true to the style of each character. Rauf lala is crude, Kancha speaks a very pure hindi and hrithik speaks very little but says a lot through expressions.
I loved Rishi Kapoor. Saying he was brilliant is an understatement. He brings Rauf Lala to life, you hate him when he mercilessly sells young girls, asking lecherous men to increase the bid by using crude words. You feel at the age of 50+ he has a chance of winning a fight against a lean and angry Hrithik Roshan, you believe he is Rauf Lala and forget he was the chocolate boy of yesteryears, who looked oh! so sweet in Bobby.
Sanjay Dutt looked meancing enough to give nightmares to kid. As my hubby pointed out, Sanjay Dutt looked the way I imagined Voldermort would look like when I read Harry Potter. He looks, behaves and talks like a demented person. I would never have tried to fight him without a Mac 10 with automatic on (Hat tip to Burn Notice for making me notice there exists more than one type of gun!) The one thing I noticed was that he never ever used a single word of English! Some of his dialogues has me reading subtitles.
Hrithik Roshan is a superb actor and he proves it again in this movie, by being vulnerable Viju instead of the invincible (with help from krishnan iyer "yam" "ya") Vijay Dinanath Chauhan. His expressions convey his pain, desire for revenge, single mindedness to kill Kancha, his vulnerability and his love for his family. However, with his greek god looks and six pack abs, accepting him as someone who spent 15 years living in a slum, he just doesn't fit into the surroundings. Surprisingly, for a wanted guy, police have no photo/sketch of him after the age of 12. If I had seen him, I wouldn't have forgotten him!
Om puri has gotten lost somewhere, in Don - The chase begins he was as good as he ever was, Suddenly in Don 2 and now Agneepath, I just feel like he is saying dialogues by rote not bothering to act. Priyanka is superfluous and like Hrithik doesn't look like she has ever been in a chawl for a minute, let alone lived there all her life as her character has.
Comparisons are inevitable for a fan of the old Agneepath. I still like the old one better. The editing, if it had been tighter, would have made it impossible for me to pick a favorite.I would say go watch it once, it is a different movie from the old one. Fair warning though, this is an out and out revenge flick, where Viju will not stop at choosing wrong over right to reach his goal. Watch out for the blood and gore!
