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Deepa Deosthalee
One person's `dream' could actually turn out to be a harrowing nightmare for others. Take Hindustan Ki Kasam, for instance. Now, Veeru Devgan -- the greatest `patriot' after Manoj Kumar, if his film is anything to go by -- may have sincerely believed his effort would spark off a new era for Indo-Pak relations, therefore making it a historical event.
As it happens, despite all the avowedly noble intentions, his approach to spreading this message of `brotherhood across boundaries' is totally baffling, to say the least. To begin with, the film has no semblance of coherence -- hard to stomach the fact that people were actually fighting to stake their claim on this ludicrous script!
Characters flit in and out of the frame as and when they please and screech excessively theatrical speeches extolling the glory of the great Indian nation. Whatever their desired effect, these ramblings only make you weep at the fate of this `evolved' brand of cinema, which merrily allows filmmakers to parade mindlessjingoism for patriotic fervour and sacrifice logic and reason in favour of so-called popular appeal.
Anyway, apart from the thematic (?) inconsistencies, there lies the small matter of all those shoddy special effects what is this new fixation with men leaping off airplanes and engaging in mid-air fist-fights ? As an added bonus you have the hero jumping off bridges, maneuvering helicopters like he were playing some fancy video game and even riding his motorbike through the air over long distances (to impress his lady-love, it seems). Now, can we have our sanity back please? Your are told that Ajay (Ajay Devgan) is a writer who has weird dreams (which is where he gets his stories from). The Indian Army captures him because he is believed to be the Pakistani spy who kills Indian soldiers and informers. Kabir (Amitabh Bachchan), the grand old man of the freedom movement (you actually see him and Ajay's father pledging their lives to Subhash Bose, who eagerly takes them in his fold -- long live Forrest Gump)and the '71 war fame, rescues him each time. Eventually Ajay finds out he has a twin who's committing all the sins he dreams of. (Since this is a patriotic film, instead of the customary fair, the two children had apparently been separated during a war.) Anyway, Ajay sets off in search of his brother Raju (Ajay Devgan) who is now called Tauhid and lives in Pakistan. He's a hired killer for `forces' some non-specific foreigner blaring instructions to stooges on both sides of the border who want to keep the rift between India and Pakistan intact. The plot meanders some more before Tauhid suddenly acquires a conscience and, along with his brother, saves the Pakistani PM's (Pramod Moutho trying to pass off as Nawaz Sharif) life. Since it is easiest to enumerate the positive points of HKK, let us stick to just that. Well, ummm, let's see. There are a couple of impassioned monologues from Bachchan, a thrilling stunt or two from Ajay Devgan, and that's about it. No point discussing Sukhwindara Singh's music --all the songs sound the same. Bijon Dasgupta's sets are a throwback to the 1970s. As for the two leading ladies -- for your information, that's Manisha Koirala and Sushmita Sen -- since the director didn't care to even give them half-way decent roles, we shouldn't waste our breath talking about them. In fact, that could be said for all of HKK. Make sure to carry a pillow and a pair of ear-buds in case you're planning to watch it.
Director: Veeru Devgan
Showing at: Novelty
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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