Mohra

Mohra

DVD cover
Directed by Rajiv Rai
Produced by Gulshan Rai
Written by Rajiv Rai
Shabbir Boxwala
Starring Naseeruddin Shah
Akshay Kumar
Suniel Shetty
Raveena Tandon
Paresh Rawal
Kulbhushan Kharbanda
Music by Viju Shah
Cinematography Damodar Naidu
Edited by Rajiv Rai
Distributed by Trimurti Films Pvt. Ltd.
Release dates
  • 1 July 1994 (1994-07-01)
Running time
 177 minutes
Country India
Language Hindi
Budget 7 crore
Box office 41.7 crore

Mohra (English: The pawn) is a 1994 bollywood, socio-political action thriller film directed by Rajiv Rai starring Naseeruddin Shah, Akshay Kumar, Sunil Shetty and Raveena Tandon in the lead roles while Paresh Rawal, Gulshan Grover, Raza Murad and Sadashiv Amrapurkar in supporting roles. The film was released on 1 July 1994 and went on to become the second highest grossing Indian film of 1994.[1][2] The film got 9 Filmfare nominations in 1995. It was the first time where the trio of Akshay Kumar, Sunil Shetty and Paresh Rawal worked together. Originally Divya Bharti was considered for the female lead and she also completed shooting for many scenes of the film, but after her death Raveena Tandon was roped into the project as her replacement. The film is especially remembered for its music which became chartbusters in that year. The popularity of the song "Tu Cheez Badi Hai Mast Mast", which was picturised on Raveena Tandon led to her being nicknamed "The mast mast girl".[3]

Plot

Vishal Agnihotri (Sunil Shetty), a convict, is imprisoned for the murder of a group of four criminals who had brutally raped and killed his sister-in-law. Vishal tries to get justice in court but is unsuccessful and the men are let out free with the help of a corrupt lawyer. They then visit Vishal's home for trying to file a case on them, and try to rape Vishal's wife Priya (Poonam Jhawer), but she kills herself with a knife. Angered at all this Vishal decides to take the matter into his own hands and murders the four criminals himself. He is sentenced for life in prison for the crimes.

Journalist Roma Singh (Raveena Tandon) visits the jail for a report she's writing, where a few of the convicts tris to rape her. It reminds Vishal of his misfortune. Vishal intervenes and saves Roma. Roma hears Vishal's story and decides to help free him. Her voice is heard out by a blind businessman - Mr Jindal (Naseeruddin Shah) who tries to recruit Vishal as a hitman. He wants Vishal to kill some anti-social elements in the city, mainly the two powerful drug lords Jibran (Raza Murad) and Tyson (Gulshan Grover) and all the people who work for them. He tells Vishal, that these people are responsible for creating people like the group of four men he killed in the first place, by bringing drugs to the streets and corrupting the locals. Vishal refuses at first as he has just got out of prison, and now wants to live a normal life. However, the memories of his murdered family comes back to haunt him as he spends a day alone in his home, and he agrees to work for Jindal. Inspector Sahoo (Paresh Rawal) is very greedy and he becomes informer of Jibraan. He tells all internal matters of police department in return of money.

Police Inspector Amar Saxena (Akshay Kumar) is unhappy about the release of Vishal who he believes deserves to be in prison because of the murders he committed. Things complicate even more when Amar finds Vishal around almost every murder scene of criminals involved in drug-trading, who Amar is trying to catch alive. Vishal goes on a murder spree, until he realizes that even the Commissioner (Sadashiv Amrapurkar) thinks that the unknown murderer is doing more help to the society than police could ever do. Vishal refuses to kill the Commissioner, but Jindal becomes angry. Vishal attacks Jindal with a paper-weight, but Jindal dodges it. Vishal then realizes that Jindal is not blind.

Jindal tells Vishal that Jibran and Tyson were his rivals. He also tells that he murdered his wife Pooja (Priya Tendulkar) & Inspector Karan Saxena (who happens to be Amar's father), to cover up the truth. He pretended to be blind to throw the police off his trail. Jindal, who has now partnered with Jibran, leaves Vishal to die. Vishal escaped, only to be confronted by Amar. Vishal subdues Amar & tells him the truth. Inspector Sahoo, who is brought to Jindal by Jibran to give important information about Vishal, tells him that Vishal is alive and will tell the entire truth to Amar and Commissioner by next morning. Then Jindal kidnaps Roma and kills his sub-editor Siddiqui who tries to save Roma. Amar, Vishal and Commissioner goes to Jindal's home to arrest him but they find the Sub-editor Siddiqui brutally murdered at his home. They come to know that Jindal has kidnapped Roma in order to forcefully marry her. Amar & Vishal find out Jindal's den with the help of Inspector Sahoo & corner him.

After a melee, Jibran is killed. Jindal tries to kill Amar, but Vishal takes the bullet on himself. Vishal dies in Amar's lap, upon which Amar kills Jindal and avenges the death of Vishal & his father.

Cast

Soundtrack

The music of the film was composed by Viju Shah, with lyrics by Anand Bakshi.[4] Mohra was one of the most successful soundtrack albums of the year, especially the song "Tu Cheez Badi Hai Mast". Initially, Viju Shah wanted Sapna Mukherjee to render "Tu Cheez Badi Hai Mast" but, on Rajiv Rai's insistence, opted for Kavita Krishnamurthy instead. The track is based on the popular qawwali "Dam Mast Qalandar" by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.[5] The album went to become second most sold of the year.[6]

Track list
#Title Singer(s)
1 "Tip Tip Barsa Paani" Alka Yagnik, Udit Narayan
2 "Aye Kaash Kaheen Aisa Hota" Kumar Sanu
3 "Main Cheez Badi Hoon Mast" Kavita Krishnamurthy
4 "Na Kajre Ki Dhar" Pankaj Udhas, Sadhana Sargam
5 "Na Kajre Ki Dhar (Part 1)" Pankaj Udhas
6 "Na Kajre Ki Dhar (Part 2)" Sadhana Sargam
7 "Subah Se Lekar" Sadhana Sargam, Udit Narayan
8 "Dil Har Koi" Kumar Sanu, Alka Yagnik
9 "Tu Cheez Badi Hai Mast Mast" Udit Narayan, Kavita Krishnamurthy

References

  1. ↑ Verma, Sukanya (9 March 2009). "Raveena Tandon, Mohra". Rediff.com. Retrieved 2009-10-10.
  2. ↑ "Box Office 1994". Boxofficindia.
  3. ↑ "Raveena: The mast mast girl!". Sify. Retrieved 07-04-2012. Check date values in: |access-date= (help)
  4. ↑ Bollywood Retrospect - The enduring lyrics of Anand Bakshi
  5. ↑ Amit Baruah, R. Padmanabhan. "The stilled voice". The Hindu, Frontline. Retrieved 6 September 1997. Check date values in: |access-date= (help)
  6. ↑ "Mohra second most sold music album of 1994". Retrieved 25 September 2012.

External links

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