# Bardaasht

Bardaasht (transl. Tolerance) is a 2004 Indian Hindi-language vigilante action-thriller film produced by Vijay Galani and directed by Eeshwar Nivas. It is based on the screenplay written by Vikram Bhatt. The film stars Bobby Deol, Lara Dutta, Ritesh Deshmukh, Tara Sharma, and Rahul Dev, with Vishwajeet Pradhan, Ganesh Yadav, Nagesh Bhonsle, Shivaji Satam, and Virendra Saxena in important supporting roles. The film focuses on the issue of police brutality.

## Plot

Aditya Shrivastava (Bobby Deol) is a court martialled army officer. He has a brother, Anuj Shrivastava (Ritesh Deshmukh). Anuj gets angry at Aditya one day and runs away. Corrupt ACP Yashwant Thakur (Rahul Dev) helps Aditya find Anuj and later tells him that Anuj was killed in an encounter.
Aditya reads a police report which states that Anuj was running away with drugs and was shot dead on the spot. Aditya can't quite believe this, so he investigates it. He later meets Anuj's traumatised girlfriend Ramona (Tara Sharma), who reveals that ACP Yashwant Thakur and his two other police officers brutally killed Anuj for no apparent reason and lied to cover it up.
Aditya wants to take the matter to court and chooses Payal (Lara Dutta) as his lawyer. However, after losing the case, Aditya decides to take matters into his own hands by holding and torturing the three captives until they confess their crime. He is successful and, having secretly recorded this evidence, shows it to the police commissioner; thus avenging his brother's death as the culprits are arrested. The last scene shows Aditya performing the final rites of Anuj.

## Cast

* Bobby Deol as Major Aditya Shrivastava (ex-army officer)
* Lara Dutta as Payal Lawyer, Aditya's fiance
* Riteish Deshmukh as Anuj Shrivastava, Aditya's younger brother
* Tara Sharma as Ramona (Anuj's girlfriend)
* Rahul Dev as a Corrupt Assistant Commissioner Of Police Officer Yashwant Thakur, the main antagonist
* Shivaji Satam as Police Commissioner
* Vishwajeet Pradhan as Corrupt Inspector Deepak Sawant
* Virendra Saxena as Constable Mehmood
* Aanjjan Srivastav as Dinanth Shrivastava
* Surendra Pal as Payal's Father and Army Lieutenant Colonel Senior Officer Of Major And Captain
* Raju Kher as A. Saxena, Ramona's Father
* Naresh Suri as College Principal
* Ganesh Yadav as Corrupt Inspector Sunil Yadav
* Nagesh Bhonsle as Advocate
* Harsh Chhaya as Psychiatrist
* Ashwin Kumar as Amit Chhabra
* Kunal S. Kapur as Mohit Varshney
* Chandrashekhar Gautam as Karan Bhanushali
* Shruti Ulfat as Priya Agnihotri
* Avni Mehta as Maya Chauhan
* Gopal K Singh as Man at the morgue

## Critical reception

Released in April 2004 Bardaasht received acclaimed critical reception. Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama praised Bobby Deol's performance and wrote, "Bardaasht is a triumph for Bobby Deol, who takes full advantage of the role offered to him and gives his best shot. He displays the gamut of emotions like a seasoned performer and delivers a knock-out performance. In fact, it won't be wrong to state that this is amongst Bobby's best performance to date!" Critic Subash K Jha praised the film wrote, "At a time when the film industry is busy showcasing cops as romanticised idealistic super-heroes, "Bardaasht" takes a cynical view of the police force. But the film portrays the reality. Every day law-abiding god-fearing citizen gets a taste of the criminalisation of the police force." Jha praises Deol's performance and writes, "Bobby Deol, who plays the lead role, drops his habitually languorous look and laidback demeanour to deliver a performance of substantial velocity. Deol makes the best of his silently simmering and suffering army man-turned-civilian role. As Aditya Shrivastava, Bobby is what his brother Sunny has repeatedly played in films like "Arjun" and "Ghayal". But Bobby gives the seething role his own spin." Rediff.com praises Bardaasht and writes "Bardaasht is pretty strong on the performance front. Bobby Deol does a good job. Look out for him in the scene where he sees his kid brother's dead body. His body language is frail, broken and numb," citing Deol's power-packed performance.

## Soundtrack

Lyrics by Sameer.
| # | Title | Singer(s) |
| 1 | "Silsile Mulaqaton Ke" | Udit Narayan, Alka Yagnik |
| 2 | "Janaabe Ali" | Shaan, Kunal Ganjawala, Himesh Reshammiya |
| 3 | "Aap Ki Khata Aap Ki Bewafayee" | Shaan, Alka Yagnik |
| 4 | "Na Na Na Na Re" | Kunal Ganjawala, Alisha Chinai |
| 5 | "Dil Mera Dil Na Maane" | Alka Yagnik, Udit Narayan |