Ghulam

Plot synopsis:
Siddharth "Siddhu "Marathe (Aamir Khan) is a Mumbai tapori, a boxing champion. His brother, Jaidev "Jai" (Rajit Kapur), is the accounts manager and right hand man for Raunak "Ronnie" Singh (Sharat Saxena), a former boxing champion who ostensibly runs a travel agency but in reality rules the local community by terrorising people and stealing money from innocent merchants. Other than his boxing practice, Siddhu leads a relatively aimless and wanderlust life. In his spare time, he hangs out with friends, occasionally stealing money from rich people. Siddhu is financially dependent on his elder brother Jai, who lives in Raunak Singh's house but occasionally visits Siddhu and tops up his finances.
The opening scene features a female lawyer Fatima Madam (Mita Vashisht) defending Siddhu in court against accusations of small-time theft. The lawyer tries to convince the judge to show leniency towards Siddhu on account of his disadvantaged background as an orphan. The judge points out that Siddhu has already been shown leniency four times, and is greeted with laughter by everybody, including Siddhu. In the commotion, Siddhu steals Rs. 400 from his own lawyer's purse. Siddhu is let free. Later, when he asks the lawyer what her fees are, she asks him for a fees of Rs. 400, and he is thus forced to part with the money he has just stolen. The lawyer gives no indication of awareness that Siddhu had stolen an equal amount of money. Later, Siddhu, while joking around with friends, gets angry when one of his friends suggests that the lawyer may be receiving sexual favours from Siddhu in exchange for defending him in court.
A few days later, Raunak Singh hires Siddhu to deliver a letter to a local cricket player, and to beat up the player if he shows signs of resisting. Unknown to Siddhu, the letter contains instructions to the player to get out after scoring a certain number of runs, so that Ronnie can win a bet. Siddhu delivers the letter and intimidates the cricket player into agreeing to follow the instructions, breaking the player's bat in the process. Later, while returning, he gets into a motorcycle speed race with a motorcycle gang led by Charlie (Deepak Tijori), which escalates into a dare game to run towards a moving train at night. Siddhu beats Charlie's past record in the game. Charlie chooses to run again, but falls on the train tracks, and seems to be headed for death as the train approaches him. Siddhu rescues Charlie at considerable personal risk. In the process, Siddhu becomes friends with Alisha (Rani Mukerji), also part of the gang, and their friendship blossoms into love. The famous song Aati Kya Khandala is situated during this period, when Siddhu is trying to cheer Alisha up after a fight with her father.
It is revealed that Siddhu saw his own father's death when he was a child which mentally affected him throughout his life. His father's words – "anybody can swim with the tide, but the truly brave person is he who swims against the tide"—remained with him, though he had only been with his father for a little while.
Back in his local community, Siddhu witnesses an incident of some of Ronnie's men beating up a local restaurateur for not paying extortion money to Ronnie's gang. The restaurateur runs for his life as Ronnie's men chase him, but none of the other community people come to his aid. Harihar Mafatlal (Akshay Anand), a social worker, coaxes a police constable to stop the fight. The restaurateur and his two assailants land up on the roof where Siddhu is doing boxing practice, with Hari and the constable following. The constable breaks up the fight and scolds the restaurateur, and Hari is angry at the constable for blaming the victim. The assailants leave, greeting Siddhu on the way out. Siddhu offers some water to the restaurateur and introduces himself to Hari, suggesting to both to avoid getting on the wrong side of Ronnie. Hari speaks of principle and self-respect, and Siddhu is reminded of things that his father told him long ago.
Ronnie is furious to hear about this, and wishes to kill the restaurateur and Hari immediately. Ronnie explains the logic of terror to his henchmen: if even a few people stop acceding to his demands, then that will instill rebelliousness against Ronnie's demands in others. Fear is essential for the kind of respect Ronnie enjoys, and being lenient against a few people who stand up to him based on a short-term cost–benefit analysis will have long-term negative consequences for Ronnie. Jai, however, dissuades Ronnie from taking rash action. In the process, it is revealed that Jai and Ronnie are in the process of bribing politicians and government officials to make Ronnie the owner of a large construction project.
Hari later canvasses some villagers together, trying to get one of them to sign a complaint against Ronnie that can be filed with the police so that official action can be taken against him. Siddhu attends the meeting at Jai's request, but does not inform Jai or Ronnie about it immediately. Instead, Siddhu offers Hari a friendly warning to cease and desist these activities. During the conversation that ensues, Siddhu says that his own motto in life is simple: live and let live. Hari reveals the principle guiding his own actions: whenever he sees himself in the mirror, he should not feel ashamed of what he sees.
Ronnie nonetheless comes to know of the events during the meeting, and is angry. He tells Siddhu to arrange a meeting between Hari and himself (Ronnie) so that Ronnie can dissuade Hari from these activities. Siddhu agrees, and calls Hari over to a bridge, on the pretext that he himself (Siddhu) needs to talk to Hari. Hari arrives at the bridge, expecting to meet Siddhu. Ronnie arrives along with his men, beats up Hari, and throws him from the bridge after which he is crushed under a moving train. Siddhu is furious at Jai and Ronnie, and attacks Ronnie physically, but Ronnie's men control him, and he is allowed to go on account of the fact that he is Jai's brother and he was the one who managed to inadvertently help Ronnie kill Hari. Siddhu, returning home, cannot bear the sight of himself in the mirror, and breaks it. It is also revealed that Hari was the brother of Alisha (Siddhu's romantic interest), something Siddhu had been unaware of because he was living separately. Siddhu confesses everything to Fatima Madam, the female lawyer who had defended him in the beginning of the movie, but refuses to testify against Ronnie in court, for fear of implicating his elder brother Jai. The lawyer tries to talk him into testifying, but fails. She challenges him to reveal the truth to Alisha, which he does, and they break up.
In a subsequent boxing match (against boxing champion "Kala Tiger"), that Siddhu has been preparing for several months, Siddhu is told by his brother, in the midst of the game, to throw away the match, since Ronnie has bet money on Siddhu losing. Siddhu throws away the game, allowing the other boxer to beat him unconscious. He is furious at his brother, and they have an oral confrontation. In the process, Siddhu is forced to confront that his father had betrayed five of his friends in the Indian independence movement to the British out of fear of being tortured, causing all of them to be killed. Siddhu realises that his father was a good man, but, like everybody else, was a coward and lacked the strength to fight injustice. Yet, he knows that his father wanted to instill these values in him, and he vows to bring Hari's killers to justice and complete the task that Hari attempted to begin. He tells Fatime Madam (the lawyer) that he is willing to testify publicly against Ronnie as well as against his own brother Jai, and also confesses to her his theft of Rs. 400 (shown at the beginning of the movie). She expresses pride in Siddhu, revealing that she knew all along about the theft and also knew that Siddhu would reveal it to her some day of his own accord. She tries to get Alisha to forgive Siddhu, but fails. Siddhu, now a reformed man, meets up with the cricketer he had beaten up a while back, presents him with a new cricket bat, and seeks forgiveness.
When Ronnie discovers that Siddhu is the person who has filed a complaint against him, he is ready to kill Siddhu. Jai dissuades Ronnie, reassuring him that Jai himself will dissuade Siddhu from testifying publicly against Ronnie. In an emotional scene, Siddhu, when approached by Jai, confronts Jai instead, accusing Jai of neglecting his duties as an elder brother by encouraging Siddhu to follow himself in a life of crime. Jai realises his error and apologises. Upon returning home, Siddhu discovers Alisha waiting for him, and they embrace and reconcile. Later that night, Ronnie kills Jai and his men also try to kill Siddhu, but the motorcycle gang led by Charlie (whose life Siddhu had saved earlier) intervenes to save Siddhu's life. Siddhu wants to kill Ronnie in person to avenge his brother's death, but the female lawyer arrives in time to dissuade him.
The next day, in court, Siddhu gives his testimony regarding Ronnie's murder of Hari. The court is adjourned until Monday. Coming out of court, Ronnie orders for a local bandh and forces all the shops to close down. He also has Siddhu's home broken into and his belongings thrown on the street. Siddhu, upon seeing this, walks up to Ronnie's house and challenges him to come out and duel alone, rather than hiding behind henchmen. Ronnie agrees, and all the people in the area come out to watch. The two boxers have a long and bloody boxing match, with nobody interfering. As the local people see one man with the courage to fight Raunak Singh, they awaken to the possibility that they too can resist his extortionary demands. Ronnie loses the fight, but he then orders his henchmen to kill Siddhu. The local people, who are much more numerous than Ronnie's henchmen, block the attempt. Together, they beat up Ronnie and his henchmen and force them to flee the area.

Tags: murder

Review:
shows what a great actor amir khan is!.
i was not a big amir khan's fan before this movie but after watching "ghulam" it not only made me amir khan's fan but also at the same he stamped himself as the bollywood ace..."Ghulam" shows the sudden change in the life of sidharth who first being non-serious in his life soon realise the reality of the life and when he becomes more loyal he has to pay for the changes..
emotional scenes are wonderfully executed by amir khan, the way he has tackled difficult scenes shows what a brilliant actor he's been for bollywood...
whereas rani mukherjee looks gorgeous but have little to offer in a brief role..
all in all a very good movie with a good twist and a better second half...
also the climax was very astonishing...
the music is good to ear...
highly recommended to all amir khan's fans!.
excellent remake of On the Waterfront.
When I first saw Ghulam I said finally a good original film but a couple of years I got to see Marlon Brando's "On the Waterfront" and find out a movie's rip off.
Still the movie is definitely a must see for people who like realistic, hard hitting films and not the loveyduvey smoochy films.
Besides that aamir khan gives a brilliant performance as the confused brother trapped in underworld's tactics.
Rani mukherjee is ok.
Her voice is dubbed and one can clearly make out.
Aamir Khan's aati kya khandala is a great highlight of the movie.
The railway track race could have taken his life but he is still alive so have fun and watch this movie.
This is an awesome film.
My Rating 10/10.
Heroic.
I have read the reviews given by different people and I am well versed with the version played by The Great Marlon Brando(On the Waterfront) which won him Oscar for best actor,Ella Kazan the best Director and 6 other categories.
It took almost 44 years to bring out the remake using the finest actor in Indian History.
The fact that remains in my mind is that I had watched the filmfare award ceremony and I was only 13 but still I remember Vikram Bhatt saying that "The Award was only possible due to Aamir Khan's effort.He had taken chance with his life by not duping the Train-race stunt.Even though the train was not running at full speed it had momentum to kill the person hitting it".
The commitment from the side actors are as important as the film script.If this was shot nowadays it could have been more effective with several camera angling.
Aamir knew that if he had to provide justice at least .1% to the original film he had to do this.
These make it almost or equivalent to the "On The Waterfront"..
GHULAM - Guess whose the real hero ?.
Amir plays the role of a confused, frustrated and sensitive "gunda" who lives with the evil but surprisingly knows the difference between right and wrong.
His conscious is alive maybe because of something he saw happening to his dad when he was young.
It casted a lasting effect on him and it stayed with him all his life.
His brother also realizes the difference between the right and the wrong but readily accepts the wrong because he doesn't mind taking shortcuts in life.
Excellent performances by Amir Khan and Rani both.
The real hero, however, is Ronnie.
He gave the best performance of his life.
Every single dialog of his is nothing less than Gabbar's from Sholay.
Not only does this movie have some great acting, but some excellent screenplay, dialogs, direction, storyline, and songs!
One of my favorite Hindi movies of all time.
Rating: ****Poor * Average ** Good *** Excellent **** Masterpiece *****.
Recipe - take `On the Waterfront' treat with Bollywood formula, take all meaning out of it, stretch it to 3 hours and stick in songs that don't fit with the film - et viola - Ghulam!.
Siddhu is a small time felon in Bombay who's morals can be summarised as `every man for himself'.
His lawyer has faith he can change and is trying to help him by keeping him out of jail for petty offences.
Siddhu's brother works for Ronny, an ex-boxer who now runs organised crime in the area.
As a result Siddhu gets some muscle work for Ronny.
One day Ronny's thugs are beating up some shopkeepers for money by Siddhu's house.
Afterwards Siddhu meets the eldest, Hari, and befriends him.
However Hari is responsible for causing Ronny trouble and hence Siddhu unwittingly helps Ronny to kill him.I have only seen a handful of Bollywood films of these I have loved one (Lagaan) and been indifferent to the majority.
I find that they have all the flaws of Hollywood exploitation movies without many of the production values.
Ghulam (The Slave) is a fine example of the standard Bollywood formula - songs, pretty girls, manly heroes, hairy villains, overacting and dramatic music and direction.
As such it is OK but I'm not a fan of these standard formulae.
I'd rather have them with at least a bit of a new spin.
However this film doesn't want to do that and gives it to us straight.
The plot is a basic `do the right thing' film that borrows heavily from `On the Waterfront' in many different ways.The action scenes suggest a Bollywood Jackie Chan but they lack any of his flair and imagination.
The love interest is dropped into the film so heavily that it hits with a heavy clang - the first hour is basically just that, it isn't integrated into the film so much as just added on.
It does allow about 5 songs to occur that don't fit with the tone of the film.
I'm a little biased because I always struggle to tell one from the other with these things.
I know that they films are meant to be whole adventures for an audience but it just felt pretty disjointed to me.The direction is typically hilarious - rushing cameras etc that really play to the traditional Bollywood clichés.
The sound effects sound too fake and don't match the action and the different in sound quality between dialogue and singing is so noticeable that it bothered me.
I know that the singing is mostly done by other people in a studio but can't they at least try and match them up in terms of quality at least.The acting is also very clichéd.
Khan was a good hero in Lagaan but he was helped by the more professional feel of that film.
Here he fits with the mood of the film in that he just overacts where needed - tears, anger, frustration etc, all emotions are on his sleeve for all to see.
The villains are typically bad and gruff and overact like the best of them.
Meanwhile love interest Mukherjee (Alisha) is suitably air brushed, pretty and shot with a constant breeze in her hair and soft focus lens!Considering people make a big deal of Bollywood movies being a big culture.
To me this just smacked of American influence.
Chicago Bulls tee-shirts, T2 posters etc all clutter the sets.
Meanwhile the plot borrows from lots of American films.
Like I said the plot itself is just On the Waterfront without the subtext or drama.
They take it and just throw out anything of value and add songs!
Even the boxing scene sees the opponent being a mickey-take of BRITISH boxer Prince Naseem Hamed.
Even the climax is a mix between a wild west stand-off and a Rocky movie!
Does no one else see the influence of American culture in this film?
It's not a bad thing but why pretend that Bollywood films are something exciting and new?Overall this film will please those who happily accept the Bollywood film formula with all it's weaknesses.
For me I view it on the same level as any other film - it's plot is weak, a basic good versus bad story, with average acting, misplaced songs and not very much to enjoy for an even slightly demanding audience..
Truly a masterpiece and Aamir Khan's best performance.
Ghulam is truly a masterpiece with an excellent theme by Vikram Bhatt.Definitely it is his best directorial venture.The plot of the movie taken from ON THE WATER FRONT fits very well to the culture of Subcontinent,beautifully reflects the hardships & attitude of the society in big cities and also shows the right way to fight against injustice & cruelty.The sole of the film is Aamir Khan's stunning performance.The way he has portrayed the character of Sidhu a confused,tipori is awesome.This performance has for sure declared Aamir Khan as the best actor in history of Indian cinema.Rani Mukherji looked very fresh and beautiful, the only flaw of the film is her dubbed voice which was needless.SharatSexana in the role of Ronak Singh is excellent.Music is very good.All the songs are good with "ab naam mohabbat ke ilzam " & "aati kya khandala" stand out.Overall it is an excellent film.I have seen this film 18 times till date and i recommend it to every movie lover..
excellent.
Fantastic movie -- amir khan is super and fantastic >i advise with watchin this movie.
A decent remake of On the waterfront helped immensely by the awesome acting by the Dangal guy..
Siddharth "Siddhu "Marathe (Aamir Khan) is a Mumbai tapori, a boxing champion.
His brother, Jaidev "Jai" (Rajit Kapur), is the accounts manager and right hand man for Raunak "Ronnie" Singh (Sharat Saxena), a former boxing champion who ostensibly runs a travel agency but in reality rules the local community by terrorising people and stealing money from innocent merchants.
Other than his boxing practice, Siddhu leads a relatively aimless and wanderlust life.
In his spare time, he hangs out with friends, occasionally stealing money from rich people.
Siddhu is financially dependent on his elder brother Jai, who lives in Raunak Singh's house but occasionally visits Siddhu and tops up his finances..
its not as bad as all that.
Sure, its formulaic, but personally I think there is an element of spoof in it.
Look at some of the dance routines.
Especially the one where they are in a log cabin.
They are not taking themselves too seriously here.
And it does have a charm about it.
My favorite song in it is the one about going to Chandala.
And the scene where he enters her window about 16 stories up - it is completely ludicrous but is hugely entertaining and I feel for the right reasons.Amir Khan also appeared earlier in "andaaz apna apna" which was very much a comedy, allthough it did tend to veer to much towards farce at times.Although there was some sort of an action story and a moral theme to it, i think much of it was meant to be a light comedy romance, and those parts of the film worked quite nicely.Sure its not a particularly memorable film and isnt ground breaking cinema, but its not actually a bad film, as long as you arent expecting too much out of it.
And its quite watchable..
On the Khandala-front.
I went through the list of Vikram Bhatt movies, and realized I had seen quite a few of them.
And there isn't a single original storyline in any of them.
Vikram Bhatt isn't happy in just getting inspired by Hollywood movies, he copies them totally.
Sometimes, he does a bad job (Awara Paagal Deewana: The Whole Nine Yards, Deewane Hue Paagal: There's Something About Mary) but sometimes it isn't so bad (Raaz: What Lies Beneath and Ghulam: On the Waterfront).The difference with Ghulam is its treatment.
This treatment is very rustic and non-glamorous.
What you get is a nice, realistic view of the situation, with Siddhu being a very real character.
Aamir Khan, Rani Mukherjee, Rajit Kapoor, Sharat Saxena and Mita Vasisht all turn in pretty good performances.
I remember when I first watched the movie and was impressed by Rani.
Come to think of it, I have been a fan of Rani since then itself, so I'm pretty glad things are working out for her now.Even being a copy, it is a rather good movie with a believable storyline and strong performances.
Worth a peek..
A nice romantic action film.
Ghulam is a story about a wannabe boxer who spends his time among gangsters and does their bidding.
He begins to question his life of crime and meets a girl named Alisha who he falls in love with.Watching it as a youngster I found it quite compelling and exciting; the scene where he plays against death running on train tracks, saving the girl.
Aamir Khan provides a satisfactory performance and Rani Mukherjee sadly is dubbed in this movie...............Its not her voice!She however looks stunning and very very sexy in the songs...Now the songs, the songs are all really good, catchy and romantic...Thats what bollywood does best..
On the Waterfront.
Bhatts have known to remake Hollywood films from time memorial though they have given several great films.
In 1990s Mahesh Bhatt directed many films, many worked like Aashiqui(1990), Dil Hai Ki Maanta Nahin(1991) which were not that great, while Hum Hai Raahi Pyaar Ke(1993) was a superb film and worked well too, he gave flops too like Criminal(1995),Chaahat(1996), Duplicate(1998) and many more.
Ghulam directed by Vikram Bhatt who earlier worked with Bhatts in films like Fareb, Jaanam, Bambai Ka Babu, got his first hit reportedly with this film.
The film is a remake of On The Waterfront(1954) which was earlier remade by the Bhatts as Kabzaa(1988) and Vidhu Vinod Chopra too borrowed a chapter from it in Parinda(1989) and other films too.
Ghulam starts off well, Aamir's character though may seem close to his Rangeela character is different, he plays the typical thug with a heart of gold who does dirty work as told by his brother and then changes his life.
The film also has Aamir's most dangerous stunt, the train stunt which he did himself and missed the train by a second.
The first half focuses more on establishment of characters and does waste a bit more time on romance but the twist in the tale is superb, The second half focuses more on how Munna changes and seeks revenge The ending may be a bit hard to digest but yet is well executed Comparing with On The Waterfront may be tough, the film does copy most of the film but adds it's own masala, love and all but yet it's watchable Direction by Vikram Bhatt is good Music by Jatin Lalit is superb, All songs are seeped in melody, be it Kumar/Alka's songs Aankhon se Tune and Jaadu Hai, or Udit Narayan's superb Ab Naam Mohabbat Ki or the crowd puller Aati Kya Khandala which was sung by Aamir for the first timeAamir Khan portrayed a tapori earlier in Rangeela(1995) but he doesn't repeat himself, he does a superb job as always and brings in the difference, He conveys a lot through his expressions.
Rani with a dubbed voice is okay though she doesn't get much to do Mita Vashisht is superb in her role, Rajit Kapoor is superb Sharat Saxena is effective, Akshay Anand who also starred in Mahesh Bhatt's ZAKHM in the same year is good in his role, Raju Kher is okay in a short role,Deepak Tijori has just 1 scene, perhaps to recreate the JJWS success Amongst rest Bhatts Favourite Ashutosh Rana and Dalip Tahil have cameos