Virasat

Plot synopsis:
After completing his studies in London, Shakti Thakur (Anil Kapoor) returns to his ancestral village in India. Accompanying him is his girlfriend, Anita (Pooja Batra), whom he is in love with and wants to marry, much to the disapproval of his family. After a few days, Shakti starts to feel that nothing much has changed in his hometown and longs to leave. He tells his father that he wants to sell his share of the family's property and open a chain of restaurants. His father, the zamindar Raja Thakur (Amrish Puri), urges Shakti to stay in the village and help it progress by virtue of the latter's education, saying "A man gets an education not to become a selfish being but to uplift his uneducated brothers and society". Shakti disagrees with his father and decides to leave. He is unable to bear the animosity amongst the townspeople, particularly between his dad, Raja Thakur (Amrish Puri), and rival Zamindar Birju (Govind Namdeo) (Shakti's crippled uncle) and his son Bali Thakur.
The entire village suffers from this longstanding family feud as most of the village and its surrounding areas is divided between the brothers. Since Bali Thakur holds a grudge and always tries to one upon Raja Thakur, it puts them at loggerheads with each other.
Shakti spends time in the village with his girlfriend by re-visiting his childhood memories including a game of sticks with Bali Thakur men which he wins. They come across an old temple which has been closed off on Bali Thakur’s instructions. He insists on entering and his friend and servant Sukhiya breaks open the lock for them to look around. Bali Thakur hears of this and a brutal riot is started among the two village factions. Raja Thakur, in order to quell the situation, contemplates on apologising to his opponents. Shakti feels it should be him or Sukhiya who should apologise. When Shakti asks for Sukhiya, he learns that Bali Thakur's men have cut off Sukhiya’s hand as punishment for opening the temple and Raja Thakur's men burn down the homes of Bali Thakur villagers in retaliation. To prevent a further escalation of the situation Shakti, with permission from his father, enlists the help of his friend in the government and opens the temple for all legally. Slighted by this, Bali Thakur hires goons to break a dam protecting a part of the village faction that supports Raja Thakur. Although a female villager spots one of the goons near the dam, she does not think much of it.
The dam is damaged by explosives used by the goons which results in flooding of half the village. This results in numerous deaths including infants which deeply saddens Shakti. He spots the goon who placed the explosives again in the village and gives chase. After capturing, he hands the goon over to the police but the goon does not speak of Bali Thakur's involvement due to fear for his own family's safety.
Later Bali Thakur intimidates a villager living in Raja Thakur's area to close a portion of his land, preventing the public from reaching the main road easily. Shakti and his father invite them for talks at village Panchayat to resolve the standoff due the riots and flooding. In the village panchayat, accusations fly from both sides. With no evidence backing up the truth, Bali Thakur accuses Raja Thakur for orchestrating various attacks on his brother's family and insults him relentlessly. Disrespected and heart broken, Raja Thakur returns to his home and passes away due to a heart attack later that night. Shakti takes over his father’s duties as the head of the village.
As time passes, this incident dies down. The villagers express concern to Shakti about going around the piece of land that has been closed off and causes a much longer travelling time. Shakti reasons with the owner of the land to open it up for all villagers to pass so that their long commute is shortened. Although understanding and willing, the land owner, is afraid of Bali Thakur’s backlash especially since he has a young daughter Gehna (Tabu). Shakti assuages his fear by arranging marriage between a well-to-do person from his village to the land owner's daughter. Everybody involved happily agrees and the land owner opens up the land for everyone.
On the day of the wedding, the groom runs away, fearing Bali Thakur. The landowner and his daughter are distraught over this claiming that it is a huge disrespect to his family. He opines that even if someone marries his daughter, they have to live in constant fear. Shakti then gets permission from the landowner and weds his daughter. Although Shakti still has feelings for his girlfriend and his new bride is very shy, they overcome their awkwardness and move on. Soon, his girlfriend returns and learns the truth. Although saddened by the turn of events, she understands the situation and leaves. Shakti, too, closes the chapter about his girlfriend and starts his new life with his wife.
Bali Thakur, enraged by the opening of the land, plants a bomb during the village festival despite the pleas of his mother and own father to stop the violence. This results in deaths on both sides of the village. Both factions of the village, wanting revenge, go after Bali Thakur and his family. Shakti protects the innocent family and helps them get away from the villagers. Appreciative of Shakti's efforts to protect them Birju Thakur finally ends his enemity towards him.
Shakti eventually finds Bali Thakur and asks him to surrender to the police before the villagers kill him. Bali Thakur’s rabid hatred for Shakti makes him reject his offer of help. Bali Thakur, blaming Shakti for all his problems, tries to kill him. In the struggle that follows, Shakti accidentally decapitates Bali Thakur. Although other villagers are willing to take the blame for Bali Thakur's murder, Shakti gives himself up to the police to end the cycle of violence once and for all.
The film depicts the true meaning of education as "a tool to uplift uneducated people".

Tags: good versus evil, murder

Review:
A modern day Hindi film dealing with timeless values of the village..
Virasat is a film dealing with the archetypes of Indian rural existence.
Shakti (Anil Kapoor) is an educated son of a landowner who returns to his village.
Due to his education and city girlfriend, Shakti wishes to turn his back on the village and set up shop in the city.
Because of unforeseen and unexpected events, Shakti becomes entwined in the affairs of the village -- caught in the bonds of duty owed to his village and aging father.
Virasat is about ancient archetypes -- symbolism borrowed heavily from the Mahabharata.
His arch-enemy -- and the cause of anarchy in the village is his cousin (an allusion to the Kauravs and Pandavas of the Mahabharat).
The Mahabharat analogy is extended into the Gita -- as it becomes obvious that Shakti's dharm or divine duty is in the destruction of adharm -- as manifested/substantiated in the corporeal by his uncles family..
Outstanding.
The cast, music and direction, almost everything is perfect in this timeless drama.
An "okay" remake of Thevar Magan.
The movie Virasat is a remake of the tamil movie Thevar Magan, which starred the legendary Sivaji Ganesan and Kamal Hassan.
While Thevar Magan was an excellent movie with brilliantly etched characters and situations, and superb performances from all the actors (a rarity in most movies), Virasat gave me a feeling of being incomplete.
True, it is impossible to match Kamal Hassan and Sivaji Ganesan for their acting capabilities, but Anil Kapoor comes no where close to Kamal Hassan.
He completely lacks the grace that Kamal brings to the screen.
All the other actors have put in average performances.
A few changes (minor) have been made to the original to create it in Hindi, but the effect of the typical rural setting in Tamil Nadu to the movie as a whole goes missing.
The adaptation could have been handled better.
Without any comparisons, Virasat can be termed as a good movie that could have been made a little better, but juxtaposed with Thevar Magar, it comes a cropper.
Watching Thevar Magan (even with subtitles) will leave you feeling more satisfied than Virasat..
Anil kapoor outscores kamal hassan.
Virasaat is by far the most superior Bollywood film of 1997.Virasaat being the official reamke of "THEVAR MAGAN" comaprison with the original is inevitable.After minutely watching both Thevar Magan & Virassat I can safely conclude both Anil Kapoor & Tabbu outscores Legendary Kamal Hassan & Revathy respectively.Anil Kapoor is more restrained than kamal Hassan in his depiction of shakti Thakur.Tabbu delivers one of her finest performance which is simply outstanding.Amrish puri is superb in the role of old village patriarch.Pooja Batra is decent.Even in 2015 the performance of Mr.Kapoor looks relevant and praiseworthy.When virasaat released there was hardly any actor to match versatility of Anil Kapoor who simply carries the entire film on his shoulder ably bolstered by a brilliant Tabbu..
Great film by Priyadarshan.
Priyadarshan made great Hindi films in 1990s like GARDISH, Virasat too is another brilliant film a remake of Thevar Magan.
The film is set in a village where Anil Kapoor returns from London with long hair(perhaps hair extensions) alongwith his girlfriend Pooja Bhatra His father is Amrish Puri who is a thakur of the village and there is a rivalry between his brother Govind Namdeo who is disabled and has 2 wives and a son Milind Gunaji.
Resembling MAHABHARAT there is a feud between families and the film is well handled,There are several brilliant scenes like the flood scene, the scenes where Anil and his father have a talk, The scene in the Panchayat and the scene followed where Amrish Puri vents his anger(shot in single shot) and his death.
The drama that ensues after Tabu's marriage is stopped and Anil marrying her, the finaleDirection by Priyadarshan is great Music by Anu Malik who copied Illayaraja's tunes from the original yet was a success, Dhol Bhajne Laga, Diya Aur Baatin, Payalein Chunmum all are great numbersAnil Kapoor is excellent in his role, in the same year he did DEEWANA MASTANA and this film, he had to portray 2 shades of the character, for the initial portions he lost weight and put on weight for the second part, he is simply brilliant Pooja Bhatra(with voice dubbed by Padmini Kolhapuri) is decent in one of her first films, Tabu is fantastic Amrish Puri is fab, He always proved his worth more in strong character roles rather then normal villain roles which he did Govind Namdeo is good, Milind Gunaji is okay, Neeraj Vohra is good Satyen Kapoo is good, Sulabha Deshpande is good too Dilip Dhawan is good, The actor playing the cop(dubbed by Danny)is okay