Sabse Bada Khiladi

Plot synopsis:
Lallu (Akshay Kumar) is an orphan who was separated from his parents and brother in his childhood and has been brought up by foster parents. He travels to Bombay to look for a job and starts working as a loyal servant for rich businessman Jamna Das (Avtar Gill). One day he discovers Jamna Das's daughter Sunita (Mamta Kulkarni) drunk in a nightclub and takes her home. Jamna Das realises how loyal Lallu is and how he never took advantage of Sunita in her drunken state decides to get them married. Sunita immediately refuses as she is in love with Amit (Mohnish Behl). When Jamna Das suddenly dies of a heart attack, his will and testament reveals that Sunita must get married to Lallu or she will not be entitled to any of his wealth and estate. Seeing no other option she marries Lallu but decides to have him killed with the help of Amit so that she can inherit all of her father's wealth. Sunita and Amit succeed in their plan to kill Lallu by poisoning him, putting him into a car, and crashing it to make it look like an accident. His death is considered suspicious, and the case is assigned to Inspector Vijay Kumar (also Akshay Kumar), who is a lookalike of the supposedly deceased Lallu.
Vijay also has a twin brother whom he lost during childhood. His brother was apparently murdered by Amit's father, Amar Singh (Sadashiv Amrapurkar), and the latter had raped a close friend's wife, who was Jamna Das's wife Gomti (Anjana Mumtaz). Later Gomti dies of a heart attack when in court Amar Singh (as a lawyer) falsely proves his 'innocence' and renders her guilty. This fact is not known by Sunita. But Vijay swears revenge against Amar Singh for what he did.
The twist in the story comes when Lallu appears before Sunita and Amit, who have presumed him to be dead. He then terrorizes them at their house and, when Amit finally owns up to the crime, out come the police to arrest Amit and Sunita. Lallu says he is none other than Inspector Vijay Kumar. Vijay reveals that it was his plan to frame Amit and his father. It was he who had come as Lallu in the first place, told Jamna Das to enact the heart attack, took Sunita into confidence, done all the pretense, and finally they had gotten Amit into trouble. Because now Amit is guilty of 'murdering Lallu', Inspector K. Kada (Gulshan Grover), a cunning inspector who had helped cover the crime, is also arrested.
Amit is taken into custody. Amar and K. Kada hatch a plan to release Amit and send him out of the country. They go to Vijay's police station on the pretext of meeting Amit and, as part of a plan hatched by Amar, a fight breaks out near the station, to which Vijay responds. At that moment, they release Amit, knock K. Kada out, and immolate him after Amit exchanges clothes with him. By the time Vijay realizes whats happening, it is too late. Amit escapes to the airport; Amar goes to court and accuses Vijay of burning his son. But Vijay manages to save K. Kada. He then says that Vijay is the biggest player ('Sabse Bada Khiladi') and helps Vijay nab Amit.
The film reaches a climax when Vijay chases Amit all the way to the abandoned airport with K. Kada following in a helicopter. Eventually they burst many stationary aircraft to shreds and destroy the hangar, with both chasing and trying to kill the even through the raging fires. Amit shoots K. Kada in the chopper from his car. But Vijay manages to nab him.
Finally they reach court, where Vijay produces Amit, the dead K. Kada, and everything is out in the open. Amar is now forced to say that he was the one who killed Lallu and raped Gomti, to save his son now. Unfortunately he is not able to prove it and save his son because he has destroyed all the evidence. A frustrated Amar tries to shoot Vijay but is foiled. They are then arrested.

Tags: revenge, murder

Review:
He's not Lallu but the biggest player in the fray.
Lallu is a term used in North India to denote a person who is excessively naive or purely stupid in the context of the worldly knowledge.
Popular Hindi novelist Ved Prakash Sharma wrote a novel under this title which was a suspense-thriller and published in 1994.
Ved Prakash Sharma gave the story of this novel to Bollywood director Umesh Mehra for making a Hindi film on that.
Umesh Mehra not only bought the story but also hired the services of Ved Prakash Sharma to write the screenplay and the dialogs of that movie.
Popular action hero Akshay Kumar was signed for the lead role.
The movie proved to be a box office grosser.
It's Sabse Bada Khiladi (1995).Sabse Bada Khiladi (the biggest player) is the story of a simpleton (Akshay Kumar) who calls himself as Lallu.
He saves the life of a rich businessman, Jamna Daas (Avtaar Gill) when a truck was about to trample him.
Jamna Daas has a motherless daughter, Sunita (Mamta Kulkarni) who has become a brat.
A crooked criminal lawyer Amar Singh (Sadashiv Amrapurkar) is planning to usurp the wealth of Jamna Daas by getting his son Amit (Mohnish Behl) married to Sunita.
Amit has been successful in trapping Sunita in his fake love.
Now the situation is that the self-proclaimed Lallu has himself got injured in his attempt to save the life of Jamna Daas.
Out of gratitude, Jamna Daas arranges his medical treatment and also gives him a job in his household.
Feeling that Lallu is innocent and clean-heart, Jamna Daas assigns him the responsibility of bringing Sunita on the right track.
Since this does not suit the greedy father-son duo, i.e., Amar Singh and Amit; they go after Lallu.
A police inspector, Kekda (Gulshan Grover) also becomes a part of this scenario.
He is also trying to grind his own axe in the given status of things but he suspects that Lallu is not what he claims to be and his real motive is not just grabbing Jamna Daas' wealth.
Now a game of checks and checkmates start between Lallu and his opponents.
Finally, the real identity of Lallu as well as his real objective comes to fore and he only emerges as the winner in the end, proving himself to be the biggest player (Sabse Bada Khiladi).While making a Bollywood movie on a good story or a good novel, it is a Herculean task for the filmmaker to do justice to the original work.
Because he has to take care of the commercial considerations and stud the script with regular formulae viz.
songs and dances, romance, comedy, fights etc.
so that the movie can appeal to the masses habituated of watching such flicks.
And in this bid, the original story gets distorted.
Exceptionally, sometimes the movie proves to be a better creative work than the novel / story.
However on most of such occasions, it's the movie which comes a cropper when compared with the good literary work which is its premise.
Sabse Bada Khiladi falls into the latter category.
I read the novel first and watched the movie later and concluded without any doubt in my mind that the movie is many notches below the novel.
Where the novel is a brilliant suspense-thriller, the movie is a run-of-the-mill Bollywood movie with many things going over the top, diluting the quality of the original story.The novel has been written on a very large canvas which could not be covered in the two and a half hours long movie.
But this is one aspect only.
The style of narrating itself is faulty in the movie.
The novel starts with Lallu's encounter with the benevolent rich man and gradually the story unfolds on layer-by-layer basis, rendering shocks to the reader after every few pages, the movie starts with those events which have been narrated in the novel in flash-back.
The flat narration has not allowed the suspense factor to thicken and envelop the audience in the desirable manner.
The movie focuses more on romance, (slapstick) comedy, songs and dances and action and less on the mind-games between the protagonist and the antagonists which is the backbone of the novel.
Unlike the novel, the movie is devoid of any shock value.
The movie is an interesting one, all the same.
Those who have not read the novel will find themselves as hooked throughout.
Rajesh Roshan's music with the lyrics of Dev Kohli is also a plus point of the movie.
Mukkala ...
Muqaabla ...
and Bholi Bhali Ladki had become chartbusters when the movie was released.
If I have to choose the best song, then I will choose Har Dil Mein Hai Rab Basta which is linked to the Lallu avtaar of the hero making the entry.
Music is not great but it's appealing and adds value to the movie.Performance wise talking, the director seems to have allowed the actors to act in whatever way they wanted.
Character actors - Avtaar Gill and Sudhir Dalvi (playing the role of the doctor of Jamna Daas) only are able to impress.
Akshay Kumar has acted according to his action hero image of that period.
He had already become famous as Khiladi (player) by that time and this movie consolidated his position in the industry in that form.
It's a pity that a fine actor like Mohnish Behl had to overact (perhaps because of the instructions given to him by the director).All in all, Sabse Bada Khiladi is a value for money flick.
Definitely a nice timepass.
However as said earlier, the novel is much superior to the movie and therefore, while recommending the movie to the typical movie buffs, I advise those who can read Hindi to read the novel Lallu which is a gem from the pen of the famous Hindi novelist Ved Prakash Sharma..
Hollywood in desi style!.
Sabse bada khiladi has been made basically with the intention of creating a Hindi movie during the 90's like an English masala flick.
I can be sure of that after watching it for over 2 and a 1/2 hours.I feel the best part is some of the action sequences and stunts, especially towards the end, which are entertaining to watch.
Few songs are good, few very silly and artificial.Best acting is perhaps that of Gulshan Grover and the character named Amarsingh (I don't know his real name).Even Gulshan's dialogs are very hilarious.It can be watched once, but it is not suited for kids..
Weak script but good direction.
There is nothing much to say about the movie but I think it is a good entertainment besides some faults in the script.
The director, Umesh Mehra had previously worked with Akshay Kumar on Main Khiladi Tu Anadi that had done a good business and he also debuted Mamta Kulkarni in Aashiq Awara.
Now, he tried both of them together.
Akshay has done a great job.He has acted very well in both the roles as Lallu and Vijay.
The performance of Mamta can also not be criticized as she had a role of naughty daughter of a billionaire (Avtar Gill).
The film has a long kiss of one minute that is rare in Indian movies but Mamta Kulkarni dared to do it.
Besides these two actors, the performance of Muhnesh Behl, Gulshan Grover, Avtar Gill and Sadashiv is also brilliant.
--------Dev Kohli and Rajesh Roshan has done a great job in Lyrics and Music respectively.
The first song,"har dil mein hai rab basta' by kumar Sanu is very nice.
Then the dance numbers "moo kaala muqabala aaj hoga', "zehar hai keh pyar hai' and "bholi bhaali ladki' are good to listen.
But the most brilliant song of the movie is "bharo maang meri bharo'.
It is an excellent song.
The theme is very sexy which shows the great work done by Rajesh Roshan.
The dance of the song is even more brilliant than the theme given to it by Rajesh Roshan.
The singers have done nice job.
---------The main demerit of the movie is its weak script.
This could have been overcomed by good direction but inspite of hard work by Umesh Mehra, one fails to understand how Akshey Kumar survives after being thrown with the car.
Another weaker point is that while playing the role of Lallu, how Akshey Kumar managed to do his job as a police inspector in the other city.
Besides these two points, the movie is very nice to watch.
The picture was not a big hit at the box office but as far a I remember, it managed to do average business..
One of Akshay's earlier Khiladi films.
Akshay Kumar debuted with flop film Saugandh(1991) and continued flopping until Khiladi(1992).
In 1993, Akshay had many flops like Ashaant, Sainik, Kayda Kanoon.
However, he redeemed 1993 with a hit film Waqt Hamara Hai(1993).
1994 was a decent year with 5 big hits and 6 minor flop films.
However, 1995 despite having flop films like Paandav and the disaster Maidaan E Jung, Akshay got a comeback with the 1995 super hit film Sabse Bada Khiladi.
This film was the third film in the Khiladi series after the success of Khiladi(1992) and Main Khiladi Tu Anari(1994).
This film however is more of a thriller which is badly handled in parts.
However, the film has many things going for it.The story is decent but badly handled in parts.
The screenplay is quite weak and the execution is weak as well.
The end is dragged with lots of explosive action, the court room scene where a small action scene happens is typical and cringe worthy.
Despite all this trash, the film has a decent story.
The film is thriller due to the twists in the story.
The start is well handled, the on goings are good.
The flashback and the court room scene nearing the start is also well handled.
However, Lallu's entry is a bit clichéd.
The on goings are boring because Lallu is seen acting like a buffoon, fighting like a buffoon, and dancing like a buffoon.
The film drags with songs, funny action, comedy that is funny to an extent.
However, the film fails to entertain because of this drag.
However, the film picks up when Mamta Kulkarni and Monish Behl plan to murder Akshay Kumar.
Before that it starts to pick up, but this is the point the film picks up.
Akshay Kumar is poisoned and he is put in a car,the car is thrown of the cliff.
Everyone thinks Lallu is dead.
Then suddenly, Inspector Vijay starts arresting people, talking sincerely in court, fighting with the goons of the main villain.
Like I mentioned, the ending is prolonged and clichéd.
However, the film is still decent because of the entertainment it provides.Akshay Kumar is a delight to watch, he acts properly, his action is awesome, his dancing is alright.
Mamta Kulkarni hams it up as the heroine, she could've done better.
Monhish Behl overacts badly for the most part.
Sadashiv Amrapukar portrays a sinister and evil character.
His act is good but not as good as his villain act in Sadak which was his best act.
Avtar Gill and Anjana Mumtaz do what is required, Gulshan Grover is funny but he tends to overact as well.
His change nearing the end is too sudden and makes no sense.
The rest provide support that the film needs.Action is very good, it has been choreographed as well.
In every Akshay Kumar movie from the 90s,even if the film was bad, the action was always good.
Music by Rajesh Roshan is good.
Bholi Bhali Ladki was a rage when it released, it's a good song.
Mukala Muquabla was also a chart buster, it's a good song.
The rest are good, the tittle track is good as well, it uses Mohra's fight music.Direction by Umesh Mehra is fairly decent, he could've handled certain scenes better.
The drag is awful and the wait for the turning point is a pain.
However, he has done a good job with the twist and the on goings after the twist.On the whole, Sabse Bada Khiladi is a decent film with a few flaws that prevent it from being a good action film.
Illogical yet superhit.
Sabse Bada Khiladi was the third KHILADI series after the success of KHILADI(1992) and MAIN KHILADI TU ANARI(1994)SABSE BADA KHILADI tries to be a thriller plus a comedy plus a masala film and all the twists don't really make sense in the endThe film starts off well but gets all confusing till it reaches the climax The film has several funny and action scenes well handled but overall it is a badly handled film which worked those days.There are several loopholes like how Akshay survives, How he manages to play the dual role?
Anywayz such films were made and lapped up by the audiences those days After this film, Akshay continued with the Khiladi series, the next being Khiladiyon ka Khiladi(1996) which was the last successful one Direction by Umesh Mehra is okay Script and screenplay are weak Action scenes are superb Akshay Kumar does well in his dual like role though he does overact in several scenes and his emotions too aren't too convincing like in those days, yet a decent work Mamta Kulkarni does okay Mohinish behl, Sadashiv Amrapurkar are as usual, Gulshan Grover is okay Avtar Gill is alright