Insaniyat (1994) User Reviews (9)

Dreadful.

[NpMoviez · 2/10 · 12 July 2018]

This movie should've been shelved for good. After having two of the actors (who supposedly had prominent roles in the movie) dead before the release, it's not a good thing to release it, with their parts not being trimmed, but with a huge alteration in the story. The movie doesn't make any sense. The first scene shows that Goga was behind the separation between Amitabh and his parents, and it also says luckily he was found by Shafi Inamdar, a friend of his father. And, the man never tried to search for his lost parents? He knew how Amitabh got separated from his family, right? Okay, let this plot hole not be a plot hole. Amitabh clearly knows his mother's name. He meets Nutan as Vinod Mehra's mother, and the later scenes show that he knows that Nutan's name in the movie is Shanti Devi. And, he doesn't even think for a second that she can be his mother? Had this all been done, the movie would've made at least some sense. Clearly, this shows the horrible and terrible rewriting of the script. The scenes with Nutan and the rewritten parts are quite contradictory. Not only these, an entire scene with Sunny Deol reading Namaz whilst trying to save Jaya Prada from the goons is just plain stupid! Even a five year old can say that doesn't make any sense. That part is probably the most terribly written and directed among all, along with how songs featuring Chunky and Sunny pop out. Raveena-Sunny love story plotline starts abruptly and leads to nothing. Similarly with Chunky's love story. Those are the most awkward and WTF moments of the movie. A part of the remaining part of the movie is the prominent use of plot devices whenever needed - literally. Almost one third of the movie is introduction of a ridiculous and clichéd plot device, right at the moment when it is needed, without any build-up. The dialogues are completely atrocious, and hilarious. Amitabh-Jaya plotline is a childish writing. Seriously, forcefully separated because her love will prevent him from becoming the greatest soldier of the country? And was he? Sunny-Chunky plotline is just a repetition of itself until Amitabh's death sentence brings them together. The villainous stuffs are equally awkward, over the top and childish, to say the least. And, I don't know this movie is trying to be. It feels like a crime drama, gangster movie, mob movie, lost and found romantic movie, lost and found family movie, patriotic movie (with all those "desh" related dialogues) but not really any of them. Specially, whenever it tries to get patriotic, it sucks terribly. Also, Amitabh's performance. In the original scenes, he is fantastic and intense. But in the rewritten parts he is (unbelievably) awkward, hammed up, desperate, passionately uncool and cringe-worthy. You can look at his eyes, and clearly say he was desperately waiting for the reshoots to end. And finally, you MUST HAVE shelved this movie, if you're going to use the rehearsal shots of Nutan. She forgets her lines in the street murder scene. Songs like "Saathi Tera Pyaar" and "Main Naseeb Hoon" were a bit redeeming. That's only a little good it has. With such a gigantic cast, this movie was not supposed to fail this way, the original scenes suggest the movie to be promising. But unfortunately, it is dreadful and unwatchable. I would've easily given this movie an "F" and a special "0/10", but since there's a benefit of doubt on how this should've been originally, which makes me give the following rating.

Score : 2.3/10

Grade : E

Label : So bad that it is good

Awful

[patobiero · 3/10 · 5 October 2006]

I am definitely one of the world's biggest Amitabh Bachchan fans ... which is probably why I hate this movie and haven't even been able to finish watching it. Bachchan's early work is brilliant, in my opinion, and there have also been some stunning performances in his recent movies ... but 'Insaniyat' falls in a huge crack in the middle. The Big B looks awkward, tired, out of date and (unbelievably for Bachchan) severely and desperately uncool in this movie. He does try hard, but he doesn't pull it off (not by a long shot), and the worst part is that you can tell he knows he isn't succeeding. I'm so glad he didn't retire from the big screen after this movie, and that he's still putting out fabulous work. Sunny Deol does his pouting best in this movie (although he can never, in my opinion, match up to his legendary dad - sorry, Sunny), but it's not a remarkable performance. This movie does try hard, with a star-studded cast, a big budget and fair performances by most cast members, but it just doesn't fulfil its promise.

Good pandemic watch

[sheikhbr · 5/10 · 31 March 2020]

Decided to rewatch this while on lockdown. I was surprised with the video quality, I saw a vhs back in the day probably re-recorded on a hundred times. Glad we had auto tracking.

This thing barely makes sense. One of Amitabh's "worst" efforts. Star power keeps you going, so many names, and it's just bad enough to be in the so bad it's good category. You can tell some scenes were filmed years apart. I wonder if anyone watched a final copy before releasing it. Whatever happened behind the scenes must've been quite an effort. It's not easy to put something like this together.

One of Amitabh's terrible films

[superindrajit · 1/10 · 19 July 2013]

Ever since Bachchan returned from politics, his successful streak ended and he chose some of the worst films ever. If Toofan and Jaadugar(from 1989) weren't horrible enough, then check out films like Ajooba(1991), Indrajeet(1991), and Insaniyat(1991). All these films flopped terribly and even if Akayla(1991) was a flop, it was somewhat decent. Hum(1991) was a hit and a damn good film. Aaj Ka Arjun(1990) was a hit but it wasn't anything great, Agneepath(1990) flopped but it was brilliant and Bachchan got a national award for his performance. This was a decline period for him and sadly, he had more losses than wins in the last of the 80s and most of the 90s.

Insaniyat(1994) was actually started in 1991 but got delayed and finally released in 1994 because Nutan and Vinod Mehra passed away, the film also had some production problems. The film was supposed to be the right action comeback Bachchan needed from a streak a flops from 1991-1994. Yes Khuda Gawah(1992) despite being a nice film flopped and Sadhu Sant never released. Insaniyat was planned with Bachchan in a guest role and the heroes were Sunny Deol and Chunky Pandey but all that changed and Bachchan became the main hero. The film was pinned with expectations and people though it would become one of Bachchan's biggest hits because not only were the songs decent, the combination of Amitabh, Sunny, and Chunky was considered strong. Sadly, this film become one of the worst ever.

There is no actual story of the film, the start is clichéd yet promising with Amitabh's childhood and him beating a villain. The film is actually about Bachchan a police officer who is after the villain and his brother(the main villain after the initial villain dies) and he plans to do this by making enemies Sunny and Chunky friends. That doesn't happen smoothly, Bachchan finds out his mom is alive and his little brother is the eye witness of some murder. His mom doesn't recognize him but hates him for not being able to save his brother from dying. Bachchan kills the hired assassins only to be arrested and sentenced to be hanged for murdering 3 innocent people(who are actually corrupt). Sunny and Chunky plan to kill the villain Anupam Kher and Amitabh escapes from jail to join the duo. Watch how Bachchan and the duo kill the villains in a prolonged climax only if your choice of action movies is this poor.

Direction by Tony is extremely poor, not only does the script let him down but he doesn't put in much effort to make the film rise above the shabby script. This kind of story has been used millions of times in the past and it's the handling that decides whether a typical film like this will work. This factor goes completely against the movie as well. Not only are most scenes stupid but how certain people survive from explosions aren't explained. After Bachchan goes to prison, the film becomes even worse with some stupid planning to harm the villain and the film just goes on and on till it reaches the climax where Amitabh kills the villain. There are only a few well handled scenes like the scenes between Amitabh, Sunny, and Chunky, the murder Amitabh commits to avenge his deceased brother, and some dialogs Amitabh gets to speak. Apart from that, this is one of the worst action movies from the 90s.

Amitabh Bachchan is not at his best here, he hams terribly in some scenes but his dialog delivery is powerful in some scenes making the film watchable in those small portions. His expressions are timed well but his overacting in parts ruins his performance. Sunny Deol's performance fails to deliver completely here. His voice is dubbed by some guy who fails to sound like Deol and some of the scenes involving his own story is poorly handled and explained. Chunky Pandey was never a good actor though he provides decent support to Sunny and Amitabh. However, his act is nothing great. The heroines don't have much to do but they look good and they are well used in the songs. Goga Kapoor is hardly present in the film and his character gets killed by Bachchan in the beginning, he just hams it up as the villain. Anupam Kher also hams it up badly as the chief villain, he cuts his own leg off to survive a train accident and why he doesn't feel any pain makes no sense at all. Prem Chopra is wasted in a role that requires him to act as the stupid and timid inspector afraid of crocodiles. The rest provide poor support that the film needed.

On the whole, Insaniyat is one of those crap Hindi action films that should've never been made. Not only did this film successfully cripple Amitabh's career but also gave Sunny Deol a flop who was going good in 1993 with many hits.

End of an era for Amitabh...or is it?

[pop-16 · 3 February 2004]

What was to become Amitabh Bachchan's final movie of his career before retirement, he ended with an action movie. I thought it was one of the best movies of him where he played an honest police officer who had two tasks - one to end the rivalry of Chunkey Pandey and Sunny Deol and two to destroy the villain Anupam Kher. There were some great songs in this movie sung by all the stars. There was also a young Raveena Tandon, who was only a newcomer. Sonam looking stunning with Chunkey Pandey. Amitabh singing in prison with Jaya Pradha, "Saathi Tera Pyar", another wonderful song. The best one out of all must be "Mere Dil Mein Tu" sung by Chunkey, Sunny and Amitabh. After almost 20 years Nutan was back with Amitabh and she played his wife in Saudagar in 1973. Only this time she was playing mother to him, while 70s and 80s low-key actor Vinod Mehra played his younger brother. After this movie, Nutan and Vinod Mehra died. Perhaps the movie delayed until 1994. Although the movie was a box-office flop, I thought Amitabh performed great. Amitabh came back with the box-office disaster Mrityudaata in 1997.

Amitabh's retirement

[silvan-desouza · 1/10 · 25 March 2014]

Amitabh Bachchan retired after Khuda Gawah in 1992 for some time, Insaniyat which was supposed to release in 1991 got delayed and released in 1994. The film was supposed to have Sunny,Chunky in leads while AB was supposed to be a guest appearance but his role was extended and made him the lead. Nutan, Vinod Mehra passed away before the film released and Sonam too left the industry and hence barring 1 song her role was chopped. The film has a typical plot but it's difficult to keep focus as it shifts from one track to another. The film has AB play a cop who tries to bring settlement between 2 goons Sunny and Chunky and help to combat with the villain. The film has melodrama, some nonsense action scenes, some nonsense unintentionally hilarious scenes like Anupam Kher wearing Shafi Inamdar's mask and other scenes

Direction by Tony Juneja is nothing great Music is quite good, Saathi Tera Pyaaar is hummable rest are not too great

Amitabh Bachchan looks wrinkled, out of shape but does quite well, Sunny Deol with a dubbed voice is as usual, Chunky Pandey doesn't impress much, Jaya Pradha has a brief role and is as usual, Late Nutan is as usual,though she being younger to Bachchan and co-starred with him in Saudagar(1973) she plays his mom, Raveena Tandon perhaps signed this film when she entered bollywood in 1991 and has hardly anything much to do, Vinod Mehra has 2-3 scenes and is okay, Sonam has 1 song, Shafi Inamdar is okay, Anupam Kher doesn't impress much, others are as usual,Aftab Shivadasani did his last role as a child artist.

Before concluding on your verdict, here are some facts

[amulyaflats · 8/10 · 19 April 2020]

This movie was conceived way back in the 1980s, sometime after Mr. Natwarlal became a mega hit. To say that the production started in 1991 and movie released in 1994 is the biggest myth. Production started some 17 years, yes repeat, 17 years before it actually released. Tito and Tony wanted to give their best blockbuster ever. Somehow, the movie kept going into the cans as years went by. Each time, it was removed from the can and some portions shot. If you watch the movie carefully, you will find Amitabh as young and handsome as he was in Mr. Natwarlal in this movie in a short scene. You will see him balding (when he came back from politics), you will see him with short hair, long hair, really fat, fat, trim, a bit extra, old, young, middle aged and so on. Somehow, the producer managed to put it together and got it off the finishing line. Let us give due credit for all this effort. Agreed, that the end product was substandard & flop despite such a long cast, long list of singers and so on. It will be certainly a memorable film in its own way.

Neither so good, nor so bad...

[manansagit · 6/10 · 19 January 2023]

Insaniyat (1994) sadly happens to be the only film till date to star Amitabh Bachchan and Sunny Deol together. Had heard a lot of bad things about this movie, but when I actually sat down to watch the film, it wasn't that bad. Yes, there were a lot of continuity errors, there were instances where the dialogue delivery seemed to be forced and unconvincing. One can easily tell that the film was a delayed release. Surely two- three points can highlight this fact-

1. Amitabh's constantly changing looks.

2. Nutan and Vinod Mehra also featured in supporting roles in this film, which released in 1994, even though both of them passed away in the year 1991.

3. Also in the scene when Amitabh and Anupam Kher come face-to-face for the first time in the film, I spotted another error. When Amitabh says that "Tujhe tu khud bhi chota lagne lagega aur tera yeh bada ghar bhi", at that moment he is standing on the right, and Anupam on the left, but at the very next moment, Amitabh was standing on the left and Anupam on the right. I wasn't able to understand how did this happen.

Talking about the action scenes, they seemed too clumsy. I mean it was pretty ridiculous to see a 50 year old Amitabh jumping around to dodge enemy fire like a monkey. But here I would like to pinpoint something out. How is it that people can tolerate stars like Aamir, Salman, SRK, Akshay and Ajay doing action movies in their 50s, but they weren't able to accept Amitabh in a similar way? Why the hypocrisy?

Talking about the music, the BGM was good at times. As far as the songs are concerned, only one song " Saathi Tera Pyaar Pooja Hai " registered in my mind.

Now on to the performances. Amitabh Bachchan looks old and out of shape, but with his powerful dialogue delivery he never fails to keep the viewers engrossed throughout the movie. Sunny Deol was alright, nothing special, though I do believe that his dialogue delivery would have been more convincing had he himself dubbed his lines. Chunkey Panday was a total miscast. He failed to look convincing as an action hero. Someone like a Sanjay Dutt or a Salman Khan would have been a better choice. Vinod Mehra was unimpressive in a brief role. The fact that his voice was dubbed by someone else doesn't help. Anupam Kher hams through his role. Nutan goes overboard in her scenes. There was one point where she forgot her lines. Jaya Prada is wasted in a small role as Amitabh's long-seprated childhood sweetheart. Sonam is hardly there.

On the whole, Insaniyat had all the potential to become a blockbuster- an all-star cast, long list of singers etc., but got screwed badly due to substandard writing, bad direction and unconvincing performances by the principal cast.

Surprisingly, the film managed to earn 11.21 crores worldwide against a budget of 4.25 crores.

This was the best movie of Sunny Deol and Chunkey Pandey

[gavin_coolhgr · 22 November 2007]

Insaniyat is the story of inspector Amar Saxena whose childhood was been destroy by a man called Goga. He, however looked for Goga son for many years but did not find him. Later on, a man called Bijian who was known to create riot in the country was suspected by Amar that he was Goga's lost son. Amar was in disguised because Bijian tried to harm his family a lot of times. But there were two gang leaders, Karim Lala and Haricharan who would normally have gang rivalry but both was being convinced by Amar to stop there gang rivalry and they even join hands with Amar to bring Bijian to justice. Insaniyat is one of the best films of 1994 and it was said to be released on February 28th 1994. However, Raveena Tandom and Sonam also played a very interesting role in this film. Sunny Deol and Chunkey Pandey looked very good in there teaming up at the ending part of this film. Prem Chopra also played a very interesting role in this film too like he does in other films.