Mard (1985)

Director Manmohan Desai with star Amitabh Bachchan made history of wonders like (Amar Akbar Anthony - 1977), (Naseeb - 1981), (Coolie - 1983), and (Gangaa Jamunaa Saraswathi - 1988). Here, it's not Desai's most fantastic world inasmuch as the most fantasia.

If you wanna be silly: actually (Mard) gives you an ideal chance. It's one realm of absurd hyperbole, where you'll watch primitive Roman wrestling to death, secret service masks, colony with mine and slaves, evil guys with tankers,.. etc. It's (Spartacus) meets (Mission Impassable) meets (Indiana Jones) meets (Rambo)! Nobody dares to define what year all of this was happening: "Lady Helena" wears a heavy 19th century clothes, then Amrita Singh's car is from the 1950s, and her clothes from the mid-1980s??? The most laughable one came from Amrita' bodyguard with his black leather punk garb, and for sure the evil guy who was wearing Freddy Mercury's costume yet with Dracula's cape! Not to mention a horse that has an elephant's memory, explicitly shoddy back-projections, and an electric shocker as a torture device along with a bikini both in the 19th century??!!

If you wanna be merciful: the character of the popular hero, along with his melodramatic story and conflict, was great according to this kind of let's say: genre. The storylines come from so many folk stories or old legends, but through the Desai's distinct style of making highly satisfying piquant MOVIE, and with a patriotic sense too. Amrita Singh did fair, and kind of reprised her first role 3 years earlier in (Betaab - 1983) which was Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew. Amitabh Bachchan was larger than life, particularly at that time, when he was super superstar and deserving it; look at him fells the screen while the movie's title appears, being The Man ("Mard" in English stands for "Man"). The songs were shot highly enthusiastic and vivid. "Mard Tangewala" is a great classic apart. Everything was quite ardent, so you have to feel exhilarating because of this non-stoppable adventure. In fact, we say the precept of "leave your brain at the door, and enjoy" about so many American movies, aren't we? So why not saying it about this Indian interpretation of FUN?!

If you wanna be nostalgic: I watched it while I was 11 or 12-year-old, it was shown at the Egyptian theaters for a record time, and what a crush I've had. I ranked it at my early list of the best action movies ever. However, when I re-watched it, 20 years later, I discovered that it's special case of entertainment, which doesn't ever deny that it's a pure entertainment indeed. It's like a comic book movie from India. Look at the last shot; it can summarize perfectly the whole condition of this movie as light fantasy with comedy / action / romance / melodrama / Desai! It's such a huge extravaganza of nearly all the quintessential cinematic factors of enjoyment, as pure piece of escapism however a' la Indian.

If you wanna be rational: You'd think cheese, delirium, or act of decadence. But simply (Mard) represents Bollywood picturization of ecstasy as the ultimate commercial Indian movie of the 1980s at its highest peck of being dainty, with all the deficiencies of the previous too!

In one word, enjoy it, it meant to do this exceedingly. And believe me, it will make you forget your worries.. Along with your name as well!