Maha-Sangram (1990) User Reviews (2)

average movie but worth watching for Aa Bahon Mein Aa and Aditya Pancholi

[ShakTwenty88 · 25 March 2011]

Maha-Sangram is the typical 1980s style movie with all the usual ingredients action, romance and drama. What made me curious to see this was for the brilliant song featured in the film "Aa Bahon Mein Aa" which I had listened to on a cassette long time ago. The song is one of my favourite classic songs from Bollywood in the 90s and i never tire of listening to it even now. The film is nothing special but is entertaining and worth a one-time watch.

The basic story is Arjun (Govinda) falling in love with Pooja (Shaheen Banu, niece of Saira Banu in her debut and first of only two films she ever made) who is the daughter of the wealthy Thakur Godha (Amjad Khan) and sister of the always angry Suraj (Aditya Pancholi in his best performance). Godhas are also enemies of Vishwaraj (Kiran Kumar) who decides to end his life long feud with Godha by getting his son Prakash (Sumeet Saigal) married to Pooja and daughter Neelam (Sonu Walia) married to Suraj. When the Godha family and Vishwaraj find out about Arjun and Pooja, they send Baba Hyderbadi (Shakti Kapoor) to kill both Arjun and Pooja which he does or does he?. Arjun's elder brother Vishal receives a telegram that his brother is dead and immediately travels to Bombay to find out who killed his brother. He meets Jhumri (Madhuri Dixit) who helps him discover the truth about what happened to Arjun.

The TWIST is that Arjun and Pooja are actually alive and well and together with Vishal and Juhumri as per the title of the film meaning "The Big Battle" the scene sets for a violent showdown with the Godhas and Vishwaraj families.

Performances are good from all the cast. Vinod Khanna stands out with his dramatic performance, Govinda has never given a bad performance and is also good here. Shaheen Banu is not a very good actress and there is no chemistry between her and Govinda which was important for the romance is the central plot. Its no surprise that she only ever did one other film after this. Madhuri looks beautiful and is sizzling in her song "I Love You". Sumeet Saigal is nothing special, Sonu Walia is OK, the villains Kiran Kumar, Aditya Pancholi and Amjad Khan fit their roles. Aditya stands out of all the actors with his powerful angry performance.

My personal fave masala movie

[nadkarnisumeet · 7/10 · 12 January 2022]

Maha-sangram review :

After the successful Insaaf (1987), producer Nitin Manmohan and director Mukul S. Anand teamed up with Vinod Khanna again in Maha-sangram; a complete masala entertainer featuring an ensemble cast and packing in every ingredient which the '90s audience loved. Action, emotions, romance, item songs, comedy - this was an all in one package!!

Vinod was cast opposite his Dayavan (1988) heroine Madhuri Dixit and she set the screen on fire with her rain drenched number "I love you. Pyar karu chu, zhala mala prem zhalaa". Govinda as Khanna's younger bro got to romance the debutant Shaheen forming a triangle with her real life hubby Sumeet Saigal. But the real showstopper of Maha-sangram was Aditya Panscholi cast as the hot headed gangster 'Chota Godhaa' who literally breathes fire. Sonu Walia got to seduce the stud..but in vain!! This film is one of Aditya's career best act alongside Saathi (1991) and Aatish (1994). In fact, Panscholi was typecasted as the gangster with a heart in movies like Naamcheen (1991) and Game (1993) after this fabulous performance.

Gulshan Grover was another memorable character with his popular punchline "Humare Punjab mein aisa hota hai..". Amjad Khan was convincing as the Don 'Bada Godhaa' in one of his last onscreen appearances. He passed away two years later.

All in all, Maha-sangram was a complete mass entertainer and the first weekend crowd at Sundaram Cinema, Worli confirmed the same with whistles and cheers. Surprisingly, the film dipped from second week onwards and settled in average grosser category. Probably due to the rampant video piracy in those days but frankly, this one deserved to do better. It is one of my personal favourite masala movies of that era!!

Regards, Sumeet Nadkarni.