Gangster (1994) User Reviews (3)

Worst of Dev Anand

[nadkarnisumeet · 2/10 · 30 January 2021]

Gangster review :

The legendary Dev Anand is my all time great hero with Hum Dono (1961), Guide (1965), Jewel Thief (1967) and Johny Mera Naam (1970) being my personal favourites. However, the last few movies made by the him, specially from 1990 onwards, were pure trash. This one ranks amongst his worst. The film starts with a cringy rape scene where veteran actor Ajit rapes an unknown extra dressed as a tribal girl. The girls private parts were fully visible yet the censors passed the shot with A certificate. It created tremendous controversy on release but still Gangster, clashing with Yashraj's Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge and Madhuri Dixit's Yaraana on Diwali 1995, failed miserably at the box office. The rape scene was later toned down in its video version along with the other gangrape scene of heroine Aneeta Ayoob.

Anyway, Dev Sahaab starred in and as Gangster which he becomes after being falsely implicated in the rape case and serving a jail sentence. In the meanwhile, Ajit has grown in to an international gold dealer Chandulal Seth who has two rape happy sons (genetic flow, i guess!!) who cast their eye on one of their employee Aneeta Ayoob. The lady later joins Dev Saahab's gang to avenge Ajit and sons.

Gangster had an ensemble cast - Ajit, Mamta Kulkarni, Mink Singh, Aneeta, Deepshikha, Arjun, Navneet Nishan, Joginder, Sudhir - but the maverick Dev Saahab towers over all in each and every scene. Newcomers Manu Gargi (Dev Anand find) and Mamta were just there for the songs. One of the numbers - Maine pyaar kisise kiya - picturised on Mink Singh is still memorable. So are the foreign locales of Belgium.

I had seen Gangster on VHS at the time of its release. Like most Dev Saahab's films of '90s, it had a good plot but suffered from an amateurish screenplay and inept direction. The film turned out to be a box office failure but couldn't break the indomitable spirit of Dev Saahab who had already moved on to his next film titled Main Solah Baras Ki (1998). Salute to him, always!!

Regards, Sumeet Nadkarni.

Horrible

[silvan-desouza · 1/10 · 1 July 2020]

Can't understand people like this film? Totally horrible and overdone No wonder the film was rejected totally by Indian audiences the film could've worked in 70s but by 90s Dev Anand had already passed his prime and kept directed and acting in his own films which were horrible and badly made.

Direction is awful music is awful

Dev Anand repeats himself but looks too aged Ajit is good in one of his last negative roles the hero is awful, Mamta Kulkarni is nothing great rest all are awful

Dev does Dumas

[shahkaal · 10/10 · 20 July 2005]

One of the highlights of Dev Anand's later career oeuvre, Gangster is also known for being one of Ajit's last screen appearances. The movie is a classical Dev Anand film - technically very bad, atrocious screenplay, all round bad acting, cacophony music, and weird focus on people's underwear - and in spite of all this, a masterpiece! This time around Dev has chosen to remake Dumas' "The Count of Monte Christo". Dev plays a noble Portugese padre - Father Ferriera - who is framed for a graphic rape-murder of an tribal woman by cruel landowner Ajit and his foolish henchman Joginder. Released from prison 20 years later, the padre changes his identity to Dev's "Johnny" identity - as an uncle returned from the UK, and uses his ex-con skills to destroy Ajit, Joginder and Ajit's luckless and corrupt family including several new Dev discoveries in their classical Dev style debut and final screen performances all in the same film.

The highlights are of course the heartfelt performances from Ajit and Joginder who breathe life into their stereotypical characters and who, I must confess, brought tears to this reviewer's eyes with their fine acting. Joginder in particular makes a rare appearance and provides his usual raw and gritty performance - why he never won accolades is well beyond my comprehension, and a black eye on Indian cinema for all time.

Another remarkable sequence involves people being locked in a bathroom for several weeks until they confess their crime to Dev's accented Hindi spouting uncle from the UK. I believe this is the first time this has been done on film worldwide. All in all, this film is a fitting tribute to the pulp-fiction of Dumas Pere and miles beyond such trash as the recent US film of Count of Monte Christo featuring Jim Caviezel or Depardieu's numbingly looong version of the same novel in French. Thanks for showing the kids with their hand-held cameras how to do it right, Dev-saab! In a bizarre turn, Dev has also chosen to add a very graphic snuff style rape murder in the first ten minutes of the film that includes unprecedented frontal nudity by the victim, and some strange accompanying expressions from the 80-year old Ajit.

To learn how this made it through the Indian censors, please see Dev's next masterpiece "Censor". Shahkaal has reviewed this work separately for the benefit of all you fans of the evergreen matinée idol and my own personal idol - Mr. Devdutt Pishorimal Anand.