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Cast
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Reception
Soundtrack
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Agneepath (1990 film)

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Agneepath
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Mukul S. Anand
Screenplay by Santosh Saroj
Kader Khan
Story by Santosh Saroj
Produced by Yash Johar
Starring Amitabh Bachchan
Mithun Chakraborty
Madhavi
Neelam Kothari
Danny Denzongpa
Rohini Hattangadi
Archana Puran Singh
Cinematography Pravin Bhatt
Music by Laxmikant Pyarelal
Production
company

Dharma Productions
Distributed by Dharma Productions
Release date
 16 February 1990

Running time
181 minutes
Country India
Language Hindi
Box office ₹102.5 million (US$1.3 million)[1]

Agneepath (Hindi pronunciation: [əɡnɪpətʰ], transl. The Path of Fire) is a 1990

Indian Hindi-language action crime film directed by Mukul Anand and written jointly
by Santosh Saroj and Kader Khan. It stars Amitabh Bachchan as Vijay, a man who sets
out to avenge the death of his father and injustices done to his family by joining
the Mumbai underworld.

The film was inspired by the life of a Mumbai gangster Manya Surve.[2] The title
was taken from a poem of the same name called Agneepath which was penned by
Harivansh Rai Bachchan, Amitabh's father, and which is recited at the beginning of
the movie and creates a thematic link that continues through the movie, both
literally and metaphorically.

Agneepath has grown into a strong cult film over the years. Amitabh Bachchan
received his first National Film Award for Best Actor at the 38th National Film
Awards for his performance. At the 36th Filmfare Awards, Mithun Chakraborty and
Rohini Hattangadi won the Best Supporting Actor and the Best Supporting Actress
respectively. The film, despite being the 4th highest-grosser of 1990, had
collections way below its high budget, and thus, the film was unsuccessful at the
box-office.[3] The film was remade in 2012 with the same title, by Johar's son
Karan Johar, as a tribute to his father.
Plot

Much-loved village schoolmaster Dinanath Chavan (Alok Nath) strongly opposes the
plans of Kancha Cheena, an underworld don (Danny Dengzongpa) and his band of
gangsters to set up a base for heroin smuggling. After being discredited in a set-
up scandal by Kancha and the village landlord Dinkar Rao (Goga Kapoor), Dinanath is
lynched by the manipulated villagers to death, and his family is evicted and made
destitute, much to Cheena's advantage. Swearing revenge over his father's murder
and the attempted rape of his mother Suhasini Chavan (Rohini Hattangadi) gone
unpunished, and with a burning desire to clear his father's name, his son Vijju /
Vijay Deenanath Chauhan (Amitabh Bachchan) takes on the responsibilities of caring
for his mother and sister Siksha (Neelam) that, by a strange twist of fate, cause
him to descend into the murky underbelly of the Mumbai Underworld. He is taken by
gangsters Hasmukh (Arvind Rathod), Usman Bhai (Avtar Gill), and Anna Shetty (Deepak
Shirke) under their wing. Working his way up the ladder, Vijay grows up attaining
notoriety as an underworld kingpin.

Vijay Deenanath Chauhan is warned by police commissioner M.S. Gaitonde (Vikram

Gokhale), (who, while critical of him, nurtures a sympathetic spot for him), of a
possible assassination attempt on his life by his former bosses after he refuses to
co-operate with their drug-smuggling operations. However, Vijay brushes off
Gaitonde's concern, stating that he is already aware of the planned attempt and
intends to let it be carried out without any preemptive attack or resistance.
Vijay's car is ambushed by his bosses, who fired multiple rounds at him. Left to
die, he is discovered by a Tamilian coconut vendor Krishnan Iyer M.A. (Mithun
Chakraborty) who transports him to hospital and saves his life, becoming his friend
and eventually finding employment as Siksha's bodyguard. During his time in the
hospital, Vijay is cared for by Nurse Mary Matthew (Madhavi). Commissioner Gaitonde
deduces that Vijay basically played a gamble by letting the assassination attempt
on him take place so as to elevate himself to demigod status in the perception of
his followers, sending his enemies scurrying for cover. While recovering at the
hospital, Krishnan saves Vijay from yet another assassination attempt at the hands
of his bosses by sneaking him out of his bed.

Vijay avenges his assassination attempt by targeting the assassins one by one. He
begins by killing Hasmukh and Usman Bhai, who are lodged in jail after surrendering
to the police to escape Vijay's wrath. Vijay's mother strongly disapproves of his
criminal tendencies and stays separately from him with Siksha. One night when Vijay
arrives for a dinner programme, his mother drives him away from home after
chastising him for sullying the good name of his father. Vijay, hurt and upset,
seeks solace in Mary's arms and begins a relationship with her. Siksha is then
kidnapped and held in a slum by Anna Shetty, who wants to avenge the death of his
associates killed by Vijay, and an unsuccessful rescue attempt by Krishnan ends up
with the two of them brawling. Vijay hears of this and arrives to kill Anna in a
fit of rage. After brutally beating up Anna, Vijay castrates him with a sword.

The close encounter between Krishnan and Siksha causes a growing intimacy between
the two of them, and they fall in love with each other. Vijay is outraged and
strongly protests against the relationship with his mother, but is rebuffed again
when his mother disowns him and considers Krishnan her "good son" she once had.
Stung and deeply hurt by this slight, Vijay seeks solace in Mary and later marries
her and resolves to do things "in the right way" to gain his mother's favour.

After cutting a deal with Kancha Cheena to allow him access into his old village,
Vijay sets in motion a number of strategies that undercut Cheena's criminal
operations and gain him the legal ownership of the village. He kills Kanchas's
henchman Gora (Bob Christo), who is sent by the former to assassinate Commissioner
Gaitonde. He gets Dinkar Rao lynched at the hands of the debased and impoverished
villagers, similar to the manner in which his father was killed. Revenge is a dish
best served cold as Vijay informs Cheena of his identity as the son of Dinanath
Chavan, lands Cheena in jail by arranging for Cheena's mistress Laila (Archana
Puran Singh) to testify against Kancha in court. Laila reveals herself as Shanti,
the daughter of the prostitute who helped set up Master Dinanath to discredit him,
and she has been working with Vijay all along to get back to Kancha. Vijay returns
the village to his mother and finds himself back in her favour, but Cheena ensures
his release by arranging for the witnesses to be gunned down and Vijay's family to
be kidnapped and held hostage. This is the last straw for Vijay, who is forced to
return to his criminal ways and to walk the "Path of Fire" in order to rescue them.
A violent and bloody struggle takes place as Cheena bombs every building and
demolishes the entire village before he is killed by Vijay, who throws him into the
raging fires and burns him alive. However, Vijay succumbs to the various bullet
wounds inflicted on him by Kancha. While dying in the lap of his mother at the site
of his family's old house, Vijay tries to justify the life he chose and the deeds
he committed; that he indeed walked the "Agneepath", the "path of fire",
(personifying his father's poem that was taught to him as a boy), to get justice
for his family and insists that he is not a criminal. His mother weeps over his
body piteously along with Krishnan, Siksha and Mary, finally forgiving him and
acknowledging that he was never a criminal.
Cast

Amitabh Bachchan as Vijay Deenanath Chauhan

Master Manjunath as young Vijay Deenanath Chauhan
Mithun Chakraborty as Krishnan Iyer M.A.
Madhavi as Mary Mathew
Danny Denzongpa as Kancha Cheena
Neelam as Siksha Chauhan
Goga Kapoor as Dinkar Rao
Alok Nath as Master Deenanath Chauhan
Rohini Hattangadi as Suhasini Chauhan
Sharat Saxena as Teraline
 Tinnu Anand as Nathu
Vikram Gokhale as Commissioner M. S. Gaitonde
Sudhir Pandey as Inspector Pathan
Archana Puran Singh as Shanti aka Laila
Avtar Gill as Usman Bhai
Shammi as Tara Bai
Bob Christo as Gora
Shakti Kapoor as Himself in the song "Ali Baba"
Asha Sachdev as Chanda Bai
Deepak Shirke as Anna Shetty
Arvind Rathod as Hasmukh
Pradeep Rawat as Vijay's Henchman
Anjan Srivastav as Police Constable

Production

The film was inspired by the life of Mumbai don Varadarajan Mudaliar and gangster
Manya Surve. Bachchan modelled his mannerisms and voice on Surve for his character.
[2][4][5]
Reception

Upon release the film received polarized reviews.[3] Film Trade Analyst Komal Nahta
wrote about Bachchan's voice: "But the biggest undoing of the film is Amitabh
Bachchan’s voice. He has spoken the dialogue in a different voice (similar to what
Marlon Brando did in The Godfather) which will not be accepted by the audience.
Further the mixing not being clear, his dialogues are incomprehensible at places."
He further wrote that the film lacked a gripping drama, well-set script, and that
even the murder scenes lacked excitement.[6] Rediff.com's review of Agneepath
suggested that perhaps, the grim, violent, aggressive, and dark portrayal of the
underbelly of Bombay's underworld had worked against the film.[7]

However, the perception of the film changed gradually over the years.[3] Karan
Johar recounts in an interview how younger city-based audiences thought it was a
cool film.[8] The film's review in Rediff.com, mentioned that: "Agneepath, despite
its amplified sentimentality, strong language and violence works on account of this
very dynamism. "[9]
Soundtrack

All music is composed by Laxmikant Pyarelal

SongsNo. Title Playback Length
1. "Kisko Tha Pata" SP Balasubramanyam, Alka Yagnik
2. "I Am Krishnan Iyer M. A." SP Balasubramanyam
3. "Ali Baba Mil Gaye Chalis Choron Se" Runa Laila, Aadesh Shrivastava[10]
4. "Ganpati Apne Gaon Chale" Sudesh Bhosle, Kavita Krishnamurthy, Anupama
Deshpande
Awards
Year Nominee / work Award Result
1990 Amitabh Bachchan National Film Award for Best Actor Won
Mithun Chakraborty Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor Won
Rohini Hattangadi Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress Won
Remakes and legacy
Main article: Agneepath (2012 film)

In an interview with The Times of India, Karan Johar explained that he had the
intention of remaking the original Agneepath ever since the film released 22 years
ago, because according to him, the failure of the film broke his father's heart.
[11] The idea of the remake materialised on the sets of Johar's film My Name Is
Khan in which Karan Malhotra was an associate director. Johar told Malhotra his
desire to remake the original film and asked him to revisit it again, to which he
agreed immediately.

Hrithik Roshan played the role of Vijay Deenanath Chauhan and Sanjay Dutt plays the
role of the Kancha Cheena.[12] Priyanka Chopra was the female lead. The character
of Krishnan Iyer played by Mithun Chakraborty in the original was removed and Rishi
Kapoor played a newly introduced negative character, Rauf Lala.[13] Other members
of the cast include Om Puri and Zarina Wahab among others.[14]

The film was also modified and remade in Tamil as Sivasakthi, directed by Suresh
Krissna.[citation needed]

Agnipath Meri Atmakatha, the Hindi translation of In the Line of Fire: A Memoir, a
2006 autobiography by then President of Pakistan Pervez Musharraf was titled after
the film, who was reported have liked Amitabh Bacchan.[15] Agnipath Scheme, an
Indian military recruitment program launched by the government of India in 2022,
was taken to be named after the poem by Harivansh Rai Bachchan and the film.[16]
References

"Box office 1990". Box office india. Archived from the original on 17 October 2013.
Retrieved 2 November 2012.
"Rediff On The Net, Movies: Satya is the latest movie to depict predator as prey".
www.rediff.com.
"Film of the Month: Amitabh's Agneepath is more than mere Scarface, maloom?". 16
February 2020.
"On the Vijay path again!". 29 May 2011.
"One don, many interpretations".
"Blast From The Past: Agneepath (1990) Review". 27 January 2012.
"Revisiting Amitabh Bachchan's Agneepath (Slide 1)". Rediff Movies. 10 February
2012. Archived from the original on 10 February 2012.
Johan, Karan. "Interview with Karan Johan : Indu Mirani". YouTube. The Boss
Dialogues. Archived from the original on 5 November 2014. Retrieved 18 April 2015.
"Rediff.com-Movies-Reviews-Revisiting Amitabh Bachchan's Agneepath(Slide 3)".
Rediff. Archived from the original on 10 February 2012. Retrieved 8 February 2012.
"Ali Baba Mil Gaye Chalis Choron Se Lyrics". LyricsMotion. Retrieved 31 May 2020.
"Agneepath broke my father's heart: Karan Johar". The Times of India. 26 January
2012. Archived from the original on 23 October 2013. Retrieved 14 April 2012.
"Sanjay Dutt is the bad man now". MidDay. Archived from the original on 17 June
2011. Retrieved 15 April 2012.
"Rishi to do a 'looks test' for Agneepath". Mumbai Mirror. Archived from the
original on 9 January 2011. Retrieved 12 July 2010.
"Zarina to star in Agneepath remake". Asianage. Archived from the original on 13
January 2011. Retrieved 12 July 2010.
"Musharraf's memoirs named after Hindi film". Gulf News. 27 September 2006.
Retrieved 26 February 2023.

"Agnipath Scheme : जानिए कहां से प्रेरणा मिली भारत सरकार को इस नाम की". DNA India (in Hindi). 17
June 2022. Retrieved 26 February 2023.

External links

Official website
Agneepath at IMDb

vte

Dharma Productions
Key individuals
 Yash Johar Hiroo Yash Johar Karan Johar

Karan Johar

Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998) Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham... (2001) Kabhi Alvida Naa
Kehna (2006) My Name Is Khan (2010) Student of the Year (2012) Ae Dil Hai Mushkil
(2016) Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani (2023)

Shakun Batra

Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu (2012) Kapoor & Sons (2016) Gehraiyaan (2022)

Mahesh Bhatt

Gumrah (1993) Duplicate (1998)

Rensil D'Silva

Kurbaan (2009) Ungli (2014)

Shashank Khaitan

Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania (2014) Badrinath Ki Dulhania (2017) Dhadak (2018)

Govinda Naam Mera (2022)

Karan Malhotra

Agneepath (2012) Brothers (2015)

Punit Malhotra

I Hate Luv Storys (2010) Gori Tere Pyaar Mein (2013) Student of the Year 2
(2019)

Tarun Mansukhani

Dostana (2008) Drive (2019)

Ayan Mukerji

Wake Up Sid (2009) Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani (2013) Brahmāstra: Part One – Shiva
(2022)

Abhishek Varman

2 States (2014) Kalank (2019)

Rohit Shetty

Simmba (2018) Sooryavanshi (2021)

Raj Mehta

Good Newwz (2019) Jugjugg Jeeyo (2022) Selfiee (2023)

Other directors

Dostana (1980) Duniya (1984) Muqaddar Ka Faisla (1987) Agneepath (1990) Kal Ho
Naa Ho (2003) Kaal (2005) We Are Family (2010) Gippi (2013) Shaandaar (2015) Baar
Baar Dekho (2016) Dear Zindagi (2016) Ok Jaanu (2017) Ittefaq (2017) Raazi (2018)
Kesari (2019) Bhoot – Part One: The Haunted Ship (2020) Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil
Girl (2020) Shershaah (2021) Liger (Telugu/Hindi) (2022)

Films presented

Baahubali: The Beginning (2015) The Ghazi Attack (2017) Baahubali 2: The
Conclusion (2017) Bucket List (2018) 2.0 (2018)

List of Dharma Productions films

Categories:

1990 films1990s Hindi-language filmsHindi-language crime filmsFilms about

organised crime in IndiaFilms set in MumbaiFilms featuring a Best Actor National
Award-winning performanceFilms directed by Mukul S. AnandFilms scored by Laxmikant–
PyarelalFilms shot in MumbaiIndian action drama filmsFictional portrayals of the
Maharashtra PoliceHindi films remade in other languages1990 action drama
filmsHindi-language films based on actual eventsIndian gangster films

This page was last edited on 23 September 2023, at 15:56 (UTC).

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