Hum

Hum directed by legend mukul anand is a complete action thriller starring legend big b in the lead role, ably supported by govinda, rajnikant and others. Violence, location, and the perfect story, background about tiger (amitabh) forms the usp of the film. Each character is well written, specially amitabh, rajni, govinda, deepa sahi and danny. Supporting characters such as shilpa, kader khan, deepak shirke are also well written characters and all of them do justice to their roles. Annu kapoor does well as antagonist constable arjun singh. He's convincing. His performance stands equally parallel to his counterpart anupam kher. His performance is original and he comes out of the caricature aspect. But only 1 character which should have been well written is antagonist girdhar (anupam kher). Girdhar's character lacks depth. His intentions are very simple and cliched. It should have been more gravity oriented. Although performance wise anupam kher gives his best. But the main aspect lies with the writer.

Full time masala entertainer.

HUM or "US"redefined the notion of entertainment in indian cinema by introducing sophisticated use of camera framing and an exploration of the use of irony in the guise of farce .Most villains in Mukul Anand's films are caricatures and in this respect "HUM" introduces this specificity in this talented director's cinema. The rhythmic song and dance number "JOOMA CHUMMA DE DE "got packed houses dancing literally from India to USA.This film also brought to a cinema art et essai director his first feeling of what a popular film director's reputation meant .

The first thing I said to myself while watching David Cronenberg's History of Violence was "Damn, this is Tiger's story told in reverse!" Mukul Anand's Hum is a landmark film in many ways. Apart from being one of Bachchan's truly last leading men roles, it (a) gave us the item number of the decade in "Jumma Chumma" (still gets a Bollywood party going anywhere in the world), (b) brought Big B and Rajni together for the last time, (c) gave us last of the legendary Bachchan drunkard scenes, (d) brought Haryanvi into mainstream B'wood through Anupam Kher's Girdhar and (e) gave us the last truly memorable Bollywood villain in Danny's Bhaktawar (that over the top villainy is long dead). Hum is one of those guilty pleasures of childhood (VHS tapes) that actually hasn't aged so bad. The reason is that at the core of it, it's a pretty cool movie about how our past can come back to haunt us. And how families can either be destroyed or come together to fight it out. Hum is an apt case study in good Bollywood masala entertainer genre: how to turn a completely fantastic nonserious storyline into an entertaining 3-hour long movie with an all-star cast, song and dance affair with the right amount of genuine comedy (Kader Khan, Anu Kapoor) and iconic one liners and scenes. It even had the done to death double role twist thrown into the mix and not a piece looks out of place because it's made with such frantic pace and style that you don't have time to ponder. But for me, the scene that really propels the movie beyond the usual run of the mill affair is where Bachchan gets his Tiger mojo back while inquiring about his missing sister-in-law at a bus stand. A rowdy bus driver misbehaves with him, which obviously pissed Bachchan off. But this is not normal anger. This is someone-is-going-get-hurt-real-bad level anger. He takes his glasses off and shrugs his partly grey hair in slow-motion and pulls the driver out of the bus and onto the street before tearing his uniform to shreds- all this while the Tiger leitmotif soundtrack is brought back from slumber to insane goosebumpy effects! Only Bachchan could have pulled this scene off and this is the last time he did something like this onscreen. That was 1991. History of violence ended that year.

One of the last best movies as the hero for Amitabh Bachchan.

I remember when this film had come out in India all the hype that was going around in the UK and when the film finally reached the UK for days the local cinema's were all sold out, and when you could finally find a time that was suitable tickets were being sold at £25, what a bloody rip off, credit to the cinema owners though, they knew where and when to make their money.

Finally got to see it, when the local video shop had it, and by complete and utter fluke my parents and I happened to turn up to see what film we could rent out, and there sat 'HUM' literally just arrived. So as I sat down finally with my drinks and snacks for the cinema atmosphere, i went into the film with an open mind trying to forget about all the reviews I heard prior to watching this film.

I can honestly say that I enjoyed the film from start to finish. The film had me tensed up, on the edge of your seat sort of drama with light relief between scenes, is what you require from a film. The film writers had finally (to me anyway) made a story line which captivated it audiences perfectly. Each character had it's own story, but the director made sure this was not detailed too much as this would have prolonged a film unnecessarily, the character of Bakhtawar is fantastically portrayed by Danny Denzongpa who is a total class act anyway. The songs were fantastic, and the club battle between Vijay / Kumar against Captain Attack with the batman theme playing in the background is a great great scene. Rajnikant when he's miming with the cigarette in his mouth is mesmerising! Utter Class.

Overall a film definitely worth watching for all the family, mainly for it's originality. Possibly my favourite 'bollywood' film of all time.