Haar Jeet review :
Bollywood is known for taking "inspiration" from hollywood hits. Apparently, they do it by renting out dvds of those hits and then shooting it as- is...sometimes even translating the english dialogues in hindi; Bah, never mind!!!
Haar Jeet was one such yesteryear film taking inspiration from 'Someone To Watch Over Me' (1987) - no problems with that - but unfortunately for its makers, Mahesh Bhatt Saahab also rented that hollywood movie. The end result was 'Jurm' and 'Haar Jeet' released around the same time in 1990 with practically the same story line.
Sadly, Haar Jeet, though much more layered and intense, sank without a trace in front of 'Jurm' which turned out to be decent earner only on strength of its music, particularly the still memorable song "Jab Koi Baat Bigad Jaaye".
Directed by Avtaar Bhogal, Haar Jeet had Kabir Bedi as the cop who indulges in a one night stand with Farha, a murder witness he's supposed to protect. Things get complicated when Farha falls in love with the macho hero and his family comprising Maadhavi and son named Chunky (hope that was not as a nod to Pandey, please!!!!) gets shattered.
The film also had elements of 'Fatal Attraction' (1987) woven in to its story line plus a rather insignificant terrorist track headed by Anupam Kher. One song by Pankaj Udhas - " Tere Ghoongroo toot gaye to kya" registers.
Regards,
Sumeet Nadkarni.