Hafta Bandh

Hafta Bandh review :

Best remembered for its unique villain names like Firangi Paisewala (Sadashiv Amrapurkar) and Madan Chikna (Anand Balraj); Hafta Bandh was a raw actioner based on the ongoing rampant extortion racket in Mumbai at that time. Jackie Shroff played Inspector Bajrang Tiwari who is suspended for encountering a goon indulging in extortion. Another gunda Madan Chikna is instantly hired for the hafta vasooli and he also eyes Tiwari's beautiful bhabhi (Kishori Shahane).

The screenplay is fast paced, the action is realistic and in your face and one of the songs (Bappi da) is hummable - "Ae Haseena tera jo bhi naam hai. Ek Aashiq ka tujhko salaam hai". Jaggu Dada is reliably good while Aditya Panscholi as the kind hearted Muslim side hero Iqbal is equally impressive. Unfortunately, his love for Ektaa is half baked and I would've actually preferred him to wed Kishori Shahane's character after she loses her husband (Ramesh Bhatkar) to a shootout. That angle deseved to be explored but alas!

Anyway, Hafta Bandh was the surprise hit of 1991 and I saw it at my regular Badal Bijlee Cinema on its first Saturday. But my primary reason to watch the movie on the first Saturday afternoon show was to demonstrate my solidarity to my fellow Goenkar Varsha Usgaonkar who was the film's main heroine. She was cast as a Goan called Mary who is in love with our Jaggu Dada and even had an elaborate "chumma chaati" scene with him. That scene invoked ceetis from the audience. Hafta Bandh was one of her few successes in Bollywood after Tirangaa (1993).

Regards, Sumeet Nadkarni.