Trimurti was much hyped before its release as it had two successful directors coming together and an all star cast. Subhash Ghai was on a winning streak after one hit film after another in the 1980s such as Vidhata, Meri Jung, Karma, Ram Lakhan, Saudagar and Khalnayak. This time he decided to produce Trimurti and have visionary director Mukul Anand directing the film.
Next was the star cast Subhash Ghai had assembled to play the three brothers of the title. He started with his favourite Jackie Shroff, rising star Shahrukh Khan and finally Sanjay Dutt. Unfortunately during filming, Sanjay was given a prison sentence and despite filming most of his scenes except the climax, he was replaced by Ghai's other favourite Anil Kapoor. The villain was played by Mohan Agashe and supporting roles played by Priya Tendulkar, Saeed Jaffrey, Tinnu Anand, Anjali Jathar and Gauthami.
After finally hitting theatres, Trimurti turned out to be a colossal disappointment and bombed at the box office. Critics and audiences were so disappointed by how the film turned out and labelled it the worst film for every actor who was involved in it.
I finally got to see the film in full recently after seeing bits and pieces of it previously whenever it aired on television. My final verdict is the film is nowhere near the disaster that it is made out to be. It definitely has a lot of flaws specifically the weak script and the over the top hammy acting. It can be moderately entertaining thanks to the performances of Jackie Shroff and Anil Kapoor who are the positive aspects of the film. The duo are always excellent whenever they are paired together like in Ghai's previous hits "Karma" and "Ram Lakhan."
The first half of the film moves at a very slow pace and only livens up with a few funny scenes with SRK. Anil Kapoor steals the film with his performance in the second half after the interval and livens up the rest of the film. Priya Tendulkar and Saeed Jaffrey lend good support in their roles. Gauthami and Anjali Jathar don't have much to do. There are two good songs in the film "Very Good Very Bad" and "Pyar Karo Mujhe Pyar Karo."
The weak aspects are unfortunately Shahrukh Khan and Mohan Agashe. Shahrukh's character is written to be very childish and naive and his over the top performance irritates. His romance with Anjali Jathar is written weakly and there is a lack of chemistry between them. There are a few comedy scenes involving SRK dressed in drag and he has good chemistry with Shroff and Kapoor. It is however his over the top performance that brings the film down. Mohan Agashe is one of the most over the top villains ever seen in Bollywood. Definitely not a scary villain, he is more like a cartoon villain brought to life.
Direction by Mukul Anand is weak although it is probably not entirely his fault as he was directing from a weak script written by Subhash Ghai. Mukul was capable of so much more as evident by his brilliant films like Khuda Gawah, Hum and Sultanat to name a few. Unfortunately this would be his final film as he died during the making of "Dus" which could have been the comeback film for him after the failure of this film. Its like both Ghai and Anand's heart was really not in this film while it was being made. Otherwise this could have been an epic blockbuster like their previous works.
Overall Trimurti is just about an average film worth watching for Anil Kapoor in particular. Considering the talent involved in the making of this film, it could have been so much more.
