Virasat

I first saw this in the summer of 1997 in Gaiety/Galaxy theatre in Bandra with my college friend Munna.

Coincidentally my dad n grandfather n their friends n other relatives were also ther in the theatre. I loved the movie then.

Dil to Pagal Hai winning best movie was a joke.

Virasat was hands down the best film of that year.

J. P. Dutta winning best director for Border was a double joke.

Priyadarshan deserved it.

Best cinematography for Border was again a big joke.

Virasat deserved it for its picturesque locations n colorful songs.

Dil to Pagal Hai getting 8 awards n Border getting 5 awards, it is pure atrocious.

Virasat deserved at least 10 awards.

Anil Kapoor not getting best actor award for this movie was a crime.

Revisited it few mins ago on Amazon Prime with my family. The print quality n sound quality were not good considering its been 28 years. Indian Film Federation is lousy. They haven't remastered any classics nor have they preserved old movies. Some of the black n white bollywood movies have become dinosaur. Sometimes u may come across old movies on YouTube but bad prints.

Comin back to this movie, I loved the song Taare hai... Anil Kapoor n Amrish Puri gave solid memorable performances. Milind Gunaji's character wasn't given enuff footage nor was his character well written. His character going crazy n spiteful needed some background story.

The dam scene is totally outdated but the setting of a rural village is picturesque.

Also the character of the Mausi/Aunt was suddenly added before the blast, looked not at all in sync n totally phony.

Anyone who has encountered property dispute can relate to the story n will like it.

Yours truly has encountered property dispute too.

The movie Virasat is a remake of the tamil movie Thevar Magan, which starred the legendary Sivaji Ganesan and Kamal Hassan. While Thevar Magan was an excellent movie with brilliantly etched characters and situations, and superb performances from all the actors (a rarity in most movies), Virasat gave me a feeling of being incomplete. True, it is impossible to match Kamal Hassan and Sivaji Ganesan for their acting capabilities, but Anil Kapoor comes no where close to Kamal Hassan. He completely lacks the grace that Kamal brings to the screen. All the other actors have put in average performances. A few changes (minor) have been made to the original to create it in Hindi, but the effect of the typical rural setting in Tamil Nadu to the movie as a whole goes missing. The adaptation could have been handled better. Without any comparisons, Virasat can be termed as a good movie that could have been made a little better, but juxtaposed with Thevar Magar, it comes a cropper. Watching Thevar Magan (even with subtitles) will leave you feeling more satisfied than Virasat.

Anil kapoor looking different getup In this movie we know acting talent of his excellent performance, story of movie and song fantastic, tabu acting also superb excellent.

What worked: -a beautiful setting, a peek into rural India

• powerful screenplay and storytelling
• great performances by the lead; Late Puri and Anil Kapoor. Tabu stole the show.

What did not work:

• songs are well choreographed but can be reduced or taken out
• I would have been pleased with alternate endings, with some legacy possibilities

Final verdict: Recommended

The cast, music and direction, almost everything is perfect in this timeless drama