Zahreelay (1990)
6/10
Masala entertainer for the soul.
17 March 2021
Zahreelay review :

An action packed multistarrer featuring Jeetendra, Sanjay Dutt and Chunky Pandey; Zahreelay was produced- directed by Jyotin Goel who had made the hit Inaam Dus Hazaar (1987) before this. Kiran Kumar was the main villain while Bhanupriya was cast opposite her regular hero Jeetu and Juhi Chawla paired with Chunky. Newcomer Vinita was introduced as Sanju Baba's love interest.

The plot revolved around a basti called Shanti Nagar in heart of Mumbai where a retired and crippled army man Jeetendra comes to stay and start his auto garage. He finds that the basti is terrorised by a group of goons who collect hafta from its residents. Jeetu beats up the goons and inspires the bastiwalas including taxi driver Chunky Pandey to stand up against them. Their kingpin Kiran Kumar then plants a dangerous rogue Sanju Baba to befriend and infiltrate Jeetu and his pals..

Jyotin Goel's story falls in the typical timepass category of the '80s when audience used to queue up the cinema halls to watch such multistarrers. They didnt mind the loopholes and the seeming improbability of the narrative as long as they got what they wanted - ENTERTAINMENT.

The comedy quotient came from Juhi and Chunky while Bhanupriya as a widow in white saree was shown as Jeetu's silent admirer. It kinda disappointed me to see them as such and the director should've included a nice steamy dream song between Jeetu and Bhanu imo. Vinita and Sanju Baba's love story was okey dokey though pivotal to the climactic twist.

I had seen Zahreelay on its first saturday after watching Baap Numbri Beta Dus Numbri (1990) which clashed with it. While I loved Baap Numbri...for Kader Khan- Shakti Kapoor's dhamaal comedy, Zahreelay was not too bad an actioner either and I enjoyed it as much. As a school kiddo, two movies in one day meant a big hole in my pocket and so I had to leave out the third release of the week - Mahesh Bhatt's Awaargi (1990) - for video viewing only. Ironically, that was the best film out of the three releases that week but like me, most of the audience preferred the masala entertainers ( either Baap Numbri...or Zahreelay) which led to the serious and intense Awaargi bombing badly at the box office. Sorrily!!

Regards, Sumeet Nadkarni.
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