Akayla

My childhood memoirs of this movie
* the new villain was very frightening
* the song 'Meri Rampiyaari', very popular amongst kids
* an overall bore

So, why would I watch or write a review on this one? To save you from the pains that I bore on a Sunday evening. Not really. It so happened that while browsing youtube, I came across this movie with the preview photo of an inspector that resembled Monish Behl. I wonder that is it really Mohnish Behl who acted with the famous Big B? And that got me started to this painful journey.

I had initially planned to see just one part before I continue hunting down another movie for the holidays. But then big names started flashing - Amitabh Bachchan, Amrita Singh, Jackie Shroff, Meenakshi Sheshadri, Laxmikanth Pyarelal, Ramesh Sippy! I recollected only AB and Amrita Singh. But the rest of the names made me wonder if I was being harsh on this movie. Ok! I would give it a try. After all, how bad can it be given Ramesh Sippy gave us Sholay, Shaan, Seeta aur Geeta and much more.


Coming to the story section. Did I hear you mutter: Is there a story? Sigh! There's one very predictable and unnecessarily elongated one.

Story: Vijay Varma (Amitabh Bachchan), Shekhar (Jackie Shroff) and Seema (Meenakshi Seshadri) are college friends. Seema and Vijay are in love but never disclose to each other. Shekhar loves Seema (completing the typical Hindi triangular love story). Shekhar asks Vijay to aid him in asking Seema's hand in marriage from Seema's mother (Helen). Vijay decides to sacrifice love for friendship and takes to alcohol ever since. His only solace lies in his brother Ajay(Aditya Panscholi), who loves Neeta (Kiran Juneja, after all she is director's wife and needs to be casted). Ajay stays in college as he continues his education while being a teaching assistant.

Vijay is a very lonely police officer (hence the title Akayla) whose aim in life to is to kill criminals to get rid of crime. As a result, he finds quite often disreputing himself and the police department. Consequently, having verbal disputes with the police commissioner (Shashi Kapoor) as well. Vijay finds his lost love interest in Sapna (Amrita Singh) who he meets while saving her from Ranjeet's (Mahesh Anand) clutches.

Trivia: Which hero has acted most along with AB? And your four options are:
(A) Vinod Khanna (B) Dharmendra (C) Shah rukh khan (D) Shashi Kapoor
Answer towards the end of the blog

The villains of this story happen to be twin brothers - Tony and Jojo (Keith Stevenson). They kill Shekhar and Seema as well who try to stop them from escaping. The Rampiyari song is when Vijay and Sapna try to cheer up Shekhar and Seema's son.

After many attempts, Vijay succeeds in killing Jojo. An angry Tony kills Ajay and Neeta and attempts to kill Sapna as well. However, she is rescued just in time. And the rest of the story is another set of chase sequences.


Salim Khan (of Salim-Javed duo) is credited with this story. Like Oscars, if there were Filmfare awards for most painful movie of the year - this movie would have no competition in winning the coveted title for the year 1991. This was not the last torture from Ramesh Sippy. I recollect Zamana Deewana, also directed by him, as a very bad remake of Khudgarz.

You can easily fast forward all the songs. Not much to write about any other department - choreography, cinematography!

Trivia: Of the four options, correct answer is (B) Dharmendra
(A) Vinod Khanna (10) (B) Dharmendra (20) (C) Shah rukh khan (7) (D) Shashi Kapoor (14)

In case you are still wondering if there was Mohnish Behl in the movie then it was Kanwaljeet who I mistook for Mohnish Behl in the preview photo.

think M Rating: 2.0/5.0

Mr. India

"Komal, khush hui" - This was the fact when I saw this movie for the 1st time as a kid in Maheshwari, a local Hyderabadi theatre, and it is the fact even today when I see this movie in the comforts of my house.

This 1987 release impressed kids and elders alike - a movie with its share of errors but credits, more or less, to every department.

Laxmikanth Pyarelal did a job par excellence in this audio collection - All songs are melodious. I would say Javed Akhtar's best in the album is "Zindagi ki yehi reet hai". Alisha Chinoy got her first break with the national rage of those times - "Kaate nahi kat te" with the ultimate, Kishore da abridging this duet song.

Salim-Javed penned the dialogues for this movie. Not only are the characters well-thought and sketched out: Mogambo, Hawa-hawai, Calendar, etc., everyone has their share of entertaining dialogues.


If you are waiting for the story, then we are going to do this a bit different this time :). We will know about various people in this movie and their lives.

Late Ashok Kumar as Prof. Sinha
Assistant & friend to a great scientist, Prof. Verma (the latter had devised a gadget (looks like a fancy watch with 3 dials) which when turned on, on someone's hand, makes that person invisible but red color/glass reveals everything). Sinha also witnesses latter's murder and keeps running away from goons and the last time he runs, he decides to share the location of this gadget with Prof. Verma's only son - Arun.

Anu Kapoor as Gaitonde
Editor of 'Crimes of India' with Seema Soni as his fav. crime reporter, a person always fed up with his 2 phones - as they never dial the number you want, but get cross-connected and worst, it gets wrong calls - from people asking for a veterinary doctor, and even Amitabh Bachchan! Mr. India (the invisible person) changed his outlook in life. :)

Satish Kaushik as Calendar
A gem of a personality, assisting his friend Arun for no money in running an orphanage and all other aspects of latter's life.

Late Ajit Vachani as Daaga
The 'betaaj badshah' of all grocery scams and prime minister of Mr. Mogambo's to-be dynasty.

Sharat Saxena as Teja
Another of Mr. Mogambo's to-be dynasty's prime minister, 'betaaj badshah' of drugs, guns, etc.

Late Amrish Puri as Mogambo
"Mogambo Khush Hua", a dialogue which became one of the coolest and most happening villains' dialogue. One of those few villain roles that gained so much popularity after Sholay's Gabbar Singh. Mr. Mogambo's aim in life is to rule India after getting the gadget which Prof. Verma devised. He makes 3 dangerous missiles on some unknown island to destroy India. Does he succeed in launching them?


Sridevi as Seema Soni/Hawa-hawai/Charlie-Chaplin
A crime reporter, working for Mr. Gaitonde, hates kids and so decides to change her lease. She finds Arun and pays advance - only to find the latter cheated her - as the former runs an orphanage (and there are kids and kids and kids all over the place). Her 1st day is no fun - esp. with kids and cockroach around. She loves Mr. India because of his good deeds. He's the one who saved her when she plays Hawa-hawai at Daaga/Teja's den to find out their secrets. But when truth is revealed, will she stand by her love?

Anil Kapoor as Arun Verma/Mr. India
Arun, an orphan, perhaps the reason as to why he loves kids. Makes sure he gets orphans to his house... he's a music teacher and has hard time managing finances for running the house with so many kids (10-12) and Calendar. They have spent hungry nights too when Teja starts troubling him to vacate his house (rental though) for Mr. Mogambo to send weapons to Mumbai at his will and wish. Life takes an interesting turn when he finds his father's gadget. Now, the villains be better ready for our Mr. India, but the smart villains pose him with a difficult question - who does he loves the most - his kids and Seema or his country?

Watch the movie, an out and out entertainer, to find out more!!! This movie stands out separately from others in the bunch - why? It has a story that is touching, simple, well-thought and it's a cute-fiction.

Shekhar Kapoor and Satish Kaushik, director and associate director of the movie, respectively deserve kudos. I hope Mr. Boney Kapoor does enough justice to its sequel.

If only I had not defined the ratings such that no one gets a 5.0, ...

Rating: 4.5/5.0