Star cast: Sunny Deol, Tabu, Ashish Vidyarthi, Govind Namdeo, Mukesh Rishi, Farida Jalal.
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Plot: Truck driver Sunny Deol and CBI officer Tabu try to bring to justice the corrupt home minister, Ashish Vidyarthi, for the murder of the chief minister. Ashish hits back with vengeance by attacking their families.
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What’s Bad: The convenient script; average performances.
Verdict: Khuda Kasam is boring; it will sink without a trace.
Loo break: Anytime – any number of times!
Sangeeta Pictures’ Khuda Kasam (UA) is the story of the fight of a brave truck driver, Hussain (Sunny Deol), and an honest CBI officer, Neetu Singh (Tabu), against a corrupt politician, Bhawani Prasad Lalla (Ashish Vidyarthi) and his cronies.
The corrupt home minister of Bihar, Bhawani Prasad Lalla (who calls himself BPL), carries on illegal weapons smuggling and plans the murder of the state’s chief minister in order to install Lakhan Singh (Mukesh Rishi) as the jailor of the Central Jail. Aiding him in this misdeed is his friend, Assistant Superintendent of Police, Waghmare (Govind Namdeo). After the CM’s death, BPL cries foul but installs a puppet CM in his place. Raza Murad, the CBI chief, sends his best officer, Neetu Singh, to investigate the CM’s murder. In no time, Neetu Singh discovers BPL’s culpability and challenges him to prove his innocence. BPL and his cronies, Waghmare and Lakhan Singh, put Neetu behind bars for five years on the basis of manipulated evidence in court. Not stopping at that, they also torture her in jail. Consequently, Neetu escapes from the hospital where she has been taken for treatment. Terrified that Neetu will spill the beans, BPL orders Waghmare to kill her.
On the other hand, Hussain, who used to work as BPL’s driver before he was put in jail by his employer on false charges, is set free after completing his sentence. He seeks revenge on BPL but his mother, Fatima (Farida Jalal), makes him promise that he will not indulge in violence. BPL discovers Hussain’s weakness and teases him. Finally, Hussain has to break his vow when Shanti Devi (Beena Banerjee), Fatima’s visually-challenged friend – who is also Neetu’s mother – is kidnapped by BPL. Fatima tells Hussain that years ago, Shanti had saved his life from a rioting mob. She pleads him to go and rescue Shanti even at the cost of his own life. In the meanwhile, Neetu returns as Miss Madonna, a London-based pop star and woos BPL. Blindly in love, BPL shoots Waghmare and disowns Lakhan Singh at Neetu’s instance. By the time BPL realises that Miss Madonna is actually Neetu, it is too late. Lakhan Singh has become a witness against him in the murder case of the chief minister and Neetu Singh has fled to Delhi with all the evidence against him. He makes a last desperate attempt to rein in Neetu by kidnapping Shanti Devi. But Hussain gets the better of him.
Script & Screenplay
K.C. Bokadia’s story is unbelievably routine, just too convenient and full of loopholes. To take the drama forward, he has simply made too many connections between the film’s characters. Almost everybody is related to everybody. The action scenes as well as the punch lines are boring. Throughout the film, logic is given a pass. Even though Shanti Devi is blind, she always leaves the door open, probably for the police or BPL’s goons to enter and kidnap her. It is also incredible how BPL falls for Miss Madonna, an exact look-alike of Neetu Singh. Dialogues (K.C. Bokadia) are okay. A few lines on Hindu-Muslim unity and national pride seem to have been added as an afterthought, and do not go with the story.
Star Performances
As far as the performances are concerned, Sunny Deol acts and fights like in many of his earlier films. Tabu is wasted in an unbelievable double role. Her English accent as Miss Madonna is fake and jarring. Ashish Vidyarthi does well as the humorous villain but takes up a lot of screen time. Mukesh Rishi and Govind Namdeo are good as the corrupt cops. Sadashiv Amarapurkar and Raza Murad are wasted in inconsequential roles. Dinesh Hingoo provides comic relief. Farida Jalal and Beena Banerjee are okay. Daisy Bonappa looks attractive in an item song.
Direction, Music & Editing
K.C. Bokadia’s direction is nothing to write home about. Music (Aadesh Shrivastav) is passable. The song, ‘Nili lugdi’, sung by Sunidhi Chauhan, picturised on Daisy Bonappa and choreographed by Ganesh Acharya, is okay. Editing by D.N. Malik is patchy.
The Last Word
On the whole, Khuda Kasam is a weak fare. It also looks dated and stale because of the script and also given the fact that it was in the cans for many years.
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